Editing G. K. Chesterton (section)

===Conservatism===
{{Conservatism UK|Intellectuals}}
Although Chesterton was an early member of the [[Fabian Society]], he resigned at the time of the [[Second Boer War]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Holroyd |first=Michael |url=https://archive.org/details/bernardshaw00holr/page/214 |title=Bernard Shaw Vol 2 |date=1989 |publisher=Chatto & Windus |isbn=978-0701133504 |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/bernardshaw00holr/page/214 214]}}</ref> He is often identified as a [[Traditionalist conservatism|traditionalist conservative]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fawcett |first=Edmund |title=Conservatism: The Fight for a Tradition |date=2020 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-17410-5 |location=Princeton |page=252}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Kirk |first=Russell |title=Russell Kirk's Concise Guide to Conservatism |date=2019 |publisher=Regnery Publishing |isbn=978-1-62157-878-9 |location=Washington |page=4}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Lee |first=Michael J. |title=The Conservative Canon and Its Uses |journal=Rhetoric and Public Affairs |publisher=Michigan State University Press |volume=15 |issue=1 |year=2012 |issn=1094-8392 |jstor=41955606 |pages=1–39 |doi=10.1353/rap.2012.0008 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/41955606 |access-date=9 March 2025  |url-access=subscription}}</ref>{{rp|39}} due to his staunch support of tradition, expressed in ''Orthodoxy'' and other works with [[Edmund Burke|Burkean]] quotes such as the following:

{{blockquote|Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by the accident of death. Democracy tells us not to neglect a good man's opinion, even if he is our groom; tradition asks us not to neglect a good man's opinion, even if he is our father.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Hamilton |first=Andy |title=Conservatism |date=2020 |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2020/entries/conservatism/ |encyclopedia=[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=Edward N.|access-date=2023-11-26 |publisher=The Metaphysics Research Lab|publication-place=Stanford University|issn=1095-5054}}</ref>}}

Chesterton has been considered among the United Kingdom's conservative anti-imperialist wing, contrasted with his intellectual rivals in Shaw and Wells.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Deneen |first=Patrick J. |title=Conservatism in America? A Response to Sidorsky |journal=Nomos |publisher=[[American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy]] |volume=56 |year=2016 |issn=0078-0979 |jstor=26387881 |pages=140–159 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26387881 |access-date=9 March 2025 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>{{rp|158}} Chesterton's association with conservatism has expanded beyond British politics; Japanese conservative intellectuals, such as {{ill|lt=Hidetsugu Yagi|Hidetsugu Yagi (legal scholar)|ja|八木秀次 (法学者)}}, have often referred to Chesterton's appeal to tradition as the "democracy of the dead".<ref>{{cite book |last=Winkler |first=Christian |title=Conservative Moments: Reading Conservative Texts |editor-last=Garnett |editor-first=Mark |editor-link=Mark Garnett |chapter=Conservatism in Japan: Dealing with discontinuity |pages=85–90 |series=Textual Moments in the History of Political Thought |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |publication-place=London |date=2018 |isbn=978-1-350-00155-8 |quote=It is hardly surprising then that Japanese conservative intellectuals frequently refer to G. [K.] Chesterton's 'democracy of the dead'. |url=https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/58809/1/9781350001558.pdf}} {{open access}}</ref>{{rp|89}} However, Chesterton did not equate conservatism with complacency, arguing that cultural conservatives had to be politically radical.<ref>{{cite book |last=Stapleton |first=Julia |title=Christianity, Patriotism, and Nationhood |publisher=Lexington Books |publication-place=Lanham (Md.) |date=2009 |isbn=978-0-7391-2613-4 |page=147}}</ref>