Liberalism Flashcards
Mechanistic theory
mankind is rational and so capable of devising a state that reflects mankind’s needs. was a rebuff to ‘divine right of Kings’ which argued that the state reflected God’s will and obedience to the state was a religious duty
origin of liberalism
emerged during the Enlightenment in mid 17th century. rooted in ideas of thinkers John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. emphasises the value of reason , individual rights, and progress
John Locke
-Father of liberal philosophy, with Two Treatises of Government (1690) regarded as cornerstone of general thought
-Central figure of classical liberalism- raised questions of human nature and type of state appropriate
-Denied traditional medieval principle that the state was God’s creation and that the state had been created by a celestial power involving monarchs who had a ‘divine right’ to govern
-‘True’ state was one created by mankind to serve mankind’s interests and would arise only from the consent of those who would be governed by it
-Prior to state’s existence, there was a ‘natural’ society which served mankind’s interests well- called the ‘state of nature’, a phrase coined by Thomas Hobbes.
-Human nature guided by rationalism, the state of nature was underpinned by ‘natural laws’, ‘natural liberties’, and ‘natural rights’, eg right to property
-Alternative ‘state of law’ (modern state) designed to improve upon a tolerable situation by resolving disputes between individuals more efficiently then the case under the state of nature
-‘State of law’ only legitimate if it respected natural rights and natural laws, ensuring individuals living under formal laws were never consistently worse of than they had been in the state of nature -state’s structure must embody natural rights and liberties that preceded it
-Locke’s ideal state would always reflect the principle that its citizens had voluntarily consented to accept the state’s rulings in return for the state improving their situation- ‘social contract theory’
-Due to ‘contractual’ nature, the state would have to embody principle of limited government - limited to always representing the interests of the governed and requiring the ongoing consent of the governed
-State’s ‘limited’ character confirmed by dispersal of powers - executive, legislative, judicial branches separate
Core ideas : Human nature
-Liberalism denies religious doctrine which held that mankind was flawed and man’s only hope was to acknowledge his own flaws and pray to the grace of God
-Argues that human nature has a huge capacity to bring about progress and to forge greater human happiness as individuals are guided principally by reason and so are able to calculate answers to problems
- Human problems merely challenges waiting reasoned solutions
-Individuals who want something can achieve it through reason and determination
- Individuals are naturally self-seeking and self serving - hence liberalism’s association with egotistical individualism - and are naturally drawn to a situation where they’re independent and in charge of their own destiny
- Yet it is mankind’s innate rationality and virtue that stop this leading to destructive selfishness and competition
- Individuals are both egotistical and reasonable, making them sensitive to the perspectives of their fellow men and women
- The natural condition of human nature is one of self-aware individuals living in peace, harmony and mutual understanding
Egotistical individualism
belief that human beings are naturally drawn to their advancement of their own selfish interests and the pursuit of their own happiness. Advocates deny this leads to conflict or gross insensitivity due to individuals rationalism
Core ideas; Society
- In Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes argued that human nature is so selfish that no society could possibly arise or survive until human nature is restrained by a strong formal authority - a state
- Early liberal philosophers like Locke offered a different view, citing the existence of ‘natural’ society, with ‘natural’ laws and therefore natural rights (right to life, liberty, property, and happiness), all of which preceded the state
- Main purpose of any civilised society ‘natural’ or manufactured is to facilitate individualism
- Mill - On Liberty- freedom from any dependency on others and the freedom to live one’s life in a way that maximises self-reliance and self-fulfilment
-The ‘default setting’ of any society is a focus upon individual freedom and that any society which seeks to deny individualism is dysfunctional
-The right to property regarded as important as seen as the tangible expression of an individual within society
-For later Liberals, property is how individuals develop their potential, providing an opportunity within civilised communities, for men and women to nurture their taste and judgement
Core ideas; The economy
- Given belief that property is a natural right, liberalism supports capitalism
- Associated with private enterprise and ownership of economy - economic liberalism
- Defends a market-based economy - Adam Smith a liberal economist, said that if obstacles to free trade swept away, the ‘invisible hand’ of market forces would guide traders towards success, resulting wealth would ‘trickle down’ and ‘the wealth of nations’ would be promoted globally
Economic Liberalisation
another term for capitalism- an economic system that emerged in Europe in the late 17th century. 1) involves private property which classical liberals such as John Locke considered a ‘natural right’ 2) It’s individualistic in theory, involving individual traders cooperative and competing 3) Thought to be of ultimate benefit to all - revealing liberalism’s eternal optimism and belief in progress
Core ideas; the State
-Individualism and Capitalism are central to liberalism’s view of society but this doesn’t render liberalism unique. Applies to anarchism
- However Liberals believe that individualism and capitalism work best when accompanied by a certain kind of state where as anarchists see the state as the eternal enemy of individualism
State of nature
reference to what life was like before laws, formal rules and governments came into being
The liberal state origins
-While liberalism takes an optimistic view of human nature, still accepts that within the state of nature there would have been clashes of interests between individuals pursuing their own egocentric agendas
-Locke was worried that without the sort of formal structures only a state can provide, resolution of such clashes, particularly property, might not always be swift and efficient
-As a result, individualism in the state of nature could have been impeded by stalemated disputes between competing individuals
- So a mechanism - a state- required to reach a decision effectively between rational individuals
Liberal state objectives
- To allow more effective resolution of disputes between individuals
-Locke and later liberals also keen to show that the kind of state they wanted embodied wider principles- developed by England’s Bill of Rights 1689, American constitution 1787 and first French Republic 1789
Rejection of the traditional state
- Liberal state founded on an explicit rejection of the type of state common in Europe prior to the Enlightenment - a state marked by monarchical, absolutist, and arbitrary rule
- Liberal state is one where power is concentrated in the hands of one individual and where that power is exercised randomly
- liberal state would be contemptuous of any government of any government that claimed a ‘divine right’ to govern, according to a subjective and thus irrational perception of God’s will
Government by consent
- Following on from its rejection of the ‘divine right of kings’, insists that the government must have consent of the governed, this is the only way a state is legitimate
- Locke maintained that ‘government should always be the servant, not master, of the people’
-‘Government by consent’ can be linked to the notion of a social contract
Social contract
Linked to Enlightenment theorists like Rousseau and Locke where the state should be a ‘deal’ between governments and governed. in return for submitting to the state’s laws, the governed should be guaranteed certain rights and that if the rights are violated, so is the citizen’s obligation to obey the state’s laws
Promotion of tolerance
- John Stuart Mill- the state should tolerate all actions and opinions unless they were shown to violate the harm principle
- Individuals do not seek isolation and detachment from fellow mankind but are instead drawn to societies that accommodates their individualism
- When emphasising tolerance, early liberals aware that individuals inclined to congregate into religious communities- state should show tolerance towards such communities
- Tolerating minorities has been going passion for those seeking to support and advance the liberal state
- Betty Friedan- campaigning to improve the tolerance of gender
Meritocracy
-Political power should be exercised only by those who show themselves worthy of it through their efforts and talents to win the trust of the governed
- Contacts the traditional state where power was hereditary and aristocratic
- Aristocracy had no place in meritocratic liberal state commended by Locke, Mill
Equality of opportunity
- Article of faith that all individuals have foundational equality (equal natural rights, equal value, born equal)
- Must therefore have equal opportunity to develop their potential and achieve control of their own lives
- If individual fails to fulfil their potential, they must be able to assume total responsibility for this failure and not blame it on the state
