Liberalism key words

• Individualism: can be interpreted 2 ways. ‘Egotistical liberalism” - the view that people are essentially self-seeking and self-reliant. Developmental individualism - plays down the pursuit of self-interests and has been used to justify support for some state intervention in society to help the disadvantaged.
• Developmental Individualism: the view that individual freedom is linked to the desire to create a society in which each person can grow and flourish.
• Tolerance: a willingness to accept values, customs and beliefs with which one disagrees.
• Freedom: most important of all liberal values, freedom can never be absolute but must be exercised under the law, in order to protect the people from interfering with each others’ rights.
• Liberty: each individual can decide what is in his or her own interests.
• Negative freedom: freedoms from interference by other people.
• Positive freedom: having the capacity to act on one‘s free will and to realise personal potential
• Limited government: where the role of gov is limited by checks and balances, and a separation of powers, because of the corrupting nature of power.
• Laissez-faire capitalism: an economic system organised by the market, where goods are produced for exchange and profit, and wealth is privately owned.
• Bill of Rights: favoured by liberals, which provides a clear statement of citizen‘s rights and defines the relationship between citizens and the state.
• Rationalism: belief in human reason, individuals should be free to exercise their judgment on their own interests without needing to be guided by external authorities, as people will not always make correct decisions, but it is better for them to take responsibility for themselves then to take instruction from above.
• Equality of opportunity: the idea that all individuals should have equal chances in life to rise and fall
• Foundational equality: rights that all humans have by virtue of being born, which cannot be taken away
• Meritocracy: a society organised on the basis that success is based on ability and hard work.
• Social contract: an unofficial agreement shared by everyone in a society in which they give up some freedom in return for security.
• Neo-liberalism: in the late 20th century, classical liberalism was reinvented in Britain and the USA as this which was associated with the New Right.
• Egotistical individualism: the idea that individuals freedom is associated with self-interest and self-reliance.
• Self-government: decentralisation of government and protection of civil liberties.
• Mechanistic theory: the theory that people created the state to serve them and act in their interests.
• Enabling state: a larger state that helps individuals to achieve their potential and be free.
• Beveridge report: foundation of the post-war British welfare state which argues liberty should be available ewually to all, and this was impossible if part of the population was held back by the ‘5 giants’ - poverty, lack of education, ill health, poor living conditions and unemployment.
• Keynesianism: an economic system that requires gov involvement to stimulate the economy to achieve fell employment and price stability
• Formal equality: the idea that all individuals have the same legal and political rights in society
• Harm principle: the idea that individuals should be free to do anything except harm other individuals.
• Personal autonomy: individual is at the heart of decision making for themselves
• Negative freedom: each person being left alone, free from interference and able to act in which ever way he or she may choose
• Positive freedom: ability to be one’s own master; to be autonomous. requires individual to develop skills and talents to broaden understanding and achieve self-realisation
• “High pleasures”: develop an individuals’s intellectual, moral or artistic feelings
• “Lower pleasures”: physical pleasures such as food
• “State of Nature” -John Locke: a society characterised by unrestrained freedom and the absence of established authority
• mechanistic theory: the idea that the state was created by the people to serve them and act in their interests.
• paternalism: powers exerted from above, which governs in the interests of the people
• Natural rights: human rights
• Legal equality: emphasises “equality before the law” which is a fundamental principle of the rule of law, that the laws should “rule”.
• Political equality: the idea of universal adult suffrage and underpins the liberal commitment to democracy
• Foundational equality: rights that all humans have by virtue of being born which cannot be taken away
• Equality of opportunity: the idea that all individuals should have equal chances in life to rise and fall