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Summary Liberalism Notes
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Liberalism – NotesHistorical overview
Liberalism was a product of the breakdown of feudalism in Europe
Reflected the aspirations of the rising middle classes, whose interests conflicted with the
established power of absolute monarchs
Liberal ideas were radical: they sought fundamental reform and revolutionary change.
The American Revolution of 1776 and French Revolution of 1789 embodied elements that
were distinctively liberal
In place of absolutism, they advocated constitutional and, representative government.
- Absolutism: A form of government in which political power is concentrated in the hands
of a single individual or small group, in particular, an absolute monarchy.
Liberals criticised the political and economic privileges of the aristocracy and the unfairness
of a feudal system in which social position was determined by the ‘accident of birth’.
They supported the movement towards freedom of conscience in religion and questioned
the authority of the established church.
The nineteenth century was in many ways the liberal century.
As industrialisation spread throughout western countries, liberal ideas triumphed.
Liberals advocated an industrialisation and free market economics
Such a system of industrial capitalism developed first in the UK and then spread out
From the twentieth century onwards, industrial capitalism exerted a powerful appeal for
developing states in Africa, Asia and Latin America
- Developing-world states have been resistant to the attractions of liberal capitalism
because their political cultures have emphasised community rather than the individual.
- In such cases, they have provided more fertile ground for the growth of socialism,
nationalism, or religious fundamentalism rather than western liberalism.
Character of liberalism changed as the ‘rising middle classes’ succeeded in establishing their
economic and political dominance.
Liberalism became increasingly conservative, standing less for change and reform, and more
for the maintenance of existing – largely liberal – institutions.
From the late nineteenth century onwards, the progress of industrialisation led liberals to
question, the ideas of early liberalism.
Early/classical liberalism - the desire to minimise government interference in the lives of its
citizens
Modern liberalism – associated with welfare provision and economic management.
Core ideas and principles
1
,Human nature
Individualism is the basic principle of liberalism.
- Individuality: what distinguishes one person from all others.
Thinking of people as individuals has two contrasting implications.
- The first is that each human being is a separate and unique entity, defined by attributes
that are specific to themselves. (being an individual = being different)
- The second implication is that, as individuals, each of us shares the same status. (being
an individual = being the same)
- Our identity is not defined by social categories such as gender, social class, ethnicity,
religion, nationality and so on, but by the fact that we are individuals.
For liberals, rights belong strictly to the individual
In the form of natural rights/human rights, these rights reflect the fact that human beings
are all equal
- Such thinking provided inspiration for the writing of documents such the UN’s Universal
Declaration of Human Right
- Also meant that liberalism has provided fertile ground for the growth of feminist
thinking.
Key concept – Individualism
Belief in the supreme importance of the individual over any social group or collective body.
Methodological individualism - suggests that the individual is central to any political theory
- all statements about society should be made in terms of the individuals who compose
them.
Ethical individualism - implies that society should be constructed to benefit the individual,
giving moral priority to individual rights, needs or interests.
Egoistical individualism - places emphasis on self-interestedness and self-reliance.
- Classical liberals and the New Right subscribe to this
Modern liberals, in contrast, have advanced a developmental form of individualism that
prioritises human flourishing over the quest for interest satisfaction.
Liberals believe that humans are reason-guided creatures, capable of personal self-
development
- In this sense, liberalism is, and remains, very much part of the Enlightenment project.
- Enlightenment: An intellectual movement which challenged traditional beliefs in
religion, politics and learning in general in the name of reason and progress.
Enlightenment free strengthened its faith in both the individual and freedom.
- Human beings are rational, thinking creatures; they are capable of defining and pursuing
their own best interests.
- A faith in reason inclines liberals to believe that conflict can generally be resolved by
debate, discussion, and argument, greatly reducing the need for force and bloodshed.
Key figure - Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–97)
2
, Wollstonecraft developed the first systematic feminist critique some 50 years before the
emergence of the female suffrage movement.
Her most famous work, A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792), advanced an agenda
for women’s emancipation based on the assertion that, as human beings, women are
rational creatures.
- As such, they are entitled to the same rights of liberty and self-determination as male
rational creatures claim for themselves.
She placed a particular emphasis on education to develop women’s talents and character.
Her writings are seen to have established the basis for the tradition of liberal feminism
- characterised by a commitment to formal equality; that is, an equal distribution of both
legal and political rights, and civil liberties, including the right to a career.
Society
Liberals subscribe to an individualist conception of society.
They assume that society is constructed by individuals to serve their interests for purposes.
- In its extreme form, such a view amounts to atomism
- Atomism: A belief that society is made up of a collection of self-interested and largely
self-sufficient individuals, or atoms, rather than social groups.
C. B. Macpherson (1973) characterised early liberalism as ‘possessive individualism’
- the individual is ‘the proprietor of his own person capabilities, owing nothing to society
for them’.
Later liberals have held a more optimistic view of human nature, and have been prepared to
believe that egoism is tempered by a sense of social responsibility
All liberals are united in their desire to create a society in which each person is capable of
developing and flourishing to the fullness of his or her potential.
Key figures – Betty Friedan (1921–2006)
Friedan was a key exponent of the liberal approach to women’s liberation.
The Feminine Mystique (1963) is often credited with having stimulated the emergence of
second-wave feminism.
- In it, she examined ‘the problem with no name’: the sense of frustration and despair
afflicting suburban American women.
Defining women’s liberation largely in terms of the establishment of a formally equal status
with men in society and the widening of opportunities for women in education and careers.
- Her chief object of attack was therefore the ‘feminine mystique’, an image that
encourages women to define themselves in relation to their husbands, home, and
children, and so discourages them from competing with men in the public realm.
Society – Freedoms
3
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