Conservatism is a political and social philosophy promoting traditional social institutions in the context of culture and civilization.
The first established use of the term in a political context originated in 1818 with Franois-Ren de Chateaubriand during the period of Bourbon Restoration that sought to roll back the policies of the French Revolution. There is no single set of policies regarded as conservative because the meaning of conservatism depends on what is considered traditional in a given place and time.
Edmund Burke, an 18th-century politician who opposed the French Revolution, but supported the American Revolution, is credited as one of the main theorists of conservatism in Great Britain in the 1790s.
According to Quintin Hogg, the chairman of the British Conservative Party in 1959: “Conservatism is not so much a philosophy as an attitude, a constant force, performing a timeless function in the development of a free society, and corresponding to a deep and permanent requirement of human nature itself”.
