Glossary

Little platoons

Edmund Burke's phrase for the small local groups, such as families and neighborhoods, that form the basis of public affection and civic life.

Also called: little platoons, small battalions

"Little platoons" is a phrase from Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790). He wrote that "to be attached to the subdivision, to love the little platoon we belong to in society, is the first principle (the germ as it were) of public affections."

For Burke, loyalties to family, neighborhood, church and local community are the starting point of broader loyalty to country and humanity, and they should be nurtured rather than replaced by abstract commitment to a universal cause. The French revolutionaries, in his view, tried to sweep away these attachments in favor of reason and the state, with disastrous results.

Modern conservatives use the phrase to defend civil society, local control and the role of the family and religious institutions against what they see as an overreaching national government. It is often cited in discussions of subsidiarity. Critics note that small communities can also be exclusionary or oppressive, and that some problems need larger solutions. The phrase appears in speeches and think-tank writing and in discussions of burkean conservatism.

Last reviewed November 8, 2026

In the index now

Related terms

Civil society The network of voluntary associations, such as families, churches, clubs and charities, that exist between the individual and the state. Subsidiarity The principle that matters should be handled by the smallest, lowest or least centralized authority capable of doing so effectively. Burkean conservatism A conservatism rooted in Edmund Burke's defense of tradition, gradual reform, prescriptive institutions and skepticism of abstract theory. Ordered liberty The idea that genuine freedom requires moral and legal structure, and that liberty without order or virtue becomes license.