LIBERALISM - State Flashcards
Definition of the state
Definition of the law
A state is an association that establishes sovereign power over a defined territory, usually possessing a coercive power: UK, Germany, Japan, USA.
The law is the body of rules which are established by the state, backed up with state’s power.
CONSENSUS BETWEEN CLAS LIBS AND MOD LIBS
Why we need a state regardless of the extent of its powers
Liberals fear that free self-interested individuals may wish to exploit others, steal their property, or even turn them into slaves if it is in their interests to do so.
The liberty of the individual is always in danger.
Each person can be said to be both a threat to and under possible threat from every other member of society.
Liberals traditionally believe that this protection can only be provided by the sovereign state, capable of restraining all individuals and groups within society.
CONSENSUS BETWEEN CLAS LIBS AND MOD LIBS
What did John Locke say?
What did John Rawls say?
John Locke: ‘Where there is no law, there is no freedom’
John Rawls agreed in ‘A Theory of Justice’, where he said that the state was necessary to ensure social justice.
SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY
What is the ‘state of nature’?
State of nature: a pre-political society, in which freedom is unrestrained and there is absence of established political or legal authority.
SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY
Why would life be worse in the state of nature?
Thomas Hobbes?
They argue that life would be worse in the state of nature because competition for scarce resources in primitive conditions would restrict people, as they had no protection.
Hobbes - ‘Human life would be solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short’
SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY
John Locke and the development of the social contract theory
John Locke used the theory to suggest that because we are rational, if we were in the state of nature, we would eventually realise that we should enter an agreement/social contract, to establish a state and secure our safety.
All individuals would recognise that it is in our interests to sacrifice a portion of our liberty in order to set up the law, because otherwise their rights and lives would constantly be threatened.
John Locke was aware that the social contract was fictional, but he wished people would behave as if it were true, through obeying government and the law.
ENABLING STATE
Modern liberals believe firmly in an enabling state where initiatives and provisions are put in place to liberate individuals from restrictive social and economic problems.
Mod Lib, John Rawls outlines this in his work, A Theory of Justice 1971.
MINIMAL STATE
Classical liberals believe firmly in a minimal state where the social contract ensures that the state protects life, liberty, and property, without infringing on other aspects of an individual’s life. This was primarily the idea of John Locke.
