Merriam-Webster:

conservatism capitalized a : the principles and policies of a Conservative party b : the Conservative party
2 a : disposition in politics to preserve what is established b : a political philosophy based on tradition and social stability, stressing established institutions, and preferring gradual development to abrupt change
3 : the tendency to prefer a existing or traditional situation to change

Electronic dictionary that comes with Wordperfect 11:

conservative adjective 1 averse to change and holding traditional values. 2 (in a political context) favoring free enterprise, private ownership, and socially conservative ideas. 3 Conservative (cap.) relating to a Conservative Party.

Submitted for your consideration. If more is needed, I have several political science texts at my disposal from which I can quote at length.

One could possibly make the case that the Bush administration is "conservative" if one claimed that it really isn't trying to change anything, it is merely trying to restore the status quo prior to the social reforms initiated by FDR, e.g., when there was no Social Security, no Medicare, no unemployment insurance, in fact, no social safety net at all, when the National Guard could be called out to put down strikes and other union actions, and corporate corruption reigned unchecked. Yeah, that works. . . .

Don Firth