I'm not sure I'm entirely convinced conservatism needs to play a necessary role, other than the fact that there will be conservative or more traditional-bent factions of societies. I don't support using the state to provide preferential treatment to religious, patriarchal, or hierarchical moral values. The conservatism of Burke, Kirk, Michael Oakeshott, and Tocqueville, as I understand it, was one that still emphasized those social values, but saw them more as an issue that was private, as opposed to reactionaries, who supported the supreme legitimacy of the monarchy in the enlightenment, and dictatorships in modernity. However, they all believed strongly in a civic, participative conception of individual freedom. Tocqueville even said that the decline in voluntary civic association would lead to the expansion of bureaucratic government. Granted, he mainly thought it was the responsibility of the churches to provide this civic medium. I strongly agree with the former, but not the latter. Modern conservatism agrees with libertarianism in that tries to preach free markets, private property, individual choice and responsibility, against state control in any sector of the economy, and against state-financed social welfare programs. I can agree with this sentiment to a small degree because I support the ability for the market of enterprises to be allowed to participate in the provision of public goods. Enterprises should have to be subjected to competition to keep their own interests of profit to become too widespread. Unfortunately, that also means they should not be granted legal permission to expand beyond a certain share of the market. It would be erroneous to conclude that private business would be the only medium that provides these goods in a truly free market. And that is the mistake that many modern conservatives and libertarians make. I do still think a more participatory democratic republic should have an active role in setting the terms by which all of these organizations can compete. I use the term "participatory democratic republic" to mean the summation of all organization, whether state-sanctioned or not, to address a public concern of privately-accumulated monopolies. You could say I have common affinity with civic associationalist conservatives that, when possible, efficient allocation of resources and regulation of the conglomeration of private interests be left to the voluntary civic sphere as opposed to the functions of the state. I tend to put more emphasis on secular institutions such as assembling citizens based on addressing common issues of place that are empirically damaging to their inhabitants. However, the infrastructure of the state will have to be used to a certain agree to meet the demand for public services if there is no voluntary will to self-manage, or if private providers of a public good are tending toward many regional monopolies.