Liberalism - Early Classical Liberalism & Mary Wollstonecraft

Classical Liberalism – 17^th Century-19^th Century:

• Because of how big it is, it is helpful to break up the types into early and later classical liberalism.

Early Classic Liberalism – 17^th Century-18^th Century:

1. Revolutionary Periods: Locke said that the state should be driven by the representatives. This is the core principles of liberalism. Now this is commonplace in western democracies and this requires vigorous argument and sometimes revolutionary upheaval.
   1. They wanted to remove the ‘divine rights of Kings’ which secured Constitutional government and the end of concentrated political power. This inspired the American revolt against the British crown. Both advocate the separation of powers and the principles of government by consent.
      1. The core idea of rationalism was far from firmly accepted in the 18^th century. An idea that society should be geared to maximum individual freedom. Some argued that women was affront to individual liberty and affronting to individual liberty of over half of the adult population.
      2. Wollstonecraft said that women were only emotional creatures, suited to marriage and motherhood. “Keep women in a state of listless inactivity and stupid acquiescence”
         1. She thought that men and women required education to release their innate powers of reason – this would be liberal.
2. Negative Liberty: Charles-Louis Montesquieu were conscious that individual liberty – a “natural right” was vital to self-determination and self-reliance, as well as being the condition of government by consent.
   1. Early liberals like Wollstonecraft tried to relate such ideas to the individual liberty of women. The term liberty however needs definition as no one knows what it means.
      1. Negative Liberty: A key feature of classical liberalism, this is the notion of freedom that involves individuals being left alone to pursue their destiny. Any attempt to interfere with individual actions may therefore be judged an infringement of liberty.
      2. Individuals are naturally ‘free’ until someone puts a brake on their action. People still have freedom, they can just choose if they want to use it.
3. Minimal State: A feature of classical liberalism, the minimal state was one that reflected the concept of ‘negative liberty’ by minimising state activities – for example, legislating and taxing infrequently as possible, while confining its rage to areas such as defence and the protection of private property.
   1. Governments should not be limited in terms of what they do, but they should co-exist with the minimal state.
   2. Thomas Jefferson (one of the Founding Fathers) noted: “The government that is best is that which governs lease when government grows, our liberty withers”
   3. There should be checks and balances.
4. Laissez-Faire Capitalism: Based on the liberal belief in private property and the classical liberal belief in negative liberty, this is an economic system which allows private enterprise and capitalism to operate with little or no interference from the state.
   1. Adam Smith noted: “the invisible hand of market forces” and “trickle down” to the rest of the population just as long as the State took a “let it happen” approach to the market economy. He wanted an end to duties and tariffs.

Key Thinker 2: Mary Wollstonecraft:

• John Locke set the foundation of liberal thought in the 17^th century but in the 18^th century, it was Wollstonecraft who set the foundation. Whilst her main work was a feminist movement, it remains a more liberal movement.
• Her primary claim was that the Enlightenment view of human nature and the assumption that it was guided by reason should apply to all humans.
  • Both society and the state implied that women were not rational and they were denied individual freedom and formal equality. Women for example were not allowed to own their own home and scarified little individualism they had in order to become wives. Women could not speak out against this which goes against the ‘government of consent’ view liberals hold
• Nations like England were limiting the stock of their intelligence. “Such arrangements are not conditions where reasons and progress may prosper”. Genders have left society vulnerable to doctrines that threatened the spirit of the Enlightenment
• She welcomed the American and French revolution. She supported a Republican government and formal equality involving a constitutional defence of individual rights. But this freedom must be given to all, not just men.
• Formal education should be given to as many women and men as possible. Without tuition, individuals could never develop their rational faculties, never recognise such “absurdity” such as the “divine rights of kings”