Conservative
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's Turkey (2014–present) represents modern Conservatism. Erdoğan promoted privatization and economic liberalization while consolidating political power. His government suppressed media freedom, reshaped the judiciary, and arrested opponents, blending economic liberalization with strong state control, making it an example of conservative authoritarianism.
What it believes
Change should arrive slowly and prove itself: institutions embody more wisdom than any reformer's plan, markets work best inside inherited moral capital, and the statesman's task is repair, not redesign.
The appeal
Burke's insight keeps compounding: societies that conserve and adapt outperform those that raze and rebuild, and every failed utopia adds evidence. It is less a doctrine than a disposition — and dispositions survive elections.
Where it breaks
Prudence has a client list: 'not yet' has been said to every emancipation, and reverence for inherited arrangements too often means reverence for inherited advantages. When the institutions themselves rot, this cell's toolkit offers polish.
Among its neighbours
The Right-Wing Nationalist above burns the caution and keeps the flag. The Neo-Conservative beside it took conservative confidence on crusade. Below, the Liberal Conservative gives the same temperament a freer market. Leftward, the Third-Way Labourite manages change this cell would rather delay.
Figures — real and imagined — who share the Conservative base ideology. They differ only on the third axis: from radical to restorationist, each is a different face of a Conservative.
The company you keep.
The social axis (progressive ↔ traditional) splits Conservative into nine named shades. Take the quiz to find out which one is yours.
- Radical Conservative
- Progressive Conservative
- Reformist Conservative
- Heterodox Conservative
- Conservative
- Rooted Conservative
- Traditional Conservative
- Reactionary Conservative
- Restorationist Conservative