Liberalism
- Classical Liberalism
- 1700s-1800s
- Locke & Smith
- Reform Liberalism
- 1800s-1900s
- Mill & Green
- Contemporary Liberalism
- 1930s-
- Keynes (1930s) & Rawls (1970s)
Key Ideas
- Personal freedom – freedom from coercion
- Limited government – state serves & performs limited functions
- Equality of right – everyone must abide by laws, which must be applied equally and impartially
- Consent of the governed – government requires the consent of the people and is responsible to them
- Two aspects all the forms of liberalism
What is the best relationship between the two?
- Politics
- Economics
- Question: what relationship between the two?
Classical Liberalism
- John Locke (1632-1704) – England
- Adam Smith (1723-90) – Scotland
- David Hume (1711-76) – Scotland
- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) – USA
- James Madison (1751-1836) – USA
Classical Liberalism: John Locke
- Basis of political ideas of liberalism
- Radical for his time (now considered conservative)
- Rejecting absolutist monarchy
- Replacing it with a recognition of the rights of the individual
- People’s consent to who rules over them
Historical situation
- Civil War in England
- King Charles I going to war with Parliament
- Key debate: what should be the foundation of political authority:
- Divine right of kings: God is said to have anointed that monarch to rule
- Popular sovereignty: people’s consent. He was against the idea of Devine right(kings rule)
Key Books:
- Concern: to defeat the idea of kings having a divine right to rule over subjects
- Two Treatises of Government, 1684 ; his idea is no single person is been chosen by god to control everyone
- First Treatise (On Government) – Nobody has been singled out by God to hold any natural authority over anybody else = no divine right granted to kings
- Second Treatise (On Government) – Establish the true basis for political authority or government
- Key document in the development of liberalism
Ideas:
- People as autonomous “individuals” – individuals are most important
- State of nature: life before government = free, equal, governed by the law of nature
- Natural rights: “life, liberty, and estate” — granted by God; everyone has them
- People are self-interested (hallmark of liberal thought)
- We are protected by nature
- State of war: state of enmity and destruction
- All individuals, being self-interested, agree together to form a political society
- We need a government that will make, interpret, and enforce laws; a government that will save us from war and make life possible
- Social contract (compact)
- Government is founded on the consent of people
- Can consent only to create and obey a limited (not absolute) government – otherwise they would be enslaving themselves, which violates their natural rights
- Government: people create for a specific end = to protect their natural rights
- “Property”:
- Their lives, their bodies, their liberty, their possessions
- The government’s authority is limited to protecting this
- Unequal property is a matter of right
- “labour theory of property” = mixing of your labour with something makes it your property
- Right of revolution: a returning to the starting point if government is violating your natural rights
- Political obligation = individuals who form this contract are obligated to obey the law of a rightly formed government
- If an individual hasn’t consented, not obligated to obey the laws
- Equality of law: everyone must be treated equally before the law
- Tolerance: people should tolerate each others’ religions – state should not be mixed in with religion
- Beginnings of secularism – there is no state religion
Classical Liberalism: Adam Smith
- Basis of economic ideas of liberalism
- Heavily influenced American intellectuals
- Goal: separate politics from economics
- Modern torch-bearers: Hayek & Friedman
- Key Books:
- Theory of Moral Sentiments
- Inquiry into the Wealth of Nations
- Ideas
- “Propensity to truck and barter” = humans are naturally traders & consumers
- Capitalism: some people own land or factories, other people work the land and factories=efficiency by each doing what they are good at doing(David Ricardo)
- “Invisible hand”: individuals pursuing their own self-interest will frequently create benefits for all individuals, that is, society
- Free-market economy: independent, free competition in the economy and marketplace
- Anne-Robert Turgot: laissez-faire
- Free trade: no taxes or barriers to trade
- Government has no role in the economy & society, except as the “nightwatchman state”:
- 1. Protect society and provide security
- 2. Administer justice to prevent individuals from individuals
- 3. Create & maintain public works, and create public institutions where it is not profitable for the market to provide a good or service
- Opposed redistribution = inequality is inevitable but acceptable if resulting from free-market economy’s operation
Classical liberalism summed up
- This is the historical and philosophical basis of modern version
- Know the key ideas and assumption there important
Reform Liberalism
- James Mill
- John Stuart Mill
- T.H. Green
Reform Liberalism: John Stuart Mill
- Influenced
- classical liberals
- reform or welfare liberals
- some socialists
- conservative libertarians
- some market conservatives
- liberal feminists (wrote The Subjection of Women [against subjection])
- Modern torch-bearer: Keynes
- Political economist = economics & politics are intermixed
- Historical situation
- Industrial Revolution in England: 1750s
- People increasingly working in factories
- Working class people not living well, awful conditions, death, etc.
- The rise of mass society
- Industrial Revolution in England: 1750s
- Key Books
- On Liberty
- Subjection of Women
- Autobiography
- Ideas
- Utilitarian = the greatest happiness of the greatest number
- Lived with Harriet Taylor in 1830, hastened his recovery
- Individual’s relationship to society
- Harm Principle: society cannot legitimately coerce or interfere with individuals except if they are harming others
- Duties to society
- 1. Not to injure certain interests of another that legal or tacit conventions understand
- 2. Bear a share of sacrifices and labours incurred for defending society.
- “Liberty” (like freedom) = three types:
- 1. Of thought, conscience, speech
- 2. Habit, taste, pursuits
- 3. Of assembly, uniting for any purpose that doesn’t harm others
- Freedom in speech & though is crucial:
- 1. Opinions society holds may be false
- 2. Need free flow of all opinions because although society’s received opinion may be true, it will lapse into dogma if not regularly challenged
- 3. Unorthodox opinion may supply the remainder of the truth to a prevailing view
- Liberty is important because:
- 1. Mill argues protecting individual liberty contributes to the human race’s happiness & progress (utilitarian)
- 2. For the individual, essential to personal development
- Democracy = Right to vote & expanding the vote( the right to choose our beliefs)
- Argued for women’s right to vote (for the good of their families and in accordance to their husbands)
Reform Liberalism: Thomas Hill Green
- Ideas
- Negative freedom: freedom from the constraints of smothering laws, customs, social opinions
- Positive freedom: freedom to live as one chooses to develop oneself & seek happiness
- The capitalist economy has some ugly consequences
- State must offset these consequences
- Society, acting through government, should establish public schools and hospitals, aid the needy
- Regulate working conditions to promote workers’ health and well-being
- Only then will the disadvantaged individuals in society become truly free
- Humans are self-interested, BUT self-interest doesn’t mean short-term, immediate pleasure – the common good is in everyone’s personal best interest
- Individuals relationship to society individuals should have a private sphere separate from the public sphere
- Redistribution = necessary(when people have those things people are less likely to get involved in violence etc.)
- Welfare State: government helps those in need of assistance – shelter, food, clothing, education, etc.
- Taxes – progressive: make more money/income, pay more taxes
- Equality of opportunity = everyone should have opportunities available to them regardless of differences
Contemporary Liberalism: State and Economy
- Also known as Welfare Liberals
- Ideas:
- Capitalism is good but has some problems
- 1. Includes economic activities that harm the broader society
- 2. Capitalism can’t serve public goods & society must create them collectively
- 3. Capitalism creates inequalities in power, wealth – not democratic
- 4. Capitalism is racked with fluctuating business cycles:
- Need state involvement in the economy: “mixed economy”
- Need to deal with powerful corporations and their oligopolies & monopolies (interfere in the marketplace, not to restrict competition, but to keep the large corporations from restricting competition(monopolies) and harming society)
- Capitalism is good but has some problems
Contemporary Liberalism: John Maynard Keynes
- Basis of economic ideas of contemporary liberalism
- Heavily influenced Canadian and European economic intellectuals
- Key Books: General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money
- Government needs to deal with problems of capitalist economic cycles – booms & bust, etc.
- Fiscal policy = government spending
- Monetary policy = controlling interest rates & money supply
- Counter-cyclical action:
- Economy up = collect more taxes & raise interest rates & not spend
- Economy down = lower taxes & lower interest rates & spend
- “Pump & prime”: government should spend to jump start the economy when it goes down
- His ideas were instituted in Britain
- Note for next class: this is also where classical liberalism made its revival as “neo-conservatism” or “neo-classical liberalism”
Contemporary Liberalism: John Rawls
- Basis of political ideas of contemporary liberalism
- Key book: Theory of Justice
- Rawls: a “just society” would distribute wealth, income and other primary social goods equally
- Exceptions allowed if the unequal distribution benefited the society, especially the least well off
- His two principles of justice:
- 1. “Each person has an equal right to the most extensive scheme of equal basic liberties compatible with a similar scheme of liberties for all”
- Include rights, liberties, opportunities, income and wealth, and the social bases of self-respect – social primary goods
- 2. “Social and economic inequalities are to meet two conditions: They must be:”
- (a) To the greatest expected benefit of the least advantaged
- Meaning: the people the least well off have to be most benefited by any inequalities
- Who are the least advantaged? Those disadvantaged by family and class origins, natural endowments, or fortune and luck
- (b) Attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair opportunity
- Meaning: everyone has to have the same shot at any of the positions that not everyone gets to hold
- 1. “Each person has an equal right to the most extensive scheme of equal basic liberties compatible with a similar scheme of liberties for all”
- A just society:
- To meet people’s basic needs, so they can develop themselves as just people
- However: they are responsible for their preferences, once these basic needs and rights are met
Liberalism & Our Criteria
- Human Nature
- Individual = focus
- Self-interested
- Naturally free, equal, rational
- Nature of Society
- Collection of individuals who have agreed to live together
- Community is not more important than the individual
- Conception of Freedom
- Classical: negative – freedom from interference
- Reform/Contemporary: positive – freedom to develop, progress & be happy
- Understanding of Justice
- Both = protection of individual’s life, liberty & estate
- Classical: equality before the law
- Reform/Contemporary: equality of opportunity
- Conception of the State/Government
- Classical: limited to very few function
- Reform/Contemporary: can create and enforce laws that protect our lives, liberty and freedom, but nothing more
- Other approaches also intersect with liberalism
- Race liberalism = Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Feminist liberalism = Susan Moller Okin
