42 I POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES
LIBERALISM / 43
two, three or four votes to people depending on their level of education or social society. T� is can be seen in the wri
tings of pluralist theorists, who hav
position. Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955), the Spanish social thinker, expressed such that orgamzed groups, not individ e argued
uals, have become the primary po
fears more dramatically in The Revolt of the Masses ( [ 1930] 1972). Gasset warned and portr y d modern industrial litic al actors
� � soc ieties as increasing complex,
that the arrival of mass democracy had led to the overthrow of civilized society by co�petition between and among c ha racterized
s t rival interests. From
and the moral order, paving the way for authoritarian rulers to come to power by ttract1on of dem ocracy
this point of view, the
� is that it is the only system of rule
appealing to the basest instincts of the masses. 1�1 b alance or equili rium within capable of maintain-
�_ � complex and fluid m odern societi
By the twentieth century, however, a large proportion of liberals had come to lib, !� m democracy g i ves competi es. As equi
ng groups a political voi
see democracy as a virtue, although this was based on a number of arguments political sy.s tem and so maintains ce it bi n ds the m to the
political stability.
Consent and doctrines. The earliest liberal justification for democ-
Assent or permission; racy was founded on consent, and the idea that citizens
in politics, usually an
agreement to be
mus t have a means of protecting themselves from the Classical liberalism
encroachment of government. In the seventeenth century,
governed or ruled.
John Locke deve1 oped a 1·mute · d tl1eory of p ro te ct·ve
1 Classical liberalism was the earlies
t liberal tradition. Classical liberal
democracy by arguing that voting rights should be ext e nded to the propertied, op� d dur�g the transit ion from ideas devel
feud alism to capitalism, and reac
who could then defend their natural rights against government. If government, porn: dur�ng t�e early industri aliza hed their hi h
tion of the nineteenth centw-y. As
thro ugh taxation, possesses the power to expropriate property, citizens are e�ti class1 al hberahs has som tim es a resJt,
� � _ � been called 'nineteenth-century
tled to protect themselves by controlling the comp osition of the tax-making The cr�dle of classical hbe liberalism'.
rabsm was the UK, where the cap
body - the l egislature. During the American Revolution, this idea was taken up ·evo lutio s wer italist and industrial
� n e mo s t dva
� nce�. Its ideas have always been more deeply roote
in the slogan: 'No taxation without representation'. Utilitarian theorists s�ch as 111 Anglo-Saxon countnes, particu
larly the UK and the USA, than in
d
Jeremy Bentham (see p. 54) and James Mill (1773-1836) developed the 110�1011 of of the w rl . �owever, cl ssical other parts
_ � � liberalism is n ot merely a ninetee
democracy as a form of protection for the individual into a case for umversal form of h� er hsm , whose �ideas are nth-century
� now only of historical interest. Its
suffrage. Utilitarianism (see p. 46) implies that individuals will vote so a� to and theories, 111 fact, have had gro principles
_ wi ng appeal from the seco nd hal
advance or defend their interests as they define them. Bentham came to believe tiet� century onwards. Although f of the twen
what is called neo classical liberali
that universal suffrage (conceived in his day as manhood suffrage) is the on ly sm, or neolib
� ralism (see p. 50), initially ha d greatest i mpact in the
way of promoting 'the greatest happiness for the greatest numb�r'. nfl ence h s spread mu
UK and the USA, its
.. '. � � ch wider, i n large part fuelled by
A more radical endorsement of democracy is linked to the vutues of political 1zat1011, as di s cusse d m_ the advance of global-
the final section of this chapter.
participation. This has been associated with the ideas ofJ.-J. Rousseau but received Classical liberal ideas have taken
a variety of forms but they have a
a liberal interpretation in the writings of J. S. Mill. In a sense, Mill encapsulates the com mon character istics: number of
ambivalence of the liberal attitude towards demo cracy. In its unrestrained form,
democracy leads to tyranny, but, in the absence of democracy, ignorance and First, classical libera s subscribe t
_ ! o egoi s tic al in dividuali
sm. They view
brutality will prevail. For Mill, the central virtue of democracy is ��at it prom�t�s human bem gs as rationally self-interested creat
the 'highest and most harmonious' development of human capac1t1es. By part1c� ures, who have a
pronounced capacity for self-reli
ance. Society is therefore seen to
pating in political life, citizens enhance their understanding, streng:hen their atomistic, com posed of a collecti be
on oflargely self-sufficient indivi
sensibilities and achieve a higher level of personal development. Tlm form of als, meaning that the characteris d u
tics of society can be traced back
developmental democracy holds democracy to be, primarily, an educational expe the more fundamental features of to
human nature.
rience. As a result, although he rejected political equality, Mill believed that the • Second, classical lib erals believe
in negative freedom. The individ
franchise should be extended to all but those who are illit free �sofar as he or he is left alo ual is
� ne, not interfered with
Consensus
erate and, in the process, suggested (radically for his time) others. As stated earlier, freedom or coe rced by
A borad agreement on in this s ense is the absence of exte
that suffrage should also be extended to women. nal constraints on the individual. r
fundamental principles
that allows for However, since the twentieth century, liberal theories Third, the state is regarded at bes
t as, in Thomas Paine's words a
disagreement on matters about demo cracy have tended to focus less on consent and 'nece�� ary evil'. It is necessary in tha
of emphasis or detail. t, at the ver y least, it lays d�wn the
participation and more 011 the need for consensus in cond1t1
, LIBER ALISM I 45
44 I POLITICAL IDEOLOGI ES
The idea of natural or human rights has affected liberal thought in a number
collective will on society, thereby limiting the freedom and responsi- of.ways. For example, the weight given to such rights distinguishes authoritarian
bilities of the individual. Classical liberals thus believe in a minimal thmk~rs such as Thomas Hobbes from early liberals such as John Locke. As
state, which acts, using Locke's metaphor, as a 'nightwatchman'. In this explamed earlier, both Hobbes and Locke believed that government was formed
view, the state's proper role is restricted to the maintenance of domes- th~·ough a 's.ocial contract'. However, Hobbes ([1651] 1968) argued that only a
tic order, the enforcement of contracts, and the protection of society stron~ g~ve111~1ent, preferably a monarchy, would be able to establish order and
against external attack. secunty m socrety. ~e was prepared to invest the king with sovereign or absolute
o Finally, classical liberals have a broadly positive view of civil society. power, rat~er than n sk a descent into a 'state of nature'. The citizen should there-
Civil society is not only deemed to be a 'realm of freedom' - by fore ~ccept any form of government because even repressive government is
comparison to the state, which is a 'realm of coercion' - but it is also b~t~er t~an 1~0 ~overnment at all. Locke, on the other hand, argued against arbi-
seen to reflect the principle of balance or equilibrium. This is most trarY or ~nhmrted government. Government is established in order to protect
clearly expressed in the classical liberal belief in a self-regulating nat'u~al nghts. When these are protected by the state, citizens should respect
market economy. g?: er nment a~d obey the law. However, if government violates the rights of its
crtizens, they 111 turn have the right of rebellion. Locke thus approved of tl
Classical liberalism nevertheless draws on a variety of doctrines and theories. English R~vo~ution of the seventeenth century, and applauded the establish me~~
The most important of these are the following: of a constitutiOnal monarchy in 1688.
. F.or Locke•. moreover, ~he contract between state and citizen is a specific and
• natural rights hmrted or~e: rts ~ur~ose rs to protect a set of defined natural rights. As a result,
• utilitarianism ~oc.ke believed 111 hmited government. The legitimate role of government is
• economic liberalism lumted to the protection of 'life, liberty and property'. Therefore, the realm of
• social Darwinism government should not extend beyond its three 'minimal' functions:
• neoliberalism.
• mai~ta.ining public order and protecting property
• provr~mg defence against external attack
• ensuring that contract are enforced.
Natural rights
The natural rights theorists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, such as Other issues and responsibilities are properly the coricern of private individu-
John Locke in England and Thomas Jefferson in America, had a considerable als. Thon~as Jefferson expressed the same sentiment a century later when he
influence on the development of liberal ideology. Modern declared: That government is best which governs least:
Natural rlg'1ts , :. ;,:~,:
God-given rights that political debate is littered with references to 'rights' and
are fundamental to claims to possess 'rights'. A right, most simply, is an entitle-
human beings a nd are ment to act or be treated in a particular way. Such entitle- Utilitarianism
therefore inalienable ments may be either moral or legal in character. For Lock e
(they cannot be taken ~atur~ rights theories were not the only basis of early liberalism. An alternative and
away). and Jefferson, rights are 'natural' in that they are invested in hrghly mfluential theory of human nature was put forward in the early nineteenth
human beings by nature or God. Natural rights are now more commonly called century by the utilitarians, notably Jeremy Bentham and
human rights (see p. 61). They are, in Jefferson's words, 'inalienable' because Utility
James Mill. Bentham regarded the idea of rights as 'nonsense'
human beings are entitled to them by virtue of being human: they cannot, in that Use-value; in
and called natural rights 'nonsense on stilts: In their place, he
economics, utility
sense, be taken away. Natural rights are thus thought to establish the essential proposed what he believed to be the more scientific and
describes the
conditions for leading a truly human existence. For Locke, there were three such satisfaction that is objective idea that individuals are motivated by self-interest
rights: 'life, liberty and property'. Jefferson did not accept that property was a gained from the
and that these interests can be defined as the desire for pleas-
natural or God-given right, but rather one that had developed for human conven- consumption of
material goods and ure, or happiness, and the wish to avoid pain, both calculated
ience. In the American Declaration of Independence he therefore described services. in terms of utility. The principle of utility is, furthermore, a
inalienable rights as those of 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness'.
