THE FUTURE OF CONSERVATISM

Conservative theoretician and author of The Liberal Establishment and The Politics of Surrender, M. Stanton Evans puts less emphasis here on conservative principles than on their practice in recent elections. He claims that where the Republican Party has appealed to the conservative element of the electorate (outside of the large Eastern states) it has elected gubernatorial and congressional candidates; where it has taken a moderate or liberal approach it has not been able to successfully compete with the liberal Democrats. (He finds mitigating circumstances to explain men like Hatfield, Romney and Percy; Reagan of course is his shining example of conservative political success.) He discusses trends which he considers conducive to future conservative victories: the westward movement of the population, the growth of suburbia and recent moves toward decentralization. Evans is a resourceful and painstaking analyst and his book is unencumbered by the usual conservative hang-ups with the ""immutable"" laws of human behavior.