On The Political Thought Of Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke, an outstanding England bourgeois political thinker in18th century, is regarded as the founder of the modern western conservatism. He emphasizes the importance of traditional culture and customs. Against the radical anti-traditionalism of enlightenment thinkers, he points out that reason is insufficient to rule people’s conduct and maintain social order, and that traditional ideas and customs is indispensible for restraining people’s desires and impulses. He holds that people in any times could hardly create system, laws, rules and norms of their moral, political and economic life on their own; hence they have to learn from their tradition.Opposing individualism developed the Enlightenment era concerning the separation of individuals and society, Burke mentions that both the preservation of society and the well-being of each member in society rely heavily on the individual’s dependence on, and integration with community. Both the state and society have responsibility to civilize all the members in term of morality in order to establish a relationship of brotherhood between them, in order to develop public order and good custom.Prudence" or "Political reason" is an important political concept of Burke. Burke was opposed to all doctrinaires acting from abstract political principles. He emphasizes not only upon the ideal goal, but also concrete circumstances, conditions and tactics in achieving one’s goals. The particular nature of political reason requires cooperation of different people concerning their ideas and wisdom, and it also necessitates compromise and balance, which will prevent reckless reform and arbitrary rule.As a Whigs politician and thinker, Burke holds fast to the Whiggish principles of opposing tyranny, loving liberty, cherishing constitutionalism since "the Glorious Revolution". He advocates actively constitutional government, parliamentary check on the royal power by the parliament, in order to prevent arbitrary rule, corruption and abuse of power. He suggests that there must be a strong and powerful party in order to curb efficiently royal power and contend against the corruptive forces which support the absolute monarchy.Although Burke is a brilliant thinker, there are certain bias and limitations in his thought. He is for aristocracy and against democracy. He believes that the nobles with "high birth’ property and ability are "natural aristocracy", who have good education and wisdom, and incorruptible; therefore, they can be trusted to govern for the people. Thus the constitutional government claimed by Burke is that of aristocracy. Burke is against democracy, and do not believe that common people have the capacity of exercising their political rights to rule. He denies common people’s right to vote. Burke intends to maintain the socio-political order of the traditional hierarchy and at the same time believes the rightfulness and necessity of the capitalist economic system. Therefore. Burke is greatly concerned to protect the property right of the upper class. Burke was for "the Glorious Revolution" of England and the American Revolution, but vehemently against the French Revolution, and this reflected his insights con-cerning the significance of tradition, as well as his bias and limitation concerning his support of aristocracy and his negation of democracy.Burke"s political thought has exerted profound influence on the western conservative ide-ology of the19th century, the neo-conservative ideology of the20th century, and the conser-vative political practice from then on. His theory also has significant relevance to our under-standing of the dialectical relations between tradition and modern, and between change and prudence.