Thomas Hobbes author of such works as the ‘Leviathan’ and ‘De Cive’ has also often been regarded as a fundamental thinker in political philosophy and vital in the development of liberal thought. It could be argued however that his ideas in his work can no longer be associated to the liberalism that developed from it. This has led some to argue that Hobbes is not a liberal. In this essay I will consider whether or not Hobbes’ ideas are consistent with the basic ideals of what liberalism has come to encompass. Ideals such as a focus on the individual, individual rights and equality, a social contract based on government by consent, free market, and minimum government intervention and maximum freedom.
Liberalism promotes equity and opportunity for the individual while fascism is all about the greater good and support of the establishment. When we look closer however, we begin to see a good many similarities. Both are reactionary ideologies, coming about as a response to some sort of perceived flaw in the current socioeconomic system. Explanation: Liberalism found its beginnings as a reactionary ideal to the feudalistic inequities of medieval Europe. During this time period, religious conformity and ascribed status dictated where and how a person was to live and what they could do with their lives.
However, the New Right incorporates neo-liberalism, which is a moderation of liberalism that supports free market economics and the minimal role of the state. But it also incorporates neo-conservatism which contrasts from neo-liberalism as it has a strong stance on law and order and the authoritarian state, focusing on nationalism. Firstly the New Right can be said to internally coherent in a political sense and in terms of the compatibility of its goals. All members of the New Right are capable of accepting a strong but minimal state as neo-conservatives believe in an authoritarian strong state in which they prevent excessive freedom due to their view on human nature, but not excessive state so there is not a dependency culture created. The neo liberals also believe that there should be minimal state but in an economic sense, and this is in order to allow capitalism to flourish without excessive restraints and laws imposed on business, and this is to encourage competition in the market to improve efficiency and profit.
'Modern liberals have abandoned individualism and embraced collectivism.' Discuss The core values of liberalism are individualism, rationalism, freedom, justice and toleration. The liberal belief that human beings are, first and foremost, individuals, endowed with reason, implies that each individual should enjoy the maximum possible freedom consistent with a like freedom for all. However, although individuals are 'born equal' in the sense that they are of equal moral worth and should enjoy formal equality and equal opportunities, liberals generally stress that they should be rewarded according to their differing levels of talent or willingness to work and therefore favor the principle of meritocracy. Modern liberalism is a development within liberal ideology that has revised some of the ideas of classical liberalism.
The economy would be ruled by natural laws of “survival of the fittest” and “supply and demand.” These ideas favored captains of industries like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. They had their own monopolies and used dictatorial/tyrannical ways to exploit the workers. In the Progressive Era, the idea of industrial freedom and democracy came in. Workers were thought to not only deserve better wages and working conditions, they also should make some economic decisions and have rights to
All men have the right to be free and by forming a social contract, a nation can be brought together. He enforced the idea of a republic and that the people under ruling should have a part of the leadership governing how they live and that if government abused its powers ranging from law to tyranny they should be overthrown. Locke helped form the basis of modern liberalism, we use today. One of Locke’s main ideas was that men were born with a blank slate in a ‘state of nature’, and could distinguish right from wrong. He believed that man inherently had an understanding of goodness.
Society itself must be sufficiently developed. If freedom leads to a widely division of labor in a country then the country will struggle with a over growing amount of immigrants. For Americans to have an extent the division of labor is based around the market. Social justice is both a philosophical problem and an important issue in politics, religion and civil society. Most individuals wish to live in a just society, but different political ideologies have different conceptions of what a 'just society' actually is.
In today’s democracies, the government plays an active role in removing inequalities and promoting freedom for all. These nations have programs to provide economic security, to ease suffering, and to develop human potential. Such programs include unemployment insurance, minimum wage laws, old age pensions, health insurance, civil rights laws, and aid to education. Many democracies aim to provide a minimum standard of living and adequate medical care for all. Their goal is not perfect equality, because people differ in ability, and some work harder than others.
In this respect, the main goal of liberalism is to promote a laissez-faire society and their main goal is preservation of human rights and freedoms. Secondly, liberalism aimed at ensuring that there is democracy in the society whereby the power of the monarchs and the other political class is limited. To achieve their goals, liberals enlightened members of the society about their rights and freedoms and in countries like France, Germany, and Italy liberals organized for revolutions that removed those leaders who were dictators in these countries. In addition to this, liberals championed for the rights of the minority in the society. A good example of a liberal government is the federal government of the United States of America (Jayapalan, 2009).
Emile Durkheim is one of the most influential sociologists in the early stages of functionalism. He believed that within society there’s institutes that bind us together and make us have a collective conscience. He also that there’s a value consensus within society and people have a common set of rules which they follow, from this the organic analogy evolved. This is the comparison between the biological matters of the organs in the body playing a vital part in order for the body to survive. Likewise, society would cease to exist if it didn’t have vital institutes such as the family and education even crime and deviance to a certain extent.