Liberalism Flashcards
What is Liberalism?
Its fortunes on the strength of the crown, the élan of the aristocracy, the pace of industrialization, and the circumstances of national unification.
The national character of a liberal movement could even be affected by religion.
Liberalism in Roman Catholic countries such as France, Italy, and Spain, for example, tended to acquire anticlerical overtones, and liberals in those countries tended to favour legislation restricting the civil authority and political power of the Catholic clergy.
What did it do in Europe?
In France the Revolutionary and Napoleonic governments pursued liberal goals in their abolition of feudal privileges and their modernization of the decrepit institutions inherited from the ancien régime.
After the Bourbon Restoration in 1815, however, French liberals were faced with the decades-long task of securing constitutional liberties and enlarging popular participation in government under a re-established monarchy, goals not substantially achieved until the formation of the Third Republic in 1871.
