Tuesday 16 July 2019

Ralph Miliband on Conservative Parties

Just finished reading Ralph Miliband's (AKA Best Miliband) classic work, The State in Capitalist Society. Partly on the occasion of 50 years since its publication, partly because Alex recently had a show on it, and lastly because of some additional reading concerning the old book on the decline and fall of the Tories. The book plan is coming along nicely and can't wait to start writing properly, though if you've been following my commentary on the Tories since returning to blogging in 2012 you will have a good impression of the lines of argument.

Anyway, reading always partially involves quote mining, so here is what he had to say about conservative parties.

... conservatism, however pronounced, does not entail the rejection of all measures of reform, but lives on the contrary by the endorsement and promulgation of reform at the least possible cost to the existing structure of power and privilege ... conservative parties ... remain primarily the defence organisations, in the political field, of business and property. What they really 'aggregate' are the different interests of the dominant classes. Precisely because the latter are not solid, congealed economic and social blocs, they require political formations which reconcile, coordinate, and fuse their interests, and which express their common purposes as well as their separate interests. These purposes and interests also require ideological clothing suitable for political competition in the age of 'mass politics'; one of the special functions of conservative political parties is to provide that necessary clothing. (The State in Capitalist Society 1969, p.168)

If I get a bit of time, I might write more about Miliband's book at the weekend. Needless to say, it comes highly recommended.

6 comments:

Blissex said...

remain primarily the defence organisations, in the political field, of business and property. What they really 'aggregate' are the different interests of the dominant classes.

R Miliband's can be generalized and is a bit obsolete, and my personal formulation is that conservativism is the protection of the interests of *incumbents*; since there are many different types of incumbency, and which ones are dominant changes with time, conservative politics and styles also change with time.

the endorsement and promulgation of reform at the least possible cost to the existing structure of power and privilege

More generally, incumbency from which power and privilege are derived. Power and privilege arising not out of incumbency (however rare that is) is not properly part of conservative politics (cfr. whiggism).

SimonB said...

Miliband’s description of “toothless radicals” is also spot-on. It so aptly describes all the people who claim to support Labour but not in its current form.

Anonymous said...

Corey Robin's 'The reactionary mind' is well worth the time to read as he does a wonderful job of showing that what animates a conservative is an idea that seeks greater freedom for them but more coercion for everybody else.

Blissex said...

«Corey Robin's 'The reactionary mind' [...] seeks greater freedom for them but more coercion for everybody else.»

That is just whig/identitarian propaganda, because C Robin argues that "reactionaries" (not necessarily the same as "conservatives") react against "emancipation" of those oppressed because of their identity (colour, gender, etc.).
As if the markets were an impartial and generous deity, and only reaction against against emancipation were what is holding back discriminated minorities.
It is also implicit in C Robin's argument that those who are already "emancipated" (for example low wage white male workers) get their just deserts from "the markets", or actually more than that, because of their privilege.

bbk said...

Anonymous @ July 13 11:10

Corey Robin's book also immediately came to my mind after reading the Miliband quote.

I need to go back to my copy of "The Reactionary Mind" and check the end notes. Robin explains how conservatism constantly pushes reforms in direct response to progressive movements. Usually co-opting the language and structural elements of the reforms directly from the progressive movements. Except refashioned to protect existing hierarchies of power. It looks as if Robin has read Miliband as part of Robin's project to distill the "true" nature of the conservative political movement.

It seems like Miliband's "The State in Capitalist Society" will be well worth a read as part of a deeper dive in to the ideas and thinkers who Robin built on for "The Reactionary Mind".

Lidl_Janus said...

"Ralph Miliband's (AKA Best Miliband)"

You can burnish your socialist credentials all you like, we all know you're just mad about being down a free owl.