Main features of the liberal tradition in political theory

Introduction

Liberalism is older than most political ideologies, and its philosophical roots go back to the social contract thinkers Hobbes and Locke. It is listed in Unit III of the syllabus with the Marxist, anarchist and conservative traditions. The question asks for its main features, which are best understood as a set of connected commitments about the individual, the state and freedom.

Main features of the liberal tradition

Liberalism is an ideology built on individualism, freedom, toleration and consent. It arose with the Renaissance and Reformation as the voice of the rising middle class, at first as a protest against hierarchy, privilege and the absolute authority of monarchs, and its slogan was freedom. Whatever the version, the central point is liberty: a liberal insists that the liberty of the individual is the first goal of public policy and treats the state as a means and the individual as the end, so that the state is at best a necessary evil. Following Locke, the main tenets can be set out as follows:

1. Natural rights. People hold rights, above all to life, liberty and property, by nature, and no authority may violate them; government exists to protect them and is formed and may be dissolved by the people.
2. Rational individuals. Men and women are rational creatures, and the dignity, independent existence and judgment of the individual must be respected in policy.
3. Civil liberties. Freedom of thought and expression, association and movement, personal freedom and strict observance of legal procedure.
4. Harmony of interests. There is no basic clash between a person's self-interest and the common interest.
5. Procedure over end-state. Liberals look for the right procedure in the spheres of freedom, equality, justice and democracy, rather than for a fixed result.
6. Artificial institutions. Civil society and the state are made by individuals to serve a common interest, and so rest on consent.

Two strands emerged: individualism, which stresses the rational individual (Locke and Adam Smith), and utilitarianism, which asks for the greatest happiness of the greatest number (Bentham and Mill). Politically liberalism supports democracy; economically it has gone with capitalism. Kant gave the strongest case for individual autonomy, a choice free of external pressure and of internal passions and guided by reason; Locke, Kant and Mill shaped the tradition, and Rawls, in A Theory of Justice (1971) and Political Liberalism (1993), set the terms of its contemporary debate.

Phases of liberalism

Classical liberalism. The early liberals sought liberty in every sphere and thought each person the best judge of their own interest. Their idea of negative liberty led to laissez-faire: freedom from government interference in economic life and a minimal state (Adam Smith, Bentham, James Mill, Spencer). Its distinguishing ideas are limited government, the rule of law, the inviolability of private property, freedom of contract and acceptance by the individual of their own fate; Locke supplied the classic form, in which the aim and justification of government is to protect life, liberty and property.

Modern liberalism, or welfarism. The Industrial Revolution concentrated profit in few hands, left the masses in poverty and produced slumps; the working class challenged laissez-faire. T. H. Green argued that poverty, disease, discrimination and ignorance now obstructed freedom more than government did, and only positive assistance by the state could remove them. Mill's distinction between self-regarding and other-regarding actions opened a field for state action, and Hobhouse and Laski denied that private property was an absolute right. The result was the welfare state, with Keynesian economic management after 1945.

Neo-liberalism. In the mid-1970s growth slowed, taxation and debt rose and Keynesian economics seemed to fail; Hayek, Friedman and Nozick revived classical liberalism, attacking the welfare state as a forced transfer from the more to the less competent and calling for free markets and a minimal state. Thatcher and Reagan applied it; India adopted liberalisation in the 1990s; and the crises of 2007 and 2009 led some to ask for renewed regulation.

Conclusion

The liberal tradition is united by the primacy of the individual and of liberty, the state as a created and limited instrument, and the protection of rights through law and consent. Its internal history shows a dynamic tradition that has responded to economic and social change, which is both its strength and the source of the criticisms levelled at it.