The Ten Principles of Conservatism

Conservatives believe communities can provide structure for the natural change that they believe should be the real way of progress and that communities are capable of providing a counter force against the concentrated power within the government (Dunn, iii). Thus, community must be near the top in a list of fundamental conservative tenets, and community is the third in this list of ten principles of conservatism (Dunn, iii). Conservatives believe that within the community there are the private and voluntary organizations people can join and be a part of which can help humans grow and flourish (Dunn, iii). This view reveals why conservatives can view the community as such an important part in the lives of individuals.

The fourth item in this list of principles for conservatives is that deity usually appears somewhere (Dunn, iii). A deity on the list may be there because of religious faith or at the very least because conservatives adhere to traditional moral values and are untrusting toward human nature (Dunn, iii). Acknowledging God as a higher power makes both man and government not free but instead, in the end, accountable to Him for their actions (Dunn, iii). Including God will place natural and divine law in a superior position to human laws, which is a way to prevent human nature from having free reign. When there are laws that humans try to implement which are contradictory to divine law, conservatives can call for debate to challenge the validity of the proposed laws.

The fifth standard is that duty and personal responsibility command more importance than individual rights (Dunn, iii-iv). Conservatives contend that citizens would become more passive and expect more government action instead of figuring out what they them...

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