2.2 Differing views and tensions within liberalism

Question 1

How did classical liberalism emerge, then re-emerge?

Answer 1

With the rise of industrial capitalism in the 18th and 19th centuries - followers prized freedom above other values.

Believed that freedom could best be achieved by restricting power of government.

Late 20th century - reinvented in Britain and the USA as Neo-liberalism - associated with the New Right - Thatcher and Reagan.

Question 2

How did modern liberalism emerge?

Answer 2

In the early 20th century in reaction to the growth of free-market capitalism.

Didn’t wish to abolish capitalism but its adherents did believed in regulating the market to counter excessive deprivation and inequality.

Don’t believe that people can be truly free if simply ‘left alone’ by the state.

Question 3

What key areas do classical and modern liberalism take different approaches to?

Answer 3

Freedom and the state.

Question 4

How do classical liberals view freedom?

Answer 4

Believed in negative freedom (freedom from interference) - principle often linked to idea of freedom of choice or privacy.

Freedom can be expanded mostly clearly by restraining state power.

Classical liberals believe in egotistical individualism.

Question 5

Define egotistical individualism.

Answer 5

Idea that individual freedom is associated with self-interest and self-reliance.

Question 6

What is the logic of negative freedom by classical liberals?

Answer 6

Leads to the rolling back to the state, to encourage individuals to take more responsibility for themselves.

Self-reliance is a key virtue for classical liberals - dependence on state damaging because it undermines the self-respect of the individual and saps the spirt of enterprise on which economic growth depends.

Question 7

Explain the debates over the growth of a ‘dependency culture’.

Answer 7

Linked to ideas of classical liberalism.

The idea of the dependency culture has come from the expansion of the UK welfare state since 1945 - loss of personal responsibility, breakdown of the traditional family.

Neo-liberals argue that welfare should be targeted at those who really need it, and that other should be encouraged to lift themselves out of poverty through their own efforts.

Question 8

What do modern liberals believe about negative freedom?

Answer 8

That it is necessary but not sufficient for a good society.

Can amount to little more than ‘freedom to starve’ for those facing disadvantages over which they have no control

E.g., working in an occupation prone to periods of unemployment, or suffering an industrial accident.

Why modern liberals support positive freedom.

Question 9

Explain positive freedom.

Answer 9

Defines freedom as self-mastery or self-realisation.

Freedom can be expanded by qualified state intervention in the economy and society, to widen individual opportunity and liberate citizens from social evils such as poverty.

Modern liberals favour developmental individualism.

Question 10

What is developmental individualism?

Answer 10

Enabling individuals to enjoy personal growth and empowerment.

Question 11

How do both classical and modern liberals have some common ground on the nature of the state?

Answer 11

Both believe in decentralisation of govt and protection of civil liberties.

19th century - Gladstone tried to grant Home Rule or self-government to Ireland

20th century - this equated to the concept of devolution - influence the New Labour governments of 1997-2010

New Labour also implemented liberal Constitutional reforms - Human Rights Act and Freedom of Information Act.

Question 12

Although liberals don’t revere the state, how do they differ from conservatives?

Answer 12

Conservatives attach importance to accumulated wisdom of the past and view and state as an organic entity whose component parts can’t be rearranged at will.

Liberals subscribe to a mechanistic theory of the state.

Question 13

What do classical liberals believe about the state?

Answer 13

That the state should merely lay down the conditions for orderly existence and leave other issues in the hands of private individuals and businesses.

Support minimal or ‘night-watchman’ state - maintaining social order, enforce contracts and provide defence against external attack.

Shouldn’t interfere in economic and social life more than necessary - could undermine individual liberty. Maintain stable framework for trade, uphold value of currency and create an environment where laissez-faire capitalism can thrive.

Question 14

What is Social Darwinism?

Answer 14

• Natural selection applied to human society
• Individuals differ in their abilities - unavoidable that some succeed and others fail

Herbert Spencer - ‘survival of the fittest’ - author of ‘The Man Versus the State’.

Govt shouldn’t intervene to support people through welfare.

Question 15

Define the mechanistic theory.

Answer 15

Liberals see the state as a machine created to serve the individual - its parts are equal in worth and interchangeable.

Question 16

What do modern liberals believe about the state?

Answer 16

Believe in an enabling state - due to growing awareness of the inequality of late 19th-century society - linked to low pay, unemployment, slum housing and poor working conditions.

Becoming in prominent in the late-Victorian and Edwardian periods, ‘New Liberals’ supported welfare to bring about equality of opportunity.

Argued that the state has a responsibility to reduce or remove disadvantages if individuals and groups are held back by social circumstances.

Expressed in the reforms of the Liberal governments of H.H. Asquith - included first old-age pensions, National Insurance and labour exchanges.

Question 17

Define the enabling state.

Answer 17

A larger state that helps individuals to achieve their potential and be free.

Question 18

What was the Beveridge Report?

Answer 18

Ideas taken further in mid-20th century by Sir William Beveridge.

Foundation of the post-war British welfare system - argued that liberty should be available to all - impossible if part of the population was held back by the ‘five giants’.

Question 19

What were the ‘five giants’ (relating to Beveridge Report)

Answer 19

Poverty
Lack of education
Ill health
Poor living conditions
Unemployment

Question 20

How did the Beveridge report influence the post-war Labour government?

Answer 20

Comprehensive National Insurance - NHS and improved housing and education were all responses to the challenges he outlined.

Question 21

How does the Beveridge report link to modern liberalism?

Answer 21

The approach of modern liberals: to enable individuals to flourish, they argue that some state intervention is necessary.

Question 22

How did the Beveridge Report capture the wartime desire for a more equal and just society?

Answer 22

People who were fighting for freedom against Nazism felt entitled to a better standard of living after the war - the report’s promise to protect people from the cradle to the grave’ against social injustice became famous.

Question 23

Who was Sir William Beveridge?

Answer 23

• Leading civil servant and academic
• Became an expert on unemployment and social security as an adviser to the Liberal government before the First World War
• Director of LSE from 1919 to 1937
• Master of University College, Oxford
• Briefly a liberal MP, from 1944-45 - lost his seat - but appointed to House of Lords

Question 24

Who was Keynes?

Answer 24

• John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) - talented Cambridge University academic
• First came to attention with his book ‘The Economic Consequences of the Peace’ (1919) - critique of the allied powers’ treatment of Germany at the Versailles peace conference
• Important contribution to economic thought came in reaction to Great Depression of 1930s

Question 25

How did Keynes contribute to modern liberalism?

Answer 25

• Keynes argued that the image of self-regulating free market is a myth.
• Govt intervention necessary - ensures that market economies deliver sustainable growth and keep unemployment low
• Govt should prevent a slump by managing the level of demand in the economy so that full employment is maintained

Question 26

What did Keynes argue in ‘The General’ (1936)?

Answer 26

Argued for a programme of public expenditure to create jobs and stimulate the economy.

Question 27

What role did Keynes have in Second World War?

Answer 27

Represented British govt in talks with the USA - led to creation of 2 important financial institutions, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Question 28

How was Keynesianism influential in the following decades after the Second World War?

Answer 28

Governments become more willing to act in order to correct the failings of the market.