Why does the Conservative party push progressive politics?

My answer on Quora.

I am not sure what you mean by the phrase Conservative party. Are you referring to the British Tory Party, the Canadian Conservatives, the US Republican Party or something else? The Australian Liberal Party is essentially a conservative outfit as is the Blue Dog Wing of the US Democratic Party, not to mention the Japanese Liberal Democrats, German CDU or the New Zealand Nationalist Party.

Conservatism is a broad framework of thought. It is in the grander scheme nation specific and context focused. In the US the GOP, was driven by Progressive politics during the Administrations of Teddy Roosevelt, William Taft, Herbert Hoover and to some extent Presidents Nixon and Ford.

Very often these progressive policies are followed with the assumption that they will stabilize society, counter deleterious change and further conservative nationhood principles. Roosevelt’s anti-trust focus falls under the former.

The German statesman Otto von Bismarck and the British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli both adopted ideas from the socialist left and re-branded them with a pragmatic conservatism. They saw this as a way of countering the rise of political currents forces in their respective nation states that threatened the integrity of the country.

Bismarck needed to safeguard the neophyte German against the rising forces of socialism and Laissez-faire capitalism (while uniting the country) and did so by co-opting the agenda of the one making it more difficult for the other to operate. In a sense his work represented a triumph of collectivist conservatism over the individualistic alternative (for the time). His policies would serve as the vanguard for the Progressive movement in the US and the Fabianists in the UK.

Disraeli did the same by using his Reform Act of 1867 to cement an alliance between the ruling elite and the Working class against the upsurge of Middle Class capitalism.

So in short - A great deal of Conservative motivation centers around the maintenance of a perceived stability. I am not discounting a deeper compassion - although one need not be a progressive to be compassionate - but necessary pragmatism in a world of grays seems to be the key driver.

Whether this is the correct approach to take is one of the great debates on the Conservative side of the political coin.