Liberalism is a
political philosophy or worldview founded on ideas of
liberty and
equality. The former principle is stressed in
classical liberalism while the latter is more evident in
social liberalism.
[1] Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally they support ideas and programs such as
freedom of speech,
freedom of the press,
freedom of religion,
free markets,
civil rights,
democratic societies,
secular governments, and
international cooperation.
[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]
Liberalism first became a distinct political movement during the
Age of Enlightenment, when it became popular among
philosophers and
economists in the
Western world. Liberalism rejected the notions, common at the time, of
hereditary privilege,
state religion,
absolute monarchy, and the
Divine Right of Kings. The 17th-century philosopher
John Locke is often credited with founding liberalism as a distinct philosophical tradition. Locke argued that each man has a
natural right to life, liberty and
property,
[9] while adding that governments must not violate these rights based on the
social contract. Liberals opposed
traditional conservatism and sought to replace
absolutism in government with
representative democracy and the
rule of law.
Prominent revolutionaries in the
Glorious Revolution, the
American Revolution, and the
French Revolution used liberal philosophy to justify the armed overthrow of what they saw as
tyrannical rule. Liberalism started to spread rapidly especially after the French Revolution. The 19th century saw liberal governments established in nations across
Europe,
South America, and
North America.
[10] In this period, the dominant ideological opponent of
classical liberalism was
conservatism, but liberalism later survived major ideological challenges from new opponents, such as
fascism and
communism. During the 20th century, liberal ideas spread even further as
liberal democracies found themselves on the winning side in both world wars. In Europe and North America, the establishment of
social liberalism became a key component in the expansion of the
welfare state.
[11][12] Today,
liberal parties continue to wield power and influence
throughout the world.
Etymology and definition
Words such as
liberal,
liberty,
libertarian, and
libertine all trace their history to the Latin
liber, which means "free".
[13] One of the first recorded instances of the word
liberal occurs in 1375, when it was used to describe the
liberal arts in the context of an education desirable for a free-born man.
[13] The word's early connection with the classical education of a medieval university soon gave way to a proliferation of different denotations and connotations.
Liberal could refer to "free in bestowing" as early as 1387, "made without stint" in 1433, "freely permitted" in 1530, and "free from restraint" – often as a pejorative remark – in the 16th and the 17th centuries.
[13] In 16th century
England,
liberal could have positive or negative attributes in referring to someone's generosity or indiscretion.
[13] In
Much Ado About Nothing,
Shakespeare wrote of "a liberal villaine" who "hath...confest his vile encounters".
[13] With the rise of the
Enlightenment, the word acquired decisively more positive undertones, being defined as "free from narrow prejudice" in 1781 and "free from bigotry" in 1823.
[13] In 1815, the first use of the word
liberalism appeared in English.
[14] In
Spain, the
Liberales, the first group to use the
liberal label in a political context,
[15] fought for the implementation of the
1812 Constitution for decades. From 1820 to 1823, during the
Trienio Liberal,
King Ferdinand VII was compelled by the
liberales to swear to uphold the Constitution. By the middle of the 19th century,
liberal was used as a politicised term for
parties and movements all over the world.
[16]
Over time, the meaning of the word "liberalism" began to diverge in different parts of the world. According to the
Encyclopedia Britannica, "In the United States, liberalism is associated with the welfare-state policies of the New Deal program of the Democratic administration of Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt, whereas in Europe it is more commonly associated with a commitment to limited government and
laissez-faire economic policies."
[17]
Consequently in the U.S., the ideas of
individualism and
laissez-faire economics previously associated with classical liberalism became the basis for the emerging school of
libertarian thought.
[18]
History
Beginnings
Isolated strands of liberal thought that had existed in
Western philosophy since the
Ancient Greeks, began to coalesce at the time of the
English Civil War. Disputes between the
Parliament and King
Charles I over political supremacy sparked a massive civil war in the 1640s, which culminated in Charles' execution and the establishment of a
Republic. In particular, the
Levellers, a radical political movement of the period, published their manifesto
Agreement of the People which advocated
popular sovereignty, an extended voting
suffrage,
religious tolerance and
equality before the law. Many of the liberal concepts of Locke were foreshadowed in the radical ideas that were freely aired at the time.
[19] Algernon Sidney was second only to John Locke in his influence on liberal political thought in eighteenth-century Britain. He believed that
absolute monarchy was a great political evil, and his major work,
Discourses Concerning Government, argued that the subjects of the monarch were entitled by right to share in the government through advice and counsel.
These ideas were first drawn together and systematised as a distinct
ideology, by the English philosopher
John Locke, generally regarded as the father of modern liberalism.
[21][22] Locke developed the then radical notion that government acquires
consent from the governed which has to be constantly present for a government to remain legitimate.
[23] His influential
Two Treatises (1690), the foundational text of liberal ideology, outlined his major ideas.
[24] His insistence that lawful government did not have a
supernatural basis was a sharp break with then-dominant theories of governance.
[25][26] Locke also defined the concept of the
separation of church and state.
[27] Based on the
social contract principle, Locke argued that there was a natural right to the liberty of conscience, which he argued must therefore remain protected from any government authority.
[28] He also formulated a general defence for
religious toleration in his
Letters Concerning Toleration.
[29] Locke was influenced by the liberal ideas of
John Milton, who was a staunch advocate of freedom in all its forms.
[30] Milton argued for
disestablishment as the only effective way of achieving broad
toleration.
[31] In his
Areopagitica, Milton provided one of the first arguments for the importance of
freedom of speech – "the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties".
Glorious Revolution
The impact of these ideas steadily increased during the 17th century in England, culminating in the
Glorious Revolution of 1688 which enshrined
parliamentary sovereignty and the
right of revolution, and led to the establishment of what many consider the first modern, liberal state.
[32] Significant legislative milestones in this period included the
Habeas Corpus Act of 1679 which strengthened the convention that forbade detention lacking sufficient cause or evidence. The
Bill of Rights formally established the supremacy of the law and of parliament over the monarch and laid down basic rights for all
Englishmen. The Bill made royal interference with the law and with elections to parliament illegal, made the agreement of parliament necessary for the implementation of any new taxes and outlawed the maintenance of a
standing army during peacetime without parliament's consent. The right to petition the monarch was granted to everyone and "
cruel and unusual punishments" were made illegal under all circumstances.
[33][34] This was followed a year later with the
Act of Toleration, which drew its ideological content from
John Locke's four letters advocating religious toleration.
[35] The Act allowed freedom of worship to
Nonconformists who pledged oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy to the
Anglican Church. In 1695, the
Commons refused to renew the
Licensing of the Press Act 1662,
[36] leading to a continuous period of unprecedented
freedom of the press.
Era of enlightenment
The development of liberalism continued throughout the 18th century with the burgeoning
Enlightenment ideals of the era. This was a period of profound intellectual vitality that questioned old traditions and influenced several European monarchies throughout the 18th century. In contrast to England, the French experience in the 18th century was characterised by the perpetuation of feudal payments and rights and
absolutism. Ideas that challenged the status quo were often harshly repressed. Most of the
philosophes of the
French Enlightenment were progressive in the liberal sense and advocated the reform of the French system of government along more constitutional and liberal lines.
Baron de Montesquieu wrote a series of highly influential works in the early 18th century, including
Persian letters (1717) and
The Spirit of the Laws (1748). The latter exerted tremendous influence, both inside and outside of France. Montesquieu pleaded in favor of
a constitutional system of government, the preservation of civil liberties and the law, and the idea that political institutions ought to reflect the social and geographical aspects of each community. In particular, he argued that political liberty required
the separation of the powers of government. Building on
John Locke's
Second Treatise of Government, he advocated that the executive, legislative, and judicial functions of government should be assigned to different bodies. He also emphasised the importance of a robust due process in law, including the
right to a fair trial, the
presumption of innocence and
proportionality in the severity of punishment. Another important figure of the French Enlightenment was
Voltaire. Initially believing in the constructive role an enlightened monarch could play in improving the welfare of the people, he eventually came to a new conclusion: "It is up to us to cultivate our garden". His most polemical and ferocious attacks on intolerance and religious persecutions indeed began to appear a few years later.
[37] Despite much persecution, Voltaire remained a courageous polemicist who indefatigably fought for
civil rights – the
right to a fair trial and
freedom of religion – and who denounced the hypocrisies and injustices of the
Ancien Régime.
American revolution
Political tension between England and its
American colonies grew after 1765 over the issue of
taxation without representation, culminating in the
Declaration of Independence of a new republic.
The Declaration of Independence, written by
Thomas Jefferson, echoed
Locke: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness".
[38] After the war, the leaders debated about how to move forward. The
Articles of Confederation, written in 1776, now appeared inadequate to provide security, or even a functional government. The Confederation Congress called a
Constitutional Convention in 1787 to write a new
Constitution of the United States.
In the context of the times, the Constitution was a republican and liberal document. It established a strong national government with clear separation of the
executive, the
legislative, and the
judicial. The first ten
amendments to the constitution, known as the
United States Bill of Rights, guaranteed some of the
natural rights liberal thinkers used to justify the Revolution.
[39][40]
French revolution
Historians widely regard the French Revolution as one of the most important events in history.
[41] The Revolution is often seen as marking the "dawn of the modern era,"
[42] and its convulsions are widely associated with "the triumph of liberalism".
[43]
The French Revolution began in 1789 with the convocation of the
Estates-General in May. The first year of the Revolution witnessed members of the
Third Estate proclaiming the
Tennis Court Oath in June, the
Storming of the Bastille in July. The two key events that marked the triumph of liberalism were the
Abolition of feudalism in France on the night of 4 August 1789, which marked the collapse of feudal and old traditional rights and privileges and restrictions, and the passage of the
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in August. The rise of
Napoleon as dictator in 1799, heralded a reverse of many of the republican and democratic gains. However Napoleon did not restore the ancien regime. He kept much of the liberalism and imposed a liberal code of law, the
Code Napoleon.
Outside France the Revolution had a major impact and its ideas became widespread. Furthermore the French armies in the 1790s and 1800s directly overthrew feudal remains in much of western Europe. They liberalised
property laws, ended
seigneurial dues, abolished the
guild of merchants and craftsmen to facilitate entrepreneurship, legalised
divorce, and closed the
Jewish ghettos. The
Inquisition ended as did the
Holy Roman Empire. The power of church courts and religious authority was sharply reduced, and
equality under the law was proclaimed for all men.
[44]
Artz emphasises the benefits the Italians gained from the French Revolution:
- For nearly two decades the Italians had the excellent codes of law, a fair system of taxation, a better economic situation, and more religious and intellectual toleration than they had known for centuries.... Everywhere old physical, economic, and intellectual barriers had been thrown down and the Italians had begun to be aware of a common nationality.[45]
Likewise in
Switzerland the long-term impact of the French Revolution has been assessed by Martin:
- It proclaimed the equality of citizens before the law, equality of languages, freedom of thought and faith; it created a Swiss citizenship, basis of our modern nationality, and the separation of powers, of which the old regime had no conception; it suppressed internal tariffs and other economic restraints; it unified weights and measures, reformed civil and penal law, authorised mixed marriages (between Catholics and Protestants), suppressed torture and improved justice; it developed education and public works.[46]
Radicalism
The
radical liberal movement began in the 1790s in England and concentrated on parliamentary and electoral reform, emphasising
natural rights and popular sovereignty.
[47] Thomas Paine's
The Rights of Man (1791) was a response to
Burke's
conservative essay
Reflections on the Revolution in France. The ensuing
Revolution Controversy featured, among others,
Mary Wollstonecraft, who followed with an early
feminist tract
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Radicals encouraged mass support for democratic reform along with rejection of the
monarchy,
aristocracy, and all forms of privilege. The
Reform Act 1832 was put through with the support of public outcry, mass meetings of "political unions" and riots in some cities. This now enfranchised the middle classes, but failed to meet radical demands. Following the Reform Act the mainly aristocratic Whigs in the House of Commons were joined by a small number of
parliamentary Radicals, as well as an increased number of middle class Whigs.
By 1839 they were informally being called "the
Liberal party. The Liberals produced one of the greatest British prime ministers –
William Gladstone, who was also known as the
Grand Old Man and was the towering political figure of liberalism in the 19th century.
[48] Under Gladstone, the Liberals reformed education,
disestablished the
Church of Ireland, and introduced the secret ballot for local and parliamentary elections.
Liberal economic theory
The development into maturity of
classical liberalism took place before and after the
French Revolution in Britain, and was based on the following core concepts:
classical economics,
free trade,
laissez-faire government with minimal intervention and taxation and a
balanced budget. Classical liberals were committed to individualism, liberty and equal rights. The primary intellectual influences on 19th century liberal trends were those of
Adam Smith and the classical economists, and
Jeremy Bentham and
John Stuart Mill.
Adam Smith's
The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, was to provide most of the ideas of economics, at least until the publication of
J. S. Mill's
Principles in 1848.
[49] Smith addressed the motivation for economic activity, the causes of prices and the distribution of wealth, and the policies the state should follow in order to maximise wealth.
[50]
Smith wrote that as long as supply, demand, prices, and competition were left free of government regulation, the pursuit of material self-interest, rather than altruism, would maximise the wealth of a society
[51] through profit-driven production of goods and services. An "
invisible hand" directed individuals and firms to work toward the nation's good as an unintended consequence of efforts to maximise their own gain. This provided a moral justification for the accumulation of wealth, which had previously been viewed by some as sinful.
[50]
His main emphasis was on the benefit of free internal and international trade, which he thought could increase wealth through specialisation in production.
[52] He also opposed restrictive trade preferences, state grants of monopolies, and employers' organisations and trade unions.
[53] Government should be limited to defence, public works and the administration of justice, financed by taxes based on income.
[54] Smith was one of the progenitors of the idea, which was long central to
classical liberalism and has resurfaced in the
globalization literature of the later 20th and early 21st centuries, that free trade promotes peace.
[55]
Utilitarianism provided the political justification for the implementation of
economic liberalism by British governments, which was to dominate economic policy from the 1830s. Although utilitarianism prompted legislative and administrative reform and
John Stuart Mill's later writings on the subject foreshadowed the welfare state, it was mainly used as a justification for
laissez-faire.
[56] The central concept of utilitarianism, which was developed by
Jeremy Bentham, was that public policy should seek to provide "the greatest happiness of the greatest number". While this could be interpreted as a justification for state action to reduce poverty, it was used by classical liberals to justify inaction with the argument that the net benefit to all individuals would be higher.
[57] His philosophy proved to be extremely influential on government policy and led to increased Benthamite attempts at government social control, including
Robert Peel's
Metropolitan Police,
prison reforms, the
workhouses and
asylums for the mentally ill.
The repeal of the
Corn Laws in 1846 was a watershed moment and encapsulated the triumph of
free trade and liberal economics. The
Anti-Corn Law League brought together a coalition of liberal and radical groups in support of free trade under the leadership of
Richard Cobden and
John Bright, who opposed militarism and public expenditure. Their policies of low public expenditure and low taxation were later adopted by the liberal
chancellor of the exchequer and later prime minister,
William Ewart Gladstone.
[58] Although British classical liberals aspired to a minimum of state activity, the passage of the
Factory Acts in the early 19th century which involved government interference in the economy met with their approval.
Spread of liberalism
Abolitionist and
suffrage movements spread, along with representative and democratic ideals. France established an
enduring republic in the 1870s, and a
vicious war in the United States ensured the integrity of the nation and the abolition of slavery in the
south. Meanwhile, a mixture of liberal and nationalist sentiment in
Italy and
Germany brought about the unification of the two countries in the late 19th century. Liberal agitation in Latin America led to
independence from the imperial power of
Spain and
Portugal.
In France, the
July Revolution of 1830, orchestrated by liberal politicians and journalists, removed the
Bourbon monarchy and inspired similar uprisings elsewhere in Europe. Frustration with the pace of political progress in the early 19th century sparked even more gigantic
revolutions in 1848. Revolutions spread throughout the
Austrian Empire, the
German states, and the
Italian states. Governments fell rapidly. Liberal nationalists demanded written constitutions, representative assemblies, greater suffrage rights, and freedom of the press.
[59] A
second republic was proclaimed in France. Serfdom was abolished in
Prussia,
Galicia,
Bohemia, and
Hungary. The indomitable Metternich, the Austrian builder of the reigning conservative order, shocked Europe when he resigned and fled to Britain in panic and disguise.
[60]
Eventually, however, the success of the revolutionaries petered out. Without French help, the Italians were
easily defeated by the Austrians. With some luck and skill, Austria also managed to contain the bubbling nationalist sentiments in Germany and Hungary, helped along by the failure of the
Frankfurt Assembly to unify the German states into a single nation. Two decades later, however, the Italians and the Germans realised their dreams for unification and independence. The
Sardinian Prime Minister,
Camillo di Cavour, was a shrewd liberal who understood that the only effective way for the Italians to gain independence was if the French were on their side.
[61]
Napoleon III agreed to Cavour's request for assistance and France defeated Austria in the
Franco-Austrian War of 1859, setting the stage for Italian independence. German unification transpired under the leadership of
Otto von Bismarck, who decimated the enemies of Prussia in war after war, finally
triumphing against France in 1871 and proclaiming the German Empire in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, ending another saga in the drive for nationalisation. The French proclaimed a
third republic after their loss in the war.
Social liberalism
By the end of the nineteenth century, the principles of
classical liberalism were being increasingly challenged by downturns in economic growth, a growing perception of the evils of poverty, unemployment and relative deprivation present within modern industrial cities, and the agitation of
organised labour. The ideal of the self-made individual, who through hard work and talent could make his or her place in the world, seemed increasingly implausible. A major political reaction against the changes introduced by
industrialisation and
laissez-faire capitalism came from conservatives concerned about social balance, although
socialism later became a more important force for change and reform. Some Victorian writers – including
Charles Dickens,
Thomas Carlyle, and
Matthew Arnold – became early influential critics of social injustice.
[62]
John Stuart Mill contributed enormously to liberal thought by combining elements of classical liberalism with what eventually became known as the new liberalism. Mill's 1859
On Liberty addressed the nature and limits of the
power that can be legitimately exercised by society over the
individual.
[63] He gave an impassioned defence of free speech, arguing that free
discourse is a
necessary condition for intellectual and social progress. Mill defined "
social liberty" as protection from "the tyranny of political rulers." He introduced a number of different concepts of the form tyranny can take, referred to as social tyranny, and
tyranny of the majority respectively.
Social liberty meant limits on the ruler's power through obtaining recognition of political liberties or rights and by the establishment of a system of "
constitutional checks".
[64]
However, although Mill's initial
economic philosophy supported
free markets and argued that
progressive taxation penalised those who worked harder,
[65] he later altered his views toward a more
socialist bent, adding chapters to his Principles of Political Economy in defence of a socialist outlook, and defending some socialist causes,
[66] including the radical proposal that the whole wage system be abolished in favour of a co-operative wage system.
Another early liberal convert to greater government intervention was
Thomas Hill Green. Seeing the effects of alcohol, he believed that the state should foster and protect the social, political and economic environments in which individuals will have the best chance of acting according to their consciences. The state should intervene only where there is a clear, proven and strong tendency of a liberty to enslave the individual.
[67] Green regarded the national state as legitimate only to the extent that it upholds a system of rights and obligations that is most likely to foster individual self-realisation.
This strand began to coalesce into the
social liberalism movement at the turn of the twentieth century in Britain. The New Liberals, which included intellectuals like
L.T. Hobhouse, and
John A. Hobson, saw individual liberty as something achievable only under favorable social and economic circumstances.
[68] In their view, the poverty, squalor, and ignorance in which many people lived made it impossible for freedom and individuality to flourish. New Liberals believed that these conditions could be ameliorated only through collective action coordinated by a strong, welfare-oriented, and interventionist state.
[69] The
People's Budget of 1909, championed by
David Lloyd George and fellow liberal
Winston Churchill, introduced unprecedented taxes on the wealthy in Britain and radical social welfare programmes to the country's policies.
[70] It was the first budget with the expressed intent of redistributing wealth among the public.
[71][72]
1920s
At the beginning of the 20th century, liberalism was on the ascendant. The bastion of
autocracy, the
Russian czar, was overthrown in the
liberal revolution of February 1917 and the Allied victory in the
First World War and the collapse of four empires seemed to mark the triumph of liberalism across the European continent, not just among the
victorious allies, but also in
Germany and the newly created states of
Eastern Europe. Militarism, as typified by Germany, was defeated and discredited. As Blinkhorn argues, the liberal themes were ascendant in terms of “cultural pluralism, religious and ethnic toleration, national self-determination, free-market economics, representative and responsible government, free trade, unionism, and the peaceful settlement of international disputes through a new body, the
League of Nations.”
Liberalism was defeated in Russia when the Communists came to power under
Vladimir Lenin in October 1917, in Italy when Mussolini set up his dictatorship in 1922, in Poland in 1926 under
Józef Piłsudski, and in Spain in 1939 after the
Spanish Civil War. Japan, which was generally liberal in the 1920s, saw liberalism wither away in the 1930s under pressure from the military.
The worldwide
Great Depression, starting in 1929, hastened the discrediting of liberal economics and strengthened calls for state control over economic affairs. Economic woes prompted widespread unrest in the European political world, leading to the strengthening of
fascism and communism. Their rise in 1939 culminated in the
Second World War. The
Allies, which included most of the important liberal nations as well as communist Russia, won World War II, defeating Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and militarist Japan. After the war, there was a falling out between Russia and the West, and the
Cold War opened in 1947 between the Communist
Eastern Bloc and the liberal
Western Alliance.
Keynesian economics
Meanwhile, the definitive liberal response to the Great Depression was given by the English economist
John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946). Keynes had been "brought up" as a
classical liberal, but especially after World War I became increasingly a welfare or social liberal.
[73] A prolific writer, amongst many other works, he had begun a theoretical work examining the relationship between unemployment, money and prices back in the 1920s.
[74] His
The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money was published in 1936,
[75] and served as a theoretical justification for the interventionist policies Keynes favoured for tackling a recession. The
General Theory challenged the earlier
neo-classical economic paradigm, which had held that, provided it was unfettered by government interference, the market would naturally establish
full employment equilibrium.
The book advocated activist economic policy by government to stimulate demand in times of high unemployment, for example by spending on
public works. "Let us be up and doing, using our idle resources to increase our wealth," he wrote in 1928. "With men and plants unemployed, it is ridiculous to say that we cannot afford these new developments. It is precisely with these plants and these men that we shall afford them."
[76] Where the market failed to properly allocate resources, the government was required to stimulate the economy until private funds could start flowing again – a "prime the pump" strategy designed to boost
industrial production.
[77]
The
social liberal program launched by
President Roosevelt in the United States in 1933, reduced the
unemployment rate from roughly 25 percent to about 15 percent by 1940.
[78] Additional state spending and the very large public works program sparked by the Second World War eventually pulled the United States out of the Great Depression. From 1940 to 1941, government spending increased by 59 percent, the
gross domestic product increased 17 percent, and unemployment fell below 10 percent for the first time since 1929.
[79]
The comprehensive
welfare state was built in the UK after the
Second World War. Although it was largely accomplished by the
Labour Party, it was also significantly designed by
John Maynard Keynes, who laid the economic foundations, and by
William Beveridge, who designed the welfare system.
[68] By the early years of the 21st century, most countries in the world have mixed economies, which combine capitalism with economic liberalism.
Post-war liberalism
The Cold War featured extensive ideological competition and several
proxy wars, but the widely feared
Third World War between the Soviet Union and the United States never occurred. While communist states and liberal democracies competed against one another, an
economic crisis in the 1970s inspired a move away from
Keynesian economics, especially under
Margaret Thatcher in the UK and
Ronald Reagan in the US.
This classical liberal renewal, called pejoratively "
neoliberalism" by its opponents, lasted through the 1980s and the 1990s, although the
Great Recession prompted a
resurgence in Keynesian economic thought recently. Meanwhile, nearing the end of the 20th century, communist states in
Eastern Europe collapsed precipitously, leaving liberal democracies as the only major forms of government in the West.
At the beginning of the Second World War, the number of democracies around the world was about the same as it had been forty years before.
[80] After 1945, liberal democracies spread very quickly, but then retreated. In
The Spirit of Democracy, Larry Diamond argues that by 1974, "dictatorship, not democracy, was the way of the world", and that "Barely a quarter of independent states chose their governments through competitive, free, and fair elections." Diamond goes on to say that democracy bounced back and by 1995 the world was "predominantly democratic".
[81] Liberalism still faces challenges, especially with the phenomenal growth of China as a model combination of authoritarian government and economic liberalism.
[82]
Philosophy
Liberalism – both as a political current and an intellectual tradition – is mostly a
modern phenomenon that started in the 17th century, although some liberal philosophical ideas had precursors in
classical antiquity. The
Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius praised "the idea of a polity administered with regard to equal rights and equal freedom of speech, and the idea of a kingly government which respects most of all the freedom of the governed".
[83]
Scholars have also recognised a number of principles familiar to contemporary liberals in the works of several
Sophists and in the
Funeral Oration by
Pericles.
[84] Liberal philosophy symbolises an extensive intellectual tradition that has examined and popularised some of the most important and controversial principles of the modern world. Its immense scholarly and academic output has been characterised as containing "richness and diversity," but that diversity often has meant that liberalism comes in different formulations and presents a challenge to anyone looking for a clear definition.
[85]
Major themes
Though all liberal doctrines possess a common heritage, scholars frequently assume that those doctrines contain "separate and often contradictory streams of thought".
[85] The objectives of
liberal theorists and philosophers have differed across various times, cultures, and continents. The diversity of liberalism can be gleaned from the numerous adjectives that liberal thinkers and movements have attached to the very term
liberalism, including
classical,
egalitarian,
economic,
social,
welfare-state,
ethical,
humanist,
deontological,
perfectionist,
democratic, and
institutional, to name a few.
[86] Despite these variations, liberal thought does exhibit a few definite and fundamental conceptions. At its very root, liberalism is a philosophy about the meaning of humanity and society. Political philosopher
John Gray identified the common strands in liberal thought as being
individualist,
egalitarian,
meliorist, and
universalist. The individualist element avers the ethical primacy of the human being against the pressures of
social collectivism, the egalitarian element assigns the same moral worth and status to all individuals, the meliorist element asserts that successive generations can improve their sociopolitical arrangements, and the universalist element affirms the moral unity of the human species and marginalises local cultural differences.
[87]
The meliorist element has been the subject of much controversy, defended by thinkers such as
Immanuel Kant, who believed in human progress, while suffering from attacks by thinkers such as
Rousseau, who believed that human attempts to improve themselves through social cooperation would fail.
[88] Describing the liberal temperament, Gray claimed that it "has been inspired by skepticism and by a fideistic certainty of divine revelation ... it has exalted the power of reason even as, in other contexts, it has sought to humble reason's claims". The liberal philosophical tradition has searched for validation and justification through several intellectual projects. The moral and political suppositions of liberalism have been based on traditions such as
natural rights and
utilitarian theory, although sometimes liberals even requested support from scientific and religious circles.
[87] Through all these strands and traditions, scholars have identified the following major common facets of liberal thought: believing in equality and
individual liberty, supporting
private property and individual rights, supporting the idea of limited constitutional government, and recognising the importance of related values such as
pluralism,
toleration, autonomy,
bodily integrity and
consent.
[89]
Classical and modern
Enlightenment philosophers are given credit for shaping liberal ideas.
Thomas Hobbes attempted to determine the purpose and the justification of governing authority in a post-civil war England. Employing the idea of a state of nature – a hypothetical war-like scenario prior to the State – he constructed the idea of a social contract which individuals enter into to guarantee their security and in so doing form the State, concluding that only an absolute sovereign would be fully able to sustain such a peace.
John Locke, while adopting Hobbes's idea of a state of nature and social contract, nevertheless argued that when the monarch becomes a tyrant, that constituted a violation of the social contract, which bestows life, liberty, and property as a natural right. He concluded that the people have a right to overthrow a tyrant. By placing life, liberty and property as the supreme value of law and authority, Locke formulated the basis of liberalism based on social contract theory. To these early enlightenment thinkers securing the most essential amenities of life –
liberty and
private property among them – required the formation of a "sovereign" authority with universal jurisdiction.
[90] In a natural state of affairs, liberals argued, humans were driven by the instincts of survival and self-preservation, and the only way to escape from such a dangerous existence was to form a common and supreme power capable of arbitrating between competing human desires.
[91] This power could be formed in the framework of a civil society that allows individuals to make a voluntary
social contract with the sovereign authority, transferring their
natural rights to that authority in return for the protection of life, liberty, and property.
[91] These early liberals often disagreed about the most appropriate form of government, but they all shared the belief that liberty was natural and that its restriction needed strong justification.
[91] Liberals generally believed in limited government, although several liberal philosophers decried government outright, with
Thomas Paine writing that "government even in its best state is a necessary evil".
[92]
As part of the project to limit the powers of government, various liberal theorists such as
James Madison and the
Baron de Montesquieu conceived the notion of separation of powers, a system designed to equally distribute governmental authority among the
executive,
legislative, and
judicial branches.
[92] Governments had to realise, liberals maintained, that poor and improper governance gave the people authority to overthrow the ruling order through any and all possible means, even through outright violence and revolution, if needed.
[93] Contemporary liberals, heavily influenced by
social liberalism, have continued to support limited constitutional government while also advocating for state services and provisions to ensure equal rights. Modern liberals claim that formal or official guarantees of individual rights are irrelevant when individuals lack the material means to benefit from those rights and call for a greater role for government in the administration of economic affairs.
[94]
Early liberals also laid the groundwork for the separation of church and state. As heirs of the
Enlightenment, liberals believed that any given social and political order emanated
from human interactions, not from
divine will.
[95] Many liberals were
openly hostile to
religious belief itself, but most concentrated their opposition to the union of religious and political authority, arguing that faith could prosper on its own, without official sponsorship or administration by the state.
[95]
Beyond identifying a clear role for government in modern society, liberals also have obsessed over the meaning and nature of the most important principle in liberal philosophy: liberty. From the 17th century until the 19th century, liberals – from
Adam Smith to
John Stuart Mill – conceptualized liberty as the absence of interference from government and from other individuals, claiming that all people should have the freedom to develop their own unique abilities and capacities without being sabotaged by others.
[96] Mill's
On Liberty (1859), one of the classic texts in liberal philosophy, proclaimed that "the only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way".
[96] Support for
laissez-faire capitalism is often associated with this principle, with
Friedrich Hayek arguing in
The Road to Serfdom (1944) that reliance on free markets would preclude totalitarian control by the state.
[97]
Beginning in the late 19th century, however, a new conception of liberty entered the liberal intellectual arena. This new kind of liberty became known as
positive liberty to distinguish it from the prior
negative version, and it was first developed by British philosopher
Thomas Hill Green. Green rejected the idea that humans were driven solely by self-interest, emphasising instead the complex circumstances that are involved in the evolution of our
moral character.
[98] In a very profound step for the future of modern liberalism, he also tasked society and political institutions with the enhancement of individual freedom and identity and the development of moral character, will and reason. And the state to create the conditions that allow for the above, giving the opportunity for genuine
choice.
[98] Foreshadowing the new liberty as the freedom to act rather than to avoid suffering from the acts of others, Green wrote the following:
If it were ever reasonable to wish that the usage of words had been other than it has been… one might be inclined to wish that the term 'freedom' had been confined to the...power to do what one wills.[99]
Rather than previous liberal conceptions viewing society as populated by selfish individuals, Green viewed society as an organic whole in which all individuals have a duty to promote the common good.
[100] His ideas spread rapidly and were developed by other thinkers such as
L. T. Hobhouse and
John Hobson. In a few years, this
New Liberalism had become the essential social and political program of the
Liberal Party in Britain,
[101] and it would encircle much of the world in the 20th century. In addition to examining negative and positive liberty, liberals have tried to understand the proper relationship between liberty and democracy. As they struggled to expand
suffrage rights, liberals increasingly understood that people left out of the democratic decision-making process were liable to the
tyranny of the majority, a concept explained in Mill's
On Liberty and in
Democracy in America (1835) by
Alexis de Tocqueville.
[102] As a response, liberals began demanding proper safeguards to thwart majorities in their attempts at suppressing the rights of minorities.
[102]
Besides liberty, liberals have developed several other principles important to the construction of their philosophical structure, such as
equality,
pluralism, and
toleration. Highlighting the confusion over the first principle,
Voltaire commented that "equality is at once the most natural and at times the most chimeral of things".
[103] All forms of liberalism assume, in some basic sense, that individuals are equal.
[104] In maintaining that people are
naturally equal, liberals assume that they all possess the same right to liberty.
[105] In other words, no one is inherently entitled to enjoy the benefits of liberal society more than anyone else, and all people are
equal subjects before the law.
[106] Beyond this basic conception, liberal theorists diverge on their understanding of equality. American philosopher
John Rawls emphasised the need to ensure not only equality under the law, but also the equal distribution of material resources that individuals required to develop their aspirations in life.
[106] Libertarian thinker
Robert Nozick disagreed with Rawls, championing the former version of
Lockean equality instead.
[106] To contribute to the development of liberty, liberals also have promoted concepts like pluralism and toleration. By pluralism, liberals refer to the proliferation of opinions and beliefs that characterise a stable social order.
[107] Unlike many of their competitors and predecessors, liberals do not seek conformity and homogeneity in the way that people think; in fact, their efforts have been geared towards establishing a governing framework that harmonises and minimises conflicting views, but still allows those views to exist and flourish.
[108] For liberal philosophy, pluralism leads easily to toleration. Since individuals will hold diverging viewpoints, liberals argue, they ought to uphold and respect the right of one another to disagree.
[109] From the liberal perspective, toleration was initially connected to
religious toleration, with Spinoza condemning "the stupidity of religious persecution and ideological wars".
[109]
Toleration also played a central role in the ideas of Kant and John Stuart Mill. Both thinkers believed that society will contain different conceptions of a good ethical life and that people should be allowed to make their own choices without interference from the state or other individuals.
[109]
Criticism and support
Liberalism has drawn both criticism and support in its history from various ideological groups. For example, some scholars suggest that liberalism gave rise to
feminism, although others maintain that
liberal democracy is inadequate for the realisation of feminist objectives.
[110] Liberal feminism, the dominant tradition in
feminist history, hopes to eradicate all barriers to
gender equality – claiming that the continued existence of such barriers eviscerates the individual rights and freedoms ostensibly guaranteed by a liberal social order.
[111] British philosopher
Mary Wollstonecraft is widely regarded as the pioneer of liberal feminism, with
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) expanding the boundaries of liberalism to include women in the political structure of liberal society.
[112] Less friendly to the goals of liberalism has been
conservatism.
Edmund Burke, considered by some to be the first major proponent of modern conservative thought, offered a blistering critique of the French Revolution by assailing the liberal pretensions to the power of rationality and to the natural equality of all humans.
[113] Conservatives have also attacked what they perceive to be the reckless liberal pursuit of progress and material gains, arguing that such preoccupations undermine traditional social values rooted in community and continuity.
[114] However, a few variations of conservatism, like
liberal conservativism, expound some of the same ideas and principles championed by
classical liberalism, including "small government and thriving capitalism".
[113]
Some confusion remains about the relationship between social liberalism and
socialism, despite the fact that many variants of socialism distinguish themselves markedly from liberalism by opposing
capitalism,
hierarchy, and
private property. Socialism formed as a group of related yet divergent ideologies in the 19th century such as
Christian socialism,
Communism (with the writings of
Karl Marx), and
Social Anarchism (with the writings of
Mikhail Bakunin), the latter two influenced by the
Paris Commune. These ideologies – as with liberalism and conservatism – fractured into several major and minor movements in the following decades.
[115] Marx rejected the foundational aspects of liberal theory, hoping to destroy both the state and the liberal distinction between society and the individual while fusing the two into a collective whole designed to overthrow the developing capitalist order of the 19th century.
[116] Today, socialist parties and ideas remain a political force with varying degrees of power and influence in all continents leading national governments in many countries.
Liberal socialism is a socialist
political philosophy that includes liberal principles within it.
[117] Liberal socialism does not have the goal of abolishing
capitalism with a
socialist economy;
[118] instead, it supports a
mixed economy that includes both
public and
private property in capital goods.
[119][120] Principles that can be described as "liberal socialist" have been based upon or developed by the following philosophers:
John Stuart Mill,
Eduard Bernstein,
John Dewey,
Carlo Rosselli,
Norberto Bobbio and
Chantal Mouffe.
[121] Other important liberal socialist figures include Guido Calogero,
Piero Gobetti,
Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse, and
R. H. Tawney.
[122] Liberal socialism has been particularly prominent in British and Italian politics.
[122]
Social democracy, an ideology advocating progressive modification of capitalism, emerged in the 20th century and was influenced by socialism. Yet unlike socialism, it was not collectivist nor anti-capitalist. Broadly defined as a project that aims to correct, through government reformism, what it regards as the intrinsic defects of capitalism by reducing inequalities,
[123] social democracy was also not against the state. Several commentators have noted strong similarities between
social liberalism and social democracy, with one political scientist even calling
American liberalism "bootleg social democracy" due to the absence of a significant social democratic tradition in the United States that liberals have tried to rectify.
[124] Another movement associated with modern democracy,
Christian democracy, hopes to spread
Catholic social ideas and has gained a large following in some European nations.
[125] The early roots of Christian democracy developed as a reaction against the
industrialisation and
urbanisation associated with
laissez-faire liberalism in the 19th century.
[126] Despite these complex relationships, some scholars have argued that liberalism actually "rejects ideological thinking" altogether, largely because such thinking could lead to unrealistic expectations for human society.
[127]
Worldwide
Liberalism is frequently cited as the dominant
ideology of modern times.
[129][130] Politically, liberals have organised extensively throughout the world.
Liberal parties,
think tanks, and other institutions are common in many nations, although they advocate for different causes based on their ideological orientation. Liberal parties can be
centre-left,
centrist, or
centre-right depending on their location.
They can further be divided based on their adherence to
social liberalism or
classical liberalism, although all liberal parties and individuals share basic similarities, including the support for
civil rights and
democratic institutions. On a global level, liberals are united in the
Liberal International, which contains over 100 influential liberal parties and organisations from across the
ideological spectrum.
Some parties in the LI are among the most famous in the world, such as the
Liberal Party of Canada, while others are among the smallest, such as the
Gibraltar Liberal Party. Regionally, liberals are organised through various institutions depending on the prevailing geopolitical context. The
European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party, for example, represents the interests of liberals in Europe while the
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe is the predominant liberal group in the
European Parliament.
Europe
The torch in politics symbolises enlightenment and liberty. It is often used by liberals as a political symbol.
[citation needed]
In Europe, liberalism has a long tradition dating back to 17th century.
[131] Scholars often split those traditions into
English and
French versions, with the former version of liberalism emphasising the expansion of
democratic values and
constitutional reform and the latter rejecting authoritarian political and economic structures, as well as being involved with
nation-building.
[132] The continental French version was deeply divided between
moderates and
progressives, with the moderates tending to
elitism and the progressives supporting the universalisation of fundamental institutions, such as
universal suffrage,
universal education, and the expansion of
property rights.
[132]
Over time, the moderates displaced the progressives as the main guardians of continental European liberalism. A prominent example of these divisions is the German
Free Democratic Party, which was historically divided between
national liberal and
social liberal factions.
[133]
Before World War I, liberal parties dominated the European political scene, but they were gradually displaced by socialists and social democrats in the early 20th century. The fortunes of liberal parties since World War II have been mixed, with some gaining strength while others suffered from continuous declines.
[134] The
fall of the Soviet Union and the
breakup of Yugoslavia at the end of the 20th century, however, allowed the formation of many liberal parties throughout Eastern Europe. These parties developed varying ideological characters. Some, such as the
Slovenian Liberal Democrats or the
Lithuanian Social Liberals, have been characterised as
centre-left.
[135][136] Others, such as the
Romanian National Liberal Party, have been classified as
centre-right.
[137]
In
Western Europe, some liberal parties have undergone renewal and transformation, coming back to the political limelight after historic disappointments. One of the most notable examples features the
Liberal Democrats in
Britain. The Liberal Democrats are the heirs of the once-mighty
Liberal Party, which suffered a huge erosion of support to the
Labour Party in the early 20th century. After nearly vanishing from the British political scene altogether, the Liberals eventually united with the
Social Democratic Party, a Labour splinter group, in 1988 to form the current Liberal Democrats, a
social liberal party.
The Liberal Democrats earned significant popular support in the
general election of 2005 and in
local council elections[citation needed], marking the first time in decades that a British party with a liberal ideology has achieved such electoral success. Following the
general election of 2010, the Liberal Democrats formed a
coalition government with the
Conservatives resulting in party leader
Nick Clegg becoming the
Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and many other members becoming ministers.
Both in Britain and elsewhere in Western Europe, liberal parties have often cooperated with socialist and social democratic parties, as evidenced by the
Purple Coalition in the
Netherlands during the late 1990s and into the 21st century. The Purple Coalition, one of the most consequential in
Dutch history, brought together the progressive left-liberal
D66,
[138] the
market liberal and centre-right
VVD,
[139] and the social democratic
Labour Party – an unusual combination that ultimately
legalised same-sex marriage,
euthanasia, and
prostitution while also instituting a non-enforcement
policy on marijuana.
Americas
In North America, unlike in Europe, the word
liberalism almost exclusively refers to
social liberalism in contemporary politics. The dominant Canadian and American parties, the
Liberal Party and the
Democratic Party, are frequently identified as being modern liberal or
centre-left organisations in the academic literature.
[140][141][142] In Canada, the long-dominant Liberal Party, colloquially known as
the Grits,
ruled the country for nearly 70 years during the 20th century. The party produced some of the most influential prime ministers in
Canadian history, including
Pierre Trudeau,
Lester B. Pearson and
Jean Chrétien, and has been primarily responsible for the development of the Canadian
welfare state. The enormous success of the Liberals – virtually unmatched in any other
liberal democracy – has prompted many political commentators over time to identify them as the nation's
natural governing party.
[143] However, in recent elections the party has been performing poorly, eclipsed federally by both the
Conservative Party and the
social democratic New Democratic Party.
[144][145]
In the United States,
modern liberalism traces its history to the popular presidency of
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who initiated the
New Deal in response to the
Great Depression and won an
unprecedented four elections. The
New Deal coalition established by Franklin Roosevelt left a decisive legacy and influenced many future American presidents, including
John F. Kennedy, a self-described liberal who defined a liberal as "someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions...someone who cares about the welfare of the people".
[146]
In the late 20th century, a
conservative backlash against the kind of liberalism championed by Roosevelt and Kennedy developed in the
Republican Party.
[147] This brand of conservatism primarily reacted against the
civil unrest and the cultural changes that transpired during the 1960s.
[147] It helped launch into power such presidents as
Ronald Reagan,
George H. W. Bush, and
George W. Bush.
[148] Economic woes in the early 21st century led to a resurgence of social liberalism with the election of
Barack Obama in the
2008 presidential election.
[149]
In
Latin America, liberal unrest dates back to the 19th century, when liberal groups frequently fought against and violently overthrew
conservative regimes in several countries across the region. Liberal revolutions in countries such as
Mexico and
Ecuador ushered in the modern world for much of Latin America. Latin American liberals generally emphasised
free trade,
private property, and
anti-clericalism.
[150] Today,
market liberals in Latin America are organised in the
Red Liberal de América Latina (RELIAL), a centre-right network that brings together dozens of liberal parties and organisations.
RELIAL features parties as geographically diverse as the
Mexican Nueva Alianza and the
Cuban Liberal Union, which aims to secure power in
Cuba. Some major liberal parties in the region continue, however, to align themselves with social liberal ideas and policies – a notable case being the
Colombian Liberal Party, which is a member of the
Socialist International. Another famous example is the
Paraguayan Authentic Radical Liberal Party, one of the most powerful parties in the country, which has also been classified as centre-left.
[151]
Other regions
In Australia, liberalism is primarily championed by the
centre-right Liberal Party.
[152] The Liberals in Australia support
free markets and have both
social liberal and
classical liberal factions.
[152][153][154][155] In India, the most populous democracy in the world, the
Indian National Congress has long dominated political affairs. The INC was founded in the late 19th century by
liberal nationalists demanding the creation of a more liberal and autonomous India.
[156] Liberalism continued to be the main ideological current of the group through the early years of the 20th century, but
socialism gradually overshadowed the thinking of the party in the next few decades.
In Asia, liberalism is a much younger political current than in Europe or the Americas. Continentally, liberals are organised through the
Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats, which includes powerful parties such the
Liberal Party in the Philippines, the
Democratic Progressive Party in Taiwan, and the
Pheu Thai Party in Thailand. Two notable examples of liberal influence can be found in India and Australia, although several Asian nations have rejected important liberal principles.
A famous struggle led by the INC eventually earned
India's independence from Britain. In recent times, the party has adopted more of a liberal streak, championing open markets while simultaneously seeking social justice. In its
2009 Manifesto, the INC praised a "secular and liberal"
Indian nationalism against the nativist, communal, and conservative ideological tendencies it claims are espoused by the
right.
[157] In general, the major theme of Asian liberalism in the past few decades has been the rise of democratisation as a method facilitate the rapid economic modernisation of the continent.
[158] In nations such as Myanmar, however, liberal democracy has been replaced by
military dictatorship.
[159]
In Africa, liberalism is comparatively weak. The
Wafd Party ("Delegation Party") was a nationalist liberal political party in Egypt. It was said to be Egypt's most popular and influential political party for a period in the 1920s and 30s. Recently, however, liberal parties and institutions have made a major push for political power. On a continental level, liberals are organised in the
Africa Liberal Network, which contains influential parties such as the
Popular Movement in Morocco, the
Democratic Party in Senegal, and the
Rally of the Republicans in Côte d'Ivoire.
Among African nations, South Africa stands out for having a notable
liberal tradition that other countries on the continent lack. In the middle of the 20th century, the
Liberal Party and the
Progressive Party were formed to oppose the
apartheid policies of the government. The Liberals formed a
multiracial party that originally drew considerable support from
urban Blacks and college-educated Whites.
[160] It also gained supporters from the "westernised sectors of the
peasantry", and its public meetings were heavily attended by Blacks.
[161] The party had 7,000 members at its height, although its appeal to the White population as a whole was too small to make any meaningful political changes.
[160] The Liberals were disbanded in 1968 after the government passed a law that prohibited parties from having multiracial membership. Today, liberalism in South Africa is represented by the
Democratic Alliance, the official opposition party to the ruling
African National Congress. The Democratic Alliance is the second largest party in the
National Assembly and currently leads the
provincial government of Western Cape.
Impact and influence
The fundamental elements of
contemporary society have liberal roots. The early waves of liberalism popularised
economic individualism while expanding
constitutional government and
parliamentary authority.
[162] One of the greatest liberal triumphs involved replacing the capricious nature of
royalist and
absolutist rule with a decision-making process encoded in written law.
[162] Liberals sought and established a constitutional order that prized important individual freedoms, such as the
freedom of speech and
of association, an
independent judiciary and public
trial by jury, and the abolition of aristocratic privileges.
[162]
These sweeping changes in political authority marked the modern transition from absolutism to constitutional rule.
[162] The expansion and promotion of free markets was another major liberal achievement. Before they could establish markets, however, liberals had to destroy the old economic structures of the world. In that vein, liberals ended
mercantilist policies, royal monopolies, and various other restraints on economic activities.
[162] They also sought to abolish internal barriers to trade – eliminating
guilds,
local tariffs,
the Commons and prohibitions on the sale of land along the way.
[162]
Later waves of modern liberal thought and struggle were strongly influenced by the need to expand
civil rights. In the 1960s and 1970s, the cause of
Second Wave feminism in the United States was advanced in large part by
liberal feminist organisations such as the
National Organization for Women.
[163] In addition to supporting
gender equality, liberals also have advocated for
racial equality in their drive to promote civil rights, and a
global civil rights movement in the 20th century achieved several objectives towards both goals. Among the various regional and national movements, the
civil rights movement in the United States during the 1960s strongly highlighted the liberal efforts for
equal rights. Describing the political efforts of the period, some historians have asserted that "the voting rights campaign marked...the convergence of two political forces at their zenith: the black campaign for equality and the movement for liberal reform," further remarking about how "the struggle to assure blacks the ballot coincided with the liberal call for expanded federal action to protect the rights of all citizens".
[164] The
Great Society project launched by
President Lyndon B. Johnson oversaw the creation of
Medicare and
Medicaid, the establishment of
Head Start and the
Job Corps as part of the
War on Poverty, and the passage of the landmark
Civil Rights Act of 1964 – an altogether rapid series of events that some historians have dubbed
the Liberal Hour.
[165]
Another major liberal accomplishment includes the rise of
liberal internationalism, which has been credited with the establishment of global organisations such as the
League of Nations and, after World War II, the
United Nations.
[166] The idea of exporting liberalism worldwide and constructing a harmonious and liberal internationalist order has dominated the thinking of liberals since the 18th century.
[167] "Wherever liberalism has flourished domestically, it has been accompanied by visions of liberal internationalism," one historian wrote.
[167] But resistance to liberal internationalism was deep and bitter, with critics arguing that growing global interdependency would result in the loss of national sovereignty and that democracies represented a corrupt order incapable of either domestic or global governance.
[168]
Other scholars have praised the influence of liberal internationalism, claiming that the rise of
globalisation "constitutes a triumph of the liberal vision that first appeared in the eighteenth century" while also writing that liberalism is "the only comprehensive and hopeful vision of world affairs".
[169] The gains of liberalism have been significant. In 1975, roughly 40 countries around the world were characterised as liberal democracies, but that number had increased to more than 80 as of 2008.
[170] Most of the
world's richest and
most powerful nations are liberal democracies with extensive
social welfare programs.
[171]
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