HLST 1010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Invisible Hand, Bourgeoisie, Comparative Advantage
Document Summary
Liberalism: early capitalism political & social philosophy. Role of state: minimal, protect individual rights & freedoms but was minimal when it came to regulating economic activity. Freedom to : own property, engage in market transactions, was supposed to be free of government interference. Ricardo: argued that what nations needed to prosper and to grow was to trade with one another. Free-trade that was free of govt regulation created a win win situation for everyone: each country should specialize in producing those goods for which they have comparative advantage, many have called this system unregulated capitalism. Context: rise of liberalism was rise of industrial revolution early capitalism. Ideology of rising bourgeoisie: needed freedom from monarchy for their own economic interests. Keynesianism & regulated capitalism (the argument building around this was the concept of unregulated markets doesn"t work their being much evidence : don"t work!