Liberalism

Welcome to another episode of the Politics Shed Podcast, which supports the work and resources you'll find on the Politics Shed website. Today, liberalism, its origins, key ideas and development. The origins of liberalism are part of the long development of European thought. As long ago as ancient Rome, the grarchy brothers and their championing of the popularities had some features in liberalism, such as a belief in rights of citizens. Similarly, the Christian concept of equality before God laid the foundation for equal rights and equality before the law, and there were echoes of liberalism in Eastern thought. However, liberalism, as we know it, was born out of a growing religious pluralism, which had led to the wars of religion and persecution in Europe and the Enlightenment, which sought to apply rational laws to science and society. Liberalism is a doctrine that has been driving revolutions, creating nations and constitutions and defending liberties the last two centuries. Liberalism is derived from two related features of Western culture. The first is the West's preoccupation with individuality, as compared to the emphasis in other cultures on tried status, caste and tradition. The second is a belief in the innate plurality of humans, which must be accepted and accommodated through the protection of these differences, and mechanisms whereby these differences can be resolved and tolerated. This also entails a belief that human beings are essentially rational creatures. Faithful of settling their political disputes, through dialogue and compromise. While the impact of liberalism has been huge, it has always suffered from a problem of definition. In the United States, liberalism is associated with leftist politics. While in Britain, it is seen as centrist. In France, liberalism is frequently viewed as right wing. If usingly, neoliberalism is part of the new right alongside neo-conservatism. There are also significant differences between classical liberalism and modern liberalism. One of the central tenets of liberal political discourse is the belief that liberty or freedom is paramount. Liberty is a more fundamental aim than justice or equality. This allows liberalism to be embraced by libertarians of the right who oppose government regulation, as well as those who see liberty as best preserved in rules, laws and constitutions, and by government intervention. For all liberals, it is liberty that insures human dignity and flourishing. Freedom, though, is a difficult concept to pin down. Freedom from tyranny or poverty, freedom to do as we please, can come into conflict. Freedom to own a gun or freedom from the fear of gun violence illustrate this contradiction. The philosopher Russo observed that people can be forced to be free and a paradox, which expresses this problem neatly. Liberals see freedom as best insured through individual rights, including civil rights, such as religious toleration and freedom of speech. However, there has been considerable debate about the extent of these rights. Beyond civil rights should they apply to political, economic and gender rights and sexual rights. Additionally, liberals generally support constitutional government, emphasizing that any government must adhere to a known set of rules to prevent arbitrary power and abuse. A famous quotation by Lord Acton encapsulates this concern. All power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Liberals are therefore advocates for constitutional limits on power and the rule of law, which ensures that all individuals understand their rights and that these rights are recognised and protected. Furthermore, liberals tend to favour limited government. Having their individuals often better suited to manage their affairs than the state. Over time, however, many liberals have accepted a greater role for government, as their understanding of freedom has developed to include quality of life, as well as opportunities for the individual. Liberals also recognise the benefit of market economics, advocating for capitalism as the most effective means of resource distribution. They argue that allowing market forces to operate freely without government interference leads to better outcomes as government intervention often results in inefficiencies. Moreover, liberals typically exhibit a form of moral skepticism and tolerance of plurality, avoiding dogmatism. This has led to criticisms of liberalism as promoting relativism or moral indifference. Philosophically, liberals view the world mechanistically. Which views human behaviour as determined by the interaction between individuals and their formation of institutions and mechanisms, such as dialogue and discussion and debate that these institutions can be designed and improved. This mechanistic view is therefore the opposite of the conservative view that society is an organism in which the state evolves over time. The world's embrace individualism, which recognises the diversity of humans as well as their personal agency. However, individualism can be interpreted in different ways. Classical liberals believe in egotistical individualism, the view that people are essentially self-seeking and self-reliant. This view minimises the importance of society, seeing it as little more than a collection of independent individuals. Modern liberalism, however, has embraced developmental individualism. The view that individual freedom is linked to the desire to create a society in which each person can grow and flourish. This concept plays down the pursuit of self-interest and has been used to justify the support for some state intervention in society to help that is advantaged. Traditionally, liberalism is based on the belief in foundational equality that people are born equal. This implies a belief in formal equality. That individual should enjoy the same legal and political rights in society, ensured by equality before the law and equal voting rights in free and fair elections, hence the expression liberal democracy. Liberals are also keen to avoid tyranny of the majority, which makes them sceptical of democracy, unless it is accompanied by legal rights and protections. The US Constitution is full of compromises which sacrifice democracy in favour of legal protections, for example, an unelected Supreme Court, an electoral college, and state representation in the Senate. In the UK, liberalism began to emerge as a distinct political movement in the 19th century. The Liberal Party, led by William Gladstone, saw liberalism as consisting of limited government expenditure and low taxation, while making sure government had balanced budgets and the classical liberal stress on self-help and freedom of choice. Gladstone and liberalism also emphasized free trade, little government intervention in the economy, and equality of opportunity, through institutional reform, such as the elementary education act of 1870, which set up state-run elementary that is primary schools, administered by locally elected school boards, as well as legal reforms, such as civil service reform, based upon a meritocratic principle rather than patronage. Liberalism in this period married modernising reform with the preservation of laissez-faire markets. In the 20th century, liberalism was challenged from the left and the right. Social democrats and socialists offered a more compelling analysis of capitalism and an alternative to the blatant inequalities and harshness of liberal economics. Socialists also saw liberals as apologists for capitalism, propping it up through structural rather than economic reforms. In contrast, the right saw liberalism as undermining traditional values of family and tradition. Thomas Hobbes is seen as a thinker whose ideas influence both conservatism and liberalism. In his great work Leviathan, Hobbes defined liberty as the absence of restraint. According to Hobbes, individuals are free until they are constrained by the state, which intervenes to maintain order and protect individuals from external threats. is a form of negative. liberty. Hobbes' notion of negative liberty had a great influence on liberal thought, as did his rationalist approach to the state which would be formed based on a social contract rather than divine right or tradition. People would consent to an authoritarian state since while it protected them from chaos outside of those constraints, it would leave them alone to live their lives. John Locke's ideas, particularly regarding natural rights, including life, liberty and property, further shaped liberalism, he argued that government exists to protect these rights and citizens have the right to judge whether their government fulfills this role. This was a development of the social contract idea but much more reciprocal than anything Hobbes had in mind. The concepts of rationalism and consent are central to liberalism. From John Locke who argued that government should be established based on the freedom we would insist upon in the absence of government, he employed the concept of the state of nature. Used by other political philosophers like Hobbes and later Russo to pose the question, if there were no government, what is the minimum kind of government we would need to establish to preserve our natural condition of liberty. Locke contended that the purpose of government is to protect rights that we inherently recognise in the famous phrase of the Declaration of Independence. We see these rights as self-evident. These ideas led to the development of mixed government, increased participation and democracy and limitations on state power is entrenched law that cannot be altered by any single government. I.e. entrenched constitutions, principles of individual, natural or civil liberties are now widely accepted across most democratic nations. The rights outlined in the American Bill of Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Declaration of Human Rights include the right to own what we have earned, the right to believe what we deemed to be true, the right to argue freely, the right to worship as we choose and the right to move and settle as we wish. Locke also recognised the importance of religious toleration, advocating for a society that accommodates diverse beliefs. His insights laid the foundation for the development of liberalism in Europe, emphasising the need for government to respect individual rights. Although Locke was primarily thinking of religious toleration, liberalism has expanded these concepts to include gender and culture, figures like a limp, the gorge and Mary Wurstencraft challenged the male-centric view of rights, advocating for women's rights and equality. Wurstencraft's work, a vindication of the rights of women, is a cornerstone of liberal feminism arguing for women's education and emancipation. John Stuart Mills-Harm, principle of liberty, emphasised that individuals should be free to act as long as their actions do not harm others. It is said that the founding father of the United States, or one of them at least, Benjamin Franklin, when a costed on the street by a man who said, "You believe in freedom, then I am free to punch you on the nose," replied, "Your freedom stops where my nose starts." Nicely, outlining Hume's hum principle. If we wish, therefore, to engage in activities that society disapproves of, it's none of their business as long as no harm is inflicted. However, of course, harm may be seen in the eye of the beholder. Locke champion toleration in thought and expression, arguing that diverse opinions contribute to societal progress. Mills' ideas on economics also shaped classical liberal thought. He argued that individual self-interest was the engine of economic growth, drawing on Adam Smith's "The wealth of nations and laissez-faire economics," which he saw as offering the best means of creating wealth, but also a sphere of freedom for individuals to flourish according to their strengths and capabilities. As the 19th century progressed, the harsh realities of the free market became more apparent. Poverty, unemployment, ill health, in sprawling, slum-ridden cities, child labour, and huge inequality. Liberals were both appalled and fearful. Like one nation conservatives, liberals recognised the dangers if these issues were not addressed. Based by challenges from emerging ideologies and economic realities, liberals began to advocate for a more active role for government in addressing social inequalities and providing public services. This, so-called "new liberalism," sought to ensure that all individuals could employ their rights and freedoms, recognising that poverty and ignorance hindered true liberty. Reports from individuals like Booth and Roundtree, on the conditions in British cities, led liberals to argue that positive liberty and positive rights should allow people to be protected from poverty and ill health, or poor working conditions. They argued that poverty restricts freedom as surely as tyranny. This did not mean, however, abandoning capitalism, but instead managing it to create conditions where everyone could benefit. Governments should, therefore, according to modern liberalism, intervene in society to provide old age pensions, ensure education for those who couldn't afford it, and provide food for children in schools, as well as offer support to those unable to work or find employment. These initiatives should be funded through contributions from those with excessive earnings. In 1908, Liberal Prime Minister David Lloyd George imposed significant taxes on those who had benefited from the growing economy, mandating they should contribute to the welfare of those who had gained the least from capitalism. The first old age pension resulted. However, it was a labour government, influenced by thinkers, liberal thinkers, such as TH Green, John Maynard Keynes and William Beverage, who, in 1945, adopted the plan of liberal William Beverage or the Beverage Report and established the National Health Service and a welfare state. The economic theories of John Maynard Keynes were adopted by liberals, social democrats, and one nation conservatives alike as a means of managing the economy. Keynes described himself as someone who aimed to save capitalism in its most humane form. Thinkers, such as John Rawls, introduced a new understanding of justice and fairness based upon plurality of needs and capacities, emphasizing the need for a just society, rather than a competitive society or purely meritocratic. As the socialist R.H. Torneum served, freedom for the pike is death for the Mino. The society based on strength would leave the poor, the disabled, and the disadvantaged behind Rawls famously described a veil of ignorance, where if you were outside of society, and unable to perceive how you might operate in that society, you would wish for the kind of society that looked after all of its citizens, justly and fairly. In the late 20th century, a dynamic form of liberalism challenged the consensus that had dominated politics from the mid-part of the century. Neo-liberalism had been around since the late 19th century as a fringe ideology, but with the perceived failure of Keynesian economics from the 1970s and a faltering of many of the key ideas of social democracy, it came to dominate political discourse from the 1980s onwards, a Friedrich Hayek, and Milton Friedman revived classical liberalism and extended its scope to include most forms of social organisation, market forces, deregulation, privatisation, and competition were applied to schools, health services, government departments, and the provision of social services as well as the economy associated with figures like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Fatcher. It was also embraced by Labour leader Tony Blair, and indeed for 30 years, neo-liberalist philosophy, has dominated political discourse. Recently, liberalism has faced a. backlash, first against perceived cultural pluralism, which is pejoratively labeled "woke" or "wokeism" or permissiveness and political correctness, which the right has always argued undermines traditional gender roles, family ties and national identity. In the USA, liberalism has found itself identified as a protagonist in the culture wars. This assertion that liberalism leads to western decadence, secularism and moral relativism has formed part of the appeal of authoritarian leaders like Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orban, Xi Jinping in Russia, Hungary and China respectively. These criticisms had led to the challenge of fascism in the mid-20th century and the Islamist revival in the latter part of the 20th century. Another challenge to liberalism has been the emergence of populism of the right, which has led to an attack on internationalism and globalization. Globalization has been criticised as a product of neoliberalism and liberal internationalism and faces renewed criticism from the left and the right for deindustrialization, wealth inequality, global inequality and environmental degradation. However, the concepts of constitutionalism, individual rights and the rule of law remain strong and an enduring legacy of liberalism, which is manifested in the progressive acceptance of diversity or progress, which is unlikely to be reversed. [Music]