Conservatism and Liberalism 4/4/07 1:13 PM

Edmund Burke
•A contract between all people both dead and unborn
oNo one generation has the right to change the terms of the contract
oEvolutionary change is ok but revolutionary change is not
Society is changing very rapidly and they are trying to conserve the past
Conservatives don’t really care what religion is good is that everyone belong to the
same church and the state retain some relationship with the church
The conservatives are dominant and ovesee the Bourbon Revolution
Louis the XVIII comes to the throne knowing he cant completely undo the
revolution
Another element of this chnge is the industrial portion of this revolution
Growth in Britian
Artisans are getting queezed out because they cant produce things as efficiently
•NED LUD (fictional) and the Luddites
oWent around England smashing looms
Liberalism
•Supported enlightenment
•Liberal ideas are very often connected with nationalism
•Many of the liberals are also going to be abolitionists
Jeremy Bentham
•The best policy is providing the best good for the greatest number of people
Nationalists become very popular
the location of government changes by people who want to hav their own space
•Austrians
oGermanic by nature, and yet most of the people they rule over are
Magyar, Slovakian , etc.,
othey ae in deep trouble if nationalism works because their empire will
be broken up
oNationalism is amorphous, but it also extremely powerful
owhat is germanness?
•people start going out into the countryside to discover their roots
•there are differences, there are national differences
•Fairytales
the artistic movement of romanticism
•romanticism is difficult to define becaue it reflects the anational identity of
the people
•touch the observer on an emotional level
•politically we have a period of frustrated revolution both liberal and
nationalist
•unrest in italy, spain and Russia
•another wave of revolution
•the conservative order is dominant butthere is a lot of discontent boiling
under the surface
•the more society changes
•Louis XVIII dies and Charles X doesn’t like the changes kown as the
Bourgeois monarch
ouick liberal revolution
oonce it got started in one place is theat people can bring about change
and that direct action can work
othe poles revolt against Prussian state
oitllians want their one state, they get crushed by the Austrian army
oSame case with germany, but not single revolt
othe one success was Belgium
what they want was independence from the Netherlands they
should not be together

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4/4/07 1:13 PM