Conservative


 * After reading this charter, please feel free to discuss major changes on the Talk page.

A Conservative Statement of Principles
We as conservatives value economic freedom and oppose high taxes, bureaucracy and unneccesary government intrusion into the marketplace. The primary functions of a government are to defend national security, enforce the law, encourage moral behavior, values, and the traditional family structure.

Government
Less government is a hallmark of Conservatism. We believe that the government that governs least, governs best. While a few conservatives believe in minimalist government - or none - most believe in a small, efficient and thrifty government that is close to the people and accountable to them.


 * American conservatives look back on the Revolutionary slocan "no taxation without representation," which means that citizens have an absolute right to be involved with the selection of their leaders. They inherited that spirit from the British parliamentary system, rooted in the Magna Carta.
 * In conservative Asian societies, we conservatives see government in a patriarchal role, and citizens are far more defferential to government than in the West. However, even in the East, we understand that the people can lose confidence in their governments, and have often changed their leaders when they were non-responsive.

National defence
We believe in maintaining a strong military as a means of protecting the nation-state, which conservatives still believe is a valid expression of Societal aspirations.

Taxation
We believe in opposing high taxation, since it slows and deters economic growth, punishes rather than rewards effort, and destroys, rather than creates, jobs. Most traditional conservatives agree that taxation is necessary for the maintenance of a nation, a state or province, or a community.

Education
We conservatives believe that educational decisions should be made as close to the family unit as possible.
 * In some Western nations, especially the United States, many conservatives have come to support "school choice," in which parents would have total control over where their children attend school, believing that competition between the private and public sectors will bring about better schools.

Most conservatives believe in the public school system, but want most or all decisions about curriculum, class size, salary of teachers and administrators, school building construction and other aspects of education made by local school districts.

Society
We believe in and value individualism, individual effort and individual entrepreneurship. Yet, while we acknowledge that we all live in the same society with others, and respect others' rights as much as our own, we also insist that the will of the majority be protected, so that our children and theirs will inherit society's values and culture, as we did.

Mass media
We conservatives feel that society is not accurately reflected in the mass media, and have turned to "new media" on the Internet (including blogs and Web-based media outlets) and conservative newspapers and television programs such as for their news. We often avoid entertainment media such as movies and plays that do not reflect their values.

Many conservatives throughout the world are active in protesting against inaccurate, degrading or demeaning media portrayals of religion and sexuality. The general portrayal of deviance and violence in the entertainment media is opposed by conservatives.

Business
We believe in as little government interference in the marketplace as possible, in order to facilitate their growth. We believe that when government interferes with business unnecessarily, that growth is hindered.

Most conservatives believe in free trade, and have supported international free trade agreements such as GATT and, in North America, NAFTA. However, there is a minority that oppose them, because they fail to protect society, especially workers and families, from ill-effects of rapid market fluctuations.

Religion
We gain much from our spirituality and religious backgrounds. Our religious backgrounds are increasingly diverse. In Western societies, those backgrounds mostly stem from a Judeo-Christian heritage. In Eastern societies, a great deal of inspiration for our conservative beliefs have come from Confucianism.

Western conservatives are suspicious of those who would deny any expression of religion in public, whether it be in the classroom, workplace or in "the public square."

The family
Conservatives believe in protecting the traditional family unit. This means rejecting innovations such as gay marriage, which would overturn more than 5,000 years of recorded history, and which no other society has ever adopted. It also means seeking ways to reduce divorces, which tear apart families and leaves children without two parents - a mother and father - which are important to their development. Conservatives believe it is a proper role of government to nurture families.

Perhaps a vast majority of conservatives believe in protecting the life of unborn children. For many, this is the most crucial part of the conservative credo.

In Eastern societies, the value of protecting and serving family members is of vital importance to conservatives, especially serving the elderly.

Social conservatism
We believe that family-related issues are of vital importance, especially preserving the two-parent household and protecting religious expression. We also believe strongly in protecting the right to own guns for personal protection. Some, especially American conservatives, believe gun ownership is an effective deterent to the rise of government tyranny.

Internationalism
We are suspicious of international bodies like the United Nations and the European Union, which, by definition, will not have a single nation's best interests at heart, and often embodies large, out-of-control bureaucracy. We have often seen internationalism try to act to solve society's problems, but just as often, we see it fail to rise to the occasion.

Heroes
We look to many statesmen and women who have helped form the basis for modern Conservatism. Among them are:
 * Edmund Burke
 * Ronald Reagan
 * Margaret Thatcher

We believe society would do well to emulate them as examples of wise leaders, and we seek to elect others who emulate their examples.