* Preface *1. Two Hundred Years of Reactionary Rhetoric * Three Reactions and Three Reactionary Theses * A Note on the Term "Reaction" *2. The Perversity Thesis * The French Revolution and Proclamation of the Perverse Effect * Universal Suffrage and Its Alleged Perverse Effects * The Poor Laws and the Welfare State * Reflections on the Perversity Thesis *3. The Futility Thesis * Questioning the Extent of Change Wrought by the French Revolution: Tocqueville * Questioning the Extent of Change Likely to Follow from Universal Suffrage: Mosca and Pareto * Questioning the Extent to Which the Welfare State Delivers the Goods to the Poor * Reflections on the Futility Thesis *4. The Jeopardy Thesis * Democracy as a Threat to Liberty * The Welfare State as a Threat to Liberty and Democracy * Reflections on the Jeopardy Thesis *5. The Three Theses Compared and Combined * A Synoptic Table * The Comparative Influence of the Theses * Some Simple Interactions * A More Complex Interaction *6. From Reactionary to Progressive Rhetoric * The Synergy Illusion and the Imminent-Danger Thesis *"Having History on One's Side" * Counterparts of the Perversity Thesis *7. Beyond Intransigence * A Turnabout in Argument? * How Not to Argue in a Democracy * Notes * Acknowledgments * Index

The Rhetoric of Reaction: Perversity, Futility, Jeopardy.

If justification were needed for taking notice once again of the liberal-conservative distinction, it would be sufficient, I suppose, merely to observe that this division has been injected into the politics of Western nations for at least two centuries and, depending on the nature of one's criteria, perhaps longer.The distinction between the two camps has not always been sharply drawn, of course, for both have been compelled, as a condition for survival, to hold important beliefs in common. Moreover, each has reversed itself on certain issues, such as government regulation of the economy, casting off old views in favor of beliefs previously cherished by the other. Competing for popular support in elections, and succeeding one another in office, the two camps have, of necessity, taken on many values in common, tempering their programs and adjusting their courses to the practical requirements of political contest. In a system like ours, where the parties have functioned less as ideological movements than as brokerage organizations hoping to attract majority support from almost every segment of the electorate, the distinction has tended to be dulled even further, until, at the actual scenes of daily political struggle, it has often faded entirely.

Conservatism and Personality

I THE PROBLEM OF ECOLOGICAL DESIGN 1 Introduction: The Design of Culture and the Culture of Design 2 Human Ecology as a Problem of Ecological Design II PATHOLOGIES AND BARRIERS 3 Slow Knowledge 4 Speed 5 Verbicide 6 Technological Fundamentalism 7 Ideasclerosis 8 Ideasclerosis, Continued III THE POLITICS OF DESIGN 9 None So Blind: The Problem of Ecological Denial (with David Ehrenfeld) 10 Twine in the Baler 11 Conservation and Conservatism 12 The Politics Worthy of the Name 13 The Limits of Nature and the Educational Nature of Limits IV DESIGN AS PEDAGOGY 14 Architecture and Education 15 The Architecture of Science 16 2020: A Proposal 17 Education, Careers, and Callings 18 A Higher Order of Heroism V CHARITY, WILDNESS, AND CHILDREN 19 The Ecology of Giving and Consuming 20 The Great Wilderness Debate, Again 21 Loving Children: The Political Economy of Design Bibliography Index

http://courses.washington.edu/thesisd/documents/Shaghayegh_The%20Nature%20Of%20Design.pdf

The nature of design : ecology, culture, and human intention

A meta-analysis by J. T. Jost, J. Glaser, A. W. Kruglanski, and F. J. Sulloway (2003) concluded that political conservatism is partially motivated by the management of uncertainty and threat. In this reply to J. Greenberg and E. Jonas (2003), conceptual issues are clarified, numerous political anomalies are explained, and alleged counterexamples are incorporated with a dynamic model that takes into account differences between “young” and “old” movements. Studies directly pitting the rigidity-of-the-right hypothesis against the ideological extremity hypothesis demonstrate strong support for the former. Medium to large effect sizes describe relations between political conservatism and dogmatism and intolerance of ambiguity; lack of openness to experience; uncertainty avoidance; personal needs for order, structure, and closure; fear of death; and system threat.

/pdf/exceptions-that-prove-the-rule-using-a-theory-of-motivated-4wghp8rzv8.pdf

Exceptions That Prove the Rule - Using a Theory of Motivated Social Cognition to Account for Ideological Incongruities and Political Anomalies: Reply to Greenberg and Jonas (2003)

Recent years have seen a surge in psychological research on the relationship between political ideology (particularly conservatism) and cognition, affect, behaviour, and even biology. Despite this flurry of investigation, however, there is as yet no accepted, validated, and widely used multi-item scale of conservatism that is concise, that is modern in its conceptualisation, and that includes both social and economic conservatism subscales. In this paper the 12-Item Social and Economic Conservatism Scale (SECS) is proposed and validated to help fill this gap. The SECS is suggested to be an important and useful tool for researchers working in political psychology.

/pdf/the-12-item-social-and-economic-conservatism-scale-secs-dffimihdne.pdf

The 12 item Social and Economic Conservatism Scale (SECS).

"It is inconceivable even to imagine, let alone hope for, a dominant conservative movement in America without Kirk's labor." - WILLIAM F BUCKLEY "A profound critique of contemporary mass society, and a vivid and poetic image - not a program, an image - of how that society might better itself. [ The Conservative Mind ] is, in important respects, the twentieth century's own version of the Reflections on the Revolution in France... [Kirk] was an artist, a vsionary, almost a prophet." - DAVID FRUM, author of Dead Right "I have been one of your fans since the time many years ago when I read The Conservative Mind." - RICHARD NIXON "Dr. Russell Kirk's impact on conservative thought and policy in America has been decisive. It was his writings, and in particular his seminal work, The Conservative Mind, that laid the foundation for many of the ideas that continue to shape public discourse and debate to this day." - JOHN ENGLER, former Governer of Michigan "Kirk is assured a place of prominence in the intellectual histories for helping to define the ethical basis of conservatism. He has tried to pull conservatism away from the utilitarian premises of libertarianism, toward which conservatism often veers, toward a philosophy rooted in ethics and culture." - THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Russell Kirk's The Conservative Mind is one of the greatest contributions to twentieth-century American conservatism. Brilliant in every respect, from its conception to its choice of significant figures representing the history of intellectual conservatism, The Conservative Mind launched the modern American Conservative Movement when it was first published in 1953 and has become an enduring classic of political thought. The seventh revised edition features the complete text and an introduction by publisher Henry Regnery. A must-read.

Russell Kirk

Papers

The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot

The conservative mind

The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Santayana

The roots of American order

Eliot and His Age: T. S. Eliot's Moral Imagination in the Twentieth Century