Understanding Political Theory

(UPT assignment)
On the topic of

“Liberalism”

Submitted by:
Debastuti Talukdar
What is liberalism?
Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy that prioritizes protecting and enhancing the
freedom of the individual, promoting individual rights and liberties, democracy, along with
free market and enterprise. The word ‘liberalism’ came about in the 17th century but it only
gained momentum in the 19th century. The three main aspects that are typically linked to the
concept of liberalism are, freedom of liberty for the individual, freedom of property, and
freedom of conscience.

Economically, liberalism as a theory emphasizes on individual freedom from restraint and on

the need for free competition and the self-regulating market, with no interference from the
state. And politically, it is largely based on the belief in progress, and the autonomy of the
individual as well as for the promotion and protection of political and civil liberties.

Types of liberalism
Liberalism is usually divided into 2 phases, the classical and the modern.

Classical Liberalism
Usually associated with the works of political thinkers such as John Locke, Adam Smith,
Thomas Paine, and other 20th century thinkers, classical liberalism’s primary ideas are those
of limited government, the rule of law, the inviolability of private property, the acceptance by
individuals of their own fates. In the 20th century, classical liberalism and its defenders were
not in favour of progressive ideas influenced by democratic values, distributive justice and
political arrangements like the welfare state.

John Locke’s idea of liberalism was perhaps the most ideal and influential, where it was
emphasized that the aim of the government is to protect the life, liberty and property of
citizens. Locke believed the government can achieve this via a system of justice defined and
made possible by law. The government guarantees the rights of life, liberty and property to its
citizens, and in turn the citizens are equally subject to accept the authority of the government,
as long as the government is able to justify its authority to its citizens.
Modern Liberalism
Best associated with the views of John Stuart Mill, modern liberalism establishes a positive
relationship between liberty (precisely positive liberty) and human progress. It is believed
certain social and economic ills can be addressed and even remedied by the state, thus
meaning it aims for increasing the functions that the state is supposed to carry out. It
promotes the value of distributive justice and the concept of welfare state.

Modern liberalism gives the utmost importance to individual autonomy; individuals are free
from external coercion, threat or manipulation as well as internal influences such as passions
and prejudice while making their own personal choices. Political thinker Immanuel Kant
strongly believed that all human beings are equal in their capacity for autonomy and he
furthermore expressed the belief that all humans deserve equal respect and dignity. John
Stuart Mill further agreed that it is not morally right to interfere with any individuals’ actions
even if they are motivated by irrational beliefs, as long as those actions do not harm others.

Both classical and modern liberalism have much in common, more specifically, both
traditions oppose absolute power, and there’s a common distrust of political authority and a
complete regard of the values of freedom and autonomy of the individual.

Contemporary Liberalism
Contemporary liberalism owes a lot of three remarkable political thinkers, John Locke,
Immanuel Kant and John Stuart Mill, whose ideas shaped modern liberalism. Another
political thinker monumental to contemporary liberalism is John Rawls, according to whom a
liberal state must not only guarantee that all its citizens have an equality of fundamental
liberty rights, such as voting, freedom of speech, religion and association but it must also
ensure that those who are least well-off are assured as good a life as possible.

An important characteristic of Rawls’ liberalism is that all citizens are entitles to live their
life in accordance to their own chosen values and beliefs and that the state is required to be
neutral to those choices, and neither the state nor the society can judge how someone wishes
to live their life, what religion they practice, etc.
It is claimed and believed that liberalism does not have single tradition and that there are
multiple liberalisms. Even though there exists a lot of contradictions among those, there are
still some common variants that tie liberal traditions together, such as the concept of man and
society. Liberalism is individualist and it aims to be egalitarian by conferring to all human
beings the same moral status.

Liberalism vs. Marxism

Marxism refers to the political and economic theories brought out by Karl Marx, especially in
regard to a capitalistic society. According to Marx, economic structure of a society, along
with its relations of production are the primary foundation of society. Historically, every
society has had some sort of tensions, contradictions or conflicts, due to why these societies
could not survive forever; and in a capitalistic society, these contradictions include
exploitation and social production with private ownership, which leads to conflict of interest
between the two primary classes, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. Marxism seeks to
explain the changes and developments in society due to the conflict between these two
classes and find ways and systems that would be better suitable to organize society.

Liberalism, on the other hand, emphasizes the idea of being free and equal with regard to
certain concepts like religion, trade, political freedom, civil rights, etc. whereas Marxism
focuses more on establishing a classless society.