If conservatism was monarchism and liberalism was mercantilism that is what they’d be called. They’re different and it matters especially when discussing these concepts specifically together.
It’s like calling pink red or turquoise blue. They’re related but they are not the same and we don’t call them the same for a reason.
If conservatism was monarchism and liberalism was mercantilism that is what they’d be called.
I understand why that would appear to be the case. But it’s not. Conservatism and Liberalism are political philosophies and movements. Monarchism is a system of governance. Conservatism the movement supports Monarchism the system. Liberalism the movement supports Capitalism the system. Just because they are one-to-one doesn’t mean they are identical.
it matters especially when discussing these concepts specifically together.
It does matter indeed, I agree with you, and it’s important that we understand that Liberalism cannot lead to universal liberation because it is foundationally tied to private property. Eliminating private property is an illiberal move, and it is the foundational move of communism. Moving from aristocracy to private property ends Monarchism and it is the foundational move of Liberalism. Conservatism fought against private property in favor of the old system. Liberalism fought for private property in favor of Capitalism. And Communism fights against private property in favor of universal liberation.
Conservatism the movement supports Monarchism the system. Liberalism the movement supports Capitalism the system.
It doesn’t. That’s a complete misunderstanding of all four of those terms.
And Communism fights against private property in favor of universal liberation.
I think you have your head twisted a tad.
Liberalism also fought in favor of universal liberation. Not understanding that or how liberalism lead to conversations for socialism is a glaring hole in one’s historical understanding. Either both Liberalism and Communism fight/have fought for universal liberation or, following your logic, Communism fights for a specific system structure as well because “universal liberation” actually doesn’t mean anything you could define. With that in mind it probably would read more like, Communism fights for Authoritarianism.
Communism demands extreme power towards a central point, it relies extensively on what you’d call the state having the first and final say in things. Whether that state is successfully run by “the proletariat” or not is a whole other conversation. But historically stacking all that power in the center begins to circle back towards monarchism maybe without a hereditary line but still you’re handing all power to a single political entity and that’s some heavy Authoritarianism.
Liberalism is based on the word liberty, i.e. the right to self determination. Mercantilists are generally liberal. As is anyone that isn’t trying to conserve the monarchy.
…it depends who or what you’re talking about doesn’t it?
Monarchism is pretty clear about what it is, support of a monarchy or basically a bloodline that rules the government. Conservative is a broad political outlook that depends entirely who or what topic or group you’re talking about. You can be a social conservative, you can be fiscally conservative, National conservative. None of those have anything to do with a monarchy.
Mercantilists are literally not liberal at all. Mercantilism and Liberalism at a time were completely opposed to each other, you know laissez-faire capitalism and whatnot. Mercantilism is about government regulated trade where Classic Liberalism was about unregulated trade. A social liberal has basically nothing to do with Mercantilism. Then you have neoliberalism which is a rehash of classical Liberalism electric boogaloo style.
Honestly China’s system is closer to being like mercantilism than the neoliberal governments today because of their focus on exports and heavy handed government intervention but you wouldn’t really call what they’re doing mercantilism.
So it’s all pretty different. Words matter you know?
Oh, no, no, no. There is a very specific thing that conservatives conserve. Its like the people that claim the US civil war was about “states rights”–states rights to do what?
Conservatives are traditionally an explicitly monarchist party. They just didn’t call themselves monarchists, because the French were getting a bit choppy when it came to kings back then. Liberals were the anti-monarchists. Even now, modern conservatives all seek to implement some sort of hierarchical power structure, economic, social, whatever.
Mercantilism is a rebuke of government controlled trade. Hence mercantilism–from merchant. Regular folks could become merchants and make fortunes that were not the purview of the crown.
No they’re not. In some countries conservatives might embrace those ideas but that is not true across the board. I’d agree conservatives generally support power structure but claiming they’re monarchists just isn’t true. Conservatives in China for instance have absolutely nothing to do with a monarchy.
Mercantilism is literally not a rebuke to government controlled trade. It is government controlled trade. Like you can literally Google this and read about it.
It was intended as a means for the crown to have even more control. It maximized wealth and authority of the central state which is why the term laissez faire came about. You’re literally mixing up a core belief of Liberalism with Mercantilism.
…fair enough. I was looking at mercantilism as more state-adjacent trade. State-chartered corporation type stuff, East india company and such. I guess it was more directly centralized outside of Britain. I still see it as the beginning of the decoupling of the economic system from the crown to some extent, as it implied trade could happen without the direct involvement of the king.
I don’t think you can ignore that conservatism was developed as a method of reinforcing the control of the aristocratic feudalist system over society in the face of anti-monarchists change. Sure, it ends up with a slightly different flavor in every country, but the fundamental push towards a central authority and “knowing your place” in a rigid hierarchy is pretty much monarchism in practice. I’m pretty sure the thing that makes it a monarchy is that the hierarchy is justified by the divine right of kings.
If conservatism was monarchism and liberalism was mercantilism that is what they’d be called. They’re different and it matters especially when discussing these concepts specifically together.
It’s like calling pink red or turquoise blue. They’re related but they are not the same and we don’t call them the same for a reason.
I understand why that would appear to be the case. But it’s not. Conservatism and Liberalism are political philosophies and movements. Monarchism is a system of governance. Conservatism the movement supports Monarchism the system. Liberalism the movement supports Capitalism the system. Just because they are one-to-one doesn’t mean they are identical.
It does matter indeed, I agree with you, and it’s important that we understand that Liberalism cannot lead to universal liberation because it is foundationally tied to private property. Eliminating private property is an illiberal move, and it is the foundational move of communism. Moving from aristocracy to private property ends Monarchism and it is the foundational move of Liberalism. Conservatism fought against private property in favor of the old system. Liberalism fought for private property in favor of Capitalism. And Communism fights against private property in favor of universal liberation.
It doesn’t. That’s a complete misunderstanding of all four of those terms.
I think you have your head twisted a tad.
Liberalism also fought in favor of universal liberation. Not understanding that or how liberalism lead to conversations for socialism is a glaring hole in one’s historical understanding. Either both Liberalism and Communism fight/have fought for universal liberation or, following your logic, Communism fights for a specific system structure as well because “universal liberation” actually doesn’t mean anything you could define. With that in mind it probably would read more like, Communism fights for Authoritarianism.
Communism demands extreme power towards a central point, it relies extensively on what you’d call the state having the first and final say in things. Whether that state is successfully run by “the proletariat” or not is a whole other conversation. But historically stacking all that power in the center begins to circle back towards monarchism maybe without a hereditary line but still you’re handing all power to a single political entity and that’s some heavy Authoritarianism.
…what do you think the conservatives conserve?
Liberalism is based on the word liberty, i.e. the right to self determination. Mercantilists are generally liberal. As is anyone that isn’t trying to conserve the monarchy.
…it depends who or what you’re talking about doesn’t it?
Monarchism is pretty clear about what it is, support of a monarchy or basically a bloodline that rules the government. Conservative is a broad political outlook that depends entirely who or what topic or group you’re talking about. You can be a social conservative, you can be fiscally conservative, National conservative. None of those have anything to do with a monarchy.
Mercantilists are literally not liberal at all. Mercantilism and Liberalism at a time were completely opposed to each other, you know laissez-faire capitalism and whatnot. Mercantilism is about government regulated trade where Classic Liberalism was about unregulated trade. A social liberal has basically nothing to do with Mercantilism. Then you have neoliberalism which is a rehash of classical Liberalism electric boogaloo style.
Honestly China’s system is closer to being like mercantilism than the neoliberal governments today because of their focus on exports and heavy handed government intervention but you wouldn’t really call what they’re doing mercantilism.
So it’s all pretty different. Words matter you know?
Oh, no, no, no. There is a very specific thing that conservatives conserve. Its like the people that claim the US civil war was about “states rights”–states rights to do what?
Conservatives are traditionally an explicitly monarchist party. They just didn’t call themselves monarchists, because the French were getting a bit choppy when it came to kings back then. Liberals were the anti-monarchists. Even now, modern conservatives all seek to implement some sort of hierarchical power structure, economic, social, whatever.
Mercantilism is a rebuke of government controlled trade. Hence mercantilism–from merchant. Regular folks could become merchants and make fortunes that were not the purview of the crown.
No they’re not. In some countries conservatives might embrace those ideas but that is not true across the board. I’d agree conservatives generally support power structure but claiming they’re monarchists just isn’t true. Conservatives in China for instance have absolutely nothing to do with a monarchy.
Mercantilism is literally not a rebuke to government controlled trade. It is government controlled trade. Like you can literally Google this and read about it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercantilism
It was intended as a means for the crown to have even more control. It maximized wealth and authority of the central state which is why the term laissez faire came about. You’re literally mixing up a core belief of Liberalism with Mercantilism.
…fair enough. I was looking at mercantilism as more state-adjacent trade. State-chartered corporation type stuff, East india company and such. I guess it was more directly centralized outside of Britain. I still see it as the beginning of the decoupling of the economic system from the crown to some extent, as it implied trade could happen without the direct involvement of the king.
I don’t think you can ignore that conservatism was developed as a method of reinforcing the control of the aristocratic feudalist system over society in the face of anti-monarchists change. Sure, it ends up with a slightly different flavor in every country, but the fundamental push towards a central authority and “knowing your place” in a rigid hierarchy is pretty much monarchism in practice. I’m pretty sure the thing that makes it a monarchy is that the hierarchy is justified by the divine right of kings.