Progressive Conservatism - History

History

Progressive conservatism was developed by the British Conservative government of Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli principally as being a middle ground between proponents of laissez-faire and British Radicalism.

The Catholic Church's Rerum Novarum (1891) advocates a progressive conservative doctrine known as social Catholicism that addressed the issues of poverty of workers.

From the 1940s to the 1970s, progressive conservative politics was popular within the British Conservative Party. Progressive conservatives succeeded in pressing the Conservative Party to maintain similar social policies to that of the Labour Party, particularly the Bow Group that urged the Conservatives to be moderate on social policy and opposed more extreme conservative-minded bodies that disagreed with this moderation. One of the primary British progressive conservative advocates in this time was Rab Butler. Butler was responsible for creating The Industrial Charter (1947) that sought to combine support of free enterprise with Tory interventionism that promised security of employment, promotion of full employment, and improvement of incentives to employees to help them develop skills and talents - allowing them to fulfill their full potential as individuals, and enhanced status for all employees regardless of their occupation. The Industrial Charter was criticized by Conservative leader Winston Churchill though he eventually supported it, and more harshly condemned by more right-leaning Conservatives as being a step towards socialism.

Present British Prime Minister David Cameron is a progressive conservative, as British Conservative Party leader in 2009 he launched the Progressive Conservatism Project at the British think tank Demos. At Demos he outlined his vision of a contemporary progressive conservatism, saying that the project desired the following:

First, a society that is fair, where we help people out of poverty and help them stay out of it – for life. Second, a society where opportunity is equal where everyone can, in Michael Gove’s brilliant phrase, “write their own life-story”. Third, a society that is greener, where we pass on a planet that is environmentally sustainable, clean and beautiful to future generations. And fourth, a safer society, where people are protected from threat and fear.

— David Cameron, 2009.