Week 9: Liberalism and Democracy

19th century European Liberalism:

  • Focus on citizens as all equal in the eyes of the law

  • Defined by law/constitutions and guaranteed by the government

  • Push for elective legislative bodies to guarantee law etc.

  • Economics under liberalism: Against protectionism

  • Belief that change can be done under reformation, not revolution → Gradual but substantial change over revolutionary change

Britain was a paradoxical case because the conditions for a socialist and working led revolution would have been good due to Britain being very industrialized:

  • Some may say that it was due to Britain going through reforms, with factory owners responding to the workers, as well as a religious revival.

  • It was also due to the increase participation that the people had, as there were more people who were involved in politics → reducing political tension

  • Reform over revolution

The 1848 revolutions

  • Economically harsh 1840s (Economic Hardships do not equal revolutions or change instead political discontent is the bigger reason to why change happens)

  • Liberalism translated economic discontent into political demand for reform (The idea that suffering is unavoidable and is condoned by God is no longer accepted → Liberalism represented the grief and anger of the people and pushed reforms)

Failure of revolutions: Hasburg Empire 1848:

  • The liberal base was very small, not many liberals

  • Demands not just for change or reform, but to make Hasburg completely independant and complete autonomy

  • Exclusively demanded for reform Hasburg → Alienated every other ethnicity (i.e: Slavic people, romanian etc.

France:

  • Intensification of political divison

  • ‘June Days’ brutal suppression of worker’s revolt

  • Election of Louis Bonaparte as a president of the Second Republic (1848)

  • Dissolution of the Constituent Assembly leads to crashed popular uprising (1851)

  • Napoleon proclaims himself Emperor (1852)

Failure of the revolution: Germany

  • Weak national constituent assembly - fails to effect German unification

  • LIberal-Radical split

  • Prussian establishment crushes revolutionaries

  • national indifference in Italy, Hungary and the German Lands