The economic principles of conservatism are perhaps the least controversial principles in the conservative movement. Almost all conservatives agree on preserving free market capitalism, limiting government regulation, and holding tax rates low. Conservatives call on government to maintain the rule of law, protect property rights, and preserve the value of our currency in order to support economic growth and sustain our economic well-being as a nation.
Government cannot defend our nation’s economic welfare, however, if it is captured by special interest groups determined to use the levers of government for their own ends. When interest groups champion government spending that benefits themselves but not the nation, when they demand regulation that burdens commerce, and when they write themselves benefits into the tax code, basic precepts of economic freedom are violated. Conservatives understand this as a violation of the principles of the free market.
For “fiscal conservatives,” economic freedom is their core issue. Fiscal conservatives are often grouped together with libertarians, but not all fiscal conservatives hold libertarian views on non-economic issues. The Left often tries to portray the conservative focus on economic issues as a form of greed, but it is really about individual freedom.
Economist Daniel Mitchell lays out the principles of free market economics that are central to the conservative tradition and which conservatives generally uphold. The economic principles that Dr. Mitchell identifies as necessary for our prosperity are largely self-evident to conservatives and represent perhaps our greatest ideological difference from the Left.
Daniel J. Mitchell is a fiscal policy expert at the Cato Institute focusing on the economics of government spending and tax reform. Prior to joining Cato, Mitchell was a senior fellow with the Heritage Foundation, and an economist for Senator Bob Packwood and the Senate Finance Committee. Mitchell earned a Ph.D. in economics from George Mason University and his undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Georgia.