For left-wing politicians society is synonymous with government. For conservatives, however, society is the rich diversity of civilising institutions that populate the space between the individual and the state.
There IS such a thing as society
Conservatives have had a lot of trouble with the idea of society ever since Margaret Thatcher made her now infamous “There is no such thing as society” remark during a 1988 interview.
For her critics at the time – and incessantly since – those seven words seemed to confirm the ‘loadsamoney’ caricature of Thatcherism. To no avail, Mrs Thatcher’s defenders repeatedly pointed to the context of her remarks. Far from affirming a Darwinian individualism Mrs T told her Woman’s Own interviewer that all adult citizens had obligations to families and neighbours that should never be surrendered to the one-size-can-never-fit-all state.
The phrase has nonetheless caused lasting damage to the Tory brand. In the public mind it seemed to resonate with some Thatcherites’ gluttonous devotion to intruder capitalism and the materialism and social injustices that it spawns.
Mrs Thatcher’s clumsy choice of words was a terrible mistake because society is, in reality, crucial to the conservative understanding of civilisation and it is a conservative’s preferred antidote to the side-effects of capitalism.
What is society?
Society is a collective noun for families, charities, the professions, local schools and other people-sized institutions. For conservatives, society - its 3D relationships, institutions and values - is much more important than the state. In accordance with the doctrine of subsidiarity true conservatives will look to society to solve problems before they turn to the state.
Socialists, in contrast, will instinctively expand the powers of the politicised state whenever a problem arises. This point was made by Oliver Letwin in the 2002 book ‘There is such a thing as society’. Mr Letwin, extolling his foundationalist view of conservatism, wrote:
"The institutions and relationships of society provide each of us with a sense of identity and belonging. They are multidimensional in character and purpose. They have evolved organically and have stood the test of time. Conservatives still envisage an important role for government but we believe that its main role is to support the institutions of society and the complex, infinitely varied relationships between those institutions. The state's role should never be to supplant or nationalise society. This state-society distinction is absent from Labour's worldview. It is true to say that for New Labour there is no such thing as society, only the state."
Society and the reversal of institutional decay
“The state and the market are procedural. Their great glory is that they are impersonal: if the state, if politics, if the market, if business ever became personal, it would become corrupt. Those problems that really are personal belong primarily to third-sector institutions, such as the family and the faith communities which honour, strengthen and sustain the personal, give us the courage to change and a helping hand when we fall. By contrast, we have focused on institutions which reinforce behaviour rather than change it: government which reflects votes, politics which follow opinion polls, therapies that tell us that we are OK as we are, markets that mirror our choices. Where in our culture will we find something that gives us the power to change? In these covenantal institutions of families and communities.”
- Jonathan Sacks, The Chief Rabbi
Jonathan Sacks warns that commerce and politics cannot easily reverse the natural decay of human institutions. Institutional decay can only be contained when society promotes the vigorous virtues (by which new challenges can be overcome) and when it teaches its young to follow the kind of values captured in The Tao. Both vigorous and civilising virtues are best taught by the free institutions that make up society – notably the family and the local school.
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