What is Liberalism | complete information

Rise of liberalism

Liberalism as a whole was a gigantic movement. Which had made its existence felt in the countries of Western Europe and America. But its main development was possible only in England. It also remained strong in England and Spain. Liberal philosophy in Germany remained largely scholastic. In France, unlike in England, liberalism remained more of a social philosophy of a class, being anti-oligarchal in its nature and largely critical in its actions, as it never encouraged nationalism. Here political liberalism emerged as a reaction against tyranny.

The movement of the proletariat which was socialist and fundamental in its form and which absorbed itself in the Marxist thought of class struggle. The foundation of liberalism in France remained an obstacle in the way. Only in England, which was one of the most advanced semicolonial countries in the world during the 19th century, did liberalism succeed in attaining the status of a national philosophy and a national policy.

Here liberalism provided conditions for orderly and peaceful devolution, first by providing complete freedom for industry and suffrage for the middle class and finally by providing suffrage to the working class and protection against the most severe ill-effects of industry.

Negative Liberalism and Positive Liberalism

For the proper study of liberalism, it has become customary to divide liberalism into two periods: classical or negative liberalism and welfare or positive liberalism. In this unit we will study the classical liberalism. Such a division is necessary because in its initial phase liberalism presented itself as an ideology representing the philosophy of the emerging middle class, but in the later phase it developed into a philosophy of a national populace, all of society. Started adopting the ideal of safeguarding the interests of the classes and giving them protection.

Classical liberalism was the product of the revolutionary period. Therefore, in this liberalism against autocratic monarchy and feudal oligarchy, the interests of newly emerging capitalists were seen and understood against each other. On the other hand, the main feature of welfare liberalism was to accept the interests of the individual as well as the social values and the interests of the masses.

Welfare liberalism attempted not only to preserve the political and civil liberties that individualism had recognized in earlier times, but also to reconcile them with the progressive changes of industrialism and nationalism. For the time being, let us take a look at classical liberalism.

What is Liberalism?

Liberalism is a very dynamic and flexible concept and hence it is difficult to have a definite definition. Since its inception, it has been constantly changing, sometimes something has been added to it and sometimes something has been taken away from it. Elblaster writes, “Liberalism should not be seen as a fixed and absolute concept, nor should it be understood as a set of unchanging moral and political values. It has gone through many changes and hence its meaning needs historical and not static analysis.

• Laski says, “It (liberalism) is not easy to explain, even more difficult to define, because it is not a principle but a thinking/habit of the mind.”

• In the words of Hacker, “Liberalism is a general concept in the dictionary of politics. Only a brave man can define it precisely. It is the concept of the individual, the state and the relationship between the two.”

• Grimes has also expressed a similar view, “Liberalism is not a fixed doctrine, because bigotry has its detractors. It is a rather temporary/interim attitude to social problems (which emphasizes reason and human truthfulness)”.
• Liberalism looks forward, taking a flexible approach, striving to create a better future for more people. In contrast, conservatism looks backward, striving primarily to maintain past achievements.” Although liberal ideas date back three hundred years, the term ‘liberalism’ was not used until the early 19th century.

• According to Richard Valheim, . “Liberalism is the belief in the value of individual liberty.”

• According to Sartoro, “In simple and easy form, liberalism is the theory and practice of individual liberty, judicial security and constitutional state.” Bullock and Schock emphasize the belief in liberty and conscience as the twin foundations of liberalism. Grimes opines, “Liberalism represents a system of ideas aimed at achieving a pluralistic society that supports diversity of society, politics, economics, religion, and other cultural life. Wants to increase the freedom It wants to increase the individuality of the person in the field of choice and decision.

Lawsky writes, “The idea of liberalism is the sense of freedom. This sense can also constrain. For this reason, liberalism demands tolerance, especially of those ideas and trends that are considered dangerous, but which are considered humane.” Hallowell defines liberalism as the embodiment of the demand for freedom in every sphere of life – intellectual, social, religious, political and economic. Scapiro calls liberalism an attitude towards life – Skeptical, experimental, rational and independent.

In the words of Koerner, “Liberalism begins and ends with the ideals of individual freedom, individual human rights and personal happiness. Whatever the economic-social form of a liberal democratic society, these ideals are considered to be the main ones in liberalism.” “

According to Heiter, “Liberty is the essence of liberalism. To a liberal, the individual is everything rather than the society or any part of it, because liberty can be ensured only by prioritizing the rights of the individual.”

Andy Hacker has distinguished between four types of liberalism in his work Political Theory:

According to him, the main features of liberalism as a whole are as follows:

(i) independent life for the main execution of politics,

(ii) The function of the state is to suppress coercion and promote the necessities of a free life.

In his book, Using Political Ideas, Goodwin describes liberalism as having the following components:

(i) Individuals are independent, rational, self-correcting and autonomous,

(ii) Government is based on consent and contract,

(iii) Constitutionalism and rule of law,

(iv) liberty means choice including the choice of government from among different representatives,

(v) equality of opportunity,

(vi) social justice based on merit, and

(viii) Tolerance.

Characteristics of Liberalism

It is clear from the above description that liberalism is not only a political concept, but it is also a socio-economic, cultural and moral concept. This can only be understood by the characteristics it has developed over its long history. Hallowell has given the following characteristics of classical liberalism: