POLITICAL LIBERALISM

According to the Enlightenment, an intellectual bourgeois movement of the 18 th century, all

humans in the state of nature (when there is no government) are free and equal. This is the
reason why the only legitimate governments are those that protect our unalienable rights of
freedom and equality. All authoritarian political systems are illegitimate in the eyes of
enlightenment thinkers.
Liberal political systems are legitimate because they are based in popular sovereignty, which is
expressed through suffrage that can be of two types: restricted , more typical in moderate
liberalism; and universal, political systems that use this last type of suffrage are called
democracies.

When humans decide to abandon the state of nature to establish a government they create a
social contract which needs to be explicit, called constitution. The first enlightenment thinker
to propose this type of social contract was Montesquieu.
The last fundamental characteristic of liberal political systems is division of powers, necessary
to avoid absolutism or abuses of the government. The most typical organization is called trias
politicas and divides political power in 3 branches: legislative, executive and judicial. In
moderate liberal systems the most important branch is the executive, preferably with the
figure of a monarch. On the other hand, radical liberalism favors the legislative branch, with a
unicameral system.

Questions for political texts in the exam:

 In what outlook/s can we include these texts?

 Indicate how sovereignty is in text A and B and copy 1 evidence for each text to support your
answer.
 Indicate how suffrage is in text A and B and copy 2 pieces of evidence for each text to support
your answer.
 Define ‘constitution’. Explain briefly if the texts adjust to the definition of constitution and
justify your answer with 2 pieces of evidence from each text.
 Explain briefly how the division of powers is for text A and B and support your answer with 2
pieces of evidence from each text.
 Which of the texts bestow rights to the population? Justify your answer with 1 evidence. And
which establishes the mechanism/method to fix/alter the constitution? Copy 1 evidence.
 Keeping in mind your answer to the previous questions, Which text describes a liberal political
system? Explain in 5 lines aprox.
OLD REGIME/ANCIENT RÉGIME: political, economic and social system that
characterised the absolute monarchies of Europe during the Modern Ages (16th
-18th
centuries). It’s characterised by absolutism, mercantilism and the estate society.
ABSOLUTISM: the political doctrine and practice of unlimited centralized authority and
absolute sovereignty, as vested especially in a monarch or dictator. The essence of an
absolutist system is that the ruling power is not subject to regularized challenge or check
by any other agency, be it judicial, legislative, religious, economic, or electoral.
King Louis XIV (1643–1715) of France furnished the most familiar assertion of absolutism
when he said, “L’état, c’est moi” (“I am the state”). During the Modern Ages absolutist
monarchs had as source of legitimation the divine right.
DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS: in European history, a political doctrine in defense of
monarchical absolutism, which asserted that kings derived their authority from God and
could not therefore be held accountable for their actions by any earthly authority such
as a parliament.
Originating in Europe, the divine-right theory can be traced to the medieval conception
of God’s award of temporal power to the political ruler, paralleling the award of spiritual
power to the church. By the 16th and 17th centuries, however, the new national
monarchs were asserting their authority in matters of both church and state.
BUREAUCRACY: specific form of organization defined by complexity, division of labour,
permanence, professional management, hierarchical coordination and control, strict
chain of command, and legal authority.
MERCANTILISM: economic theory and practice common in Europe from the 16th to the
18th century that promoted governmental regulation of a nation’s economy for the
purpose of augmenting state power at the expense of rival national powers. It was the
economic counterpart of political absolutism.
ESTATE SOCIETY: Social organization characteristic of Europe during the Modern Ages.
It’s based in a hierarchical division in groups assigned by birth to which it corresponds a
series of privileges and duties. The most common organization is two privileged estates
-clergy and nobility-, and the Third Estate formed by the commoners.
BOURGEOISIE: the social order that is dominated by the so-called middle class. The term
bourgeois originated in medieval France, where it denoted an inhabitant of a walled
town. Its overtones became important in the 18th century, when the middle class of
professionals, manufacturers, and their literary and political allies began to demand an
influence in politics consistent with their economic status.
CONSTITUTION: the set of political principles by which
a state or organization is governed, especially in relation to the rights and duties of
the people it governs and the functions and limitations of the government. It is the
explicit form of the social contract.
STATE OF NATURE: in political theory, the real or hypothetical condition of human
beings before or without political association. The notion of a state of nature was an
essential element of the social-contract theories of the English philosophers Thomas
Hobbes (1588–1679) and John Locke (1632–1704) and the French philosopher Jean-
Jacques Rousseau (1712–78).
SOCIAL CONTRACT, in political philosophy, an actual or hypothetical compact, or
agreement, between the ruled or between the ruled and their rulers, defining the rights
and duties of each.
SEPARATION OF POWERS: division of the legislative, executive, and judicial functions
of government among separate and independent bodies. Such a separation, it has been
argued, limits the possibility of arbitrary excesses by government, since the sanction of
all three branches is required for the making, executing, and administering of laws.
SUFFRAGE: in representative government, the right to vote in electing public officials
and adopting or rejecting proposed legislation.
The history of the suffrage, or franchise (synonyme), is one of gradual extension from
limited, privileged groups in society to the entire adult population. Nearly all modern
governments have provided for universal adult suffrage. It is regarded as more than a
privilege extended by the state to its citizenry, and it is rather thought of as an
inalienable right that inheres to every adult citizen by virtue of citizenship.
In democracies it is the primary means of ensuring that governments are responsible to
the governed.
NATURAL LAW: in philosophy, system of right or justice held to be common to all
humans and derived from nature rather than from the rules of society, or positive law.
POSITIVE LAWS: (Latin: ius (right) positum)* are human-made laws that oblige or specify
an action. Positive law also describes the establishment of specific rights for an
individual or group. Etymologically, the name derives from the verb to posit. The
concept of positive law is distinct from "natural law", which comprises inherent rights,
conferred not by act of legislation but by "God, nature, or reason."
*POSIT (v.): “to assert, lay down as a position or principle," from Latin positus "placed,
situated, standing, planted," past participle of ponere "put, place“.
LEGITIMACY: popular acceptance of a government, political regime, or system of
governance. In political philosophy deals with questions such as: What are the right
sources of legitimacy? Is a specific political order or regime worthy of recognition? As
such, legitimacy is a classic topic of political philosophy.
Gaining legitimacy is a need that is not restricted to liberal democratic regimes but is
considered a basic condition of rule, because governing regimes without at least a
minimal amount of legitimacy would face deadlock or collapse. Therefore, every regime
seeks to justify its reign, and this justification can be based on various concepts. In
history there have been competition and changes between different concepts of
legitimacy. Traditionally, the reign of monarchs was justified on the grounds of their
divine origin. The Enlightenment helped to challenge this religious source
of legitimate rule, and democratic revolutions at and after that time declared the will of
the people to be the basic source of legitimacy.
SECULARISM: any movement in society directed away from otherworldliness* to life on
earth.
RATIONALISM: in Western philosophy, the view that regards reason as the chief source
and test of knowledge. Holding that reality itself has an inherently logical structure, the
rationalist asserts that a class of truths exists that the intellect can grasp directly. There
are, according to the rationalists, certain rational principles—especially in logic and
mathematics, and even in ethics and metaphysics—that are so fundamental that to deny
them is to fall into contradiction.
EMPIRICISM: in philosophy, the view that all concepts originate in experience, that all
concepts are about or applicable to things that can be experienced, or that all rationally
acceptable beliefs or propositions are justifiable or knowable only through experience.
This broad definition accords with the derivation of the term empiricism from the
ancient Greek word empeiria, “experience.”
PHILANTHROPY: voluntary organized efforts intended for socially useful purposes.
*OTHERWORLDLY: more closely connected to spiritual things than to
the ordinary things of life. Synonyms: ethereal, goshtly. Translation: etéreo, mistico,
sobrenatural, del otro mundo.
DEFINITIONS

CONSTITUTION: the set of political principles by which a state or organization is governed,

especially in relation to
the rights and duties of the people it governs and the functions and limitations of the
government. It is the explicit
form of the social contract.

STATE OF NATURE: in political theory, the real or hypothetical condition of human beings
before or without political
association. The notion of a state of nature was an essential element of the social-contract
theories of the English
philosophers Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) and John Locke (1632–1704) and the French
philosopher Jean-Jacques
Rousseau (1712–78).

SOCIAL CONTRACT, in political philosophy, an actual or hypothetical compact, or agreement,

between the ruled or
between the ruled and their rulers, defining the rights and duties of each.

SEPARATION OF POWERS: division of the legislative, executive, and judicial functions of

government among separate
and independent bodies. Such a separation, it has been argued, limits the possibility of
arbitrary excesses by
government, since the sanction of all three branches is required for the making, executing, and
administering of laws.

SUFFRAGE: in representative government, the right to vote in electing public officials and
adopting or rejecting proposed
legislation.
The history of the suffrage, or franchise (synonyme), is one of gradual extension from limited,
privileged groups in society to the entire adult population. Nearly
all modern governments have provided for universal adult suffrage. It is regarded as more than
a privilege extended by the state to its citizenry, and it is rather
thought of as an inalienable right that inheres to every adult citizen by virtue of citizenship. In
democracies it is the primary means of ensuring that
governments are responsible to the governed.

NATURAL LAW: in philosophy, system of right or justice held to be common to all humans and
derived from nature rather
than from the rules of society, or positive law.

POSITIVE LAWS: (Latin: ius (right) positum)* are human-made laws that oblige or specify an
action. Positive law also
describes the establishment of specific rights for an individual or group. Etymologically, the
name derives from the verb to
posit. The concept of positive law is distinct from "natural law", which comprises inherent
rights, conferred not by act of legislation but by "God, nature, or reason."
*POSIT (v.): “to assert, lay down as a position or principle," from Latin positus "placed,
situated, standing, planted," past participle of ponere "put, place“.

LEGITIMACY: popular acceptance of a government, political regime, or system of governance.

In political philosophy deals
with questions such as: What are the right sources of legitimacy? Is a specific political order or
regime worthy of
recognition? As such, legitimacy is a classic topic of political philosophy.
Gaining legitimacy is a need that is not restricted to liberal democratic regimes but is
considered a basic condition of rule, because governing regimes without
at least a minimal amount of legitimacy would face deadlock or collapse. Therefore, every
regime seeks to justify its reign, and this justification can be based on
various concepts. In history there have been competition and changes between different
concepts of legitimacy. Traditionally, the reign of monarchs was
justified on the grounds of their divine origin. The Enlightenment helped to challenge this
religious source of legitimate rule, and democratic revolutions at and
after that time declared the will of the people to be the basic source of legitimacy.

SECULARISM: any movement in society directed away from otherworldliness* to life on earth.

*OTHERWORLDLY: more closely connected to spiritual things than to the ordinary things of
life. Synonyms: ethereal,
goshtly. Translation: etéreo, mistico, sobrenatural, del otro mundo.