Liberalism (Philosophy)
The individual is at the center of liberalism. The highest task of government is to secure and defend individual freedom which is regarded as inalienable. Individual freedom is in the eyes of liberal standard and foundation of human society around which the state, political and economic order should be structured. But whereas classical liberals, the primacy of individual freedom is an absolute principle that applies to all areas of social life, it became common to make the application of this principle to the circumstances, reasonably philosophical aspects, political, social and economic liberalism as independent of each other, or even reduce its liberalism economics as does the modern usage in France. There are several schools of thought liberals who differ in particular by their philosophical underpinnings, limitations, and the functions they assign to the State, and the area to which they apply the principle of freedom (economic, political institutions, social ). Liberalism has had a fairly deep divide in the late nineteenth century, when it began to distinguish in England, classical liberalism of the new liberalism also sometimes called social liberalism. John Maynard Keynes (see Liberal-Libertarian ). Liberalism is opposed to the doctrines holistic such as socialism , the statism or communitarianism that define the person as part of a social ( social group , society ) carrying a collective interest which some of their behavior and choices are or should be subordinated. Advocating individual liberty, particularly in relation to traditions , liberalism may oppose conservatism. He also opposes all forms of abuse of power that limit or destroy the freedom of individuals and / or require a command economy and planning (see communism ), which always ends up relying on an authoritarian political regime (see as totalitarianism ). Some liberals oppose currents advocating the interventionist state, the regulation of the economy by the state (such as Keynesianism ). Others, like Tocqueville , however, also opposes current (such as pilots ), making the market, the ultimate criterion of good. The word "liberalism" is used in different senses, more or less broad and sometimes contradictory. Partly thanks to the fuzzy semantics, liberalism is the subject of numerous controversies and often violent and this especially in France, which often result from a disagreement about the meaning of the term. If recognition and acceptance aspects of liberalism and social policy go beyond just the liberal movement, the economic side of liberalism, it is much less accepted (many state services required, attempts to control the economy through the collective). Some critics consider it an ideology responsible for most of the ills of today's world, or as a current of thought now being diverted from its original purpose, considering that economic freedom is not automatically mail carrier for individual freedoms all economic actors. In the oldest tradition, individual freedom is a general principle that applies to all areas of society. According to this view, it is a mistake to separate different forms of liberalism, for all are inseparable consequences of a single philosophical principle of freedom. This current is often called "classical liberalism" to distinguish it from other uses of the word modern liberalism. Other authors do not see the principle of freedom as absolute as the advocate and the field. They were joined by specialists who are only interested in one specific area, and for this reason avoid talking about liberalism in general. It then distinguishes three main areas: Of course, this does not mean much yet to separate these dimensions of liberalism, which historically provided that theoretically, are profoundly linked because they belong essentially to the same movement of thought and the same overall vision of the order social . Historians of political ideas, for their part, are interested in trends that have claimed at different periods of liberalism and in different places. They thus distinguish more finely a large number of varieties in the liberal currents . Therefore the term "liberalism" also covers different realities in different countries and their political history. The term "liberalism" to describe this current of thought emerged in France in 1818 in Maine de Biran and enters 1823 in the Universal Dictionary of the French language or in the lexicon of Claude Boiste. The neologism liberalism is actually shaped by the liberal party in the Cortes in Spain in 1812 . But the origins of this movement are distant, the idea was therefore preceded the word. Moreover, the word existed before the Liberal neologism and designated the spirit of tolerance in Antiquity and Middle Ages (Liberal Arts), the claim of individual rights and the struggle against absolutism at the age of enlightenment. For some historians of ideas as Philippe Nemo or Murray Rothbard , what is now generally defined as the liberal tradition prolong a perceptible movement of ideas from the political freedom that was sometimes given in Greek cities, and suspicion that it could find against arbitrary government. Thus the liberal representation of the world would not have arisen from scratch around the sixteenth century, but would have been the seeds for example on the agora , where exposure and critique of theories were sometimes possible. In the same movement, since Aristotle , Epictetus and the Stoics , Diogenes and the Cynics , a current can be identified, affirming the primacy of the individual. In some ways, the Abrahamic monotheism ( Judaism , Christianity and Islam ) affirms the responsibility of the individual. The humanism of the Renaissance , fundamentally alters the definition of the relation of man to create, power, education or religion, in particular by the assertion of the centrality of free will. Loyalty to the Order of the tradition is being challenged in favor of arbitration because of the enlightened individual. From the sixteenth century, the philosophers of the School of Salamanca reformulate the concept of natural law inherited from Aristotle , the Stoics of Cicero and Thomas Aquinas , and deduce the principles of popular sovereignty and of separation of powers. In the economic sphere, they justify the property privately, the free movement of persons and property and defend the free market. In the seventeenth century the liberal movement is embodied particularly in the Levellers of the English Revolution of 1642. Liberal thinking is built between the mid-seventeenth century and the mid-eighteenth century, under the leadership of the philosophers of the Enlightenment , as opposed to the absolutist political legitimacy by religious ideas. Theorists of liberalism are many and varied. To name just a few of those recognized as "great liberal thinkers" at the birth of liberalism, we will discuss Locke in the seventeenth century, Turgot or Smith in the eighteenth century. The diversity of their writings can be understood in relation to the historical context with which they were interacting. Thus, John Locke asks what will become the foundations of modern liberal philosophy, with the "rule of law", organizing and developing its main themes: theory of natural rights , limitation and separation of powers justification for civil disobedience the affirmation of freedom of conscience, separation of church and state, with his Letter Concerning Toleration of 1699, where he fought the intolerant religious doctrines. Hume , Condillac and Montesquieu , in turn, develop the consequences of their philosophical positions liberal in the political and economic. Montesquieu (1689-1755), facing the absolute power of the French monarchy cares so primarily to establish a separation of powers to limit the abuse of executive power of the king and thus ensure the liberties of Parliament and Justice with L Spirit of the Laws (1748). It will articulate a liberal and republican thought, and defended as "civic virtue, love of the fatherland and freedom" . In parallel with the growing traffic exchange in Europe, thinkers rather known as economists, like Turgot and Adam Smith are careful to link their claims to economic freedoms to the philosophical roots of liberalism in the face of state administration then very controlling. Adam Smith remains as one of the main theorists of economic liberalism by founding an economic theory based on an intuition of Mandeville. The liberal school "classic" is then constituted as a coherent thought encompassing all areas of human action studied at that time. Liberalism has had a profound influence on several major revolutions and political traditions - British, American, French - who have allowed the emergence of "liberal democracy" . Since the "glorious revolution" of 1688 , by which the liberals drove the English king Jacques II, the British Parliament established a republic and a representative system, which is a continuation of the English liberal tradition who continued gradual improvements in political freedom (" Magna Carta "," Bill of Rights , "" Habeas Corpus ") which made the England of that time, the most liberal country in the world. The liberal way Britain is born of the peculiarities of English law and history specific to the country. The introduction of new freedoms suites glorious revolution has introduced very quickly in the economic sphere and contributed to economic development by David Hume , a leading thinker of the Scottish Enlightenment. Voltaire , another liberal philosopher of the same era, and praised the British government, "Trade, which has enriched the citizens in England, helped to make them free, and this freedom has expanded trade in turn" . According to Tocqueville , the American model is its radical break with the European aristocracy. The American Revolution would show a predominance of the "democratic" spirit of mind "revolutionary". She was full of liberal authors, from Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Franklin through Thomas Paine. Some of the founding principles of liberalism are contained in the preamble to the U.S. Constitution of 1787 , and in the Declaration on the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789. The Philadelphia Convention adopted the Constitution of the United States, who completed the conquest of Independence, was admired by Democrats and French revolutionaries. A few decades before the French Revolution , France was based on several principles of liberalism, with the Department Turgot , probably influenced by the movement physiocrat. This is why part of the elite, especially bourgeois who supported the French Revolution of 1789 and led the country after the fall of the constitutional monarchy , was a supporter of liberalism that resulted in France by a subversive thought against the absolute monarchy by divine right. The relationship between liberalism and the French Revolution is complex because it is possible to design them according to both continuity and as two opposites . Because before that of the Terror, the French Revolution is that of human rights and also the heir of the old regime . Originally part of the French Revolution in the text of the Declaration of Human Rights and Civic which is interpreted as a reminder of natural law and economic freedoms. The predominance of the spirit "revolutionary" in the spirit of "Democrat" was born of the radical revolutionaries want to start anew their history , unlike the Americans, who had no Old Regime to destroy. The French Revolution showed that the liberal tradition and could be separated in several feeding currents: a current more conservative ( Edmund Burke ) Whereas the individualist principles are unable to form social bonds, the second most radical ( Thomas Paine ) defends ongoing reform of society. Another classic has raised questions about the first revolution , the revolutions of 1793 or the results of the Terror and the consulate and the Food. The writings and debates of the period after the Terror ( Germaine de Stael , Tocqueville and Benjamin Constant ) show the heterogeneity of the "spirit of 1789" with the "spirit of 1793" but also a defense of political freedom based on the condition of all citizens equal political power. It is the purpose of the famous speech, freedom of the Ancients compared with that of the Moderns , delivered at the Athne Royal in Paris by Benjamin Constant in 1819. It should also clarify the relationship between liberalism and Rousseauism , thereby tying the two stories, as Benjamin Constant and Immanuel Kant asserts the inevitable claim of equality and the norm of general interest, referring to the pluralism in democracies liberal. The early nineteenth century saw the deepening of liberal ideas in literature, with Victor Hugo , in the political aspects, with Benjamin Constant , Tocqueville and the Coppet group that brings together liberal opponents to Napoleon III , with Jean-Baptiste Say or even John Stuart Mill in economics. The Liberals are trying so widely disseminate their ideas, ideas that oppose statist prevalent in government circles, was able to do as Tocqueville by tracking the origin of the French taste for the omnipotence of the state. By mid-century are also published pamphlets of the famous Frederic Bastiat. Liberal ideas are spreading in Western politics, the point of becoming the "basso continuo" of political systems from the eighteenth century by Pierre Manent . For Raymond Aron , speaking of the British example in the first part of The Opium of the Intellectuals (1955), liberal ideas are needed as to be present in the curricula of all parties and no longer require the party specific. From the late nineteenth century, there are discrepancies in the liberal movement that focuses on the role and nature of state interventions. A current progressive appears with LTHobhouse trying to take greater account the social conditions that allow individual freedom. Social rights were added snatched citizens' political rights ( voting and universal suffrage ), inspired by the Liberal Republicans of the nineteenth century century ( Tocqueville ). At the confluence of a double tradition, the English liberal tradition, primarily concerned with protecting the fundamental freedoms and diversity of social interests, will leave the market economy. In the early twentieth century, liberal philosophy will then be radically challenged, first by the Russian Revolution of 1917 and during the period between the wars with the economic crisis of 1929 , the Socialist government (including the Second Republic Spanish and the Popular Front French), the emergence of fascism and National Socialism. The influence of the doctrines opposed to liberal societies leads to a redefinition of the role and boundaries of the state in the direction of increasing intervention (state-controlled economy to communism , and strong state interventionist and for Nazism ). Faced with an opponent Communist or Nazi , the so-called Austrian tradition (with Ludwig von Mises , Friedrich Hayek , Murray Rothbard ) oppose the 1940s a liberal theory can avoid by Hayek's Road to Serfdom. But long before, in Economy and Society and in his lecture on socialism, the liberal sociologist, Max Weber had prophesied penetration in the economy and the emergence of bureaucratic officials ates, escaping any cons powers. Max Weber had concluded that "the dictatorship of the bureaucrat, and not that of the worker, who is running, at least for the moment" The foundations of liberalism Max Weber emphasized the common ground and even anthropological foundation of all liberalism: the individual. Thus the dominance of the state by society is not liberal, but the absorption of the state in society is not either. The State after having been master of the individual needs to get his service. In the political sphere, liberalism is part of the legacy of the doctrines of natural law, in other words to sum up, the transition from state to state civil nature established on the basis of volunteerism emanating 'free individuals. In the economic field, it is part of the legacy of ethical doctrines developed by Spinoza and Blaise Pascal , which stipulate that the general interest is the product of the combination of interests. The foundation of liberal thought is a legal theory that every single human being is master of himself and has fundamental and inalienable rights which derive from its mere existence and are inherent in human nature, regardless of social structures in which it is (or is not) included. These rights include the right to freedom and the right to property. The right to life arising from the right of self defense against any aggression, the right to security and the right of resistance to oppression. The definition of individual freedom is the most common of Article 4 of the Declaration on the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789 : Some philosophers of the Enlightenment he prefer the following definition: Freedom leads to the right of everyone to act as he decides to pursue her own goals by its own means, to exchange, to associate and to contract freely, speak freely and to freely choose information sources. The right of ownership is the right of every individual to dispose at will of the fruit of his business and wealth he has created or acquired legitimately, and to appropriate any thing (eg the space that it occupies or the air he breathes) not already owned by another individual. These rights are universal. They are applicable to all human beings, at any time and any place, which founded the equality in law. A natural right is distinguished from a positive law in that its exercise does not imply anything about the actions of others and it does not follow a statutory definition. "Character, Liberty, Property Ethics The moral liberal can be summarized by a single precept: You will not violate the natural rights of another human being. It leaves everyone free to choose its own ends, his own and his own morality, insofar as it does not prevent others from doing the same. Conversely, these rights entail obligations that form the nucleus of a personal morality. They involve the prohibition of aggression against the integrity of the person, murder , theft and the slavery in all its forms, and any form of dictatorship. They control the tolerance of ideas, beliefs and actions of others. Beyond that, liberalism does not prescribe any particular behavior at the individual level. He believes that morality and religion are outside its domain and merely prohibits the use of coercion in religion or morals, as in all other subjects. The responsibility is inseparable from liberty and property, said that each individual must bear the consequences of his actions, good or bad. It is a condition of freedom: if others become responsible for our actions, it should acquire the authority to impose its views and we therefore restrict our freedom. It is also a component of the safety of others. The concept of freedom is linked to that of equal rights : the freedom of others implies they recognize the same rights as most would agree. For liberals, all human beings should be treated as equals regardless of their differences. Liberalism is not the anomie as the absence of legal rules. The law is formed partly by the natural law , and secondly by the positive law which is the product of contracts between individuals. Liberalism demands of society respect the natural rights and limited powers of the State as stated in the German philosopher Wilhelm von Humboldt in his essay on the limits of state action (1792). A company is the result of liberal choices and actions made freely by all its members, which theoretically allows it to take very different forms. However, most authors Liberals form a prognosis on the explicit or implicit form that should take a liberal society. They start from the observation that human beings are profoundly social animals, which is attentive to the feelings and welfare of his fellows and knows that the association with them is through its own survival and his own satisfaction. While recognizing the great diversity of people, liberal thinkers have a priori confidence in their spontaneous action, and believe that individuals are driven by their instincts and their reason to cooperate and implement effective solutions for a point view of individual and social (principle claimed by the Liberals since Mandeville in The Fable of the Bees , Montesquieu and Adam Smith with his " invisible hand "often misunderstood). Nothing in liberalism opposed to collective action, provided that the associations that undertake are entirely voluntary and do not constrain nor their members, who must be able to freely leave or on other individuals. According to the projects he wants to participate, each person can belong to any number of communities, each unable to ask him what is necessary to achieve its particular purpose. The ideal liberal society is not a juxtaposition of selfish strangers to each other or a juxtaposition of separate communities, but rather a tangle of voluntary associations of all kinds through which everyone can work for he gives, cooperating freely with those who share one or another of its ideals. By example and imitation, the objectives, rules and methods adopted by certain groups can spread to the entire society, bringing forth a spontaneous order that the Liberals regard as the only legitimate, provided that it does not violate the natural rights of individuals. Thus, in a liberal society, the social protection based primarily on personal initiative and voluntary structures based on type of mutual or insurance , not a state structure and binding as the social security deemed unfair and inefficient. The second pillar of social protection is a charity , to which everyone is free to contribute according to its resources and its morality. Finally, some liberals consider that in some cases the State may have to contribute to the welfare of the weakest in supporting a portion of contributions and / or expenses thereof. Classical liberalism admits that the institution of the State is required to enforce the prohibition of violence. Everyone should refrain from using violence, as the fundamental principle of individual responsibility, entrusted to the State monopoly in the service of protecting everyone against everyone else. The state is a human organization, the Liberals think that the risk that the men who compose it are abusing that monopoly of violence is permanent. At the same time he is the guarantor of freedoms, the rule is perceived as the greatest threat to these freedoms. Grant a "monopoly of legitimate violence" ( Max Weber ) has the necessary counterpart to limit its field of action rigorously. For classical liberals, the only legitimate functions of government are those that ensure the protection of citizens : police , justice , diplomacy and national defense. These functions form the minimal state limited to so-called sovereign functions. In performing these duties, the State must be subject to the same laws as citizens, and do not make laws that would not apply to himself. Classical liberalism is silent on the institutional form of the state, but only on the scope of its powers. He prefers to let the provisions effectively limit those powers, such as democracy and the separation of powers. Classical liberalism does not recognize special rights to the majority, even democratically elected. Similarly it prohibits a stronger to impose his will on a weaker, it prohibits a greater number of individuals to impose their will on a smaller number. The role of the liberal state is not to impose the law of the majority, but rather to protect the freedom of individuals and minorities against the strongest and most numerous. In particular, the classical liberalism that refuses even the Democratic majority to extend the exclusive domain of state action beyond the minimal state. This political philosophy could be summed up in three citations : Montaigne : "The princes make me prove if they deprive me of anything, and make me pretty good when they do me no harm, that's all I'm askin '(note: = prove much) ; These positions have been developed in the twentieth century by the School of Public Choice , which examines state actions like those of an organization like the others (which defends the interests of those who compose it or support it) and establishes the non-existence of "general interest" (insofar as it is impossible to give any definition or feature). The most radical liberals, the libertarians or anarcho-capitalist , say that the sphere of legitimate political power or function is empty, and the risk taken by giving the state monopoly of violence is too large to be submitted ran. They therefore consider the state as an enemy and advocating its complete disappearance and the end of politics. In contrast, proponents of classic positions on the minimal state are often called minarchistes. Modern democracies are characterized as liberal as are imposed the rule of law , separation and limitation of powers and freedom of the press. They take the form either of a republic (eg Germany, India, France) is a constitutional monarchy (example: Spain, Norway, Netherlands, United Kingdom and its Commonwealth, Sweden). Two positions coexist in the classical tradition. As a result of Adam Smith , the English classical school (Smith, Malthus, Ricardo, Stuart Mill) some legitimate state intervention in the economy by assigning the first three duties: Given a natural risk of the formation of cartels (or trusts), all the major Western democracies have developed antitrust laws like the Sherman Act , designed to restore the flow of economic and even institutionalize protect free competition. The protection of free competition is often denounced as a sham, for example by Alan Greenspan . Others add that the laws governing corporate behavior must be the same for all regardless of their size, and that any discrimination based on firm size is illegitimate and cons-productive. Many consider the opposite that liberalism presupposes the existence of antitrust laws to ensure the sustainability of competition without obstruction of giant corporations, while asking the state to retain its role of arbiter, not a player . Without a strong state, it would be difficult to ban such practices tying , which by definition hamper free competition. For the same reason - a ban on economic agreement between producers, but this time the workers - that the strike was for some time in the nineteenth century regarded as illegal activity. The birth of liberalism is the advent of the Industrial Revolution , and the emergence of economic models that have significantly shaped the structure of economic activity, generating a significant increase in production and a relative decrease from the ' agriculture versus that of the industry. The post-industrial economy , despite the development of information technologies and communication apparently low consumers of natural resources (but it's only appearance as they also consume resources) continues to be strongly dependent on natural resources ( fossil fuels , raw materials ) . Early in the twentieth century , Arthur Cecil Pigou , in his work on the economics of welfare , will take into consideration the unintended consequences that may result from a market relationship by inventing the concept of externalities. Pigou propose subsequently the creation of a tax that bears his name to correct negative externalities, which will later rise to the principle of polluter-pays principle in environmental matters. Even today, the business models continue to evolve to try to better integrate the effects of population and economic growth on the environment , including depletion of nonrenewable natural resources. An objection to cross several streams of thought, is that the "philosophical liberalism" promotes freedom unreal. Critics, such as Marxism or psycho , oppose formal freedoms (freedom of movement, for example) and actual freedoms (economic capacity to actually move, for instance) and accused the Liberals promote the rights of the individual without concerned about the lives of these individuals within society. The curator Michel Villey joined on this point Marxist thought when she argues that if the formal rights liberals are supposed to benefit everyone, they actually benefit only those who can physically exert them: the rich, the owners . Authors such as Charles Taylor , argue that the presuppositions individualistic liberalism can not find concrete expression: the social unit is essentially the group based on their observations, and the individual can be seen in its entirety on the bases solely and strictly individual . According to the group that is considered, there are different varieties of holism , taking into account the realities such as collective enterprise, association, family. According to these critics, the individual can not be a driving force or consider themselves at once as free as part of a mass society . The criticisms of economic liberalism are the subject of an article dedicated. Founding works (in chronological order) Structures Analysis (in chronological order) Other works (in chronological order) Articles
Liberalism is a current of thought in political philosophy , born of opposition to the absolutism and divine right in the Europe of the Enlightenment (eighteenth century), which affirms the primacy of the principles of freedom and individual responsibility on power of the sovereign. It is based on the idea that every human being has basic rights that no authority has the right to violate. Consequently, liberals want to limit the social obligations imposed by the authority and the broader social system in favor of free choice of each individual Overview The different currents within liberalism
Doctrines and political systems which opposes liberalism
Uses of the term
History of Liberalism
Origins
Birth of Liberalism
Growing influence in the West
From the Industrial Revolution to the Present
Natural rights
The various aspects of liberalism
Social aspects
Political aspects
Jean-Baptiste Say : "As the head of a government is already doing much good that does not hurt";
Frederic Bastiat , "only waiting for the state two things: freedom, security. Well see that we can not risk losing them both, ask for a third " . Economic aspects
Environmental aspects
Reviews
See also
Bibliography
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