Ideologies - Liberalism

The roots of liberalism

The roots of liberalism

Can be found in the European Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries

Enlightenment

An intellectual movement that opposed the medieval politics and philosophy of faith, superstition and religion

What did early liberalism argue?

Humans are born both free and morally equal and no one naturally has a right to rule over others. All laws and government must be justified and not accepted blindly or based purely on inherited tradition or custom. This directly attacked the natural form of government at the time, absolute monarchy.

It promoted a belief in reason, rather than faith, and advocated the importance of the individual and freedom.

What impact did early liberalism have?

Early liberalism was radical and potentially revolutionary, with its ideas central to the American Declaration of Independence 1776 and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen 1789.

What makes Classical Liberalism radical?

Radical politically - Government by consent promoted the idea that government should represent and reflect the will of the people rather than be the master of the people (although most early liberals rejected the concept of democracy. ‘Liberty for all’ meant male owners of property.)

Radical in gender terms - The optimistic view that all humans are rational was developed to include women by Mary Wollstonecraft in the 18th Century.

What does Classical Liberalism suggest about human nature?

Egotistical individualism - Humans are self-seeking, rational and independent, although this does involve practising restraint and some level of co-operation with others. Society is comprised of individuals rather than social groups.

What does Classical Liberalism say about freedom?

Negative freedom - The absence of restraint, leaving the individual free to pursue their own view of the good life; the state can only legitimately intervene to prevent harm to others. John Locke, often seen as the founding father of liberalism, argued that humanity should embrace ‘a State of perfect Freedom to order their Actions… as they think fit… without asking leave or depending on the Will of any other Man.’

What does Classical Liberalism suggest about the role of the state?

Night-watchman state - the state must act only to protect the ‘peace, safety and public good of the people,’ according to John Locke. It only has the right to impose its power on the basis of the harm principle in order to ensure the widest possible freedom. Any restrictions on liberty must be justified.

What does classical liberalism say about the economy?

Free-market capitalism - Liberty and private property are intimately related. The market economy, based on property rights, can deliver prosperity for the individual and society provided that there is free trade and competition. Unless people are free to make contracts, sell their labour, invest their incomes as they see fit and set up businesses, they are not really free. The state therefore must not interfere with free trade and competition by using subsidies, taxes or promoting monopolies. However, the state has a crucial role in ensuring that property is protected from theft and that contracts are enforced by an independent judiciary.

What was John Locke’s main work and what did it propose?

Two Treatises of Government (1690) attacked the idea that the monarchy has a natural right to rule over others and establishing liberal justification for a minimal state.

What did Locke argue in relation to human nature?

Locked argued that humans are naturally free, equal and independent, and are not naturally under the authority of any other body or person.

What did Locke say about the state of nature?

Locke argued that in the state of nature humans are perfectly free. They are equal, with natural rights such as the right to property and bound by the law of nature where no one should harm another in their life, liberty or possessions.

In the state of nature there would be clashes between free individuals which might limit individuals’ ability to advance their own happiness. As rational beings, individuals would enter into a social contract to form the state so that it could act as a neutral umpire to resolve these clashes.

Would did Locke view as the role of the state?

The state exists to protect and enhance natural rights. It only emerges because the people consent to create it.

The state reflects the consent of the people and that consent is ongoing. When the state breaks the contract by not protecting and enhancing natural rights, the people can withdraw their consent and replace the government.

The state is further limited by the power of constitutionalism, with a. clear separation of powers between the executive and legislature to prevent the abuse of power. The legislature should be the supreme power but is only a fiduciary power.

The state should represent directly the will of property-owning individuals.

What is constitutionalism?

The government must be legally limited in its powers by a constitution in order to protect freedom. This links in with the concepts of ‘rule of law’.

What is fiduciary power?

The state holds its power in trust and must act in the interests of and for the benefit of the people, otherwise the social contract is invalid.

What was Mary Wollstonecraft’s main work?

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)

What did Wollstonecraft argue about human nature?

Wollstonecraft extended the optimistic view of human nature to both men and women. She pointed out how the existing state and society promoted the view that women were not rational because women had no formal equality. She commented that ‘Virtue can only flourish among equals’ and provocatively compared women to enslaved people.

What did Wollstonecraft argue that women should be permitted to do?

Women should have formal equality: the right to property, as this right is crucial to freedom and individualism; the right to education, to allow reason to prosper; and the right to vote, to ensure that there really was government by consent.

Within marriage, women should be granted the right to divorce and protection against domestic violence. The right to property and employment meant that women would not need to marry out of financial necessity.

What societal view about women did Wollstonecraft reject?

Wollstonecraft rejected the societal view that women are defined by their looks: ‘taught from infancy that beauty is a woman’s sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming around its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.’

What benefit would there be to granting formal equality?

By granting formal equality and giving women access to education, the state would increase society’s resources of intellect, wisdom and morality to enable social and economic progress.

What did Wollstonecraft argue in relation to the state?

Wollstonecraft was also a key opponent of custom, tradition and practice that formed the basis for the divine right of kings and rule by the aristocracy. She argued that these gave no basis for accepting laws or the government and were irrational, oppressive and ignorant.

In its place Wollstonecraft argued for republicanism, formal equality for all and a constitutional protection of individual rights.

Why is John Stuart Mill sometimes referred to as a ‘transitional liberal’?

What are his key works?

J.S. Mill provided the bridge between classical liberalism and modern liberalism by developing early liberal thinking on freedom and individualism. He is often described as a ‘transitional liberal’, embracing some aspects of classical liberalism. but also those of new liberalism.

His key works are On Liberty (1859), Utilitarianism (1861) and The Subjection of Women (1869)

What did Mill argue in regards to freedom?

J.S. Mill developed the concept of negative freedom, arguing that freedom was the absence of restraint as this leaves the individual free to pursue their own view of the good life.

What was Mill’s harm principle?

Governments should only make laws that restrict actions that harm others (‘other regarding actions’), not those that simply harm oneself (‘self-regarding actions’).

How did Mill view liberty?

Mill saw liberty as more than a natural right. He saw it as the key to the ongoing development and learning of the individual, especially when they experience education. This focuses more on what the individual has the potential to become rather than on what they are now.

How did Mill view the role of liberty and eccentricity.

Liberty is the driver of progress for the individual and allows them to achieve their individuality. This is best for the individual and also best for society because ‘a diversity of character and culture’ enables reasoned debate, discussion and argument to drive a society forward. Not surprisingly, as it can be as extension of individuality, Mill viewed eccentricity positively: ‘The amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigour, and moral courage it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of the time.’ (On Liberty)

What did Mill argue that governments should do in order to foster diversity?

What did Mill suggest about higher and lower pleasures?

Mill argued that society and government should only be limited by the harm principle. In other words, governments should not ban or restrict actions or lifestyles/religious beliefs that cause no harm to others. Mill attached great importance to education, criticising the hedonism of early liberal thinking. He distinguished between the lower pleasures (those of the body) and the higher pleasures which involved the mind. ‘It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; Better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.’ (Utilitarianism)

What is hedonism?

Happiness is the ultimate good and can be measured as pleasure and the absence of pain. The idea is based on the quantity of pleasure rather than the quality.

What did Mill view as the role of the state?

The role of the state, via education, is to enable people constantly to improve their mind and so to increase their higher pleasures.

Why did Mill worry about Locke’s principle of representative government?

Mill was concerned that Locke’s principle of representative government could lead to ‘tyranny of the majority’ with the coming of universal suffrage, especially without a well-educated electorate. He feared the majority would infringe on the individualism of the minority by voting only for their own narrow-minded interests.

What was Mill’s solution to his concerns over Locke’s principle of representative government?

Mill’s solution was to promote representative democracy, with an educated electorate not making policy decisions themselves but instead choosing well-educated representatives to make decisions on their behalf. These representatives would aggregate all the demands of different individuals and parts of society to create broad, consensus decisions rather than strictly following the will of the majority.

What arguments are there in favour of the statement that democracy is compatible with liberalism?

Democracy enhances individualism. Individuals use the vote rationally to shape the world. Exercise of the vote has an education role for the individual.

Democracy through regular, free and fair elections creates government by consent, a crucial principle of traditional liberalism.

Democracy restricts the concentration of power by acting as a limit on the state — a belief that classical liberals support.

What arguments are there against the statement that democracy is compatible with liberalism?

Democracy may lead to the ‘tyranny of the majority’, especially where the people have not been educated. Universal suffrage should go hand in hand with universal education.

Classical liberals wished to restrict the franchise to those with property and JS Mill suggested giving more voting power to the educated, such as university graduates.

Representative democracy, rather than representative government or direct democracy, dilutes majority rule as the elected representatives make the decisions.

What is developmental individualism?

Focus on personal growth and flourishing rather than just self-satisfaction, emphasising what the individual can become rather than what they are.

What did Thomas Hill Green argue building on from developmental individualism?

What was the consequence?

T.H. Green argued that in modern, capitalist societies, poverty and inequality should be tackled to ‘maintain the conditions without which a free exercise of human faculties is impossible’.

As a result, liberty needed to be redefined so it was no longer seen as the absence of restraint but as positive freedom which would enable individuals so that they were free to achieve their individuality. This led to a revision of the role of the state, from the idea that it was a potential restriction on freedom to the idea that the state could promote freedom by protecting people from social injustice.

What is the enabling state and what did it consist of?

Positive freedom results in redefining the role of the state so that it is justified to intervene to protect freedom and individualism.

The provision of a welfare state could be justified on the grounds that it provides equality of opportunity, so that all are free to flourish and develop. Funded by increased taxation and public spending.

Based on the work by John Maynard Keynes, it was argued that the state needed to intervene in the economy to bring about full employment and needed economic growth, to ensure the necessary prosperity for all to be free to pursue their version of the good life.

How does modern liberalism revise classical liberalism’s position on toleration?

Modern liberals argue that society has discriminated against minorities. They therefore promote greater toleration and equality of opportunity, which is consistent with their view of positive freedom and the enabling state.

There is a key role for state intervention to discriminate in favour of groups who have suffered historical discrimination to ensure that there really is a level playing field for all……..

What was TH Green’s key work?

TH green was influential in changing the approach of liberalism towards the state and developed clear arguments for positive freedom in his Lectures on the Principles of Political Obligation (1895).

What was the Green’s concept of ‘common good’?

Central to Green’s ideas is the concept of the ‘common good’, which constrains the individual rights so beloved of traditional liberals. This gives the state not just negative duties to refrain from interfering with the freedom and opportunities of its citizens, but also positive duties to provide resources and opportunities for individual self-realisation.

What did Green suggest about freedom?

Freedom should not be understood in a purely negative sense, as ‘freedom from’. IT should also be understood in a positive sense — the freedom of the individual to rise above the narrow concerns of self-interest to contribute to the common good of society by making the very best of their own unique talents and ability — ‘freedom to’.

How did Green argue that positive freedom could be achieved?

Positive freedom can only be achieved by removing hereditary privilege in society and tackling poverty, but within a capitalist society.

What did Green argue for the role of the state?

Green argued that the state had to take a more positive role by freeing the poor from ignorance, disease, poor-quality housing and exploitation in the workplace.

What was Betty Friedan’s key work?

What did Friedan argue>

The Feminine Mystique (1963). The Second Stage (1981)

Friedan argued that the traditional societal idea that women could find satisfaction exclusively in their roles as a wife and mother left women feeling miserable and empty. She called this ‘the problem that has no name’.

What was a key principle for Friedan and other second-wave feminists?

The idea that a woman who is a mother and a wife has no time for a career limits her development and potential. A key principle for Friedan and other second-wave feminists was that of choice. Women, like men, should be able to maximise the choices available to them.

How could women be liberated?

Women could be liberated by working productively outside the home in full-time career. Marriage, motherhood and a professional career, in Friedan’s view, could all be sustained and balanced, but it would require a shift in society’s attitudes and also more practical help by the state in areas such as childcare.

In The Second Stage (1981), Friedan argued that there needed to be changes to public values, social institutions and leadership styles to allow all people to achieve personal fulfilment.

Of which organisation was Friedan a founding member?

Friedan was a founding member of the National Organisation for Women set up in 1966. This movement in many ways modelled itself on the black civil rights movements and the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP).

What role did Friedan argue that the state would play?

Friedan suggested that this change would include the state not just granting formal equality but actively intervening to tackle gender inequality and ensure real equality of opportunity. This might include granting state benefits to single, divorced or widowed mothers so that they had equal opportunities to compete in the job marketplace. Friedan was also a strong supporter of women’s access to birth control and or abortion rights.

What was John Rawls’ key work and what did it propose?

A Theory of Justice (1971). Further developed the idea of an enabling state based on the principle of justice as fairness and promoting a genuine equality of opportunity.

What was the core foundation of Rawls ideas?

Reaffirmed the liberal idea of foundational equality, arguing that everyone should have equal rights and basic liberties. He termed this the ‘greatest equal liberty principle’, arguing that ‘each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive total system of equal basic liberties compatible with a similar system of liberal for all.’ This was his overriding principle, ensuring that basic liberties cannot be infringed upon.

What was the original position?

Rawls then developed the idea of the ‘original position’, a thought experiment where people construct a society that they would like to live in. In the construction, people would be under the ‘veil of ignorance’, so would have no idea what sort of person they would be in the new society in terms of their wealth.

In this context, the rational individual would choose a more socially and economically equal society, as avoiding poverty is a more powerful motivation than the desire for great wealth. Therefore, a larger enabling state with some wealth redistribution via taxation is consistent with the wider liberal goals of freedom and equality of opportunity.

What is the difference principle?

Inequalities of wealth are legitimate as they incentivise people to work harder but only as long as they raise income and wealth of the least well-off. This meant that ‘social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged’.

What is the equal opportunity principle?

Here, Rawls argued that inequalities should only exist if ‘attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity’.

(Classical liberals and Neo-liberals would see the difference principle as a threat to the freedom and right to property, as it supports progressive taxation to redistribute wealth to the least well-off.)

Context for John Locke

Writing at a time when most of Europe was ruled by absolute monarchies who rejected any notion of a contract between ruler and the ruled. The Glorious Revolution which peacefully removed James II from the throne in favour of William and Mary, had just occurred (1688) when Two Treatises was published. This event embodied some of his key principles, including the belief in removing regimes that imperilled natural rights. Although broadly in favour of religious toleration, itself a radical idea, in his A Letter Concerning Toleration, he excluded Roman Catholics. This reflects the view of that time that Catholicism was closely associated with royal absolutism and anti-liberal forces, as seen, for example, in France under Louis XIV, who believed in ‘L’état c’est moi'.

Context for Mary Wollstonecraft

In the 1790s, women lacked the most basic political rights, such as the right to vote. Married women also had little by way of property rights. In addition, the French Revolution had just occurred, an event she supported.

Context for John Stuart Mill

Mill was writing at the time Britain was beginning its journey towards a democratic state with the passage of the Second Reform Act (1867). This led him to be concerned about the implications for the politics of democracy if the newly enfranchised were not educated, and about the possibility of the ‘tyranny of the majority’. Extension of the franchise also led him to argue for the inclusion of women in an expanded electorate.

Context for Thomas Hill Green

By the seconds half of the 19th Century, the Industrial Revolution has caused profound social and economic changes in Britain. Green was shocked at how largely unregulated, free-market capitalism and the small state beloved of classical liberals had failed to solve the problem of poverty. Self-help and basic foundational equality had not proved effective in creating a society where true equality of opportunity existed for individuals.

Context for John Rawls

Rawls was writing in Cold War America, where the American Dream remained out of reach for many. Like Green, he wanted a capitalist society where the poorest were enabled and given true equality of opportunity by a more active and enlarged state. His arguments could also be seen as a response both to Soviet-style socialism and to New Right and Neo-liberal views including those of his fellow Harvard academic Robert Nozick.

Context for Betty Friedan

Despite the achievement of basic equality in terms of the vote, property ownership and access to education, at the time Friedan was writing in the 1960s many American women, especially housewives, felt unfulfilled. It was still largely accepted that married women should embrace motherhood and a primarily domestic role on becoming a wife. The 1960s was also an age of great social upheaval and protest across much of the Western world — seen, for example, in the civil rights and peace movements.

What is Neo-liberalism?

Essentially a reaction against the modern and progressive liberalism of thinkers such as Rawls, and the growth of state intervention and control.

Primarily concerned with economic rather than social issues.

Who was the most prominent Neo-liberal thinker?

F.A. Hayek, Road to Serfdom (1944), sought to return liberalism to its classical roots. In 1978, he wrote that ‘there can be no freedom of the press if the instruments of printing are under government control, no freedom of assembly if the needed rooms are so controlled, no freedom of movement if the means of transport are a government monopoly.’

Why is Neo-Liberalism seen as conservative?

It is reactionary. It aims to roll back the welfare state and Keynesian economic management to return to the minimal state and free market capitalism of the 19th Century.

Neo-liberalism has been most closely associated with political conservatives including Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.

What are the key ideas of Neo-liberalism?

Neo-liberalism aimed to reapply the economic ideas of free-market capitalism and to campaign for a night-watchman state,

Private property and negative freedom are central to freedom and individualism.

The welfare state was the betrayal of individualism, replacing it with the collectivism favoured by socialism. It involves the state placing unjustifiable restrictions on individual liberty, such as high levels of taxation. The welfare state creates a dependency culture, leading to people relying on the state rather than helping themselves.

Free trade, free markets and globalisation are the best drivers of economic and social progress.

Core ideas about the individual

Locke argues that all individuals have natural rights to life, liberty and property'. As each individual is unique and equal, this places freedom as the core liberal value. Humans flourish and progress when they are given the widest possible freedom to make rational decisions, own property and establish their own beliefs, lifestyles and values.

This is best summed up by John Stuart Mill: 'Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign' (On Liberty).

Egotistical individualism is associated with classical liberals, who see the individual as self-seeking, self-reliant and independent, and view society as no more than a loose collection of individuals. It leads individuals to co-operate with others and show self-restraint regarding their own self-interest, living in a society of peace and harmony where their beliefs, values and lifestyle choices are respected.

Modern liberals have focused on developmental individualism by building on the ideas of John Stuart Mill. Thomas Hill Green argued that individuals are free when they rise above narrow self-interest to participate in a shared way of life and contribute to the common good by improving themselves.

Core ideas about human nature

Liberalism's optimistic view of human nature emerged from the Enlightenment and opposed the religious view that humankind is imperfect and flawed, found in the concept of original sin.

Locke argued that humans are naturally free, equal and independent, and are not naturally under the authority of any other body or person. This means there is no need for a mighty state or authority figure, as in Hobbes's Leviathan (1651), to protect people from themselves.

Locke's idea that individuals should be given the widest possible freedom to act according to their will is based on their possession of reason.

Wollstonecraft applied liberal views about human nature and potential to women, a position also taken by Mill.

Over time, liberal thinkers began to view this approach as being too optimistic and simplistic. It was felt that the egotistical element of human nature led to inequality, so the state needs to step in to promote equality of opportunity.

Both Green and Friedan argued that the state needs to intervene to tackle inequality, allowing individuals really to be free and secure their own happiness.

Friedan saw that human nature, left unchecked by the state, had produced gender inequality, stopping women from achieving individual happiness.

Green argued that human nature was not just self-interested but rather had a social dimension as individuals can only grow and flourish in a society where everyone can grow and flourish.

Rawls argued that human nature has the capacity for toleration and mutual respect, alongside a desire to improve the living standards of the poorest in society and thereby reduce wealth inequality.

Core ideas about the state

The state is a human construction, built to ensure that the natural rights and laws of natural society are safeguarded so that individuals can flourish. Locke clearly made this point when he wrote 'where there is no law, there is no freedom' (Second Treatise on Civil Government).

Locke argues that the state must be limited to stop the emergence of a tyrannical government that could remove natural rights. The state can be limited by constitutionalism and fragmented government.

Mill developed Locke's ideas, arguing that the government must only intervene where it is necessary to protect the liberties and freedoms of the individual. The state should tolerate all actions and ideas unless they violate the harm principle.

The state, in order to promote individualism, should be a meritocracy, allowing individuals to rise to the top as the result of their hard work and talents rather than through the hereditary principle or the artificial privilege of the aristocracy.

As all are born morally equal, all should receive equal opportunities to flourish and achieve happiness, and success or failure is then solely down to the individual.

Green argued that the removal of poverty - via education, public housing and public healthcare - was essential to enable individuals to achieve their full potential.

The role of the state was taken further by Rawls to include increased taxation and public spending to ensure that there was social justice and equality of opportunity for all.

Core ideas about society

The optimistic view of human nature underpins the liberal view of society.

Locke argued that, in the state of nature, there would be a natural society as there are natural rights such as life, liberty and possessions, and natural law which states that no one should harm another's natural rights.

Wollstonecraft was critical of society for its failure to recognise the rights of women. She argued that women should be given access to education to develop their powers of reason and formal equality, so society would benefit from the talents of women.

Mill argued that the main aim of society is to promote individualism as humans are by nature freedom-seeking and this is based upon the principle of foundational equality.

For Locke, in A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), this involved religious toleration as religion was a private matter and so should be left to the individual.

Mill took this further, seeing toleration and diversity as key ingredients of a vibrant, progressive society. Competition, a free market of sorts, between ideas will sharpen and refine good ideas while exposing the weakness of bad ideas.

Friedan argued that the state had to take a more proactive role, including positive discrimination due to historical discrimination, to ensure that there was real equality of opportunity for women in the present.

Core ideas about the economy

Liberalism's central belief in the right to property, established by Locke, underpins its approach to the economy.

The free market, based on private property, incentivises the individual to make rational choices about making contracts, buying and selling labour, how to save, invest or spend their money, and raising capital and starting businesses. This is the embodiment of freedom, so liberals support capitalism.

The 'invisible hand' of the market is automatic, guiding individuals to make rational choices. Where products are scarce, people will pay more and investment is made to increase production; where products are abundant, people will pay less and investment is moved to other areas.

Modern liberals such as Green saw free-market capitalism as creating social and economic obstacles to individuals achieving their full potential.

This led modern liberals to endorse Keynesian theory, based on John Maynard Keynes' General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936).

Feminist liberals have argued that women should be given full and equal access to employment opportunities to enable them to contribute fully to a free-market economy. Later writers, such as Friedan, argued for more state involvement to bring this about, including anti-discrimination measures.