Liberalism Tutorial 1: The origins & values of Liberalism
Liberalism is the oldest of the modern ideologies.
Its founding father was John Locke (1632-1704).
It emerged in the Enlightenment as a response to absolute monarchy, or absolutism.
Also known as the ‘Age of Reason’, the Enlightenment saw the old ideas of natural hierarchy, the authority of the established church, and the ‘divine right of kings’ swept away by radical notions of liberty, reason and individualism.
At its heart lies the belief that we are all rational individuals capable of independent thought. In feudal Britain people gained their identity not as individuals, but by the community to which they belonged (the family, the village, the social class, etc).
As free thinking individuals we should be able to question the old established order, which was hierarchical and based on the ‘Divine Right of Kings’. Charles I had claimed: “I owe the account of my actions to God and God alone”. Absolutism was central to a hierarchical feudal world in which the social order was fixed and unchanging.
The English Civil War (1642-51) and the Glorious Revolution (1688) saw a shift in power away from the monarch towards Parliament.
Absolutism was replaced by constitutionalism, limiting the power of government and ensuring government by consent. Governments should exist by the consent of the people, but only in-so-far as they protect the individual rights of citizens.
Liberalism flourished among the new merchant classes of the period.
Thus liberalism is based upon rationalism, individualism, rights, consent, tolerance, justice, limited government, constitutionalism and free market economics.
The Core Values of Liberalism
Value: Individualism
To liberals, humans are rational, self-interested individuals capable of independent thought.
This idea represented a radical departure from the fixed hierarchical social order found in feudal society, where everyone obediently understood their place.
The liberal view is that everyone is unique with their own abilities and distinctive qualities.
It follows, therefore, human beings are born of equal worth and achieve status through competition and merit: liberals believe in meritocracy (rule by those who deserve their position by merit rather than by accident of birth).
Thus the liberal view of society is atomistic: society is made up of individuals, like tiny atoms.
Some liberals take this view further to suggest that society does not really exist at all, that it is an illusion. At its more extreme, as Margaret Thatcher put it, “There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families.”
The view suggests that everyone is self-seeking, self-reliant and egotistical.
However, others believe that such egoism is “tempered by a sense of social responsibility” (5).
As the Liberal philosopher Samuel Smiles agued, individuals are capable of self-improvement and consequently the history of humankind has been a history of progress.
Value: Liberty/freedom
Liberty is the principle which gives the ideology its name.
Liberalism began as a call for liberty or freedom (the terms are interchangeable) from the tyrannical power an absolute monarch.
If set free rational individuals can achieve far more than if they are tethered by the bonds of feudal society.
Liberty allows progress: it allows individuals to develop their talents and skills.
This is apparent in the view that Adam Smith proposed of market economies.
In his book, The Wealth of Nations (1776), he argued that economies function best when they are free from the ‘dead hand’ of government interference.
Liberals therefore believe that the role of government should be limited to that of an ‘arbiter’ (referee), between competing interests and allow the free market to operate freely.
However, it would be wrong to assume that liberals believe that freedom is absolute and should never go unchecked.
Writing in 1859, J.S. Mill advocated the ‘harm principle’.
In his book, On Liberty, Mill argued: ‘the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others’ (useful quote).
Mill proposes that individuals should be free to do as they choose as long as they do not harm others.
Positive vs negative freedom
There is also a dichotomy within Liberalism with regard to freedom.
Classical Liberals (the earliest liberals) believed in what Isaiah Berlin defined as ‘negative freedom’, that is: freedom from.
To Classical Liberals, people are free if they are unchained. As Hobbes put it: “Liberty signifieth properly the absence of…. external impediments of motion”.
In other words, as long as we are not physically restrained, we are free.
Modern or progressive liberals have a different view.
Recognising that some are trapped in poverty by the worst excesses of capitalism and therefore, although unchained, were not free, they believe in what Berlin calls ‘positive’ freedom, or ‘freedom to’.
This can take many forms, including, for example, freedom to be educated and freedom to enjoy free healthcare at the point of access.
Positive freedom therefore underpins the doctrine of equality of opportunity and self-actualisation (realising your potential) and requires a more significant role for the state than classical liberals would allow.
The state, argue progressive liberals such as T.H. Green, has a moral duty to protect the most vulnerable in society.
Value: Reason/Rationalism
Rejecting the superstition and mysticism of the middle ages, early liberal thinkers placed trust in the power of human reason.
They shared an optimistic view of human nature, believing that the history of humankind is one of unlimited progress, characterised by the growth of knowledge.
If people are capable of independent rational thought, the argument goes, they should be free to choose their own destiny: free from government interference, able to trade in a free market, and freely able to consent to a government.
It therefore follows that government should be limited, laissez faire economics should prevail, and free and fair elections should be held regularly.
Moreover, reason and debate are important principles, and liberals therefore believe that disputes should be settled through rational negotiation rather than war.
Accordingly, Liberals place great importance on self-improvement and education.
Gladstone’s government introduced significant educational reforms in the nineteenth century and in the twenty first century the party has been opposed to university tuition fees.
Reason and education free us from the weight of custom and tradition, allowing progress to occur.
It follows, too, that if individuals know what is best for themselves and are most likely to develop if they can make their own choices in life (and learn from their own mistakes).
Liberals reject the paternalism of conservative thinking.
Value: Tolerance
It also follows that if humans are rational creatures capable of independent thought, there will be a diversity of views.
Liberals believe that such diversity should be tolerated as debate is healthy and citizens have the right to hold divergent ideas.
Locke defended religious tolerance and, championing the rights of religious and political dissenters.
Voltaire said, “I detest what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it”. (useful quote).
J.S. Mill believed that the truth can only be found through discussion when people are open to criticism. He argued, “If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”
Liberals argue that the oppression of free thought and free expression creates a stagnant society and makes progress impossible. Tolerance is therefore and important principle as it ensures the health of democratic society and is associated with pluralism (the idea that society is made up of diverse and competing groups). Liberalism, born of dissent, allows for dissent.
Limits to Tolerance
However, tolerance is not absolute in liberal thought.
Mill argued that the actions of others should be tolerated as long as they harmed no one else.
The harm principle argues that, as individuals, we are free to do whatever we choose as long as we do not harm others.
Mill believed that there are self-regarding actions (those actions which do not physically harm others) and other-regarding actions (those actions which may harm others).
An example might be as follows: if I drink six pints of beer on my own, that is a self-regarding action because the consequences are unlikely to harm others.
However, if I drink six pints of beer and attempt to drive, that is an other-regarding limitations to the freedom of individual, threats to states, discrimination, and incitement to criminal activity.
Tolerance, liberals believe, allows personal morality to be a matter of choice. Neither the state nor society has a place in private matters.
Value: Rights
Liberals believe that in a fair and just society everyone should have equal rights.
Locke argued that “every man may enjoy the same rights that are granted to others”.
Among the classical liberals, Locke and Paine believed in natural rights (rights which can be deduced from nature and which are God given, such as the right to life).
Indeed, Locke believed that some rights are inalienable (cannot be taken away or made ‘alien’) which included ‘life, liberty and property’ (transposed by Jefferson in writing the American constitution to ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’).
Today we would consider human rights as natural rights.
The concept of natural rights assumes that humans are naturally rational and good.
However, Jeremy Bentham and J.S. Mill dismissed the idea of natural rights, saying that the only natural inclination is to pursue our own self-interest. Bentham called Locke’s ‘natural rights “nonsense on stilts” (useful quote).
For them, rights are not natural, they are an entirely legal entity created and recognised through codified constitutions (for example, the Bill of Rights in the USA).
Progressive liberals, who came later, would agree that everyone should have equal rights achieved through equality of opportunity and realised through a meritocracy.
To this end the modern liberals have supported the rights of minority groups.
Value: Justice
Fairness and justice are themes which run throughout liberal thinking.
For example, from the early twentieth century liberals have felt that the electoral system used in general elections in the UK is unjust and in coalition government they pushed for a referendum on the AV system in 2011, resulting in defeat for the AV supporters.
Liberals strongly support the rule of law (no one is above the law).
Value: Limited Government & constitutionalism
If individuals capable of free thought and reason, it follows that they are best able to make their own choices in the world.
People should be free to choose what is best for them in life and in commerce.
The role of government should therefore be minimal, for liberals would ask what right a government has to interfere in the lives of rational citizens.
John Locke proposed that it is the duty of the state, to safeguard the basic rights of its citizens, but governments have no role beyond that duty. He called this the ‘nightwatchman state’.
Citizens consent to be governed only as long as the government protects their basic rights, and failure to do so would lead to a withdrawal of popular consent.
This facilitates democracy in which governments require the consent of the majority, yet in which the rights of minorities are upheld.
Thus governments should be limited in their powers.
This is best done by a constitution which codifies the separation of powers and the rights of its citizens.
Liberals therefore believe in constitutionalism (the limiting of government power by constitutions).
This also accords with the classical liberal view that governments should not interfere with the market place. Free trade should be allowed as governments cannot control the forces which govern commerce.
As Thomas Jefferson remarked, “That government is best which governs least.”
According to classical liberals like Adam Smith, governments are best served by adopting a laissez faire approach to the economy.
Test Yourself on the values and origins of liberalism
Who was the founding father of liberalism?
What is liberalism a response to?
According to liberals, what are individuals capable of?
Why should governments have only limited powers?
What is meritocracy?
What did Voltaire say about tolerance?
What limits did J.S. Mill place on tolerance?
Why did Bentham and Mill dismiss the idea of natural rights?
Liberalism Tutorial 2: Key Thinkers (Classical Liberals)
Classical Liberals:
Classical Liberals, from Locke to Mill, emphasised the importance of natural rights, free trade economics, laissez faire government limited by constitutionalism, rational thought and individualism.
John Locke (1632-1704)
The founding father of liberalism
Locke believed in ‘natural laws’, which ensured that most men do not harm the lives, health, liberty or property of others.
From these he discerned ‘natural rights’ which he believed were inalienable (i.e. cannot be taken away), which he defined as the right to ‘life, liberty and property’.
Locke believed that governments should only be created with the consent of the people.
It was the job of government to protect the individual rights of citizens and failure to do so would result their consent to govern being withdrawn.
Governments should be limited in their role to that of an arbiter between competing individual interests and rights, or what he called the “nightwatchman” state.
From his works emerge the liberal principles of individualism, rationalism, rights, limited government, a social contract, government by consent, the separation of powers and checks and balances.
Montesquieu (1689-1755)
A French philosopher who articulated the theory of the separation of powers.
He feared that political power was too potent to be held by one authority.
Accordingly, he identified three functions of government which he believed should be held separately:
Adam Smith (1723-1790)
An economist who emphasised free market economics.
He believed that the market was governed by an ‘invisible hand’ which was beyond the understanding of mortals.
He therefore advocated laissez faire (meaning ‘let it be’) government, arguing that the state should have no role in regulating the economy which should be left to the whims and fortunes of the market.
The lack of regulation which he envisioned also applied to employment law.
His theories were described in his influential work, The Wealth of Nations (1776).
A classical liberal, Smith’s ideas were revived by neoliberals in the 1970s.
His face still appears on the £20 note!
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
The founding father of utilitarianism.
He saw humans as self-interested creatures who seek to maximise their utility (or happiness).
Individuals are best able to judge for themselves what is in their own interests.
We seek pleasure and avoid pain and should be allowed to make those decisions for ourselves (unless we harm others).
This is enlightened self-interest and fits with free market capitalism.
He believed it is possible to measure utility (happiness) arising from consuming goods.
Governments should make decisions on the basis of whether the total utility (happiness) is increased or reduced: ‘the greatest good of the greatest number’ (a useful quote).
He disagreed with Locke on the issue of natural rights, describing them as “nonsense upon stilts”.
He believed that rights are a human invention and therefore not natural at all.
They could only be justified if they promoted greater ‘utility’ or human happiness.
For example, Locke would argue that everyone had a natural, inalienable right to life. But utilitarian’s would argue that a terrorist on a passenger plane about to detonate a bomb forfeits their right to life. Killing the terrorist before they detonate the bomb would ensure the greatest good of the greatest number (the survival of the other passengers).
Samuel Smiles (1812-1904)
A Scottish author and reformer whose contribution to Liberalism was to advocate the idea of self-help.
In his book, Self Help, he declared that ‘Heaven helps those who help themselves’ (useful quote).
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-78)
A Geneva-born French philosopher, identified with the French Revolution, whose greatest contribution to liberalism was the idea of the Social Contract.
He was influenced in his thinking by Hobbes, but his view of human nature is less pessimistic than that of Hobbes.
Rousseau distinguishes between man as a natural being (free and innocent, a ‘noble savage’) and man as a social being (corrupted by education and social influences) saying, “Man is born free, yet everywhere he is in chains” (useful quote).
He believed that citizens forfeit their natural freedoms and rights for the freedom and rights of civilised society.
He argued that the state is created by individuals for individuals, and that true freedom can only be found in communal life where everyone is equal.
People should therefore forfeit their rights unconditionally to the community and the will of the people is expressed through the General Will of society (which is greater than the sum of ‘petty self-interest’).
Tom Paine (1737-1809)
A political activist who contended that “government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil” (useful quote).
He argued for the rights of man above the rights of the state.
He supported the American War of Independence (“We have it in our power to begin the wold over again”) and the French Revolution.
He wrote The Rights of Man in 1791 as a defence of the French Revolution.
James Madison (1751-1836)
One of the Founding Fathers of the United States who was responsible for drafting the first ten amendments of the United States Constitution, which became known as the ‘Bill of Rights’.
Madison believed supported federalism, bicameralism, the separation of powers and the importance of checks and balances to prevent tyranny.
He was the fourth president of the United States.
J.S. Mill (1806-73)
A political philosopher and politician whose ideas provided a transition between classical and progressive liberalism.
Mill contributed the notion of the ‘harm principle’ to liberal thinking: the notion that an individual should be free to choose their own actions as long as they did not harm others.
Mill also believed in individualism, famously saying, “Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign” (useful quote).
He also supported Bentham’s utilitarianism.
Test Yourself on Classical Liberal Thought
Who was the founding father of liberalism?
What are inalienable rights?
What should a government do to gain consent to govern?
What did Locke mean by a ‘nightwatchman’ state?
What three powers of government did Montesquieu discern?
Why did Adam Smith propose free market economics?
Who advocated ‘heaven helps those who help themselves’?
On what did Bentham disagree with Locke?
What is utilitarianism?
What was Rousseau’s greatest contribution to liberalism?
What did Tom Paine argue for?
How did Tom Paine describe government?
What did James Madison draft?
What is J.S. Mill’s harm principle?
Liberalism Tutorial 3: Key Thinkers (Progressive/Welfare Liberals)
Progressive Liberals:
Progressive liberalism (sometimes known as ‘new’ or ‘modern’ liberalism) emerged as a response to the inequality which resulted from unregulated free market economics.
Poverty, unemployment and relative deprivation as a result of the worst excesses of capitalism challenged the principles of classical liberalism.
Hard work and talent alone would not guarantee success in the world. Progressive liberals, such T.H. Green, recognised that there were those trapped in poverty through no fault of their own.
Self-reliance and self-improvement could only occur providing that people had the opportunity for self-improvement in the first place.
Central to progressive liberalism is the promotion of equality of opportunity and self-actualisation (realising your potential).
This could only occur by the provision of greater state intervention in welfare and education, exemplified by Gladstone’s education reforms and Lloyd George’s pension scheme.
Progressive Liberals believed that the conditions of the poor could be ameliorated only through collective action coordinated by a strong welfare-oriented interventionist state.
Classical Liberals support economic freedom and limited government, whereas progressive liberals emphasise the need for the state to protect the poor and to provide a safety net through welfare.
T.H. Green (1836-1882)
Is regarded as the founding father of progressive or new liberalism, believing that humans were essentially altruistic (unselfish).
He argued that poverty was not simply a matter of idleness.
Economic freedom can lead to exploitation.
Therefore the state should provide opportunities, through education and welfare, to enable those trapped in poverty to escape their condition.
It should be an ‘enabling’ state.
He was therefore a proponent of equality of opportunity and positive freedom.
His influenced extended to other ‘new liberals’ such as L.T. Hobhouse (1864-1929) and J.A. Hobson (1854-1940).
Lloyd George (1863-1945)
Though not a political philosopher, Lloyd George was responsible for the early implementation of progressive liberal ideas.
He introduced the People’s Budget (1909), which laid the foundations for national insurance and pensions.
It was the ensuing constitutional battle over the budget that saw the power of the unelected House of Lords diminished.
Welfare Liberals:
In many respects, welfare liberalism is an inevitable development of progressive liberalism (some see it as a subset of progressive liberalism), providing a response to the economic downturn of the 1930s.
The comprehensive welfare state built in the UK after the Second World War, although work of the Labour Party, was largely designed by two liberals, John Maynard Keynes, who laid the economic foundations, and William Beveridge, who designed the welfare system.
Welfare liberalism seeks to provide a more extensive interventionist state to provide ‘cradle to the grave’ care for the most disadvantaged in society.
J.M. Keynes (1883-1946)
Keynes was commissioned by Lloyd George in 1927 to consider ways of tackling unemployment.
The resulting economic theory, known as Keynesianism, became the economic orthodoxy throughout the middle of the twentieth century.
It involved state funding on infrastructure projects (dams, roads, railways, etc) to ‘reboot’ an ailing economy, the best example of which is Roosevelt’s New Deal scheme and the building of the Hoover Dam.
He argued that it is the responsibility of governments to regulate the economy to avoid unemployment.
Keynes’ ideas heavily influenced the post-war Attlee government.
William Beveridge (1879-1963)
Beveridge was briefly a Liberal MP (1944-45) and the architect of the NHS and the welfare state.
His ideas, outlined in the Beveridge Report of 1942, were adopted by Clement Attlee in the post-war Labour government.
In his report he recommended that the government should find ways of fighting the five 'Giant Evils' of Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness.
Test yourself on Progressive/Welfare Liberal Thought
What are the key differences between classical and progressive liberals? (Note: one difference is to do with the role of the state; the other is to do with Berlin’s distinction between positive and negative freedom).
Who is the founding father of progressive liberalism?
What type of equality do progressive liberals promote?
What progressive liberal policy did Lloyd George introduce?
What does welfare liberalism seek to provide?
What is Keynesianism?
What did William Beveridge propose?
Liberalism Tutorial 4: Key Thinkers (Neoliberals/Libertarians)
Neoliberals and Libertarians:
Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is more associated with Thatcher’s Conservative Party than with the Liberal Party.
It was inspired by the economist Friedrich von Hayek and revived a classical liberal approach to the economy.
It advocates a reduction in the size and role of the state by promoting privatisation (Thatcher privatised the public utilities) and deregulation (Thatcher deregulated financial services).
Harking back to Adam Smith, neoliberals support limited government which adopts a laissez faire solutions to economic problems.
Libertarianism
Libertarians, such Robert Nozick, believe in a still more minimal role for government.
They advocate extreme individualism, believing that the rights of individuals outweigh those of the state.
The state should not interfere in the lives of citizens.
Libertarians are committed to the notion of private property and the freedom and privacy of individuals.
They argue against redistributive taxation and an interventionist, welfare state.
At its extreme, libertarians would argue that even law and order and the execution of justice is the responsibility of private individuals and not the state.
Such views have gained popular currency amongst some citizens of southern states in the United States.
Robert Nozick (1938-2002)
An American academic and political philosopher who is regarded as a libertarian and who influenced New Right thinking.
He believed in upholding legitimate property rights and the importance of minimal government and minimal taxation, undermining state welfare and wealth redistribution.
John Rawls (1921-2002)
An American academic and political philosopher, whose most important work is A Theory of Justice (1970).
Rawls sought a fair society based on the concept of a ‘veil of ignorance’ (if those who shaped society knew nothing about themselves, they would ensure that their policies did nor prejudice one social group in favour of another: they would regard an egalitarian society as ‘fairer’ than an unequal society).
He proposed the ‘difference principle’, according to which ‘All social primary goods – liberty and opportunity, income and wealth, and the bases of self-respect – are to be distributed equally unless unequal distribution of any or all of these goods is to the advantage of the least favoured.’
Social inequality, therefore, could only be justified if it benefitted the poorest in society (a position adopted by Blair and Mandelson in New Labour’s ‘enterprise culture’).
His work has therefore influenced modern social democratic thought.
Test Yourself on Neoliberal/Libertarian thought
Which neoliberal economist influenced Margate Thatcher?
What do neoliberals believe?
What do libertarians, such as Nozick, believe?
What Rawlsian position did Blair’s New Labour adopt?
Tutorial 5: A History of the Liberal Party
In the UK liberalism has found its expression principally, though not exclusively, through the Liberal Party and latterly the Liberal Democrats.
The Liberal Party was officially formed in 1859. Its roots lay in the Whigs, a radical parliamentary grouping inspired by the Glorious Revolution of 1688 which sought to limit the role of the monarchy and proposed religious tolerance and electoral reform.
The newly formed Liberal Party enjoyed being in government throughout much of the second half of the nineteenth century. It sought to promote free trade in order to improve the prosperity of all.
However, early on in the history of the party the tensions between the classical liberal position on free trade and laissez faire government and the progressive liberal position on government intervention to create greater equality of opportunity emerged.
Gladstone was the Liberal Prime Minister throughout much of this period and among his reforms were the introduction of a progressive income tax and the first education act in 1870.
The Liberal Party entered a secret electoral pact with the newly-formed Labour Party in the 1906 general election, winning another turn in government.
It was during this period of government that Lloyd George, a progressive liberal Chancellor, introduced the 1909 People’s Budget which partly aimed to establish pensions and national insurance.
The subsequent conflict with the House of Lords was one of the defining episodes of twentieth century British politics and the ensuring constitutional reform established the primacy of the House of Commons.
Leading a wartime coalition government, the Liberals found themselves implementing conscription (which runs counter to the liberal values of liberty and individualism) and nationalisation of key industries (which runs counter to their free market principles).
By the end of the war, the Liberal Party was a spent force, its electoral base spread too thinly.
Although the Liberal Party no longer enjoyed sufficient electoral support to win a majority in parliament, the influence of liberals on British politics remained significant throughout the middle of the twentieth century. In the late 1920s Lloyd George commissioned John Maynard Keynes to consider how to tackle an ailing economy. Keynes developed an economic theory which proposed spending public money on infrastructure projects to alleviate unemployment and thereby boost the economy. Keynesianism became the economic orthodoxy of the mid-twentieth century and informed much of the programme of Attlee’s post-war Labour government.
Another influential liberal throughout this period was William Beveridge who briefly served as a Liberal MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed between 1944 and 1945. In 1942 Beveridge produced a report to tackle the ‘Five Giant Evils’ of ‘Squalor, Ignorance, Want, Idleness and Disease’ and the ‘Beveridge Report’, as it became known, influenced the formation of the NHS and the welfare state under Attlee’s government.
The fortunes of the Liberal Party nosedived in the 1950s. In the general election of 1957 it returned just five MPs and there was speculation that the party was being driven to extinction.
Their revival, when it came in the 1970s, was produced by building up support in local elections. Community politics, or ‘pavement politics’ as it was called, became a hallmark of the Liberal strategy and the number of Liberal councillors mushroomed. In February 1974 there was talk of a deal to keep the Conservative Party in government, but their condition of electoral reform was rejected by the Conservatives. Instead, in 1977, they entered a brief pact with the ailing Labour government which was ended over their failure to extract sufficient concessions from Labour.
The fate of the Liberal Party took a new and surprising twist in the 1980s. Four high-profile members of the Labour Party resigned over its leftward drift and formed a new centre-ground party, the Social Democratic Party, or SDP. Attracting further MPs from both the Labour and Conservative parties the SDP quickly grew in size and, in 1983, it formed a formal electoral alliance with the Liberals. They shared common principles around Europe, electoral reform, and a mixed economy. Some polls excitably predicted that the SDP would win over 600 seats in 1983. In fact it won just six. Overall the Liberal SDP Alliance won 25% or the votes, but just 23 seats in the House of Commons (Labour secured 28% of the vote but 209 seats). Yet again the electoral system worked against the Liberal Party.
In 1988 the Liberal Party and the SDP merged. Under its new leader, Paddy Ashdown, the Liberal Democrats, as they became, they positioned themselves around progressive liberal ideas. In particular they supported worker and consumer rights and the rights of minority groups. They sought to raise income tax to invest in education and they entered into secret negotiations with New Labour in order to end the Conservative hegemony of British politics, thereby ending their stance on being equidistant from the two main parties.
When Blair’s New Labour Party won the general election of 1997, they supported the government’s constitutional reforms, particularly devolution and the reform of the House of Lords. A prominent Liberal Democrat, Lord Jenkins, was also commissioned by Blair to undertake a review of the electoral system, but the recommendations of the Jenkins Commission, presented in 1998, were quietly dropped in the wake of New Labour’s landslide victory.
In 1999 Charles Kennedy was elected leader of the Liberal Democrats. An ex-SDP MP, Kennedy positioned the party to the left of New Labour. Their policies included increasing taxes to help fund public services, a new 50% top rate income tax and a new local income tax to replace the council tax. The Kennedy years saw opposition to a number of New Labour policies, notably the introduction of university tuition fees and proposals for introducing a national ID card scheme and a DNA database and for increasing detention without trial for terror suspects. They were also the only mainstream party in Westminster to oppose the Iraq War, gaining Muslim voters in the 2005 general election, and to promote environmentalism.
In a fringe meeting of the 2004 party conference a group of young Liberal Democrats launched a book which was to have a profound influence on the dichotomy between the classical and progressive liberal perspectives that jostle to inform party policy. Among the authors of The Orange Book: Reclaiming Liberalism were Nick Clegg, Vince Cable, Chris Huhne and David Laws, all of whom were later to hold positions within the 2010 coalition government. The Orange Book called for classical liberal solutions to the issues of today, including private sector involvement in public services, including the prison service, and a return to economic liberalism. Arguably this book helped to facilitate the possibility of the Liberal Democrats entering a coalition with the Conservative Party in 2010, signalling a shift from the left of centre position which Kennedy espoused.
Despite this, Liberal Democrat policies since the publication of The Orange Book have demonstrated a continuing commitment to progressive liberal ideas and in coalition government the Liberal Democrats claim to have been a moderating influence. Under the brief leadership of Menzies Campbell they proposed green taxes to penalise high-polluting companies. In 2007 Nick Clegg was elected leader. Under his leadership the Liberal Democrats supported Labour’s nationalisation of failing banks and the proto-Keynesian policy of ‘quantitative easing’ in the financial crash of 2008.
In the 2010 general election the party’s manifesto included a commitment to scrapping university tuition fees (their failure to honour this policy in government led to Nick Clegg’s much parodied televised apology), a banking levy, a mansion tax, an amnesty for illegal immigrants, a rejection of the building of new generation nuclear power stations (a policy which they subsequently overturned at their 2013 party conference), investment in schools, and raising the income tax threshold to £10,000. Of these progressive liberal policies the last two have been successfully implemented.
On the economy, they have supported Keynesian-style infrastructure spending on broadband and the building of new homes, but were forced to accept the more stringent public sector cuts which the Conservatives argued were necessary to tackle the deficit. On constitutional reform there has been Liberal Democrat success in introducing fixed term parliaments, but in coalition they have not been successful in reforming the House of Lords or introducing the recall of MPs or in persuading Parliament to comply with EU rulings on extending voting rights to prisoners. They have, however, staved off Conservative proposals to write a British Bill of Rights and withdraw from the Human Rights Act and strongly supported legislation to introduce same-sex marriage.
They entered the 2015 general election promising to guarantee education funding from nursery to 19 with qualified teachers in every class, new laws to protect nature and combat climate change, investing in the NHS and ensure greater equality of care for mental health and physical health, and balancing a budget through a mixture of public spending cuts and taxes on higher earners. However, the result of the 2015 election was devastating for the Liberal-Democrats, reduced to just 8 MPs (although still with a significant presence in the House of Lords). Their electoral disaster prompted Nick Clegg to claim that ‘Liberalism was needed now more than ever’.
Despite their defeat, it is evident under Tim Farron’s leadership that progressive liberalism, requiring the state to play a regulatory role in ensuring greater social justice and in extending equality of opportunity, has continuing influence within the Liberal Democrats. Farron seeks to return to an ‘equidistance’ position between Labour and the Conservatives. Commitment to individual liberty and tolerance remain central to the party’s philosophy. It is within the Conservative Party that classical liberal values, particularly free market economics, have been most influential.
Test Yourself on the History of the Liberal Party
What tensions existed early on in the history of the Liberal Party?
Who commissioned Keynes and why?
What were the 5 evil giants that Beveridge identified?
What influence did Keynes and Beveridge have on Attlee’s Labour government?
What is ‘pavement politics’?
What common principles did the Liberal Party and the SDP share?
Why, under Ashdown, did the Liberal Democrats end their equidistance stance from the two main parties?
What did the Jenkins Commission explore for Blair?
What evidence is there that under Kennedy the Liberal Democrats became the party of the Left in Britain?
What New Labour policies did Kennedy’s Liberal Democrats oppose?
What is the Orange book and what did it propose and what was its significance? (note: The Orange Book is very important in the recent history of the Liberal Democrats)
What policies did the Liberal Democrats pursue under Campbell?
Did the Liberal Democrats pursue more progressive or classical liberal policies under Clegg?
In what direction is Tim Farron taking the Liberal Democrats?
How does the history of the liberal party demonstrate adherence to the core values of liberalism?
EXTENSION QUESTIONS: (Note: for these you also need an understanding of the Conservative Party from Thatcher onwards and the Labour Party from Blair onwards)
“We are all liberals now,” Daniel Bell. Discuss this view of contemporary British politics.
“Classical liberal on the economy and progressive liberal on social policy”. Discuss this view of modern liberals.
“In favour of limited government on the economy, but state intervention on social policy.” Discuss this view of modern liberals.
Tutorial 6: Liberalism and the Conservative Party
In 1974 Margaret Thatcher became leader of the Conservative Party. Her economic thinking was influenced by two influential figures: Friedrich von Hayek, an Austrian economist who had dismissed the state intervention of Keynesian economics in his book The Road to Serfdom, and Milton Friedman, an American economist, who shared Hayek’s scepticism of the growing role of the state. Neoliberalism, which Hayek and Freidman espoused, sought to reverse the twentieth-century trend towards ‘big’ government and revive the laissez faire economics of Adam Smith. When she became Prime Minister in 1979, Thatcher set about realising these ideas and creating a more limited role for government, claiming that she was “rolling back the frontiers of the State” (useful quote). Thus, she privatised previously state-owned industries, such as British Steel, British Airways, and British Telecom, as well as the public utilities, including British Gas and the Electricity Board (a move which prompted a previous Conservative prime minister, Harold Macmillan, to complain that she was “selling off the family silver” – useful quote).
In seeking to create a ‘property–owning democracy’ she also sold off council houses, and in 1986 she deregulated the financial markets (a move which became known at the ‘Big Bang’) believing that markets are best served by free and open competition (supply-side economics).
In her observation that “There is no such thing as society” (useful quote) Thatcher was also endorsing the individualism evident within classical liberal thought. She emphasised self-reliance, echoing Samuel Smiles, and dismissed the ‘nanny state’ for encouraging dependency rather than individual responsibility.
Thatcher’s successor, John Major, finally privatised British Rail.
David Cameron, who became leader in 2006, was recognised as one of the most liberal of the Conservative party leaders. He voiced support for diversity and multiculturalism in Britain, supported same sex marriage, attempted to position the party as one which is supportive of environmentalism, and emphasised a reduced role for the state, cutting public spending. In 2010 he entered into a coalition with the Lib-Dems which ended when the Conservative Party won a slender majority in 2015.
The impact of liberalism on the Conservative party has been significant. However, the spread of liberal values in mainstream British politics has not only been confined to the Conservatives.
Test Yourself on Liberalism and the Conservative Party
Which free market economist influenced Thatcher?
Which classical liberal economist were his ideas based upon?
Which quote demonstrates Thatcher’s commitment to limited government?
What did Thatcher privatise?
How did Macmillan criticise Thatcher?
What type of democracy did Thatcher seek to create?
What quote captures Thatcher’s support for liberal individualism?
What did Samuel Smiles propose which Thatcher also promoted?
What did John Major privatise?
Why has Cameron been regarded as one of the most liberal of Conservative leaders?
Tutorial 7: Liberalism and the Labour Party
The impact of liberalism on the Labour Party is evident from the mid-twentieth century with the post-war implementation of the Beveridge Plan for a welfare state and Keynesian economics. Throughout the 1960s and 70s Labour also championed the rights of minorities and civil liberties, passing legislation on issues such as racial discrimination, equal pay, homosexuality and unfair dismissal.
However, it was in 1994, when Tony Blair became party leader, that further liberal influence became apparent. He chose to abandon the old Clause IV of the Labour Party constitution, which had committed to party to common ownership (or nationalisation) since 1918, and to accept both the free market and the idea, derived from Rawls, that inequality could be justified if it improved the general wealth of society.
Blair believed in an ‘enterprise culture’ and Third Way economics, which embraced schemes promoting private finance in the public sector (the Private Finance Initiative or PFI) and used private expertise to support the public sector (Public/Private Partnerships or PPP).
In other liberal moves, Blair legislated for referendums on devolution for Scotland and Wales, ultimately signed Britain up to the European Convention on Human Rights by passing the Human Rights Act, reformed the House of Lords by reducing the number of hereditary peers to 92, and paved the way for greater separation of powers in the UK by passing the Constitutional Reform Act (2005), which paved the way for a Supreme Court separate from the House of Lords.
His successor, Gordon Brown, briefly implemented the proto-Keynesian policies of quantitative easing and state ownership of failing banks in the financial crisis of 2008, while Ed Miliband unashamedly seized upon the Liberal Democrat proposals for a Mansion Tax.
Test Yourself on Liberalism and the Labour Party
What liberal influences on the Labour Party are apparent in the post-war years?
What did Labour champion in the 60s and 70s?
What liberal principles did Blair accept?
What liberal legislation/reforms did Blair put in place?
What liberal policy did Brown implement?
What liberal policy did Miliband pursue?
Tutorial 8: Conclusion: Liberalism in the UK
It is undoubtedly true that liberalism has been hugely influential in shaping British politics. In the post-Thatcherite age of consensus, liberalism has become the dominant ideology of the three main parties, particularly in their approach to economic management. Free enterprise has become the cornerstone of the British economy. Moreover, Britain is largely a tolerant society which promotes social and legal justice, free speech, free and fair elections, and, a free press. Yet it is equally true to say that unelected institutions still wield enormous political power, there is still scope for an ‘elective dictatorship’, and a sovereign parliament, unrestrained by a codified constitution, has the power to erode civil liberties. The tensions between the role of the state and the liberty of citizens remain.
The political scientist, Francis Fukuyama, argues that the end of history will result in Liberalism, while Daniel Bell argues that “We are all liberals now”. Fukuyama was writing in the 1990s about the spread of Western Liberal democratic ideas across the globe. This might be challenged now by the growth of religious fundamentalism (for example in the ‘Bible Belt’ of the USA and the Middle East) and the strengthening of one party states (eg in Russia).
Bell’s thesis appeared credible in the UK with the emergence of centre-ground, “catch all” parties (New Labour, Cameron’s Conservatives; Clegg’s Liberal Democrats). However, the rise of smaller more radical parties (UKIP, the SNP, the Green Party, etc) suggests a growing fragmentation rather than a ‘liberalisation’ of British politics.
Test Yourself on Liberalism in the UK
What has become the cornerstone of the British economy?
What makes Britain a more liberal society?
What did Fukuyama argue?
What did Bell argue?
What criticisms can be levelled at Fukuyama and Bell?
Useful quotes on Liberalism:
Voltaire: “I detest what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it”.
Thomas Jefferson, “That government is best which governs least.”
Thomas Paine: “Government is but a necessary evil”.
J.S. Mill: “Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.”
Rousseau (The Social Contract): “Man is born free, yet everywhere he is in chains”.
Liberalism is the oldest of the modern ideologies.
Its founding father was John Locke (1632-1704).
It emerged in the Enlightenment as a response to absolute monarchy, or absolutism.
Also known as the ‘Age of Reason’, the Enlightenment saw the old ideas of natural hierarchy, the authority of the established church, and the ‘divine right of kings’ swept away by radical notions of liberty, reason and individualism.
At its heart lies the belief that we are all rational individuals capable of independent thought. In feudal Britain people gained their identity not as individuals, but by the community to which they belonged (the family, the village, the social class, etc).
As free thinking individuals we should be able to question the old established order, which was hierarchical and based on the ‘Divine Right of Kings’. Charles I had claimed: “I owe the account of my actions to God and God alone”. Absolutism was central to a hierarchical feudal world in which the social order was fixed and unchanging.
The English Civil War (1642-51) and the Glorious Revolution (1688) saw a shift in power away from the monarch towards Parliament.
Absolutism was replaced by constitutionalism, limiting the power of government and ensuring government by consent. Governments should exist by the consent of the people, but only in-so-far as they protect the individual rights of citizens.
Liberalism flourished among the new merchant classes of the period.
Thus liberalism is based upon rationalism, individualism, rights, consent, tolerance, justice, limited government, constitutionalism and free market economics.
The Core Values of Liberalism
Value: Individualism
To liberals, humans are rational, self-interested individuals capable of independent thought.
This idea represented a radical departure from the fixed hierarchical social order found in feudal society, where everyone obediently understood their place.
The liberal view is that everyone is unique with their own abilities and distinctive qualities.
It follows, therefore, human beings are born of equal worth and achieve status through competition and merit: liberals believe in meritocracy (rule by those who deserve their position by merit rather than by accident of birth).
Thus the liberal view of society is atomistic: society is made up of individuals, like tiny atoms.
Some liberals take this view further to suggest that society does not really exist at all, that it is an illusion. At its more extreme, as Margaret Thatcher put it, “There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families.”
The view suggests that everyone is self-seeking, self-reliant and egotistical.
However, others believe that such egoism is “tempered by a sense of social responsibility” (5).
As the Liberal philosopher Samuel Smiles agued, individuals are capable of self-improvement and consequently the history of humankind has been a history of progress.
Value: Liberty/freedom
Liberty is the principle which gives the ideology its name.
Liberalism began as a call for liberty or freedom (the terms are interchangeable) from the tyrannical power an absolute monarch.
If set free rational individuals can achieve far more than if they are tethered by the bonds of feudal society.
Liberty allows progress: it allows individuals to develop their talents and skills.
This is apparent in the view that Adam Smith proposed of market economies.
In his book, The Wealth of Nations (1776), he argued that economies function best when they are free from the ‘dead hand’ of government interference.
Liberals therefore believe that the role of government should be limited to that of an ‘arbiter’ (referee), between competing interests and allow the free market to operate freely.
However, it would be wrong to assume that liberals believe that freedom is absolute and should never go unchecked.
Writing in 1859, J.S. Mill advocated the ‘harm principle’.
In his book, On Liberty, Mill argued: ‘the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others’ (useful quote).
Mill proposes that individuals should be free to do as they choose as long as they do not harm others.
Positive vs negative freedom
There is also a dichotomy within Liberalism with regard to freedom.
Classical Liberals (the earliest liberals) believed in what Isaiah Berlin defined as ‘negative freedom’, that is: freedom from.
To Classical Liberals, people are free if they are unchained. As Hobbes put it: “Liberty signifieth properly the absence of…. external impediments of motion”.
In other words, as long as we are not physically restrained, we are free.
Modern or progressive liberals have a different view.
Recognising that some are trapped in poverty by the worst excesses of capitalism and therefore, although unchained, were not free, they believe in what Berlin calls ‘positive’ freedom, or ‘freedom to’.
This can take many forms, including, for example, freedom to be educated and freedom to enjoy free healthcare at the point of access.
Positive freedom therefore underpins the doctrine of equality of opportunity and self-actualisation (realising your potential) and requires a more significant role for the state than classical liberals would allow.
The state, argue progressive liberals such as T.H. Green, has a moral duty to protect the most vulnerable in society.
Value: Reason/Rationalism
Rejecting the superstition and mysticism of the middle ages, early liberal thinkers placed trust in the power of human reason.
They shared an optimistic view of human nature, believing that the history of humankind is one of unlimited progress, characterised by the growth of knowledge.
If people are capable of independent rational thought, the argument goes, they should be free to choose their own destiny: free from government interference, able to trade in a free market, and freely able to consent to a government.
It therefore follows that government should be limited, laissez faire economics should prevail, and free and fair elections should be held regularly.
Moreover, reason and debate are important principles, and liberals therefore believe that disputes should be settled through rational negotiation rather than war.
Accordingly, Liberals place great importance on self-improvement and education.
Gladstone’s government introduced significant educational reforms in the nineteenth century and in the twenty first century the party has been opposed to university tuition fees.
Reason and education free us from the weight of custom and tradition, allowing progress to occur.
It follows, too, that if individuals know what is best for themselves and are most likely to develop if they can make their own choices in life (and learn from their own mistakes).
Liberals reject the paternalism of conservative thinking.
Value: Tolerance
It also follows that if humans are rational creatures capable of independent thought, there will be a diversity of views.
Liberals believe that such diversity should be tolerated as debate is healthy and citizens have the right to hold divergent ideas.
Locke defended religious tolerance and, championing the rights of religious and political dissenters.
Voltaire said, “I detest what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it”. (useful quote).
J.S. Mill believed that the truth can only be found through discussion when people are open to criticism. He argued, “If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”
Liberals argue that the oppression of free thought and free expression creates a stagnant society and makes progress impossible. Tolerance is therefore and important principle as it ensures the health of democratic society and is associated with pluralism (the idea that society is made up of diverse and competing groups). Liberalism, born of dissent, allows for dissent.
Limits to Tolerance
However, tolerance is not absolute in liberal thought.
Mill argued that the actions of others should be tolerated as long as they harmed no one else.
The harm principle argues that, as individuals, we are free to do whatever we choose as long as we do not harm others.
Mill believed that there are self-regarding actions (those actions which do not physically harm others) and other-regarding actions (those actions which may harm others).
An example might be as follows: if I drink six pints of beer on my own, that is a self-regarding action because the consequences are unlikely to harm others.
However, if I drink six pints of beer and attempt to drive, that is an other-regarding limitations to the freedom of individual, threats to states, discrimination, and incitement to criminal activity.
Tolerance, liberals believe, allows personal morality to be a matter of choice. Neither the state nor society has a place in private matters.
Value: Rights
Liberals believe that in a fair and just society everyone should have equal rights.
Locke argued that “every man may enjoy the same rights that are granted to others”.
Among the classical liberals, Locke and Paine believed in natural rights (rights which can be deduced from nature and which are God given, such as the right to life).
Indeed, Locke believed that some rights are inalienable (cannot be taken away or made ‘alien’) which included ‘life, liberty and property’ (transposed by Jefferson in writing the American constitution to ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’).
Today we would consider human rights as natural rights.
The concept of natural rights assumes that humans are naturally rational and good.
However, Jeremy Bentham and J.S. Mill dismissed the idea of natural rights, saying that the only natural inclination is to pursue our own self-interest. Bentham called Locke’s ‘natural rights “nonsense on stilts” (useful quote).
For them, rights are not natural, they are an entirely legal entity created and recognised through codified constitutions (for example, the Bill of Rights in the USA).
Progressive liberals, who came later, would agree that everyone should have equal rights achieved through equality of opportunity and realised through a meritocracy.
To this end the modern liberals have supported the rights of minority groups.
Value: Justice
Fairness and justice are themes which run throughout liberal thinking.
For example, from the early twentieth century liberals have felt that the electoral system used in general elections in the UK is unjust and in coalition government they pushed for a referendum on the AV system in 2011, resulting in defeat for the AV supporters.
Liberals strongly support the rule of law (no one is above the law).
Value: Limited Government & constitutionalism
If individuals capable of free thought and reason, it follows that they are best able to make their own choices in the world.
People should be free to choose what is best for them in life and in commerce.
The role of government should therefore be minimal, for liberals would ask what right a government has to interfere in the lives of rational citizens.
John Locke proposed that it is the duty of the state, to safeguard the basic rights of its citizens, but governments have no role beyond that duty. He called this the ‘nightwatchman state’.
Citizens consent to be governed only as long as the government protects their basic rights, and failure to do so would lead to a withdrawal of popular consent.
This facilitates democracy in which governments require the consent of the majority, yet in which the rights of minorities are upheld.
Thus governments should be limited in their powers.
This is best done by a constitution which codifies the separation of powers and the rights of its citizens.
Liberals therefore believe in constitutionalism (the limiting of government power by constitutions).
This also accords with the classical liberal view that governments should not interfere with the market place. Free trade should be allowed as governments cannot control the forces which govern commerce.
As Thomas Jefferson remarked, “That government is best which governs least.”
According to classical liberals like Adam Smith, governments are best served by adopting a laissez faire approach to the economy.
Test Yourself on the values and origins of liberalism
Who was the founding father of liberalism?
What is liberalism a response to?
According to liberals, what are individuals capable of?
Why should governments have only limited powers?
What is meritocracy?
What did Voltaire say about tolerance?
What limits did J.S. Mill place on tolerance?
Why did Bentham and Mill dismiss the idea of natural rights?
Liberalism Tutorial 2: Key Thinkers (Classical Liberals)
Classical Liberals:
Classical Liberals, from Locke to Mill, emphasised the importance of natural rights, free trade economics, laissez faire government limited by constitutionalism, rational thought and individualism.
John Locke (1632-1704)
The founding father of liberalism
Locke believed in ‘natural laws’, which ensured that most men do not harm the lives, health, liberty or property of others.
From these he discerned ‘natural rights’ which he believed were inalienable (i.e. cannot be taken away), which he defined as the right to ‘life, liberty and property’.
Locke believed that governments should only be created with the consent of the people.
It was the job of government to protect the individual rights of citizens and failure to do so would result their consent to govern being withdrawn.
Governments should be limited in their role to that of an arbiter between competing individual interests and rights, or what he called the “nightwatchman” state.
From his works emerge the liberal principles of individualism, rationalism, rights, limited government, a social contract, government by consent, the separation of powers and checks and balances.
Montesquieu (1689-1755)
A French philosopher who articulated the theory of the separation of powers.
He feared that political power was too potent to be held by one authority.
Accordingly, he identified three functions of government which he believed should be held separately:
- to make laws (the legislature)
- to implement laws (the executive)
- to interpret laws (the judiciary)
Adam Smith (1723-1790)
An economist who emphasised free market economics.
He believed that the market was governed by an ‘invisible hand’ which was beyond the understanding of mortals.
He therefore advocated laissez faire (meaning ‘let it be’) government, arguing that the state should have no role in regulating the economy which should be left to the whims and fortunes of the market.
The lack of regulation which he envisioned also applied to employment law.
His theories were described in his influential work, The Wealth of Nations (1776).
A classical liberal, Smith’s ideas were revived by neoliberals in the 1970s.
His face still appears on the £20 note!
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
The founding father of utilitarianism.
He saw humans as self-interested creatures who seek to maximise their utility (or happiness).
Individuals are best able to judge for themselves what is in their own interests.
We seek pleasure and avoid pain and should be allowed to make those decisions for ourselves (unless we harm others).
This is enlightened self-interest and fits with free market capitalism.
He believed it is possible to measure utility (happiness) arising from consuming goods.
Governments should make decisions on the basis of whether the total utility (happiness) is increased or reduced: ‘the greatest good of the greatest number’ (a useful quote).
He disagreed with Locke on the issue of natural rights, describing them as “nonsense upon stilts”.
He believed that rights are a human invention and therefore not natural at all.
They could only be justified if they promoted greater ‘utility’ or human happiness.
For example, Locke would argue that everyone had a natural, inalienable right to life. But utilitarian’s would argue that a terrorist on a passenger plane about to detonate a bomb forfeits their right to life. Killing the terrorist before they detonate the bomb would ensure the greatest good of the greatest number (the survival of the other passengers).
Samuel Smiles (1812-1904)
A Scottish author and reformer whose contribution to Liberalism was to advocate the idea of self-help.
In his book, Self Help, he declared that ‘Heaven helps those who help themselves’ (useful quote).
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-78)
A Geneva-born French philosopher, identified with the French Revolution, whose greatest contribution to liberalism was the idea of the Social Contract.
He was influenced in his thinking by Hobbes, but his view of human nature is less pessimistic than that of Hobbes.
Rousseau distinguishes between man as a natural being (free and innocent, a ‘noble savage’) and man as a social being (corrupted by education and social influences) saying, “Man is born free, yet everywhere he is in chains” (useful quote).
He believed that citizens forfeit their natural freedoms and rights for the freedom and rights of civilised society.
He argued that the state is created by individuals for individuals, and that true freedom can only be found in communal life where everyone is equal.
People should therefore forfeit their rights unconditionally to the community and the will of the people is expressed through the General Will of society (which is greater than the sum of ‘petty self-interest’).
Tom Paine (1737-1809)
A political activist who contended that “government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil” (useful quote).
He argued for the rights of man above the rights of the state.
He supported the American War of Independence (“We have it in our power to begin the wold over again”) and the French Revolution.
He wrote The Rights of Man in 1791 as a defence of the French Revolution.
James Madison (1751-1836)
One of the Founding Fathers of the United States who was responsible for drafting the first ten amendments of the United States Constitution, which became known as the ‘Bill of Rights’.
Madison believed supported federalism, bicameralism, the separation of powers and the importance of checks and balances to prevent tyranny.
He was the fourth president of the United States.
J.S. Mill (1806-73)
A political philosopher and politician whose ideas provided a transition between classical and progressive liberalism.
Mill contributed the notion of the ‘harm principle’ to liberal thinking: the notion that an individual should be free to choose their own actions as long as they did not harm others.
Mill also believed in individualism, famously saying, “Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign” (useful quote).
He also supported Bentham’s utilitarianism.
Test Yourself on Classical Liberal Thought
Who was the founding father of liberalism?
What are inalienable rights?
What should a government do to gain consent to govern?
What did Locke mean by a ‘nightwatchman’ state?
What three powers of government did Montesquieu discern?
Why did Adam Smith propose free market economics?
Who advocated ‘heaven helps those who help themselves’?
On what did Bentham disagree with Locke?
What is utilitarianism?
What was Rousseau’s greatest contribution to liberalism?
What did Tom Paine argue for?
How did Tom Paine describe government?
What did James Madison draft?
What is J.S. Mill’s harm principle?
Liberalism Tutorial 3: Key Thinkers (Progressive/Welfare Liberals)
Progressive Liberals:
Progressive liberalism (sometimes known as ‘new’ or ‘modern’ liberalism) emerged as a response to the inequality which resulted from unregulated free market economics.
Poverty, unemployment and relative deprivation as a result of the worst excesses of capitalism challenged the principles of classical liberalism.
Hard work and talent alone would not guarantee success in the world. Progressive liberals, such T.H. Green, recognised that there were those trapped in poverty through no fault of their own.
Self-reliance and self-improvement could only occur providing that people had the opportunity for self-improvement in the first place.
Central to progressive liberalism is the promotion of equality of opportunity and self-actualisation (realising your potential).
This could only occur by the provision of greater state intervention in welfare and education, exemplified by Gladstone’s education reforms and Lloyd George’s pension scheme.
Progressive Liberals believed that the conditions of the poor could be ameliorated only through collective action coordinated by a strong welfare-oriented interventionist state.
Classical Liberals support economic freedom and limited government, whereas progressive liberals emphasise the need for the state to protect the poor and to provide a safety net through welfare.
T.H. Green (1836-1882)
Is regarded as the founding father of progressive or new liberalism, believing that humans were essentially altruistic (unselfish).
He argued that poverty was not simply a matter of idleness.
Economic freedom can lead to exploitation.
Therefore the state should provide opportunities, through education and welfare, to enable those trapped in poverty to escape their condition.
It should be an ‘enabling’ state.
He was therefore a proponent of equality of opportunity and positive freedom.
His influenced extended to other ‘new liberals’ such as L.T. Hobhouse (1864-1929) and J.A. Hobson (1854-1940).
Lloyd George (1863-1945)
Though not a political philosopher, Lloyd George was responsible for the early implementation of progressive liberal ideas.
He introduced the People’s Budget (1909), which laid the foundations for national insurance and pensions.
It was the ensuing constitutional battle over the budget that saw the power of the unelected House of Lords diminished.
Welfare Liberals:
In many respects, welfare liberalism is an inevitable development of progressive liberalism (some see it as a subset of progressive liberalism), providing a response to the economic downturn of the 1930s.
The comprehensive welfare state built in the UK after the Second World War, although work of the Labour Party, was largely designed by two liberals, John Maynard Keynes, who laid the economic foundations, and William Beveridge, who designed the welfare system.
Welfare liberalism seeks to provide a more extensive interventionist state to provide ‘cradle to the grave’ care for the most disadvantaged in society.
J.M. Keynes (1883-1946)
Keynes was commissioned by Lloyd George in 1927 to consider ways of tackling unemployment.
The resulting economic theory, known as Keynesianism, became the economic orthodoxy throughout the middle of the twentieth century.
It involved state funding on infrastructure projects (dams, roads, railways, etc) to ‘reboot’ an ailing economy, the best example of which is Roosevelt’s New Deal scheme and the building of the Hoover Dam.
He argued that it is the responsibility of governments to regulate the economy to avoid unemployment.
Keynes’ ideas heavily influenced the post-war Attlee government.
William Beveridge (1879-1963)
Beveridge was briefly a Liberal MP (1944-45) and the architect of the NHS and the welfare state.
His ideas, outlined in the Beveridge Report of 1942, were adopted by Clement Attlee in the post-war Labour government.
In his report he recommended that the government should find ways of fighting the five 'Giant Evils' of Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness.
Test yourself on Progressive/Welfare Liberal Thought
What are the key differences between classical and progressive liberals? (Note: one difference is to do with the role of the state; the other is to do with Berlin’s distinction between positive and negative freedom).
Who is the founding father of progressive liberalism?
What type of equality do progressive liberals promote?
What progressive liberal policy did Lloyd George introduce?
What does welfare liberalism seek to provide?
What is Keynesianism?
What did William Beveridge propose?
Liberalism Tutorial 4: Key Thinkers (Neoliberals/Libertarians)
Neoliberals and Libertarians:
Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is more associated with Thatcher’s Conservative Party than with the Liberal Party.
It was inspired by the economist Friedrich von Hayek and revived a classical liberal approach to the economy.
It advocates a reduction in the size and role of the state by promoting privatisation (Thatcher privatised the public utilities) and deregulation (Thatcher deregulated financial services).
Harking back to Adam Smith, neoliberals support limited government which adopts a laissez faire solutions to economic problems.
Libertarianism
Libertarians, such Robert Nozick, believe in a still more minimal role for government.
They advocate extreme individualism, believing that the rights of individuals outweigh those of the state.
The state should not interfere in the lives of citizens.
Libertarians are committed to the notion of private property and the freedom and privacy of individuals.
They argue against redistributive taxation and an interventionist, welfare state.
At its extreme, libertarians would argue that even law and order and the execution of justice is the responsibility of private individuals and not the state.
Such views have gained popular currency amongst some citizens of southern states in the United States.
Robert Nozick (1938-2002)
An American academic and political philosopher who is regarded as a libertarian and who influenced New Right thinking.
He believed in upholding legitimate property rights and the importance of minimal government and minimal taxation, undermining state welfare and wealth redistribution.
John Rawls (1921-2002)
An American academic and political philosopher, whose most important work is A Theory of Justice (1970).
Rawls sought a fair society based on the concept of a ‘veil of ignorance’ (if those who shaped society knew nothing about themselves, they would ensure that their policies did nor prejudice one social group in favour of another: they would regard an egalitarian society as ‘fairer’ than an unequal society).
He proposed the ‘difference principle’, according to which ‘All social primary goods – liberty and opportunity, income and wealth, and the bases of self-respect – are to be distributed equally unless unequal distribution of any or all of these goods is to the advantage of the least favoured.’
Social inequality, therefore, could only be justified if it benefitted the poorest in society (a position adopted by Blair and Mandelson in New Labour’s ‘enterprise culture’).
His work has therefore influenced modern social democratic thought.
Test Yourself on Neoliberal/Libertarian thought
Which neoliberal economist influenced Margate Thatcher?
What do neoliberals believe?
What do libertarians, such as Nozick, believe?
What Rawlsian position did Blair’s New Labour adopt?
Tutorial 5: A History of the Liberal Party
In the UK liberalism has found its expression principally, though not exclusively, through the Liberal Party and latterly the Liberal Democrats.
The Liberal Party was officially formed in 1859. Its roots lay in the Whigs, a radical parliamentary grouping inspired by the Glorious Revolution of 1688 which sought to limit the role of the monarchy and proposed religious tolerance and electoral reform.
The newly formed Liberal Party enjoyed being in government throughout much of the second half of the nineteenth century. It sought to promote free trade in order to improve the prosperity of all.
However, early on in the history of the party the tensions between the classical liberal position on free trade and laissez faire government and the progressive liberal position on government intervention to create greater equality of opportunity emerged.
Gladstone was the Liberal Prime Minister throughout much of this period and among his reforms were the introduction of a progressive income tax and the first education act in 1870.
The Liberal Party entered a secret electoral pact with the newly-formed Labour Party in the 1906 general election, winning another turn in government.
It was during this period of government that Lloyd George, a progressive liberal Chancellor, introduced the 1909 People’s Budget which partly aimed to establish pensions and national insurance.
The subsequent conflict with the House of Lords was one of the defining episodes of twentieth century British politics and the ensuring constitutional reform established the primacy of the House of Commons.
Leading a wartime coalition government, the Liberals found themselves implementing conscription (which runs counter to the liberal values of liberty and individualism) and nationalisation of key industries (which runs counter to their free market principles).
By the end of the war, the Liberal Party was a spent force, its electoral base spread too thinly.
Although the Liberal Party no longer enjoyed sufficient electoral support to win a majority in parliament, the influence of liberals on British politics remained significant throughout the middle of the twentieth century. In the late 1920s Lloyd George commissioned John Maynard Keynes to consider how to tackle an ailing economy. Keynes developed an economic theory which proposed spending public money on infrastructure projects to alleviate unemployment and thereby boost the economy. Keynesianism became the economic orthodoxy of the mid-twentieth century and informed much of the programme of Attlee’s post-war Labour government.
Another influential liberal throughout this period was William Beveridge who briefly served as a Liberal MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed between 1944 and 1945. In 1942 Beveridge produced a report to tackle the ‘Five Giant Evils’ of ‘Squalor, Ignorance, Want, Idleness and Disease’ and the ‘Beveridge Report’, as it became known, influenced the formation of the NHS and the welfare state under Attlee’s government.
The fortunes of the Liberal Party nosedived in the 1950s. In the general election of 1957 it returned just five MPs and there was speculation that the party was being driven to extinction.
Their revival, when it came in the 1970s, was produced by building up support in local elections. Community politics, or ‘pavement politics’ as it was called, became a hallmark of the Liberal strategy and the number of Liberal councillors mushroomed. In February 1974 there was talk of a deal to keep the Conservative Party in government, but their condition of electoral reform was rejected by the Conservatives. Instead, in 1977, they entered a brief pact with the ailing Labour government which was ended over their failure to extract sufficient concessions from Labour.
The fate of the Liberal Party took a new and surprising twist in the 1980s. Four high-profile members of the Labour Party resigned over its leftward drift and formed a new centre-ground party, the Social Democratic Party, or SDP. Attracting further MPs from both the Labour and Conservative parties the SDP quickly grew in size and, in 1983, it formed a formal electoral alliance with the Liberals. They shared common principles around Europe, electoral reform, and a mixed economy. Some polls excitably predicted that the SDP would win over 600 seats in 1983. In fact it won just six. Overall the Liberal SDP Alliance won 25% or the votes, but just 23 seats in the House of Commons (Labour secured 28% of the vote but 209 seats). Yet again the electoral system worked against the Liberal Party.
In 1988 the Liberal Party and the SDP merged. Under its new leader, Paddy Ashdown, the Liberal Democrats, as they became, they positioned themselves around progressive liberal ideas. In particular they supported worker and consumer rights and the rights of minority groups. They sought to raise income tax to invest in education and they entered into secret negotiations with New Labour in order to end the Conservative hegemony of British politics, thereby ending their stance on being equidistant from the two main parties.
When Blair’s New Labour Party won the general election of 1997, they supported the government’s constitutional reforms, particularly devolution and the reform of the House of Lords. A prominent Liberal Democrat, Lord Jenkins, was also commissioned by Blair to undertake a review of the electoral system, but the recommendations of the Jenkins Commission, presented in 1998, were quietly dropped in the wake of New Labour’s landslide victory.
In 1999 Charles Kennedy was elected leader of the Liberal Democrats. An ex-SDP MP, Kennedy positioned the party to the left of New Labour. Their policies included increasing taxes to help fund public services, a new 50% top rate income tax and a new local income tax to replace the council tax. The Kennedy years saw opposition to a number of New Labour policies, notably the introduction of university tuition fees and proposals for introducing a national ID card scheme and a DNA database and for increasing detention without trial for terror suspects. They were also the only mainstream party in Westminster to oppose the Iraq War, gaining Muslim voters in the 2005 general election, and to promote environmentalism.
In a fringe meeting of the 2004 party conference a group of young Liberal Democrats launched a book which was to have a profound influence on the dichotomy between the classical and progressive liberal perspectives that jostle to inform party policy. Among the authors of The Orange Book: Reclaiming Liberalism were Nick Clegg, Vince Cable, Chris Huhne and David Laws, all of whom were later to hold positions within the 2010 coalition government. The Orange Book called for classical liberal solutions to the issues of today, including private sector involvement in public services, including the prison service, and a return to economic liberalism. Arguably this book helped to facilitate the possibility of the Liberal Democrats entering a coalition with the Conservative Party in 2010, signalling a shift from the left of centre position which Kennedy espoused.
Despite this, Liberal Democrat policies since the publication of The Orange Book have demonstrated a continuing commitment to progressive liberal ideas and in coalition government the Liberal Democrats claim to have been a moderating influence. Under the brief leadership of Menzies Campbell they proposed green taxes to penalise high-polluting companies. In 2007 Nick Clegg was elected leader. Under his leadership the Liberal Democrats supported Labour’s nationalisation of failing banks and the proto-Keynesian policy of ‘quantitative easing’ in the financial crash of 2008.
In the 2010 general election the party’s manifesto included a commitment to scrapping university tuition fees (their failure to honour this policy in government led to Nick Clegg’s much parodied televised apology), a banking levy, a mansion tax, an amnesty for illegal immigrants, a rejection of the building of new generation nuclear power stations (a policy which they subsequently overturned at their 2013 party conference), investment in schools, and raising the income tax threshold to £10,000. Of these progressive liberal policies the last two have been successfully implemented.
On the economy, they have supported Keynesian-style infrastructure spending on broadband and the building of new homes, but were forced to accept the more stringent public sector cuts which the Conservatives argued were necessary to tackle the deficit. On constitutional reform there has been Liberal Democrat success in introducing fixed term parliaments, but in coalition they have not been successful in reforming the House of Lords or introducing the recall of MPs or in persuading Parliament to comply with EU rulings on extending voting rights to prisoners. They have, however, staved off Conservative proposals to write a British Bill of Rights and withdraw from the Human Rights Act and strongly supported legislation to introduce same-sex marriage.
They entered the 2015 general election promising to guarantee education funding from nursery to 19 with qualified teachers in every class, new laws to protect nature and combat climate change, investing in the NHS and ensure greater equality of care for mental health and physical health, and balancing a budget through a mixture of public spending cuts and taxes on higher earners. However, the result of the 2015 election was devastating for the Liberal-Democrats, reduced to just 8 MPs (although still with a significant presence in the House of Lords). Their electoral disaster prompted Nick Clegg to claim that ‘Liberalism was needed now more than ever’.
Despite their defeat, it is evident under Tim Farron’s leadership that progressive liberalism, requiring the state to play a regulatory role in ensuring greater social justice and in extending equality of opportunity, has continuing influence within the Liberal Democrats. Farron seeks to return to an ‘equidistance’ position between Labour and the Conservatives. Commitment to individual liberty and tolerance remain central to the party’s philosophy. It is within the Conservative Party that classical liberal values, particularly free market economics, have been most influential.
Test Yourself on the History of the Liberal Party
What tensions existed early on in the history of the Liberal Party?
Who commissioned Keynes and why?
What were the 5 evil giants that Beveridge identified?
What influence did Keynes and Beveridge have on Attlee’s Labour government?
What is ‘pavement politics’?
What common principles did the Liberal Party and the SDP share?
Why, under Ashdown, did the Liberal Democrats end their equidistance stance from the two main parties?
What did the Jenkins Commission explore for Blair?
What evidence is there that under Kennedy the Liberal Democrats became the party of the Left in Britain?
What New Labour policies did Kennedy’s Liberal Democrats oppose?
What is the Orange book and what did it propose and what was its significance? (note: The Orange Book is very important in the recent history of the Liberal Democrats)
What policies did the Liberal Democrats pursue under Campbell?
Did the Liberal Democrats pursue more progressive or classical liberal policies under Clegg?
In what direction is Tim Farron taking the Liberal Democrats?
How does the history of the liberal party demonstrate adherence to the core values of liberalism?
EXTENSION QUESTIONS: (Note: for these you also need an understanding of the Conservative Party from Thatcher onwards and the Labour Party from Blair onwards)
“We are all liberals now,” Daniel Bell. Discuss this view of contemporary British politics.
“Classical liberal on the economy and progressive liberal on social policy”. Discuss this view of modern liberals.
“In favour of limited government on the economy, but state intervention on social policy.” Discuss this view of modern liberals.
Tutorial 6: Liberalism and the Conservative Party
In 1974 Margaret Thatcher became leader of the Conservative Party. Her economic thinking was influenced by two influential figures: Friedrich von Hayek, an Austrian economist who had dismissed the state intervention of Keynesian economics in his book The Road to Serfdom, and Milton Friedman, an American economist, who shared Hayek’s scepticism of the growing role of the state. Neoliberalism, which Hayek and Freidman espoused, sought to reverse the twentieth-century trend towards ‘big’ government and revive the laissez faire economics of Adam Smith. When she became Prime Minister in 1979, Thatcher set about realising these ideas and creating a more limited role for government, claiming that she was “rolling back the frontiers of the State” (useful quote). Thus, she privatised previously state-owned industries, such as British Steel, British Airways, and British Telecom, as well as the public utilities, including British Gas and the Electricity Board (a move which prompted a previous Conservative prime minister, Harold Macmillan, to complain that she was “selling off the family silver” – useful quote).
In seeking to create a ‘property–owning democracy’ she also sold off council houses, and in 1986 she deregulated the financial markets (a move which became known at the ‘Big Bang’) believing that markets are best served by free and open competition (supply-side economics).
In her observation that “There is no such thing as society” (useful quote) Thatcher was also endorsing the individualism evident within classical liberal thought. She emphasised self-reliance, echoing Samuel Smiles, and dismissed the ‘nanny state’ for encouraging dependency rather than individual responsibility.
Thatcher’s successor, John Major, finally privatised British Rail.
David Cameron, who became leader in 2006, was recognised as one of the most liberal of the Conservative party leaders. He voiced support for diversity and multiculturalism in Britain, supported same sex marriage, attempted to position the party as one which is supportive of environmentalism, and emphasised a reduced role for the state, cutting public spending. In 2010 he entered into a coalition with the Lib-Dems which ended when the Conservative Party won a slender majority in 2015.
The impact of liberalism on the Conservative party has been significant. However, the spread of liberal values in mainstream British politics has not only been confined to the Conservatives.
Test Yourself on Liberalism and the Conservative Party
Which free market economist influenced Thatcher?
Which classical liberal economist were his ideas based upon?
Which quote demonstrates Thatcher’s commitment to limited government?
What did Thatcher privatise?
How did Macmillan criticise Thatcher?
What type of democracy did Thatcher seek to create?
What quote captures Thatcher’s support for liberal individualism?
What did Samuel Smiles propose which Thatcher also promoted?
What did John Major privatise?
Why has Cameron been regarded as one of the most liberal of Conservative leaders?
Tutorial 7: Liberalism and the Labour Party
The impact of liberalism on the Labour Party is evident from the mid-twentieth century with the post-war implementation of the Beveridge Plan for a welfare state and Keynesian economics. Throughout the 1960s and 70s Labour also championed the rights of minorities and civil liberties, passing legislation on issues such as racial discrimination, equal pay, homosexuality and unfair dismissal.
However, it was in 1994, when Tony Blair became party leader, that further liberal influence became apparent. He chose to abandon the old Clause IV of the Labour Party constitution, which had committed to party to common ownership (or nationalisation) since 1918, and to accept both the free market and the idea, derived from Rawls, that inequality could be justified if it improved the general wealth of society.
Blair believed in an ‘enterprise culture’ and Third Way economics, which embraced schemes promoting private finance in the public sector (the Private Finance Initiative or PFI) and used private expertise to support the public sector (Public/Private Partnerships or PPP).
In other liberal moves, Blair legislated for referendums on devolution for Scotland and Wales, ultimately signed Britain up to the European Convention on Human Rights by passing the Human Rights Act, reformed the House of Lords by reducing the number of hereditary peers to 92, and paved the way for greater separation of powers in the UK by passing the Constitutional Reform Act (2005), which paved the way for a Supreme Court separate from the House of Lords.
His successor, Gordon Brown, briefly implemented the proto-Keynesian policies of quantitative easing and state ownership of failing banks in the financial crisis of 2008, while Ed Miliband unashamedly seized upon the Liberal Democrat proposals for a Mansion Tax.
Test Yourself on Liberalism and the Labour Party
What liberal influences on the Labour Party are apparent in the post-war years?
What did Labour champion in the 60s and 70s?
What liberal principles did Blair accept?
What liberal legislation/reforms did Blair put in place?
What liberal policy did Brown implement?
What liberal policy did Miliband pursue?
Tutorial 8: Conclusion: Liberalism in the UK
It is undoubtedly true that liberalism has been hugely influential in shaping British politics. In the post-Thatcherite age of consensus, liberalism has become the dominant ideology of the three main parties, particularly in their approach to economic management. Free enterprise has become the cornerstone of the British economy. Moreover, Britain is largely a tolerant society which promotes social and legal justice, free speech, free and fair elections, and, a free press. Yet it is equally true to say that unelected institutions still wield enormous political power, there is still scope for an ‘elective dictatorship’, and a sovereign parliament, unrestrained by a codified constitution, has the power to erode civil liberties. The tensions between the role of the state and the liberty of citizens remain.
The political scientist, Francis Fukuyama, argues that the end of history will result in Liberalism, while Daniel Bell argues that “We are all liberals now”. Fukuyama was writing in the 1990s about the spread of Western Liberal democratic ideas across the globe. This might be challenged now by the growth of religious fundamentalism (for example in the ‘Bible Belt’ of the USA and the Middle East) and the strengthening of one party states (eg in Russia).
Bell’s thesis appeared credible in the UK with the emergence of centre-ground, “catch all” parties (New Labour, Cameron’s Conservatives; Clegg’s Liberal Democrats). However, the rise of smaller more radical parties (UKIP, the SNP, the Green Party, etc) suggests a growing fragmentation rather than a ‘liberalisation’ of British politics.
Test Yourself on Liberalism in the UK
What has become the cornerstone of the British economy?
What makes Britain a more liberal society?
What did Fukuyama argue?
What did Bell argue?
What criticisms can be levelled at Fukuyama and Bell?
Useful quotes on Liberalism:
Voltaire: “I detest what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it”.
Thomas Jefferson, “That government is best which governs least.”
Thomas Paine: “Government is but a necessary evil”.
J.S. Mill: “Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.”
Rousseau (The Social Contract): “Man is born free, yet everywhere he is in chains”.