Book: The Conservative Sensibility

Overview
George Will’s The Conservative Sensibility argues that American conservatism at its best is a philosophy of self-limitation rooted in the Founders’ natural-rights liberalism. It is not a Burkean deference to tradition for its own sake but a principled commitment to the proposition that individuals possess rights prior to government, and that politics exists to secure those rights by distributing and restraining power. Will contends that the United States has drifted from this Madisonian design, and he calls for a restoration of constitutional forms that temper passions, slow policymaking, and keep the state in its proper sphere.

Core Argument
The book’s central claim is that a sober recognition of human nature, fallible, ambitious, and permanently mixed, requires institutions that channel energies into productive competition rather than utopian projects. The conservative sensibility accepts that history has no guaranteed arc toward justice and that progress is possible only within rules that check power. Against this backdrop, Will targets two modern deviations: progressivism, which seeks to emancipate politics from constitutional constraints in the name of social improvement, and populism, which exalts unmediated popular will and strongmen over the rule of law and settled procedures.

Constitutionalism and the Courts
Will restores the Founders, especially Madison, to the center of conservative thought. Separation of powers, federalism, and representation are not mere engineering; they are moral instruments for protecting personal liberty. He rejects judicial “restraint” when it becomes passivity toward unconstitutional government. Courts, he argues, should practice robust judicial engagement, policing both Congress and the executive, revitalizing the nondelegation doctrine, and retracting reflexive deference to the administrative state. He revisits the repudiation of Lochner-era jurisprudence, suggesting that freedom of contract is part of the liberties government is meant to secure, and that the caricature of that period obscures a serious constitutional argument about limits to economic regulation.

The Administrative State and Progressivism
Progressivism from Woodrow Wilson forward, Will contends, displaced constitutional politics with expert administration, relocating lawmaking to insulated agencies and eroding accountability. The administrative state promises competence but breeds arbitrary power and civic infantilization. A sound conservatism would restore Congress as the primary lawmaker, reassert Article I responsibilities, and narrow the space in which executive discretion substitutes for deliberation.

Economy, Entitlements, and Civil Society
Will praises market dynamism as a civilizing force that rewards experimentation and diffuses power. Inequality as such is not an injustice if the rules are fair and mobility is open; coercive leveling risks stasis and politicization of life. He warns that expansive entitlements reorder citizenship by transforming rights into claims on others’ labor and by crowding out voluntary institutions. The proper aim is not to perfect outcomes but to preserve a framework, property rights, the rule of law, and free exchange, within which plural lives can unfold.

Culture, Education, and Speech
The book defends a robust culture of free inquiry. Universities betray their purpose when they police speech or privilege therapeutic comfort over truth-seeking. A liberal society depends on habits of mind, tolerance for disagreement, recognition of limits, and humility before complexity, that politics alone cannot produce but can easily damage.

Religion and a Secular Public Order
Will separates theological questions from political justifications. He argues for a public philosophy grounded in reason and natural rights accessible to all citizens, insisting that the First Amendment’s protections are prepolitical and nonnegotiable. Religious faith thrives best when the state is restrained, and the state is safest when ultimate claims are kept beyond its reach.

Contemporary Politics and the Conservative Task
Will criticizes both right and left for abandoning constitutionalism, progressives through technocratic ambition, and contemporary populists through disdain for limits and institutions. The task he sets is restoration, not nostalgia: renew congressional authority, re-empower courts to enforce boundaries, prune delegation, and recover a citizenry schooled in the virtues of self-government. The conservative sensibility is finally a temperament of gratitude and restraint, conserving the constitutional architecture that makes ordered liberty possible.