The philosophy of conservatism is ideally suited to help respond to this predicament. But as Waleed Aly has pointed out, in his reflections on “The Future of Conservatism in Australia” in the latest edition of Quarterly Essay, this philosophy is missing from the political landscape. The “conservative” side of politics, he argues, has been so deeply committed to the ideology of neo-liberalism since the election of the Howard Government, that it has ended up disavowing both its liberal and conservative principles. The Liberal Party is struggling with its own identity as a result, even if Tony Abbott is experiencing a degree of success in the polls.

When neo-liberalism was gathering momentum during the Thatcher and Reagan administrations, some commentators suggested that left-of-centre parties were in a prime position to draw upon conservative philosophy to bolster arguments in favour of submitting market processes to social goals. It appeared that social democrats might form alliances with those conservatives who were alienated from their own parties. But left-of-centre parties also fell under the neo-liberal spell, as evidenced by the Hawke-Keating Labor Government.

One of the problems facing a resuscitation of conservative philosophy is the notion that it is about returning to an idealised past, to old norms and values. But as Aly argues in his essay, the best conservative thinkers define conservatism as a “disposition” or “approach” rather than as an ideology committed to the past.

Aly identifies a series of themes that define this disposition, such as: the belief that society is organic and should evolve gradually; the idea that human beings are “contextual creatures”, deeply dependent upon their social and cultural background; societies are too complex to be altered by design; political power should be decentralised rather than concentrated; and politics is about the management of an imperfect world rather than the pursuit of a utopian ideal.

It is these attitudes and assumptions about the world that we need to nurture and develop, not only so as to respond to climate change, but also to conserve the social and cultural habitats upon which human health and wellbeing depend. But that also explains why conservatism remains missing from the political landscape. Our culture is still too committed to progressive ideas to find any room for such a sober and humble approach to social and political management.

Dr Martin Leet is Senior Research Officer with the Brisbane Institute. He studied political science at the University of Queensland and was awarded a BA (Hons) and PhD. Over the last ten years, he has taught and researched in the fields of political economy, public policy and political theory. Martin has published two books, as well as numerous journal articles and book reviews. His most recent book, Aftereffects of Knowledge in Modernity (State University of New York Press), examines the ambivalent cultural consequences of the search for knowledge in the modern western world.