National conservatives could empower government bureaucrats if they follow the advice of their founding document, Chairman of Economics, Business, and Accounting Charles Steele said in a lecture last week.

Steele, faculty adviser to the Classical Liberal Organization, lectured on Sept. 15 about the National Conservative Statement of Principles issued last summer. According to Steele, the statement lacked economic foundation. 

“After reading this thing multiple times, to me, the discussion seems to be rooted in the sheer ignorance of economics,” Steele said.

The Edmund Burke Foundation issued the National Conservative Statement of Principles to detail the common values of National Conservatives. Among the signatories were assistant professor and research fellow at Hillsdale College’s Van Andel Graduate School of Government David Azerrad and Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn. 

Steele said he disagrees with the sixth principle of conservatism, Plank 6, which says the free market cannot be absolute. 

“What’s the alternative?” Steele asked. “Will bureaucrats decide? EPA, OSHA, SEC? It will either be bureaucrats or politicians.”

Steele compared the consequences of Plank 6 to environmental, social, and governance standards for assessing businesses. Instead of evaluating businesses based on profit and loss, the ESG evaluations are based on a business’s environmental effects, like carbon emissions; social standards, like the hiring of women and minorities; and governance, such as unionizing within the business, Steele said.

“ESG evaluates business on criteria set by third parties who don’t bear the consequences of their actions,” he said. “It’s a tool of social engineering. It’s a tool of central planning. And it basically promotes leftist goals,” Steele said. 

Steele said the National Conservative Statement of Principles could easily impose third party regulations: another form of ESG.

“It matters because National Conservatism is talking about some really grave threats that need to be confronted,” Steele said. “But done wrong, National Conservatism falls into the very same trap. Not only will it be powerless against ESG, but it will end up promoting it.”

Professor of Political Economy Gary Wolfram, who attended Steele’s lecture, agreed with Steele’s assessment.

“I think Dr. Steele did a good job of pointing out the unintended consequences of what the national conservatives are embedding in their document,” Wolfram said. “That’s a lot of why you learn economics – because you can see the unintended consequences.”

According to Steele, the basic economic principle National Conservatives are missing is that trade is better for both parties.

“Exchange from trade is mutually beneficial,” Steele said. “If the trade isn’t beneficial to one side or to the other, they won’t trade.

While Arnn said he admired Steele’s remarks, he supports the National Conservative movement despite flaws in the document.

“People must have government,” Arnn said. “If the government is to be restrained, it must operate under the consent of the governed made effective through a stable constitution. There is no international way to go about this. The nation is the necessary unit of self government.”