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Tory socialism is a term used by some historians, particularly of the earlyFabian Society, asocialist British organization, to describe the governing philosophy of the prime ministerBenjamin Disraeli. It has been used byVernon Bogdanor to describe the thinking ofFerdinand Mount,[1] and was used byArnold Toynbee to describe the beliefs ofJoseph Rayner Stephens andRichard Oastler.[2] The phrase was also used to describe bothStanley Baldwin andHarold Macmillan in the 1930s, and by Tony Judge in his biographical study ofRobert Blatchford,[3] and in a wider study of Tory socialism between 1870 and 1940.[4]
Online publicationCountry Squire Magazine published an article on Tory socialism, wherein the author described Tory socialists as being "alienated Tory radicals who denounce liberal capitalism, instead of praising it for it [sic] revolutionary role, as the destroyer of popular community and moral economy."[5] InThe Spectator, journalist and historianTim Stanley wrote: "Call it One Nation, paternalism or, if you're feeling cheeky, Tory socialism − a philosophy, not a doctrine, because it begins by rejecting economic dogma, evenmaterialism on the basis that man does not live by bread alone. Its genius is that it makes culture the engine of policy." He defined Tory socialism as "an approach to politics that puts the spiritual before the economic, and which situates the human being within a community that is shaped by tradition and custom." He also harkened back to when Tories were the party ofprotectionism and social reform.[6]
The term is used by manyfree-market advocates to describe certain strains ofconservatism that are morereformist-minded and believe in a more activist government, such aspaternalistic conservatism. The domestic policies ofRichard Nixon were stated by someAmerican libertarians, such asMurray Rothbard, to be Tory socialist,[7][8] which they believed had much in common with what they labelled as thebig government conservatism espoused byneoconservatives. It was in keeping with this thatDavid Gelernter wrote a long essay inThe Weekly Standard extolling Disraeli as the founder of modern conservatism.[9]
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