This article deals with the ideas of Edmund Burke (1729–1797): a famous Anglo-Irish author, statesman, and the founder of the British conservative tradition. Burke‘s concept of liberal conservatism was more than a purely theoretical work based on a creative amalgam of his political heritage and knowledge of the new. It was based on a synthesis of political philosophy and political practice and was created as a response to one of the most fundamental political challenges of his time: reform or revolution. It also amounted to a gradual strategy for the political and social modernization of England and intended helping to avoid catastrophic revolutionary shocks, and the stagnation of the existing regime. Burke was a defender of a path of social harmony and evolutionary development that provided more space for new ways of living and preserved everything that accorded with a strict social order and was historically viable.

Burke is considered to be the most important figure of past, present and future European conservatism. Even though the political ideology of conservatism is changing, it has remained true to tradition for two hundred years. Against this backdrop, Burke‘s ideas are an unchanging substrate that determines the philosophical and political direction of the conservative ideology.

Article in: Lithuanian

Article published: 2012-10-16