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Social conservatism is a political or moral ideology that believes the government has a role in encouraging or enforcing traditional values or behaviors based on the belief that these are what keep people civilized and decent. However, the accepted meaning of traditional morality often differs from group to group within social conservatism. Thus, there are really no policies or positions that could be considered universal among social conservatives. There are, however, a number of principles to which at least a majority of social conservatives adhere.

A second meaning of the term has developed in the Nordic countries and Continental Europe. Here it refers to liberal conservatives supporting modern European welfare states.

1 Social conservatism and economic systems
2 Social conservatism and confessionalism
3 Social conservatism and nationalism
4 List of social conservative political parties
5 See also
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links

Social conservatism is distinct from cultural conservatism which focuses on cultural aspects of the issues, such as protecting one's culture. Although there are some overlaps.

Social conservatives in many countries generally:

favor the pro-life position in the abortion controversy; opposes embryonic stem cell research
promote traditional marriage and the nuclear family model as society's foundational unit
oppose expansion of civil marriage and child adoption rights to couples in homosexual relationships
promote public morality and traditional family values
oppose secularism and privatization of religious belief
supports the prohibition of drugs, prostitution, gambling, and euthanasia
supports the censorship of pornography, obscenity, indecency, and blasphemy

Social conservatism and economic systems

There is no necessary link between social and fiscal conservatism. In fact, some social conservatives are otherwise apolitical or even left-wing on fiscal issues. For example, social conservatives may also support a degree of government intervention in the economy, and as such will tend to support the concept economic intervention to further this aim. This concern for material welfare, like advocacy of traditional mores, will often have a basis in the religion of the social conservatives in question. Examples include the Christian Social Union of Bavaria, the Family First and Democratic Labor Party of Australia, and the Communitarian movement in the United States.

There is more overlap between social conservatism and paleoconservatism in that they both have respect for traditional social forms. However, paleoconservatism has a strong cultural conservative strain which social conservatism, in and of itself, is not necessarily allied with. For example, John Burger, writing in Crisis Magazine in 2005, said:

"The presence of a significant population of culturally Catholic immigrants offers hope that their culture will permeate a decadent American society and contribute to the re-evangelization of native-born Catholics. . . Abortion is still illegal in most Latin American countries. And in most areas, it’s not even part of a person’s consciousness." ¹

Social conservatism and confessionalism

Many Christian Democratic Parties and Islamic parties around the world are socially conservative.

Social conservatism and nationalism

In Europe, some social conservative parties also support nationalism, and regionalism, based on ideas according to which the national wealth and the traditional values would lose from free immigration and free trade.

However, these positions are contradictory with Christian religious beliefs and repetitively criticized by representatives of Catholic and Protestant churches. Dominant conservative parties, also called moderate right parties refrain from nationalism, trying to integrate citizens from ethnic minorities.