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Ideas of conservative legal ideology in the context of state doctrines

EDN: XKKQGK

Abstract

Introduction. The analysis of the ideas of conservative legal ideology in jurisprudence traditionally faces a whole range of general theoretical and methodological, concrete historical and value-semantic problems. The first problem is related to the fact that traditionally, the general theory of law is dominated by different types of understanding of the nature of the state (state understanding), which set fundamentally different research ways of considering this phenomenon. The second problem is related to the specific historical interpretations of the phenomenon of "conservatism" itself, with various conceptual and legal versions due to the socio-economic, political, cultural and other processes unfolding in society. The third problem is caused by the specific discourse of conservatism itself. The fourth problem is related to the so-called time perspective and chronotypic characteristics in understanding fundamental state-legal, as well as other phenomena and processes of social life.

Purpose. To consider the main types of conservative legal ideology that have developed within the framework of individual state doctrines, as well as to identify the theoretical, historical, and methodological problems of the conservative idea of law in the context of various approaches to the essence of the state.

Methods. The work uses the following methods: historical-legal and axiological methods for analyzing the Marxist doctrine of the state, which focuses on the specific historical structure of relations and public power domination, which reflects the nature and essence of the state; comparative-legal method for examining various approaches to the formation of the state institution (civilizational, natural law doctrine, and analysis of conservative legal theories); and methods of the history of political and legal theories, including theoretical, logical-semantic, and comparative-historical methods.

Results. The article examines the theoretical, historical and methodological problems of various state doctrines through the prism of conservative legal ideology, reveals its connection with various types of understanding of the essence of the state, law and other phenomena and processes of social life. The article contains an analysis of various interpretations of state and legal development in comparison with various trends and ideas of conservative ideology. The main conservative legal traditions are also considered and their essence is determined.

Conclusions. In modern conditions, conservative legal ideology cannot be considered solely as an antithesis to the rationalist theory of liberalism or the natural law theory of the liberal-democratic state: it is much more complex due to the incorporation of conservative ideas and values into various concepts of state development. Conservative ideas are present, among other things, in neo-Marxist and natural law concepts, representing a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that varies depending on the historical, cultural, and methodological context. It is obvious to all representatives of different doctrines that conservatism plays a key role in the formation of a stable and harmoniously functioning legal order, in which the combination of traditional values with modernization values is the basis for stability. This synthesis is characteristic of the three types of understanding of the state. If the Marxist approach understands the state as an instrument of class domination that reflects socio-economic relations, then conservatism is necessary to consolidate this domination. The civilizational approach, which views the state as a product of culture that ensures stability and legitimacy through adherence to national traditions, is interested in the legalization and preservation of these traditions. In a post-liberal society, the natural law doctrine interprets the state as the embodiment of the natural order that protects human rights and freedoms, where the conservative Christian tradition serves as a guarantor of their protection.

About the Author

E. A. Kazachanskaya
Southern Federal University
Russian Federation

Elena A. Kazachanskaya - Cand. Sci. (Law), Associate Professor of the Department of Theory and History of State and Law

Rostov-on-Don 



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For citations:


Kazachanskaya E.A. Ideas of conservative legal ideology in the context of state doctrines. North Caucasus Legal Vestnik. 2025;(3):63-70. (In Russ.) EDN: XKKQGK

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ISSN 2074-7306 (Print)
ISSN 2687-0304 (Online)