It’s a philosophy that The State is supposed to act like a father, stem and disciplinarian and there to “guide” (force) you into making the right choices as if you’re a child because you’re clearly too stupid and childish to be making decisions on your own.
Note: I’m not calling you stupid or childish, just describing the point of view of a paternalistic conservative.
Paternalistic conservatives basically believe in a hierarchical social order with traditional values but where those at the top have an obligation to look after those at the bottom
Imagine a really caring parent who knows best. That’s kind of like paternalistic conservatism. It’s a type of conservatism where those in charge, like the government, feel responsible for taking care of everyone else, especially those who are less well-off. They believe they should guide and protect people, like a parent would, even if it means limiting some individual freedom.
I literally copied and pasted Google AI response for “ELI5 what is paternalistic conservatism” because I have no clue what it is. My effort here is 0/10. Please downvote.
Important people with a lot more things than other people should be in charge of making sure everyone else who doesn’t have lots of things are looked after, safe and happy. Like your mommy or daddy looks after you. Except mommy or daddy looks after everyone in the whole country. A great example of this type of person is Mr Winston Churchill who was in charge of England during a big war. He sought to look after everyone and had their needs and thoughts in mind when he made rules.
It’s stuff like “Women shouldn’t work because it’s bad for them and they’ll be happier inside the home.” Or “Being gay leads to misery – we need to protect people from this awful delusion for their own good.”
Also: “Family men who are breadwinners deserve a good wage to support their families” and a general sense of wealthy or successful people having a lot of obligations to their community.
It’s usually used as a historical term to describe a lot of political energy in the late 1800s and early 1900s – not that you can’t have it today, but it’s not a major political force today for the most part. A lot of the context for it is that conservatives wanted to push back on the rising socialism of the time by basically trying to do enough of a welfare state safety net to keep workers happy without risking a total socialist revolution, which at the time felt extremely realistic as a danger to them.
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It’s a philosophy that The State is supposed to act like a father, stem and disciplinarian and there to “guide” (force) you into making the right choices as if you’re a child because you’re clearly too stupid and childish to be making decisions on your own.
Note: I’m not calling you stupid or childish, just describing the point of view of a paternalistic conservative.
Paternalistic conservatives basically believe in a hierarchical social order with traditional values but where those at the top have an obligation to look after those at the bottom
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paternalistic_conservatism
tldr the wealthy should just like, take care of the poor on their own man
Imagine a really caring parent who knows best. That’s kind of like paternalistic conservatism. It’s a type of conservatism where those in charge, like the government, feel responsible for taking care of everyone else, especially those who are less well-off. They believe they should guide and protect people, like a parent would, even if it means limiting some individual freedom.
I literally copied and pasted Google AI response for “ELI5 what is paternalistic conservatism” because I have no clue what it is. My effort here is 0/10. Please downvote.
Important people with a lot more things than other people should be in charge of making sure everyone else who doesn’t have lots of things are looked after, safe and happy. Like your mommy or daddy looks after you. Except mommy or daddy looks after everyone in the whole country. A great example of this type of person is Mr Winston Churchill who was in charge of England during a big war. He sought to look after everyone and had their needs and thoughts in mind when he made rules.
It’s stuff like “Women shouldn’t work because it’s bad for them and they’ll be happier inside the home.” Or “Being gay leads to misery – we need to protect people from this awful delusion for their own good.”
Also: “Family men who are breadwinners deserve a good wage to support their families” and a general sense of wealthy or successful people having a lot of obligations to their community.
It’s usually used as a historical term to describe a lot of political energy in the late 1800s and early 1900s – not that you can’t have it today, but it’s not a major political force today for the most part. A lot of the context for it is that conservatives wanted to push back on the rising socialism of the time by basically trying to do enough of a welfare state safety net to keep workers happy without risking a total socialist revolution, which at the time felt extremely realistic as a danger to them.