Download Liberalism and Conservatism

Liberalism and Conservatism
Liberalism
• Liberalism descended directly from the
Enlightenment’s critique of the 18th century
absolutism
• 19th century liberals believed that individual
freedom was best safeguarded by reducing
government powers to a minimum
Liberalism
• They wanted to impose constitutional limits
on government, establish the rule of law,
eliminate all restrictions on individual
enterprise – specifically, state regulation of
the economy – and ensure a voice in
government for men of property and
education
Liberalism
• Romanticism influenced liberalism by
emphasizing individual freedom and the
imperative to develop the human personality
to its full potential
Liberalism
• Liberalism was also affected by nationalism,
especially in multinational autocratic states
like Austria, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire,
in which free institutions could be established
only if political independence were wrested
from Vienna, St. Petersburg, and
Constantinople respectively.
Liberalism
• Liberalism was both an economic and a social
theory
• In 1776, Adam Smith (1723-1790), a Scottish
economist, published An Inquiry into the Nature
and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
– Smith advocated freeing national economies from
mercantilism, under which the state regulated the
prices and conditions of manufacture
Liberalism
• Smith argued for letting the free forces of the
marketplace shape economic decisions,
stating that the economy would be guided as
if ‘by an invisible hand’
• In France this policy was called laissez faire (to
leave alone)
Liberalism
• Thomas Malthus (1766-1834), an English
stockbroker, in his An Essay of the Principle of
Population argued that if employers paid their
employees more money they would marry
earlier and have more children, thus flooding
the labour market and driving wages down
Liberalism
• David Ricardo (1772-1823), an English stockbroker, in
his Principles of political Economy (1817), stated that
capitalists had to keep lowering wages, because they
were their major expenses, and that the economy is
driven by laws and any intervention will worsen the
situation
• Liberals in the political realm argued that political
power must be limited to prevent despotism (an
individual ruler with too much power)
Liberalism
• While some liberals, such as Jeremy Bentham
(1748-1832), known for his Utilitarianism, and
John Stuart Mill (1803-1873), both of England,
argued for universal suffrage, other liberals
feared the masses and vigorously opposed
democracy, believing that the vote should be
reserved for the well-off and educated
Liberalism
• Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), an American
president and follower of the enlightenment,
asserted in the Declaration of Independence
that “life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness” were inalienable rights
Liberalism
• The basic tenets of liberalism were the
sanctity of human rights, freedom of speech
and freedom to organize, the rule of law and
equality before the law, and the abolition of
torture
Conservatism
• Conservatism was the guiding principle of the
powers represented at the Congress of Vienna
• The period after 1815 is known as the
Restoration, for the restoration of the
conservative order and hereditary monarchy
Conservatism
• Conservative ideology developed as a reaction
against the ideas of the philosophes and the
revolutionaries
• In particular, conservatives objected to the
excessive reliance of the philosophes on reason,
especially abstract reason which was used to
justify ‘natural rights’ and the introduction of new
political and social institutions
Conservatism
• As a coherent movement conservatism sprang
up both during and after the French
Revolution to support resistance to the forces
of change; prior to this it hadn’t been thought
necessary to create a coherent conservative
ideology; the existing political institutions
appeared to be permanent
Conservatism
• Conservatism emphasized the need to
preserve the existing order
• Edmund Burke, an Irish-born, English
statesman and political theorist, launched one
of the first intellectual assaults on the French
Revolution in his Reflections on the Revolution
in France
• In an attack on the claims by the revolutionary
National Assembly, which stated that ancient
prerogatives had been superseded by the
rights of man and principles of human
equality based on appeals to natural law,
Burke stated that such claims were abstract
and dangerous and that the belief in human
equality undermined the social order
• Burke appealed to “experience” as a guide in
politics, which was part of a broader appeal to
“tradition” and “history” which were at the
heart of conservative political thought
• Some counter-revolutionaries and ultraroyalists wanted to restore society to its prerevolutionary condition
• Burke, however, was willing to countenance
some change, but it had to take place slowly
because both society and government are
products of a long historical development, and
therefore of a great deal of experience that no
man could amass in one lifetime
Conservatism
• Most conservatives agreed that society was an
organism that had evolved over centuries and that the
individuals who composed it were forever bound with
those who had preceded then and those who were to
follow
• For conservatives it was meaningless to talk of
“individual liberty” apart from society, since freedom
could be achieved only through the community
– The community took precedence over the individual
Conservatism
• This was in opposition to the Enlightenment
emphasis on the individual and his rights
• This emphasis stemmed from John Locke and
his disciples who viewed society and
government as necessary evils or artificial
constructions
Conservatism
• Conservatives deplored the persecution of the
church during the revolution and the lack of
respect for ecclesiastical authority and attacks
on Christian dogma
• For conservatives, organized religion was
essential for social order
Conclusion
• The birth of modern ideologies took place in the 19th
century Europe
• These ideologies grew and were modified over time
• These ideologies remain in our present day and continue to
be debated, with conflict taking place between them
• The greatest showdown between ideologies took place in
World War 2 and the Cold War which followed