Liberalism - Strands of Liberalism Flashcards
Classical liberalism - Revolutionary potential
- Locke’s argument for government by consent (people voted for it) and state should be driven by representatives of the people
- In erasing two pillars of the traditional European state (absolute monarchical power and the divine right of kings) Locke’s philosophy became associated with constitutional government following the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and ended concentrated political power
- Constitutionalism - natural rights are protected, limited government
Early Classical liberalism - ideas
Negative Liberty / Freedom:
- Individual liberty - a natural right - was vital to self-determination and self-reliance
- Freedom is the absence of restraint - individuals should assume that they are naturally free until they are stopped in their actions
- Individuals are autonomous, atomistic and self-reliant
Minimal state:
- Liberty is the absence of restraint and so government should be limited in how they act, and in what they do - limited state and minimal state co-exist
- Government is best when it governs least - Jefferson
- Strengthens the idea of dispersal of political power - a state with checks and balances which makes state action difficult and infrequent
Laissez-faire capitalism:
- Smith (Wealth of Nations, 1776) - capitalism via the invisible hand of market forces has limitless capacity to enrich society and individuals within it
- Wealth acquired by individuals will ‘trickle down’ as long as the government takes a laissez-faire attitude (let-it-happen) approach to a market economy - state should respond to capitalism by doing little to nothing
- Advocates the end of tariffs and duties which protect domestic producers and spread of free trade between states and classes
Late classical liberalism - utilitarianism
Utilitarianism:
- Bentham - alternative to natural rights theory, the idea that each individual should maximise their own ‘utility’ by maximising personal pleasure and minimising personal pain
- This causes individual conflicts - the state should be more proactive and policy should focus on the greatest happiness for the greatest number - justification of democracy
- Smiles (self-help)- individualism threatened by socialism with self-reliance still being feasible for most people without state intervention; industrialised societies are making it harder to be self-reliant - however, this means that individuals become more fully developed by having to overcome new obstacles - self-help should not be hindered by state help, as this stunts individuals; does not want more state intervention
- Spencer - not all individuals can help themselves (the poor in Victorian society) - advocated Social Darwinism, in which the ‘fittest’ rise to the top and the elimination of those who cannot enjoy the benefits of individualism, resulting in a society where rational self-reliance is the norm and individual freedom thrives - minimal state and negative liberty enable this
Late classical liberalism
Developmental individualism:
- John Stuart Mill - representative democracy where an enlarged electorate do not make decisions themselves but elect liberally minded representatives who will decide based on the broad consent (all opinions), and he rejected direct democracy as a conduit of the ‘tyranny of the majority’
- Most voters in the 19th century to choose intelligent representatives to act rationally and so Mill argued universal education -> universal suffrage to promote developmental individualism (advancement of individual potential to produce a liberal consensus) which safeguards tolerance, reason and individualism, and the vote is withheld from the illiterate and those with a degree get extra votes
- Democracy can further liberal values, and refine utilitarianism which encourages people to aggregate everyone’s interests - education is therefore not something that should have limited government intervention
Classical liberalist thinker - Voltaire
- Rational religion - Daisim, natural religion - God created society and then took a metaphorical backseat
Fanaticism, idolatry and separatism - religion but not the Church - Book - Letters concerning the English Country - censored in his home country France due to its difference to and criticism of French religion and politics
- Tolerance (I detest what you say but will defend to the death your right to say it) - Religions can coexist and this creates a happy society, because there is not just one that makes government arbitrary and there are not just two that create conflict with one another
- Multiculturalism is important - tapestry of ideas
- Toleration and individualism
Modern liberalist thinker - Rawls
What can society do to make everyone free - equality of opportunity and state
Modern liberalism - positive liberty / social justice
Positive liberty / social justice:
- New liberals - Green, Hobhouse and Hobson argued that modern society mocked autonomy of individuals and they were increasingly subject to socio economic forces, making it impossible for individuals to be self deterministic and self-realised and social justice was now required for potential
- Green - freedom should now be interpreted as more cooperative and altruistic, with some individuals enabling empowerment over others, and this idea of helping others help themselves allowing them to act in a way that would have been possible if left alone, known as positive freedom
- Individuals have to be enabled for social justice to be secured
- Keynes - post-war consensus
Modern liberalism - Enlarged and enabling state
- A larger state can repel socio-economic threats to freedom and individualism
- Rawls - expansion of state for individual liberty (more laws, spending, taxation and bureaucracy)
linked to collectivism and guaranteeing equality of opportunity needed for individual freedom - critic. for blurring distinction between socialism and liberalism
- Rawls - more sacrifice of earnings for state in progressive taxation and individuals are convinced this is good and necessary - enabling state is consistent with the government by consent principle
- Wanted to improve society’s less fortunate but remained indifferent to inequality of outcome
- Individual inevitably needs freedom, and eliminating socio-economic conditions of the deprived
allows potential to be realised and to achieve control and the class gap was a secondary concern
Modern liberalism - Constitutional reform / liberal democracy and social liberalism
Constitutional reform / liberal democracy:
- Hobhouse - society should be improved, and modern liberalism cements government by consent
with constitutional reforms
- Liberal democracy - completing the link between core liberal values and universal adult suffrage
- In the UK - Liberal PM 2018 Representation of the People Act and further campaigns in 1945 etc
- Shows no interest to direct democracy due to ‘tyranny of majority’ and even threatened liberal
democracy to further liberal values (favour HRA and EU) - Brexit results were evidence of Mill’s argument should be left to a liberally minded parliament
Social Liberalism:
- Linked to calls of greater racial and sexual tolerance - Friedan; too many individuals in Western society were held back by factors like gender, sexuality, ethnicity and physical disability and modern Liberals argue that this is best erased by legislation and further state regulation including affirmative action or positive discrimination to create equality of opportunity (EEOC by Kennedy, Race Relations Act 1976 and Sex Discrimination Act 1976)
- Friedan - reforms are consistent with liberal tradition; Mill’s harm principle applies to sexual discrimination acts to prevent females being ‘harmed’, enlarged state enabled this and Friedan stated that it is consistent with the liberal idea of protecting and advancing natural rights
Neo-liberalism - von Hayek
- A debated conservative and liberal branch
- Argued he was not a conservative as he favoured radical change not conservative stability, a choice made on the belief in the potential of human nature
- Disliked conservatism’s defence of the constitutional status quo and favoured reform for executive power
- Welcome state’s promotion of social liberalism
- Reapplies Smith’s and Jefferson’s ideas to a modern, globalised economy and accuses modern liberalism as a betrayal of individualism
- Criticised Beveridge Report for encouraging dependency culture and legitimising an extension of state restraint upon individual initiative
- Birthed from the efficiency of Keynesian economics & welfare spending being questioned and so agree with classical liberals on the ideas of negative freedom and minimal state to enterprise individualism
- Often labelled as conservative as their views are considered reactionary rather than progressive and look to restore old ideas rather than encourage new ones and played a key role in New Right Conservatism being developed
Similarities between the two strands
Role of the state -
- Mill - intellectual bridge between the two branches; Laissez-faire economic system is consistent with ideas of consumer choice and free labour exchange; agree on enabling role of the state in helping individual’s reach potential
Differences between the two strands
Freedom -
- Classical - negative freedom
- Modern - positive freedom
- Berlin - freedom implies positive and negatives; positive is the right to do something and the freedom to perform actions, whereas negative is the absence of obstacles
- Classical liberalism is individualistic, but modern liberalism is constructivist (i = liberty is limitations on the state, c = create new rights by enabling the state)
Social justice -
- Modern liberals - interdependent society, achieve self-fulfillment by altruism - state should ensure maximisation of liberty
- Inequality can be justified by raising
prosperity for all, but if the poor are made worse of its wrong - Rawlsian difference principle seeks to demonstrate how individual
liberty and inequality can co-exist with social justice
- Classical liberalism - tolerance
- Classical liberalism - static, modern liberalism - dynamic
