tensions within liberalism on the state

• Classical liberal believe the government should be limited - too much power accumulated in one place can enourage despotism and so there must be checks and balances but upon government in order to ensure that it, too is according to the law.

  • An example - The 3 branch system in America, each branch of power is equal to its other counterparts - leading to gridlock
• "The government that is best is that which governs least ... when government grows our liberty withers" - Thomas Jefferson
• Classical

  All people should have the same legal rights - Civil liberties - and be free from the fear of tyranny.

  • Upto the individual to take control of their own lives without interference of the state
  • Egotisical individualism - emphasis of self reliance once the state has provided the appropriate legal protections for you to be free from tyranny.
• the classical liberal " night watchman state" is thus one which upholds the rule of law and creates the conditions in which trade and commerce to flourish. These are the only obligations of the state. Once they are fulfilled it is up to the individual to live out their life as they wish
• The classical liberal focus on negative freedom thus means that the role of the state is limited to providing individuals wit the legal protection necessary to safeguard their natural rights
• JS mill developed a more positive view of the what the state should be able to do in order to advance the individuality of people. He was thus in favour of an inheritance tax which would help to minimize the difference of people so encouraging greater freedom of opportunity
• Classical liberals view that the state should provide security for the individual to determine the live they wished to leave was challenged by the way in which industrialisation condemned so many deprivation without them never having the opportunity to lead the life they would have wanted to lead
• All liberals believe that some sort of state is necessary so they are not anarchists. However, liberals define freedom in different ways.
• Modern liberals focuses on the concept of positive freedom. People cannot achieve true freedom if they are constrained by poverty and so the state must have a role in enabling people to live self fulfilling lives.

  • The role of the state is thus to create the conditions for individual self fulfilment
• • John stuart mill represents transitional liberalism and developmental individualism.
  • This is because while Mill accepted the principle of negative freedom that individuals should be free to act in whatever they wish, he also believed that society must be progressive.
  • Liberty thus needed to be " grounded on the permanent interests of man as a progressive being "
• Herbert spencer was influenced by Charles darwin theory of natural selection and believed that only a minimal state should be tolerated which would allow the best to flourish

  • A result of the "survival of the fittest" the nation state will be strengthened as those less able to cope are not kept unnecessarily alive by social welfare provisions.
• Modern Liberal

  T H Green argued that humans beings must be able to achieve self fulfilment but this also cannot be possible if the state allows some people to be so disadvantaged that they can never achueve what they hope.
• Herbert Spencer

  • " With a higher moral nature will come a restriction on a multiplication of the inferior "
  • " This survival of the fittest, implies multiplication of the fittest "
• T H green

  • " It is human society as a whole what we must look upon as the organism in which the capacitites of the human soul are unfolded "