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Politics & Government vocabulary · Parties and Ideologies

Conservative

Meaning in politics & government, with examples

/kənˈsɜːvətɪv/adjectiveCore term

In politics & government, conservative means: Preferring gradual change and valuing tradition and established institutions, often together with support for free markets and limited government; also used for a person with these views.

In Turkish: muhafazakar, tutucu

How it is used

Used for parties, voters, values and policies, and as a noun for a person (a conservative). With a capital C it is often part of a party's name. In everyday English conservative also means cautious, as in a conservative estimate.

Example sentences

  1. The party's more conservative members opposed the reform.

  2. Officials gave a conservative estimate of the cost of the project.

Common collocations

  • conservative values
  • conservative voters
  • socially conservative
  • fiscally conservative
  • a conservative estimate
  • right-wingSupporting political ideas usually linked with free markets, lower taxes, a smaller economic role for the state and respect for tradition and established institutions.
  • liberalSupporting individual rights and freedoms, tolerance of different views and gradual reform; its exact political meaning varies from country to country.
  • ideologyA connected set of ideas and beliefs about how society should be organized and what government should do, which guides a political group or movement.
  • centristHolding moderate political views between the left and the right, and usually preferring compromise and practical solutions to strong ideological positions.

More terms: Parties and Ideologies

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