Chapter 3 – Liberalism, Pt 3

1. Chapter 3 – Liberalism, Pt 3

2. The Beginnings of Welfare Liberalism • By the 1850s, classical liberalism was unable to protect workers and children from industrial exploitation and oppression • Utopian Socialism and Marxist Socialism emerges to critique classical liberalism & neo-classical economics • In response to the Socialist and Marxian criticisms of the mid 19th century, Liberalism begins to critique itself: immanent critique • Liberalism splits into two discourses after 1880 • Welfare Liberalism (New Deal Liberalism) – Theorized “positive” liberty to attempt to empower individuals to be able to triumph over obstacles such as poverty, illiteracy, and ignorance. • “Neo-classical” Liberalism – Those who wished to continue the course of minimalist government and negative liberty

3. Rejection of Social Darwinism • In the late nineteenth century, William Spencer & William Grant Sumner proposed Social Darwinism (SD) • A non-scientific application of evolutionary theory to social life. Tried to argue that only the most fit individuals in society should survive • Charles Darwin (1809-1882), the foundational thinker for modern evolutionary biology, strongly rejected this social application of his work. Darwin believed: • People are able to learn from their environment, improve, & reform their ways • People can & should develop moral systems that reject “leaving a drunkard in the gutter” • Neo-classical Liberalism (small state with social safety net) is a rejection of Social Darwinism

4. Negative vs Positive Liberty • Negative Liberty – Freedom from • Individual freedom from governmental authority or regulations, from the Church, or from ascribed class status • Positive Liberty – Freedom to • Individual freedom seen in terms of capabilities. Freedom to compete successfully in job market (through education, etc.). Freedom to live a healthy life without poverty or lack of medical care. • Insurance programs, New Deal empowerment programs • Full extension of the franchise to women (1920 – 19th amendment) blacks (1965 – Voting Rights Act)

5. Welfare Liberalism • Welfare liberals argued for the importance of “nurture” over “nature” • Because we are social creatures, our abilities and skills are cultivated by social institutions like schools, workers cooperatives, unions. • Government can help to liberate or “create” more freedom.

6. Welfare Liberalism • Keynesians articulated a response to the excesses of laissez-faire capitalism in the Anglo-Saxon countries. • Keynesians were (are) a type of welfare liberal who advanced fiscal policy as a way of managing economic cycles. • On the continent, Socialism gained widespread appeal to deal with sub-standard working conditions, worker exploitation, and economic depression.

7. Liberalism • In popular discourse, “liberal” tends to refer to liberalism on the left after 1932 • Post World War II liberalism: • Civil Rights • Positive Liberty • Left Liberal Movement • The New Left (Students for a Democratic Society) • Positive Liberty • Left Liberal Movement • Argued for active, participatory democracy

8. John Rawls and the Liberal Tradition A Theory of Justice, 1971 • A philosophical defense of the welfare state: how can we maintain liberty while still providing for the maximization of everyone’s well-being, including society’s worst-off members? • If unequal distribution of resources and wealth can be shown to increase everyone’s well-being, we can philosophically tolerate inequalities of wealth. • This is a philosophical refutation of socialism and communism • A philosophical defense of liberalism, welfare liberalism.

9. The Response from the Right: Neoclassical Liberalism • Nozick, Hayek, and Friedman were twentieth century classical liberals who felt that redistribution of wealth through taxes or subsidies reduced incentives • People would not be motivated to take risks and create wealth if the advantages to risk taking were minimized by high taxes – or by subsidies to less successful ventures. • Thatcher and Reagan advanced this system of classical (or neo-classical) liberalism in the 1980s as a result of economic stagflation in the 1970s.

10. Libertarianism • After 1980, many supporters of Reagan and Thatcher (and by extension Hayek, Nozick, and Friedman) call themselves civil-libertarians. • React to what they perceive as the excesses of welfare liberalism

11. Liberalism after 1992 • The Third Way: By 1996, the Democratic Party and the Labour Party jettisoned much of their welfare liberalism and moved to a compromise with modern conservatism (neo-classical liberalism). • Since the mid 1990s, an uneasy third way consensus has been achieved – between welfare liberals and classical liberals.