Week 3 - Liberalism Flashcards
Sources and Ideas
-Liberalism as an Entrenched View: General Comments about Liberalism as a Prevailing Ideological Framework ?
We live in a world permeated with liberal ideas.
• Liberalism is what we take for granted. It is the presumed setting for what we think as right in society and politics.
• Liberalism is descriptive (explains Institutions and politics) and a value/normative (evaluative).
• The West assumed that there is a single valid model in which to think about politics—advanced liberal democracies live in democratic liberal states under capitalism and democracy which values human rights. Held up as a goal for other states to reach, and compelled to get.
Sources and Ideas
-Questioning Assumed Models?
- Even though the system may be ideal, we should scrutinise the liberal political system…for there are good reasons to.
- There are five complex historical elements to the assumed model.
- Scrutiny exposes strengths and weaknesses
Sources and Ideas
-Questioning Assumed Models?
-Five elements of Liberalism?
• Liberalism is a cluster of five elements: >Democracy >Liberalism >The State >Capitalism >Doctrine of Human Rights • Each of these has its own history and their combination is not necessary .or natural…the histories are contingent. • These ideals could have been different and they can change
Sources and Ideas
-Liberalism as a general term?
- While Liberalism is one of the elements of the ‘Western Advanced Developed Society’ model, it is a cover term.
- Liberalism is the default setting of our expectations to how politics, economics and ethics are and should be organised.
Sources and Ideas
-Liberalism and its discontents ?
•Non-liberal states rhetorically adopt the terms of liberalism…using the language of liberalism. Dress up views.
- Serious weaknesses: Inactive in the face of—or complicit with—deep divisions of wealth and power; irrelevant in the face of world-wide environmental crises.
- Not active in seeking social justice…equality not a main emphasis of the system. Dispassionate set of legal and political structures…
- Lacks capacity for inspiring…does not enthuse…safety in that it is a sedative…more useful than uplifting or impassioned
- Maybe lack of inspiration is safe
Does liberalism as our prevailing assumption about the political world serve as a sedative to relieve us of the fear that the world is not as the assumption holds, not so ‘liberal’ after all?
A History of Liberalism?
- Liberalism is a historically developed set of ideas and practices.
- It is a historical product…living political ideology
- Actual political origins at the very beginning of the 19th century
- The word liberal is first used with a directly political meaning at that time
- In 1810, the first ‘Liberal Party’ is named in Spain to describe a group whose members sought to limit the king’s privileges.
• Liberalism subject to three conditions:?
• -no definition: By lacking definition, it has a structure but not a specific proposition…encompasses various interweaving aspects.
- rewrites its own past: Keep going back in history to see the roots of a concept; ideologies want to find an ancient pedigree; to find an authorising story, ennobles it
- can change form into the future: Contingent, and can change into the future
The first Liberal Thinkers?
- The earliest intellectual proponents from early and middle years of the 19th century.
- The intellectual elites were well known with each other.
- Were all a bit suspicious of democracy…a tension in the assumed model.
The first Liberal Thinkers
Alexis deTocqueville?
Alexis deTocqueville (1805-1859)— Friends with Mill, and was a sociologist, political theorist and active politician in France. Wrote a book about democracy in America (Democracy in America 1835-40) and warned that majoritarian democracies could be an oppressive force in relation to minorities (a cautious democrat).
The first Liberal Thinkers Benjamin Constant (1767-1830)— ?
Benjamin Constant (1767-1830)— Was a novelist and political writer. Very critical of the Reign of Terror in 1793 and went into exile in Germany. In ‘Liberty of the Ancients’, Constant wrote against the moralising conception of politics which he saw work in Rousseau’s idea of the general will and of virtue with terror. Concerned that ancient politics (mandatory involvement) with direct participatory democracies wouldn’t work. A fear of moralisation of politics….objected to making politics a morally elevated domain.
The first Liberal Thinkers
Wihelm von Humbolt
A German linguist, and a Minister for Education in Prussia. Established the University of Berlin. Argued in ‘On the Limits of State Action’ (1792) that there should be limits on the power of the government…his idea was that the normative goal of human life should be self-activity: the independent and self-guided development of human powers and capacities.
To what extent can the state impose its laws on individuals? What degree is it prevented? He states that what matters is not who rules, but what extent and in what areas can they rule. Connection to the limitations of government—in order for people to be self-guided; Freedom from obstruction in our activities.
The first Liberal Thinkers
John Stuart Mill ?
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)—Was a philosopher, economist and polymath…a highly ranked civil servant and once an MP. Wrote on numerous topics and his works on utilitarianism philosophy and on representative government remain influential. Strident defence of individual liberty, On Liberty, which is central contribution to liberalism. Thought liberalism wouldn’t work unless society had a threshold level for wealth and social development…he was an imperialist.
The first Liberal Thinkers
John Stuart Mill
On Liberty?
On Liberty:
It is not the states involvement to become involved in private lives of individuals and to legislate for people’s own good. Liberalism is opposed to Paternalist governments.
• “The sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection.
• The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant.
• In the epigraph to On Liberty Mill directly quotes Humboldt, saying that the point of his book is to show “the absolute and essential importance of human development in its richest diversity”.
The Key ideas of Liberalism?
Commentators argue over which are the most important components of liberalism. There is a rough agreement among political theorists as to the four core strands of thought central to liberalism.
- Toleration: Fostering of pluralism (recognition that there are various ways of pursuing the good life—irreconcilable diversity encouraged); pre-political origins; originally thought of as ‘putting up with’
- Freedom: Voluntary relations between persons are to be preferred over coerced relations. Free consent of members is the only source of politically legitimate authority…. Mandate. Accept the legitimacy of government.
- Individualism: Goal of society should be the benefit and enhancement of individual members
- Limitation of concentrated power especially power of the state
Extensions of Liberalism?
Elections Courts Rule of Law Rights Constitutions Responsible Government Representative Government Separation of Powers
