Liberalism: State

Question 1

AGREE: The state should be limited

Answer 1

All governments are potential tyrannies against the individual. This is compatible with the liberal view of human nature: individuals are self-seeking creatures (egotistical individualism), if they have power they will inevitably seek to use it for their own benefit at the expense of others. Lord Acton put it ‘power tends to corrupt, and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely’. All liberals, therefore, advocate for a limited state to ensure power is not used to infringe on the rights of citizens.

Question 2

AGREE: State is essential in guaranteeing freedom

Answer 2

Each person can be both a threat to, or be under threat from, every other member of society. Thus, the state is necessary to act as a neutral arbiter between peoples conflicting interests i.e. protect people from interfering with other people’s rights. John Locke, a classical liberal, infamously said ‘where there is no law there is no freedom’. Similarly, (modern liberals) believe the state should create the conditions of freedom to allow individuals to reach their full potential.

Question 3

AGREE: The state should emerge through consent - ‘Social Contract Theory’ (mechanistic theory of the state)

Answer 3

Authority should arise from below rather than above, and can only be based on the consent of those that want to be governed. By entering a social contract, there are rights and duties that both parties must abide by i.e. the state has a right to punish those who break the law, but a duty to limit itself to that which protects our liberties and freedoms. The liberal position on the social contract derives entirely from the works of John Locke. In the ‘Two Treatises of Civil Government’, Locke stresses that if the ‘original contract’ has been broken they are entitled to withdraw their consent, and return to the ‘state of nature’. Friedan, later upheld these views, arguing that as political authority comes form the consent to be governed, the people have the right to rebel if the state exceeds such consent.

Question 4

DISAGREE: How much the state should interfere with the liberty of the people

Answer 4

For classical liberals, liberty is a ‘negative’ concept. Thus, the state should confine itself to that of a ‘nightwatchmen’, to pose as few constraints on the individual as possible. Thomas Paine put it ‘The best government is which governs the least’.

In contrast, modern liberals see liberty as a ‘positive’ concept. As proposed by the Beveridge report (1942), state provision to tackle the ‘five giant’ evils threatening personal freedom. For that purpose an ‘enabling state’ is needed to provide opportunity for citizens to reach their potential.

Question 5

DISAGREE: Role of the state in the economy

Answer 5

Classical liberals subscribe to ‘laissez faire capitalism’. As they view the concept of liberty to be ‘negative’, egotistical individuals should be left alone as much as possible. The free market (‘free’ being that of the state) facilitates the best and most efficient allocation of resources within an economy. Whereas, excessive government involvement is detrimental to growth and prosperity.

Modern liberals, call for ‘managed capitalism’. They hold that an unregulated free market leads to undesirable consequences.
Influenced by the works of John Maynard Keynes, to resolve these consequences the state needs to intervene, John Rawls and Betty Freidan, believed that the state could ‘fine tune’ the economy by manipulating the level of demand, through government spending.