Social Liberalism:
- This represents an updated version of the historic liberal belief intolerance. It involves legislation that may criminalise actions that discriminate against individuals on the grounds of race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and religious persuasion.
- Betty Friedan argued that too many individuals in western society were held back on account of innate factors such as ethnicity.
- She argued that this was not down to individuals, but she thought the legislation was the reason for this. Known as positive discrimination.
- The Sex Discrimination Act and the Race Relations Act in 1975 and 76 held back this belief. Now natural rights were in place.
Key
Thinker 5: Betty Friedan 1921 – 2006:
- All individuals should be free to seek control over their own lives and the full realisation of their potential. She argued like Mary Wollstonecraft that gender was a serious hindrance to all those individuals were female
- Illiberal attitudes in society, rather than human nature made most women underachieve and this is reinforced by cultural channels such as school and the media
- Makes women convinced that they are determined by human nature rather than their own rationality and enterprise.
- Whilst a feminist, she was a liberal as evident from the fact that she always disdained violence and wanted more legal equality.
- She rejected that the state was patriarchal and forever under the control of the dominant gender.
Neo-Liberalism:
Liberalism Or Conservatism:
- Friedrich Von Hayek said it was the “third strand” of the liberal ideology. He argued that radical change, not conservative stability – a choice, he argued, based upon their boundless faith in human potential.
- A mix between social policy and conservatism e.g David Cameron and his promotion of marriage via the tax system – an unwelcome example of state intrusion into people’s private life.
- Reapplies the idea of Adam Smith and Thomas Jefferson to modern societies and modern globalised economises.
- Offers a liberal critique of modern liberalism, accusing it of a betrayal of individualism and a sell out to socialism and conservatism.
- Neo-liberals have been labelled conservatives, as their views are seen as reactionary rather than progressive, seeking to restore the economic arrangement of the novel ideas for the future such as Thatcher’s New Right.
Summary Of Key Thinkers:
|
||||
Human Nature:
|
The State:
|
Society:
|
The Economy:
|
|
John Locke:
|
Human beings are rational, guided by the pursuit of self-interest,
but mindful of others concerns
|
The state must be representative based on the consent of the
governed
|
Society predates the state: there were natural societies with
natural laws and natural rights |
State policy should respect the natural right to private property
and arbitrate effectively between individuals competing for trade
and resources |
Mary Wollstonecraft:
|
Rationalism defines both genders intellectually, men and women are
not very different.
|
The monarchical state should be replaced by a republic which
enshrines women’s rights |
Society ‘infantilised’ women and thus stifled female
individualism
|
A free market economy would be energised by the enterprise of
liberated women |
John Stuart Mill:
|
Though fundamentally rational, human nature is not fixed, it is
forever progressing to a higher level
|
The state should proceed cautiously towards representative
democracy, mindful of minority rights.
|
The best society was one where individuality co-existed with
tolerance and self-improvement |
Laissez-faire capitalism was vital to progress, individual
enterprise and individual initiative
|
John Rawls:
|
Mankind is selfish, yet empathetic, valuing both individual
liberty and the plight of those around them.
|
The state should enable less fortunate individuals to advance via
public spending and public services
|
The society most individuals would choose would be one where the
condition of the poorest improved
|
Free market capitalism should be tempered by the state’s
obligation to advance its poorest citizens.
|
Betty Friedan:
|
Human nature has evolved in a way that discourages
self-advancement among women
|
The state should legislate to prevent continued discrimination
against female individuals
|
Society remained chauvinistic towards women though women were
complicit in their repression.
|
Free market capitalism could be an ally of female emancipation if
allied to legislation precluding sexual discrimination.
|
Tensions Within Liberalism:
- Human Nature: Liberals believe that individuals are generally rational and intelligent but Loke and other neo-liberals argued that humans are innately blessed whilst Mill and modern liberals like Rawls tend to think that such qualities are potential features of human nature to be developed by enlightened liberal authorise.
- Liberals should endorse Mill’s concept on individualism.
- Society: Classical liberals believe that human society predates the state.
- Modern liberals believe that industrialised and urban societies are those where individuals are less autonomous and therefore require state support to be free (positive freedom).
- Neo-liberals may believe in a reduction in the state and may argue for an individual pursuing self-interest.
- The State: All liberals believe that the state should function according to prearranged rules and procedures with power and authority subject to the consent for the government.
- Classical liberals like Mills believe state intervention should be minimal and individuals left unchecked.
- Modern liberals believe in positive freedom.
- Also problems in how democratic the state should be. Modern liberals want representative democracy whilst early classical liberals saw democracy as a threat to property rights.
- The Economy: All liberals believe that the economy should be based on private property and private enterprise.
- Classical and neo-liberals support Adam Smith’s thesis where a laisse-fair attitude to the economy.
- Modern liberals have more sympathy for the view of John Keynes where capitalism require regular state management to ensure full employment. Modern liberals support supra-national organisations as the EU whilst neo-liberals see them as an obstacle to global free trade.
Liberalism
Today:
- The collapse of the Soviet communism in 1989 and the emergence of new capitalist states in Eastern Europe, strengthen the idea that market economies and liberal democracy represented ‘the end of history’
- Globalisation made states embrace capitalism, but many modern liberals pointed out that once individuals are given economic choices, it is increasingly hard to deny them political and philosophical choices as well.
- Society seems to be assuming an even more liberal character. Choice and determination have been fuelled by the expansion of capitalism and diverse lifestyles.
- New Labour in the UK embraced economic liberalism by revising clause 4. Cameron’s Conservative Party embraced social liberalism by promoting same-sex marriage bolstering ‘government by consent’
- Terror attacks brought back a more period like the Enlightenment and people are becoming less tolerant.
- Supra-national organisations like the EU brought things like UKIP and populist political movements like Trump
- Locke’s view of human nature was peaceful, but the world is anything less than peaceful and the relevance of liberalism itself becomes questionable.