March 7, 2011
LIBERALISM
History of liberalism, definition and relation between liberalism and democracy
•formed out of a struggle of British Parliament
•the Glorious revlution parliament became supremem with power over
monarchy
•at level of ideas, it established the right to rule; power reides in people and they
delegate that power to the sovererign, previously coming from above
•no longer claims as God has told me to ….
Revolutionary implications:
•If sovereign violates power it can be removed
•Sovereign must rule within the law of the land
•Checks on sovereign power, he/she is not above the law
•Established moral right of citizens to overthrow an arbitrary rule of
government
•People rising against leaders when they act against rule of law
•Tradition authority; that which is derived from god: Monarchy
•Explained by Locke; Second Treatise: people prefer to be governed so they
come to this state from a state of nature
•Thomas Jefferson American Declaration of Independence (Life, Liberty,
Property
•Also in French declaration of rights of man and citizen 1789
4 Principles of Classical Liberalism:
Liberalism is founded on Freedom and Equality commitments:
1. Personal Freedom: freedom of Human individual; refers to absence of
coercion; free speech right to private property and political opposition
•Freedom is infinite so long as it doesn’t impinge on what another wants to do
www.notesolution.com
•The ability of everyone to access same amount of freedom-The Declaration
of Rights of man states this
•John Stuart Mill in ‘On Liberty” says, government can only intervene to
prevent harm from one individual to another
•e.g packaging ingredients laws, smoking laws, seat belt laws: the argument of
paternalistic state interferes
•Paternalistic state fights back reasoning why need the laws- a liberal
argument, its justified to protect the rest of the society as a whole
•Also called –ve conception of freedom: because it doesn’t imply a +ve
interference
•The threat to freedom is from interference rather than the other way round
•Free speech, right to private property, right to political opposition without
risk of persecution or prosecution
•Classical liberals see gov in –ve terms, making people comly by force or
fraud
2. Limited Government: it limits control that gov can exercise over lives of
human beings
•The “Night Watchman State” watching over citizens
•Liberal conception of freedom was always bound with property rights
•For classical liberals there is a public(small) and private (Huge) sphere
•Gov role is extremely limited, and gov job to ensure private sphere must
remain big
•Religious freedom drove this conception (catholic vs. protestant)
•Class liberalism developed against hundreds of years of religious wars
•Religion vs. state power, or people linked to other religions were traitors
•This connection b/w church and state causes religious wars
•Liberal solution was the secularization of state power
•Secular state is without religious affiliation (decouple church n state)
www.notesolution.com