Is Burkean Conservatism left wing or right wing?

On economic organisation Burkean Conservatism scores +06 on a scale from −10 (common ownership) to +10 (private property and markets). On social and cultural order it scores +06. A single left–right figure combines these and four further measurements that move independently, which is why the atlas reports six.

Is Burkean Conservatism authoritarian?

On the organisation of power, which measures whether authority is dispersed among institutions that can stop each other or concentrated in a single centre, Burkean Conservatism scores −03. Mixed constitution, established church, natural aristocracy, gradual amendment.

Atlas / Organisations / Burkean Conservatism

Burkean Conservatism

1790– · Britain · Conservative · Doctrine / school · coding confidence high

+06ECmarket

+06CUtraditional

−03AUpluralist

+01SCcentral

+02IDascriptive

−09CHlawful

Each axis runs from −10 to +10, with zero a genuine mixed or balanced position rather than an absence of opinion. A score describes a stated position and a governing record; it is not a judgement of merit. What each score means →

Core principles

Society as an inherited partnership across generations; prescription and prejudice as accumulated wisdom; reform to conserve.

Economic model

Commercial property, opposition to abstract redistribution schemes.

Organisation of powers

Mixed constitution, established church, natural aristocracy, gradual amendment.

Reading note

Defines the modern conservative pole of the change axis, not of the authority axis. Burke attacked concentrated power at both ends.

Check a claim about Burkean Conservatism. The interactive atlas measures the distance between any two organisations across all six axes and shows which ones carry the disagreement.

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The evidence for every score

All six cells are sourced. A rationale explains what the score is measuring and each artefact is something a third party can check without taking anyone's word for it.

EC · Economic organisation · scored +06

Coded +6: commercial property defended against abstract redistributive schemes.

Programme textReflections attacks the assignat land confiscations as the destruction of property itself.

CU · Social and cultural order · scored +06

Coded +6: society as an inherited partnership, with prejudice treated as accumulated wisdom.

Programme textReflections defends prescription and 'the wisdom of unlettered men' against abstract rational reform.

AU · Organisation of power · scored −03

Coded −3: an attack on concentrated power at both ends, royal and revolutionary.

Programme textThoughts on the Present Discontents (1770) attacked court influence over parliament; Reflections attacked the Assembly's unchecked authority.

SC · Scale of decision · scored +01

Coded +1: the mixed constitution with strong intermediate bodies.

Programme textReflections defends the 'little platoons' of subordinate association as the origin of public affection.

ID · Rule of membership · scored +02

Coded +2 after the v2.2 review: prescriptive national attachment without ascriptive closure.

Documented act or statuteSupported Irish Catholic relief, prosecuted Hastings over the government of Bengal, and argued for conciliation with America.

CH · Method and tempo · scored −09

At the floor: reform in order to conserve, and nothing faster.

Programme text'A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.'

Where it came from, and what came after

gave doctrine toUK Conservative Party
The party's self-understanding has cited Reflections continuously since the 1830s.
gave doctrine toAmerican Fusionist Conservatism
American conservatism fused Burkean traditionalism with market liberalism after 1955.

Scores that have been revised

ID +04 → +02Burke defended Irish Catholic relief, prosecuted Hastings over the government of India, and argued for conciliation with the American colonists. Prescriptive attachment to an inherited constitution is not an ascriptive rule of membership.

Nearest organisations by measured distance

Straight-line separation across all six axes, out of a maximum of 49.0. Proximity means similarity of stated position, not endorsement and not resemblance in outcome.

Countries

Britain

Cite this page

Scores are revised on evidence, so a citation should carry the version it refers to. Version 4.3.1 is current; the revision log records every change.

McGrath, K. (2026). Burkean Conservatism. The Political Atlas, version 4.2. https://thepoliticalatlas.com/organisations/burke/ (accessed 2026-08-01).

Free to quote and reproduce with attribution. This is a synthesis rather than a peer-reviewed dataset — where an authoritative figure is needed, cite the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the Manifesto Project or V-Dem.