...promotion of constitutional reform. Discuss. (30) Individual rights are at both the centre of liberal philosophy and liberal party politics. From the days of classical liberalism, Locke discussed natural rights. The libertarian strand of liberalism with Nozick focuses on entitlement rights. The modern day Liberal Democrats state ‘the protection of civil liberties are at the heart of our purpose and philosophy’. Human rights help individuals gain freedom and liberty thus liberals must protect them. Also constitutional reform has been long connected to liberalism due to liberals fear of state power and want for individual freedom. Moreover, constitutional reform places balances and checks on government. The lib-dems have kept their loyalty to a more representative voting system within the coalition, shown through their instigation of the AV referendum in 2011. Human rights are rights that everyone is entitled to despite citizenship, for example freedom of speech. Lockes natural rights embodies human rights. Bentham dismissed natural rights as ‘nonsense on stilts’ stating that rights were but the child of law. The Lib-Dems support for Labours Human Rights Act shows protection of human rights/naturals rights but creating legislation. Modern liberals place rights to groups, not only individuals as the classical liberals promote, such as homosexuals in order to achieve equality of opportunity. The Liberals democrat party in the UK has shown its close association with the protection...
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...D’Andrea Coulter Traina Government 2305 09/10/10 Liberalism “If by a “liberal” they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without ridged reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people – their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a “liberal” then I’m proud to say I’m a liberal” – John F. Kennedy Liberalism “is a political philosophy or worldview founded on ideas of liberty and equality.” (Girvetz). Liberals stand for the protection of individuals from being harmed by others and who better to protect these individuals then the government. However, they have their cons about government. Liberals notice it’s possible that the government can be a threat to liberty. They believe in the system that makes sure the government protect the citizens of America, but prevents those who governs the people not to abuse their power. The different schools of political thought that fall under the banner of liberalism are that liberals have many ideas that they support such as free and fair elections, private property, civil rights, religion, freedom of the press, sex education, paying taxes, social programs (like food stamps, social security and health care…etc.), and free trade. Liberalism and conservatism make the two major political parties...
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...On what grounds have liberals defended constitutionalism? Liberals see constitutionalism as the practice of a limited government brought about by the existence of a constitution. The liberal support for constitutionalism is separated into two forms; external and internal constraints. This is important within liberalism because it allows the individual to be free from restrictions and stop the threat on individual liberty. External constraints limit powers of the government bodies and politicians, usually through legal checks. The most notable of which is a written constitution, this codifies what the government institutions can and cannot do. A written constitutional is written down in one single document, for example the US constitution. Within liberalism protecting the individual is most important aspect. Therefore liberals defends constitutionalism because an external constraint entrenches individual right by providing legal definition about the relationship between the state and the individuals themselves. The US constitution refers to this as the “bill of rights”. If there are no legal constraints, the government could act to benefit themselves at the expense of others. Internal constraints disperse the power among a number of institutions. This in turn creates a network of “checks and balances”. Montesquieu stated that “power should be a check to power”. Liberals defend constitutionalism because it stops the development of absolute authority or dictatorial power and...
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...Comparing two Ideologies Liberalism and Socialism Danny Milla Political Science Modern Theory Professor James Stone May 10, 2014 Introduction During the 20th Century the old type of economic system Feudalism, became virtually extinct. At this time two powerful economic systems came to be. First the command economy, which involved more government control of the economy, and second was the market type which believed in free trade and no regulation. This led to a new economic world order which changed the ideologies at the time. Socialism is regarded as the more left wing radicalization of liberalism. Socialism starts on the normative principles that started the bourgeois revolution. Liberal society seeks to embody these ideals of freedom, free trade, and capitalism. Socialism is a more extreme way of pushing forward for liberalism. As Etienne Balibar would say Liberalism’s core values liberty and equality exist in a state of tension with their supposed intentions in the structure of liberal society. This results in a struggle that tends to outrun the limits of liberal capitalism. For Americans socialism and liberalism have a distinct relationship. That binds the economic power into a market, which allows for trade and profit. But after this the ideologies of liberalism and socialism come into effect. Yet for the Europeans especially the left wing for them the idea of a relationship between these two is scandalous. Liberals see socialists as class...
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...Liberalism is a political doctrine that is based on the equality of people. A vast majority of liberal countries enjoy main freedoms that exist in the world today such as equality before the law, freedom of speech, right to a private property and many more (Doyle, Liberal Internationalism: Peace, War and Democracy, 1997). Therefore, there are barely any disputes between first world countries which embrace democracy and liberalism as the main doctrine of their governance. This essay argues about the impact of democracy towards peace and how comes peace is embraced successfully among the representatives of democracy. Following paragraphs briefly explain liberalism’s role in today’s world and society, how liberalism reflects in business, what...
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...Now, liberalism proponents disagree on how to define this minimum area, what types of states and institutions are most appropriate and so on, and what means should be used. But, generally speaking, the central claim of liberalism includes that the state must protect some minimum area of our individual freedom. A second central claim of liberalism is rationalism, this idea that human reason is seen as important. In other words, the critical reasoning of the individual is assumed to allow for improvements to be made to our societies. So this is an optimistic view of human nature, that we have individual freedom to use our reason to come up with better ways of living together in societies. And the third claim of liberalism that we'll mention today is...
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...advocates limited government, constitutionalism, rule of law, due process, individual liberties including freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and free markets Slide 2 Liberalism started as a major doctrine and intellectual endeavour in response to the religious wars gripping Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries, up until the cold war • Liberalism as a specifically named ideology begins in the late 18th century as a movement towards self-government and away from aristocracy. It included the ideas of self-determination, the primacy of the individual and the nation, as opposed to the family, the state, and religion, as being the fundamental units of law, politics and economy. • Liberalism first became a powerful force in the Age of Enlightenment, rejecting several foundational assumptions that dominated most earlier theories of government, such as nobility, established religion, absolute monarchy, and the Divine Right of Kings. • The first notable incarnation of liberal unrest came with the American Revolution, and liberalism fully flowered as a comprehensive movement against the old order during the French Revolution, which set the pace for the future development of human history. SLIDE 3 • The early liberal thinker John Locke, who is often credited for the creation of liberalism as a distinct philosophical tradition, employed the concept of natural rights and the social contract to argue that the rule of law should replace absolutism in government, that rulers...
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...Ideational liberalism Ideational liberalism views the configuration of domestic social identities and values as a basic determinant of state preferences and, therefore, of interstate conflict and cooperation. According to Moravcsik (1997: 525) social identity is defined as the set of preferences shared by individuals concerning the proper scope and nature of public goods provision, which in turn specifies the nature of legitimate domestic order by stipulating which social actors belong to the polity and what is owed them. Liberals take no distinctive position on the origins of social identities, which may result from historical accretion or be constructed through conscious collective or state action, nor on the question of whether they ultimately...
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...Socialism and Liberalism For hundreds of years people have been developing ideas on how governments should function and interact with their citizens. These ideas have run the gamut of possibilities from governments that control every aspect of life to governments with limited power where individual liberty is encouraged. Two ideologies that gained prominence in the 17th and 18th centuries were Liberalism and Socialism. Socialism is an ideology where citizens are best served by policies focused on meeting the basic needs of the entire society rather than by policies focused on serving the needs of individuals as individuals. (Grigsby, 2011) Liberalism arose from the writings of John Locke who believed in a limited government and protection of the rights of individuals, this is known as Classical Liberalism. This theory was expanded on in the 19th century and became known as Modern Liberalism. Modern liberals believe in an interventionist government and expansive liberty. (Grigsby, 2011) In recent years in the United States, some have tried to make these two ideologies synonymous. While they may share some characteristics these two ideologies are not the same. Socialism is not Liberalism and Liberalism is not Socialism. Interventionist government and expansive liberty are the two main points of Modern Liberalism. An interventionist government is government that takes a role in regulating economic and social interactions. (Grigsby, 2011) Expansive liberty is defined...
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...On what grounds have liberals defended constitutionalism? Constitutionalism refers to the idea of a limited government achieved through the existence, either of external and usually legal checks on the power of government, notably in the form of a written constitution, and internal checks on government brought about by institutional fragmentation. Liberals support constitutionalism because they fear that government may become a tyranny against the individual, based on the assumption that power is inherently corrupting and concentrations of power will lead to absolute corruption. This assumption is rooted in the liberal view of human nature: as individualism implies self- interest, those with power over others are apt to abuse it for their benefit and at the expense of others. Liberals support constitutionalism as the powers of government bodies and politicians can be limited by the introduction of external and, usually, legal constraints. Written constitutions codify the major powers and responsibilities of government institutions within a single document, the first such document was written in 1787 in the US. Where a country has neither a written constitution nor bill of rights, liberals stress the importance of statute law in checking government power through the principle of the rule of law. Another reason why liberals support constitutionalism is because it can be established by the introduction of internal constraints which are effective in dispersing political...
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...To what extent is there tension between Classical Liberals and Modern Liberals on equality? Ever since the breakdown of the feudal system, liberalism (coming from the latin liber, which translates as 'a class of free men') has since been implemented into society. Instead of being seen as just 'serfs' who had one purpose, people were now seen as individuals, which is the cornerstone of the liberalism ideology. Both classical and modern liberals believe that their differing opinions on the economy, the state, freedom and responsibility is in the best interest of the individual. Firstly, it's important to note that there are some places where both sets of Liberals agree on when it comes to the subject of equality. Both classical liberals and modern liberals do not think that individuals should have licence or absolute freedom since this would vastly encourage human's nature of being self-satisfying and egotistical creatures and would make life for everyone, in the words of Thomas Hobbes, “nasty, brutish and short”, since everyone would be vying with everyone else in society to fulfil their own needs. Instead, liberals believe that there should be a structure in place to defend people from their human nature, and we call this structure the state. However, classical Liberals and modern Liberals have different views on how much of a role the state should play. Classical Liberals believe that the state should have a very minimal role, only protecting the natural rights of...
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...Liberals and Conservatives When I think of the conservative view, the first thing that comes to mind is Adam Smith. Smith believed that individuals should have a natural right to obtain and protect proper nature materialistic, and the right to maximize their material well-being. Capitalism believes in competition within in the markets to endorse the public interest. In a capitalist system it encourages three major factors that effect the market and people. First, that it would lead to satisfaction of nations and individuals. Second, being in a competitive state it would force others to compete by drawing down prices and output would be at the highest due to the continuous competition. The most important factor in capitalism is that it creates innovations that are useful to society. Conservatives believe that buyers and sellers will react positive to innovations that benefit the society, while those that fall behind will be knocked out of competition. In order for this to work conservatives believe there has to be minimum interference with the market, also know as laissez-faire. No interference means no big government, no powerful unions, and no conspiring in trade. Conservative model isn’t a society without government, but a model that protects unnatural interference in the marketplace. To protect unnatural intrusion within business, the state should take such actions as deregulating industries, privatization of state-owned enterprises, and lower tax burdens. There...
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...Liberalism vs Realism Definitions 1. When realists observe the world system, they primarily see states struggling for power, each trying to consolidate its relative gain in a zero-sum game. The structure of the international system is thus rooted in this struggle, which is why realists contemplate little or no change in the structure of the international system. 2. A liberal, on the other hand, sees interdependence in the world system, a system in which every state cooperates on some level with other states. This cooperation is facilitated by institutions and established norms and ensures that every state maximizes its gain. Absolute gains, therefore, rather than relative gains, are the focus of liberals. In spite of the level of cooperation and interdependence existing between Nigeria and the United States, for instance, nothing in terms of the benefits accruing to both states could rightly be construed as "mutual." Nigeria's goal may be to try as much as possible to make the most of its oil wealth, even if it means producing below its prescribed OPEC quotas in order to sell at a higher price - a situation many strategists in Nigeria would welcome. America, on its part, may use its leverage as a global power to block any attempt by Nigeria to procure any form of debt relief from IMF as payback for Nigeria's unfavorable oil policy. The above hypothetical underlies my difficulty in truly appreciating the liberal analysis of the world system. It would seem that cooperation...
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...Gandhian liberalism M. K. Gandhi (1869-1948) requires no introduction even to the layman. “The Father of the Nation”,”Bapu”, and numerous other honorifics have long been affectionately applied to him by the citizens of India. His appearance on the Indian political scene in 1915 changed the face of Indian liberalism and made him the most influential and prominent liberal in India and I aim to shed more light on his theory of liberalism in this section of the essay. Gandhi acknowledged Gopal Krishna Gokhale as his political mentor. He took Gokhale’s strict liberal position and adapted it to fit what he believed to be India’s needs. The most radical departure was that Gandhi believed that the only way to ensure the British acceded to Indian demands was by non-violent protest or what he termed “Satyagraha”, unlike the traditional liberal who strictly adhered to the system and never attempted to work against it. Simply put, the liberals that preceded Gandhi such as Gokhale and Ranade were heavily shaped by western liberal movements and the British Whigs while he was able to provide Indian liberalism with its own distinct ideas. Gandhi heavily emphasised features of negative liberty in his agenda for the political, social and economic transformation of India. He favoured a government which was minimalistic in nature and occupied itself with maintaining law and order. He strongly believed in the maximum freedom of the individual as well. One distinctive feature of his thinking was...
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...Political Science 330 March 23, 2014 Liberalism vs Socialism There have been many ways countries/colonies have been governed throughout history. Some forms of government were able to lead their people using peaceful means. Some were chaotic and involved massive bloodshed. Liberalism derived from the word liberty is a form of that has two forms, classical and modern. Classical liberalism heavily rooted from Jock Locke and Adam Smith of the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Modern liberalism introduced around the nineteenth century uses classical liberalism as a structured base with some modified theorists from Jane Adams and T. H. Green. Socialism introduced around the early nineteenth century is another form of government which is similar yet different than liberalism. Socialists deriving from the word society, believe in meeting basic needs of the entire society. Socialism has two types as well which include Marxism-Leninism and social democracy. Socialists and liberals share similar positions on many social issues such as civil rights, gay rights and gender equality. They oppose racism and sexism as well as keep religion out of the government. Both forms of government support Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, minimum wage as well as other laws and regulations aimed at helping poor and working people. Classical and modern liberalism differ in slight but significant ways. In classical liberalism, the people are more important than the state. The people have their own...
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