What Are Conservative Values? The Meaning and Core Principles Explained

In the United States, “conservative values” usually refers to a broad family of political and social principles: limited government, individual responsibility, free enterprise, constitutional rights, national sovereignty, public order and, for many conservatives, traditional social and religious values.

But American conservatism is not one single doctrine. Pew Research Center surveys show real differences among Republicans and conservative-leaning Americans on religion, immigration, health care, gun policy and the proper role of government. It is more accurate to describe conservative values as a family of related principles than as a rigid checklist that every conservative accepts in exactly the same way.

This article is a plain-language explainer of what conservative values mean across the country as a whole. It separates three things that are often blurred together: broad conservative principles, the views most commonly held by Republican-leaning voters, and the official positions of the Republican Party. If you want Be American Stay Republican™’s own principles rather than the wider movement, read our Our Values page and The Four Pillars of Conservative American Values, Explained, both linked at the end of this article.

Limited Government and Individual Responsibility

A preference for limited government is one of the most consistent themes in modern American conservatism. In practice, that usually means favoring a smaller federal role in areas where conservatives believe individuals, families, businesses, states or local communities can make decisions more effectively.

Survey data reflects that divide. In an April 2024 Pew Research Center survey, 71% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said government is doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals, while 28% said government should do more to solve problems.

That does not mean conservatives oppose government involvement across the board. Views vary considerably by issue. In a 2022 Pew survey, 88% of Republicans said the federal government should play a major role in managing the U.S. immigration system — the only issue in the survey where Republicans were more likely than Democrats to say so — while 46% said the same about ensuring access to health care and 31% about helping people get out of poverty.

The related principle of individual responsibility emphasizes personal decision-making, self-reliance and accountability. Within conservative thought, this often accompanies support for private enterprise, local decision-making and limits on centralized government power.

Free Enterprise and Private Property

Support for free enterprise is another major strand of American conservative thought. In general, conservatives tend to favor private ownership, market competition, entrepreneurship, lower taxes and fewer government restrictions on business activity.

That principle is closely tied to private property rights. Conservative arguments usually hold that individuals and businesses should have broad freedom to own property, invest capital, build companies and make economic decisions without unnecessary government interference.

In practice, conservative economic policy is not completely uniform. Republican platforms and conservative policymakers often support market-oriented policies, but they may also back tariffs, industrial policy, national-security restrictions or other forms of government intervention when they believe strategic interests are involved. The party’s 2024 platform, for example, pairs deregulation and permanent tax cuts with support for baseline tariffs on foreign-made goods. So “free enterprise” is better understood as a strong preference for markets and private ownership than as an absolute rejection of government involvement.

Law, Order and Constitutional Rights

American conservatism often places strong emphasis on constitutional rights, public order and the rule of law. This includes support for enforcing laws consistently, maintaining effective policing and protecting the civil liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

These priorities can sometimes create tensions within conservative politics. Many conservatives strongly support expansive interpretations of constitutional protections such as the Second Amendment, while also supporting robust law-enforcement powers and tougher approaches to crime.

More broadly, conservative approaches to law and order usually emphasize public safety, enforcement of existing laws and institutional stability, although there is substantial disagreement over how far government power should extend in pursuing those goals.

Family, Religion and Social Tradition

For many American conservatives, family, religion and social tradition are central to conservative identity. These themes often include support for marriage and family stability, religious liberty, parental authority, community institutions and the preservation of longstanding cultural norms.

Religion is especially significant within the Republican coalition, although views are not uniform. A Pew Research Center analysis of 2023 survey data found that 81% of Republican and Republican-leaning voters identified with a Christian denomination, while 15% were religiously unaffiliated.

At the same time, conservatives differ over how closely religion and government should be connected. In a February 2024 Pew survey, 57% of Republicans and Republican leaners said the federal government should promote Christian moral values without declaring Christianity the official religion, while 21% said it should declare Christianity the official religion of the United States. Others opposed both.

So it is more accurate to say that religion and traditional social institutions are influential within American conservatism than to claim that all conservatives share one religious or social outlook.

National Sovereignty and Immigration

American conservatives commonly place strong emphasis on national sovereignty, border enforcement and control over immigration policy. In practice, this usually means supporting stronger enforcement at the U.S. border, tighter rules around unauthorized immigration, and a strong federal role in determining who may enter and remain in the country.

Recent polling shows that Republican voters are especially supportive of stricter enforcement. In a June 2025 Pew Research Center survey, 78% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents approved of the Trump administration’s overall approach to immigration, and 88% favored substantially expanding the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

There is still variation within the Republican coalition. In a January 2024 Pew survey, 81% of conservative Republicans described the large number of migrants seeking to enter the U.S. at the southern border as a crisis, compared with 53% of moderate and liberal Republicans.

So, within American conservatism, national sovereignty is generally associated with the principle that the United States should retain strong control over its borders, immigration rules and enforcement, while disagreements remain over the scale and methods of enforcement. Our article Protecting America looks at the federal grounds of inadmissibility that already exist in law.

Gun Rights and Personal Liberty

Gun ownership is an important issue within modern American conservatism because it is often framed as both a constitutional right and a question of individual liberty and self-defense.

The Second Amendment protects the right to keep and bear arms, although federal, state and local governments regulate how firearms are sold, carried and used. Conservative arguments generally place greater emphasis on protecting lawful gun ownership and resisting restrictions they consider inconsistent with constitutional rights.

Polling shows a sharp partisan divide. In an April 2024 Pew Research Center survey, 83% of Republicans said protecting the right of Americans to own guns was more important than controlling gun ownership, while 79% of Democrats said controlling gun ownership was more important.

Support for gun rights does not mean conservatives agree on every firearms policy. Pew has found majority Republican support for some restrictions: 69% of Republicans favored raising the minimum age for buying guns to 21.

For many conservatives, the underlying principle is broader than firearms alone: government power should be constrained where constitutional rights and personal autonomy are at stake.

Where Conservatives Disagree With One Another

American conservatism is not completely uniform. The Republican coalition is predominantly conservative, but it also includes moderates and a small number of voters with other ideological identities. Pew Research Center found that 49% of Republican-aligned voters described themselves as conservative and 20% as very conservative, while 27% described themselves as moderate.

Differences also appear among Republicans on the role of government, health care, immigration, gun policy and social questions. On health care, for example, a November 2025 Pew survey found that 60% of lower-income Republicans said it is the federal government’s responsibility to make sure all Americans have health care coverage, compared with 36% of middle-income and 28% of upper-income Republicans.

There are internal differences on guns, too. In Pew’s April 2024 survey, rural Trump supporters were more supportive of gun rights than urban Trump supporters, and White Trump supporters were more likely than Hispanic Trump supporters to say protecting the right to own guns was more important than controlling gun ownership (89% vs. 70%).

So it is more accurate to describe American conservatism as a coalition of related principles and priorities than as a single fixed position on every issue.

How Conservative Values Differ From the Republican Party Platform

American conservatism and the Republican Party overlap substantially, but they are not the same thing.

Conservatism is an ideological tradition. It includes broad principles such as limited government, private property, constitutional rights, social order, national sovereignty and personal responsibility. People can identify as conservative while disagreeing with particular Republican policies or candidates.

The Republican Party, by contrast, is a political organization that adopts formal platforms describing its current policy priorities. The party’s 2024 platform included positions on border security and immigration enforcement, energy production, taxes, trade, the military, the right to keep and bear arms, religious liberty and education.

That distinction matters. A principle such as limited government may remain part of conservative political thought even when Republican policymakers support government intervention in a particular area. Likewise, an official Republican policy does not automatically represent the views of every American conservative.

For that reason, this article treats conservative values as broader ideological principles and the Republican Party platform as one contemporary political expression of some of those principles.

Where Be American Stay Republican™ Stands

We are an openly conservative brand, so it is fair to say where we land. Our own principles are set out on our Our Values page, and the four that everything else rests on — freedom, patriotism, the rule of law and opportunity — are explained in depth in The Four Pillars of Conservative American Values, Explained. This explainer is the wide-angle view; those two pages are the close-up.

If these principles are yours too, our T-shirt collection is how we put them on the street: plain American apparel that says what it means. You will find it in the shop, linked below with the rest of our related reading.