Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

What Does Burke Have To Do With America?, Ted Mcallister

School of Public Policy Working Papers

Paul Gottfried argues (Conservatism in America: Making Sense of the American Right, 2009) that despite claims to a British patrimony going through Edmund Burke, the American Right has no meaningful connection to European Conservatism. Moreover, the attempt to connect American Conservatism with Edmund Burke hides the leftward turn in the American Conservative Movement over the last several decades. But Gottfried’s argument rests on assumptions about the aristocratic foundation of conservatism and neglects the very real Burkean institutional framework in much of American history. While Gottfried is correct to argue that the contemporary American Right is more leftist than …