Modern/Progressive Liberalism

Question 1

What are the four distinctive ideas of modern liberalism?

Answer 1

Individuality
Positive freedom
Social liberalism
Economic management.

Question 2

Who’s ideas have been described as the ‘heart of liberalism’ and why?

Answer 2

John Stuart Mill’s.
Because he provided a ‘bridge’ between classical and modern liberalism: his ideas look both back to the early nineteenth century and forward to the twentieth century and beyond.

Question 3

According to Mill, over what is the individual sovereign?

Answer 3

‘Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign’.

Question 4

What is individuality?

Answer 4

Self-fulfillment achieved through the realization of an individuals’s distinctive or unique identity or qualities; that which distinguishes one person from all others.

Question 5

How did John Stuart Mill disagree with Bentham over utilitarianism?

Answer 5

For Mill, there were ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ pleasures. Mill was concerned to develop an individual’s intellectual, moral or aesthetic sensibilities.

Question 6

What was John Stuart Mill’s quote about utilitarianism (Socrates)?

Answer 6

He would rather be ‘Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied’.

Question 7

Who is a prominent writer in relation to positive freedom?

Answer 7

T.H Green

Question 8

What did Green believe that the unrestrained pursuit of profit lead to?

Answer 8

Rise to new forms of poverty and injustice. The economic liberty of the few had blighted the life chances of the many.

Question 9

What view of human nature did T.H Green suggest?

Answer 9

A more optimistic one, rejecting the early liberal conception of human beings as essentially self-seeking utility maximises.

Question 10

According to T.H Green, egoism of human beings is constrained by some degree of what?

Answer 10

Altruism

Question 11

What is altruism?

Answer 11

Concern for the interests and welfare of others, based either upon enlightened self-interest or a belief in a common humanity.

Question 12

Green’s ideas have been described as what type of liberalism and why?

Answer 12

‘Socialist liberalism’
His conception of human nature was clearly influenced by socialist ideas that emphasized the sociable and cooperative nature of humankind.

Question 13

Green proposed that freedom should also be understood in what terms?

Answer 13

Positive terms

Question 14

What type of state do modern liberals endorse?

Answer 14

An enabling state, exercising an increasingly wide range of social and economic responsibilities.

Question 15

What is a welfare state?

Answer 15

A state that takes primary responsibility for the social welfare of its citizens, discharged through a range of social-security, health, education and other services.

Question 16

On what basis do modern liberals defend the welfare state?

Answer 16

Basis of equality of opportunity. If particular individuals or groups are disadvantaged by their social circumstances, then the state possesses a social responsibility to reduce or remove these disadvantages to create equal, or at least more equal, life chances.

Question 17

How are welfare rights positive rights?

Answer 17

Because they can only be satisfied by the positive actions of government, through the provision of state pensions, benefits and, perhaps, publicly funded health and education services.

Question 18

The UK expanded its welfare state because of what report in 1942?

Answer 18

Beveridge Report

Question 19

What are the so-called ‘five giants’ of the Beveridge Report?

Answer 19

Want (poverty)
Disease
Ignorance
Squalor
Idleness

Question 20

The expansion of the UK welfare system promised to protect citizens from where to where?

Answer 20

‘The cradle to the grave’

Question 21

Social-democratic liberalism is distinguished by its support for what?

Answer 21

Relative social equality, usually seen as the defining value of socialism.

Question 22

In ‘A Theory of Justice’ on what idea did John Rawls defend redistribution and welfare?

Answer 22

Idea of ‘equality as fairness’

Question 23

How is John Rawls’ idea of redistribution and welfare still liberal?

Answer 23

It is rooted in assumptions about egoism and self-interest, rather than a belief in social solidarity.

Question 24

Why did the abandonment of laissez-faire economics come about?

Answer 24

The increasing complexity of industrial capitalist economies and their apparent inability to guarantee general prosperity if left to their own devices.

Question 25

What event of 1929 led to high levels of unemployment throughout the industrialised world and in much of the developing world ? Arguably the most dramatic demonstration of the failure of the free market.

Answer 25

Wall Street Crash of 1929 led to the Great Depression in the 1930’s

Question 26

What policies did virtually all western nations adopt after world war 2 to prevent the levels of pre-war unemployment?

Answer 26

Policies of economic intervention

Question 27

To a large extent, interventionist policies in the economy were guided by the work of which UK economist?

Answer 27

John Maynard Keynes

Question 28

What classical liberal belief did Keynes reject in economics?

Answer 28

The belief in a self-regulating market.

Question 29

Example of Keynesian economics during Brown’s premiership

Answer 29

Investment in housing