Hoffman and Graham

·        World’s dominant ideology.

·        Liberals take individual freedom (liberty) as a fundamental value.

·        Although individual’s freedom can be limited, what defines liberalism is the presumption that freedom is a good thing. Limitations on freedom must therefore be justified.

·        Emphasis on equality, although less obvious, and the presumption that people are equal.

·        This generates major contradiction at heart of liberalism as: the exercise of freedom will often lead to inequality.

·        This can be reconciled if we assume people are ‘naturally’ equal. This means that political institutions must be justified to each individual, and each individual counts equally.

·        1998 Prohibition of the Purchase of Sexual Services Act in Sweden. New law was ‘catch-all’, in the sense it was radical and the buyer rather than the seller is criminalised.

·        From originally 6 countries in the 1950s, Europe now contains 27 members. Evidence of how far liberal democracy has spread.

·        Classical liberalism is employed to denote support for free trade and the free market.

·        Liberals emphasise freedom, and also emphasises equality – not necessarily material equality, but a basic moral equality.

·        4 main types of liberalism: liberalism as toleration, contractarianism, rights-based liberalism and utilitarianism.

·        Liberalism as toleration: Many historians of political thought locate the origins of liberal discourse in the struggle for religious toleration generated by the wars in the 16^th and 17^th centuries – ‘Wars of Religion’. They produced a philosophical discourse in which toleration of difference became a central concern. It generated a body of political reflection and writing that can be described as ‘liberal’.

·        Contractarianism: Hobbe’s Leviathan (1651), was published against the background of the English Civil War, which was, in part, a manifestation of the wider religious struggles in Europe. This is arguably the first significant work of modern political thought.

·        The conclusion Hobbe’s draws is that it is rational to submit to a powerful sovereign. Although this may not appear liberal, the way he reaches this conclusion draws on ideas which have become a major part of liberal reflection on the state. Hobbe’s asks us to imagine a situation where there is no state – the state of nature – and then decide whether it is better for us to remain in the state of nature or agree to submit to a sovereign.

·        Hobbes (1588-1679) is concerned to provide an argument against rebellion. A large part of Leviathan is concerned with blocking off theological arguments for rebellion.

·        Other classic contract theorists include Locke, Rousseau and Kant.

·        It went into decline around the end of the 18^th century. But Rawls is credited it with reviving it in the second half of the 20^th century.

·        Three-part structure to a contract theory:

1.      Description of a situation in which there is no state.

2.      An outline of the procedure for either submitting to a state or agreeing to a certain set of coercively enforced political principles – this is the ‘contract’.

3.      A description of what is chosen – the state or political institutions.

·        The Prisoner’s Dilemma is used to ‘model’ all three stages of the contract set out above. If we assume that the prisoners are purely self interested then each will attempt to achieve her first preference. It is not rational to remain silent while the other prisoner confesses, so the likely outcome is that each will confess. The explanation of how, through cooperation, each prisoner might move from third preference of 5 years each, to second preference (remaining silent and only receiving 1 year each) is a contemporary rendition of the reasoning behind Hobbe’s argument. Both confessing is equal to the non-cooperation that characterises the state of nature, the agreement to remain silent is equivalent to the contract itself, and the satisfaction of remaining silent equates to life under a state.

·        Characteristics of Hobbe’s thought which make him liberal:

1.      He implicitly entails a rejection of natural authority – the authority of the sovereign derives from a contract and not from inheritance or divine right.

2.      People are equal in the state of nature because, with stealth, the weakest can kill the strongest. Not a claim for moral equality.

3.      Hobbe’s basic method for the nature of the contract has remained in liberal thought.

·        Other contract theorist is Locke (1632-1704). Differs from Hobbes as he believes that liberty includes the right to rebel against the state. Hobbes believing in the absence of restraint. Locke also believes we are equal because no person has a natural right to subordinate another, Hobbes believes in equality in naturalistic rather than moral terms. Locke’s laws have a theological basis – we have a natural duty to preserve ourselves, a duty owed to God, who created us, whereas Hobbes did not have a theological aspect to his laws.

·        Utilitarians hold that political institutions function to increase the overall level of welfare – or utility – of a society. Contrasts with contractarianism and rights-based liberalism as utility maximization implies there is a thing called society which has aims over and above those of individuals.

·        Definition of utility differs with theorist: Bentham defines it as happiness and Mill as pleasure. Contemporary utilitarians by defining utility as preference satisfaction.

·        However, if we are utilitarians, how should we behave? – What gives people pleasure is completely open, i.e. if torturing another person gives you pleasure then it must be counted into what should be maximised. We cannot respect the law if breaking it will increase utility. Utilitarians cannot respect individual rights. You are as much responsible for what you allow to happen as what you do in a more direct sense of doing.  These criticisms are avoided by distinguishing between direct and indirect utilitarianism. Direct utilitarianism requires you seek to maximise utility on every occasion.

·        Utilitarians reject ‘natural authority’. People are free to express their preferences, and coercion is only justified in order to bring about the greatest good.

·        Utilitarianism grew in parallel with the development of democracy, but it was only in the twentieth century with the development of preference satisfaction as the definition of utility that a more direct link between utilitarianism and democracy was established.

·        At the heart of liberalism is the belief that people are naturally free and equal. Departures from freedom and equality require justification.

Goodwin

·        At the time of the revolution of 1688 Locke encapsulated the contemporary anti-authoritarian, secular idea of politics in his justification of constitutional monarchy, which is often perceived as the beginning of liberal theory.

·        An account for the origins of liberal theory is also given by Macpherson, who correlates the theories of Hobbes and Locke with the growth of the commercial middle classes.

·        Both Hobbes and Locke start by describing individuals in the state of nature, and that both consider the individual and his needs the basic explanatory unit of a systematic analysis of political society.

·        Macpherson emphasises the intimate connection of liberalism and capitalism.

·        The hallmark of the liberal is a concern with the limits of authority, and opposition to state interference with individual activities.

·        The preservation of the individual and the attainment of individual happiness are the supreme goals of a liberal political system, at least in theory. Violence is therefore prohibited except in a war to preserve liberal society itself.

·        The general consequence of individualism is to diminish the importance of the social whole.

·        The social whole is viewed as no more than the sum of its parts, and so cannot have a public interest of its own, or any rights against the individual – Atomistic view.

·        From the moral idealization of the individual stems the political necessity of liberty and also various cultural values which embody the notions of individuality, originality and self-distinction.

·        Liberalism assumes the individual to be essentially rational. The assumption of rationality also determines the form of political organization chosen, justifying participatory rather than authoritarian government.

·        Liberal thinkers made a virtue of selfishness. The pursuit of self-interest was accepted as man’s proper motivation.

·        Man’s spiritual side was acknowledged in the assumption that he is a free, rational, self-improving being. Locke considered man’s natural state to be that of freedom; the duty of government was to provide the conditions for him to enjoy the maximum possible freedom within a framework of law. This meant liberals condemned slavery and indentured labour.

·        The pursuit of self-interest can lead to cooperation or to competitive and aggressive behaviour. Competition should only arise when a shortage of resources prevents everyone’s being satisfied.

·        Liberal theorists are unwilling to invoke concepts such as the common good or the public interest. The only common good which classical liberals would recognize is the maximisation of the aggregate of individual benefits.

·        During the past three centuries, liberals have not taken the woman into account.

·        Government should be based on the consent of the people, which legitimizes it. Forms the basis of the affinity between liberalism and democracy.

·        In a state of nature there is no impartial judge, and so a community would be formed and a government would be constituted by majority decision to solve people’s problems.

·        Each individual gives up his natural rights of self-protection and the right to punish transgressors,. And the government takes on the duty of protecting its subjects’ rights.

·        A consequence of Locke’s social contract is that governments hold power on trust and in extreme cases the people may resist or overthrow a government which betrays this trust.

·        Although democracy is  not essential to liberalism, some form of constitution which limits the powers of government is.

·        The constitution and the law have parallel roles in liberal theory: the constitution, a form of higher law, prevents the government from transgressing against individuals while the law prevents individuals from transgressing against eachother.

·        From Locke onwards, liberals emphasized the role of law in ensuring individual liberty.

·        For classical liberals, only a small nucleus of regulatory laws should be enacted and that interventionist or paternalistic government should be avoided.

·        Freedom is an instrumental value which helps people to get what they want. Political, economic and social freedom is seen as a human necessity. Liberal conception of freedom has been widely identified with material choice.

·        Mill advocated freedom of speech, thought and religion as the right of every rational adult (male or female), to be curtailed only where their exercise threatens direct material harm to others.

·        A pluralist democracy is the political outcome of the liberal ideal of freedom.

·        Liberalism evolved in conjunction with capitalism, an economic system which operates on the basis of great inequalities of wealth and income.

·        Liberal theory formally equalizes individuals (by giving them equal rationality, equal self-interest, equal voting rights etc.) although real individuals have differential levels of wealth, competence and intelligence. These abstract equalities support the fiction that everybody starts the race of life equal.

·        Liberals wish to prove that competition takes place in a context of equality of opportunity which guarantees a fair outcome, with the most meritorious individuals gaining the rewards.

·        The natural inequalities of talent and energy would make equality of opportunity a myth.

·        Liberalism can argue that unlike conservatism, it is not an inegalitarian doctrine but one based on fundamental human equalities, out of which emerges differentiation based on the just reward of merit.

·        Individuals are said to gain rewards in proportion to their talents and merits and in exchange for their contribution to society.

·        A system of justice must not dictate a specific distribution of goods, but should establish rules by which people can fairly pursue their desires.

·        Tolerance facilitates the pursuit of individual interest.

·        For Mill, tolerance directs us to the truth.

·        From the ideal of tolerance derives the conviction that a pluralist society which accommodates a multiplicity of beliefs is necessary to the search for human good.

·        The value and importance of private (economic and social) life is enhanced at the expense of public or political life.

·        Locke separated the formation of society from the appointment of government. His theory of resistance suggests that he thought that society could still function in the absence of government.

·        This was different from Hobbe’s view that govt and society are coextensive: if one is overthrown the other disintegrates.

·        A strict distinction is drawn between the private and the public.

·        Many liberal theorists write as if the value of the individual, and of liberty, is neither time-bound nor culture-bound, but a universal necessity, and as if the model will operate forever. This is also Fukuyama’s claim.

·        Classical liberal ideology views society as a voluntarily and rationally constituted aggregate of self-interested individuals.

·        Thatcher echoed the classical view that society is no more than the vehicle whereby we pursue our interests and has no independent existence or value over and above that of individuals.

·        The most important human activities are deemed to take place in the economic and social spheres, which are self-regulating.

·        Green is one of the only theorists who does not discount the idea of the ‘common good’. He saw individuals as socially formed beings. For him, freedom was not merely the absence of legal restraint but the presence of opportunities for self-development.

·        The substance and joy of life is to be found in the private, not in the public sphere, and the virtue of the system is that it allows individuals the chance to satisfy themselves as they please within the limits of the law.

·        Both the economic and political theories of liberalism assume,  in different ways, the possibility of a harmony of private interests which ensures the good of all, if not the ‘common good’.

·        Utilitarianism has already been cited as the moral theory with the strongest links with liberalism.

·        The liberal formula aims to protect the rights of each individual, which constitute a limitation on the government’s power to promote the good of the majority.

·        Liberal theory is, then, a political doctrine which exalts the individual at the expense of the state and the social whole, and sees freedom as a condition for human happiness.

·        The permanent problem which liberals face is to find an appropriate division of powers between the individual and society: this changes over time, as social conditions alter.

·        Today, some of the most serious disputes arise over the freedoms granted to certain sections of the population which may detract from those of other groups; positive discrimination policies in educational institutions give rise to such disputes.

·        Neo-liberalism in the 1980s and 1990s again emphasized self-help and independence to combat what was perceived as welfare dependence.

·        The focus on the individual as a creature of the senses, rather than a soul, leads directly to liberalism’s central value, the pursuit of self-interest, for which the sanctity of human life is a necessary precondition.

·        If our definitions of good and evil are rooted in individual desires, and if people desire different objects, there is no appropriate way of judging between their definitions of the good: differences of morals must therefore be tolerated.

·        While liberalism guarantees the right to life, it offers fewer sureties about quality. However, self-preservation seems to be an instinctive principle.

·        The problems for a political theory based on subjective interest are: (1) whether to take only people’s apparent, felt or expressed interests into account; (2) whether to ignore their ‘perverse wants’; and (3) whether to modify (1) by imposing a category of ‘real’ interests, whose realization would benefit people even if they do not consciously want, or would reject, them.

·        For the liberal, expressed preferences are an important part of the practice of freedom as choice.

·        Individuals are said to know their immediate interests better than their long-term interests, which they tend to ignore.

·        Another problem which vexes the liberal account of interests is that of the ‘free-rider’. This maverick is someone who decides that it is in his interests not to contribute to a collective enterprise because he knows that he will get the benefits irrespective of his contribution.

·        The welfare state is defined here as an interventionist state which goes beyond the minimal state functions of providing defence and security of property, and legislates to improve people’s wellbeing, to a greater or lesser extent. First, they can be seen as straightforward interference with individual freedom. Second, welfare measures can be viewed as tantamount to interfering with individuals for their own good, sometimes in defiance of their express wishes.

·        Olson’s conclusion is that coercion is needed to make everyone contribute fairly to the cost of public or collective goods.

·        How, then, can a liberal-democratic government act to promote individual wishes and social goods simultaneously? Here lies the permanent dilemma of liberalism.

·        Libertarianism is one of three contemporary doctrines. It is an anti-state ideology which takes liberalism to its logical extreme. The fundamental belief of libertarians is Lockean: the right to life, liberty and property. This requires ‘elimination of coercive intervention by the state, the foremost violator of liberty’. The state is to be reduced to a mere ‘protection agency’.

·        The political demands of libertarians typically include the abolition of taxation of the welfare state, of government economic intervention, of immigration controls and of ‘victimless crimes’ such as drug-taking and prostitution. On the positive side, they advocate free speech, no censorship and total laissez-faire.

·        Another influential development of liberalism is the theory of pluralism: pluralist society is composed of many different interest and opinion groups who are obliged to cooperate and compromise in order to promote their own interests.