Liberalism
‘government should always be the servant, not the master, of the people’ John Locke,
Government by Consent
Social contract - Rousseau
Glorious Revolution 1688 - associated with Locke’s philosophy. End of
concentrated power and secured constitutional government.
Inspired American independence revolt 1775.
Englands Bill of Rights 1689
American Constitution 1787
French Republic 1789
‘beyond equity, beyond reason and most certainly beyond wisdom.’ Paine, justifying the French
Revolution overthrowing the nobility 1789
Wollestonecraft - Hanoverian soceity kept women ‘in a state of listless inactivity and stupid
acquiscence’ education and opportunity to allow women to access their rational selves as
women and men need formal education to release their innate powers of reason.
Thomas Jefferson ‘when government grows, our liberty withers’
‘If self-help were usurped by state help, human beings would remain stunted, their talents
unknown, and their liberty squandered’ Smiles
Man Versus the State 1884 Smiles questioned Spencers belief that individuals could rise to the
challenge ‘the feeble, the feckless, and the failing’ social darwinism.
Rawls Theory of Justice 1971
Veil of Ignorance
redistribution of wealth and foundational equality
Voltaire - Individual liberty as crucial to Self-determination and Self-Reliance. This is the
condition required for government by consent.
Prechewed Politics
Origins of Liberalism
Transition from the feudalist system to capitalism. Common land increasingly became private.
Potential for personal advancement - liberal ideas, developmental individualism. Reconsider
power of the state.
,Reformation - translated Bible for accessibility, wanted individuals to choose their own religious
beliefs rather than obeying religious authorities. Challenge of traditional hierarchies, and
encouraged tolerance for different views and beliefs.
Enlightenment - prioritisation of science over faith and tradition. Scientific revolution over the
16th and 17th centuries. Authority should come from the people rather than God. All humans
capable of rational thought = equality and great progress could be made from rational thought
and debate.
Classical
Reaction to tyranny of Kings and feudal obligations. Rising capitalism and the middle class who
wanted to be free to pursue their interests.
Freedom as the most central aspect of liberalism, but an inconsistency between the 2 main
strands. Contextually makes sense - feudal obligations imposed significant limits on negative
freedom, while capitalism placed far fewer restrictions on the individual who could choose
employment.
Negative freedom - freedom from outside interference, threatened by legal and physical
barriers.
J S Mill - ‘On Liberty’ 1859, ‘ the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over
any member of a civilised community … is to prevent harm to others’ Harm Principle. Self
regarding actions vs Other regarding actions. Eg. religion and violence. Claimed state
interference was unacceptable even when self-regarding actions were harmful - self-
determination. ‘Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign’. Learning
from their own mistakes, led to developmental individualism.
‘Truth would lose something by their silence’ tyranny of the majority. Women needed equal
rights to protect them from the ‘despotic power of husbands over wives’. Bentham even wrote
privately in favour of gay rights, arguing for the decriminalisation of homosexuality.
Utilitarianism - Humans driven by 2 masters - pain and pleasure, Laws and actions are good in
so far as they promote ‘the greatest amount of good for the greatest number’. Interfering in the
private life lead to more pain than pleasure.
Individualism - egotistical individualism. Atomistic view of society. Society as a collection of self
interested individuals pursuing their own goals. Minimal state is favoured to enforce natural
rights like property rights. Locke - argued that ‘men uniting in commonwealths, and putting
themselves under government is the preservation of their property’. Night watchman state.
Economy - Laissez-faire economics. Adam Smith ‘The Wealth of Nations’ 1776. Argued that
when rational individuals are free to make self interested decisions, it results in an efficient
economic system where everyone benefits. A side effect of selfish pursuits eg. bakers who bake
for money, is that they provide goods and jobs that others want and need. ‘The Invisible Hand’
Increased demand increases supply. Shortages leads to price raises, and new competition
leads to cut costs. When there are unfilled vacancies, wages increase. Leaving the economy
sends these signals far more efficiently than if the government were to interfere.
Locke ‘Two Treatises of Government’ 1689 justifies both private property and inequality. ‘God
gave the world to men in common … it cannot be supposed he meant it should always remain
common’. Argued that we own our bodies and thus our labour, and when we mix our labour with
things held in common, they become our private property. However, keeping this
, property/hoarding property can make you liable to punishment, but giving away property
benefits everyone. The invention of money leads to investment, and this investment means that
other peoples labour becomes one’s own.
Dont really believe in equality of outcome as everyone has different talents/work ethic. Believe
more in equality of opportunity, where everyone has a fair chance to succeed, but outcomes
reflect talent and effort. This is also known as meritocracy. Classical and modern liberals have
conflicting views on fair chances. Formal equality of opportunity means non discrimination.
Meritocracy is desirable. This can lead to a support of Social Darwinism. Thinkers such as
Smiles argue that inequality is natural and inevitable. ‘The feeble, the feckless, the failing’ will
die out naturally or fail to meet the challenges that promotes individual talent and potential.
Modern
Reaction to industrialization and capitalism, and the realisation that negative freedom alone was
insufficient for the poor to truly be considered free.
Freedom to develop, learn and fulfil our goals. Threatened by inequality, poverty and lack of
education.
J S Mill 1806-1873 - Individual > society. Egotistical individualism. ‘nor grow up to the mental,
moral and aesthetic stature of which their nature is capable’. Believed in ‘utility in the largest
sense, grounded on the permanent interests of man as a progressive being’. Long term good.
Higher and lower pleasures, higher being intellectual pleasures that do more long term than
lower pleasures, like drinking alcohol. This today could be called developmental individualism.
T H Green expanded on the definition of freedom. ‘the mere enabling of a man to do as he likes,
is in itself no contribution to true freedom’. ‘Liberal Legislation and Freedom of Contract 1861’,
argues that employees are hardly free to choose where they work or negotiate with employers
on equal terms if the alternative of agreeing to work in dangerous conditions for poor pay was
unemployment and destitution. Not in society’s best interest to employ children or have poor
working conditions, even if it is in the employer's best interest for profit. ‘Society is therefore
plainly within its right when it limits freedom of contract for the sale of labour … for the sanitary
regulations of factories, workshops and mines.’. Negative Internal limits eg. impulses, Positive
internal limits eg. lack of education. Modern liberals began to argue for positive rights to enable
people to fulfil their potential (Self-realisation), choose the direction of their own life (self-
determination) and exercise self control (self-mastery).
Acceptable to more broadly restrict actions that made it harder for all people to fulfil their
potential. Develops the idea of Freedom Of Contract - workers freely agree to the pay and
working conditions of employers.
The enabling state - Ensuring that individuals live and work in the minimum conditions
necessary for their goals to be realised. T H Green argued that public health and education
would be provided by the ‘spontaneous action of individuals’, but ‘until such a. condition of
society is reached, it is the business of the state to take the best security it can for the young
citizens growing up… knowledge as is necessary for their real freedom’. Lead to the ‘Beveridge
report’ and identifying the 5 Giants that plagued the country. ‘a starving man is not free
because, until he is fed, he cannot have a thought for anything but how to meet his urgent
physical needs.’
