Property

Abstract

It may seem surprising that I have advanced so far in describing the conservative attitude without mentioning what some take to be its principal fetish. But the reader will begin to see that there is a world of difference between the political outlook that I have described, and the view which sees all politics as a question of ownership, and of the creation and distribution of wealth. Nevertheless, a political doctrine that said nothing about these things would be hard enough to believe, and even if it be fashionable to over-emphasize matters of wealth and ownership, that only constitutes a yet stronger reason for taking them seriously. We must, in particular, examine the nature of private property, and determine how and to what extent conservatives are committed to its safeguard.