Liberalism, Democracy, and the State: Reclaiming the Unity of Liberal Politics (original) (raw)
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Liberalism, Democracy, and the State: Reclaiming the Unity of Liberal Politics - eScholarship
2000
Working Papers published by the Institute of Governmental Studies provide quick dissemination of draft reports and papers, preliminary analysis, and papers with a limited audience. The objective is to assist authors in refining their ideas by circulating results and to stimulate discussion about public policy. Working Papers are reproduced unedited directly from the author's page. Liberalism, Democracy, and the State: Reclaiming the Unity of Liberal Politics Gus diZerega This is a work in progress. It is intended to serve both as the foundation for some articles and as the core of a book project. I welcome any critical comments on the argument presented. My email is gusdz@sonic.net In the broad philosophic sense liberalism is the most complete statement of the basic principles we now associate with modernity. More than anything else, the modern world is the institutional result of these principles' triumph, first in the West and increasingly worldwide. Yet, by an extraordinary irony, at the time of its greatest success to date, liberalism is deeply divided against itself and, in this division, unable to comprehend the world that is in so many ways its product. This division within liberalism grows from tensions between two liberal institutions, democracy and the market, and the near universal failure of liberals in either camp to grasp the systemic character of democratic government. Liberalism has strengthened the intellectual, legal, economic and political status of individuals within society. It has done so with primary attention to equality of status for all people. The result, among other things, has been the rise of three institutions which flourish best within liberal societies. Science, the market, and democracy all depend upon similar underlying liberal values of formal equality among participants, equal status for all, and the absolutely central role played by peaceful persuasion rather than force, or its threat. Even in representative democracy, political force enters in only after a prolonged process of persuasion has first determined the details of public policy. But democracy, science, and the market are more the spontaneous institutional outcome of applying liberal principles than their intended result. Consequently these institutions have presented later liberals with an enormous challenge, to which they have responded in many ways: how to evaluate institutions which arose within liberal dominated societies, and in many ways reflect liberal principles, but of which liberalism's seminal thinkers were largely unaware? Within the American context these evaluations can be divided into two broad perspectives: classical, or traditional, liberalism and modern liberalism. Each applies core liberal principles in different ways in evaluating democracy, the market, and science. Each has grasped a part of the puzzle these institutions present to liberal ideology and policy. What they share in common is an error: both regard 2 democracies simply as another variant of state. Political analyses in both camps turns on this identification, although in different ways and with different conclusions. But democracies are not states. They are selforganizing systems and, as systems, have more in common with science and the market than with undemocratic governments. Since liberals of all stripes regard democracies as states, they fail adequately to grasp the character of democratic politics. Classical liberals make a seemingly unending series of false predictions while modern liberals' cures for democratic failings reflect, and so are undermined by, their misunderstanding. Neither is able to grasp the character of a democratic public sphere. There are historical reasons for this error. All of liberalism's defining institutions, the market, science, and democracy, were at most embryonic when liberalism first developed. This was particularly the case with democracy. As they arose to prominence, science, the market, and democracy fundamentally changed the conditions of individual life from what prevailed in earlier times. As a consequence, basic liberal principles developed within one historical context could later be applied in a variety of ways when confronting new circumstances. The relationships between even complementary principles can always be weighted differently. This is why when liberals explored the new world that was arising, their analyses split and fractured, turning liberalism against itself. Liberalism and the Market With respect to the market, the split within liberalism was largely over what to make of the enormous business organizations and mass wage labor that characterized the new industrial civilization. Neither Locke nor Jefferson nor any other seminal thinkers had foreseen these developments. As it now manifested in the market order, private property was far different from the acorn that Locke's man first made his own in a hypothetical state of nature. The bargaining between employer and employees in a large factory was of a far different scale than bargaining between two people in the market place. The complexity of products sold in the market challenged the time-honored principle of caveat emptor. Liberalism's principles had mostly been applied to encounters at a human scale. Increasingly liberal society transcended that scale. Classical liberals insist that, on balance, the rise of giant businesses and mass production is simply an institutional expression of freedom of contract. Dependence upon voluntary purchases by consumers in a competitive context inevitably subordinates even the largest enterprises to individual choice. The
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Liberal democracy refers to any society with a representative government and one that advocates for the wellbeing of the individual and for freedom of the individual to realize their potential. Heywood (2003) describes it to be a hybrid political system that is an embodiment of different elements of liberalism and democracy, notably limited government and popular rule respectively. The concept of liberal democracy has proved to be a popular one as seen by its adoption by most of the modern day governments around the world. Liberalism is a political doctrine which concerns itself with the protection of the individual against the collective as well as enhancing freedom of the individual. A detailed look into the practices of liberal democracy will show that it seemingly borrowed most of its key fundamental characteristics from liberal democracy. This essay is going to attempt to explain liberalism's contribution to liberal democracy by looking in detail at the particular liberal elements within liberal democracy, namely tolerance, the protection of civil liberties and acknowledgement of individual rights, enterprise free market economies, institutional safeguards, institutional separation of powers, political pluralism and representative government. Heywood (2007:30) lists, " A private-enterprise economy organized along market lines " to be one of the defining features of liberal democracy. Liberalism assumes property rights to be a priori and inviolable. As a result, liberalism advocates for free market economies and for property owners to be left alone as much as possible. The main reason being that liberalism is centred on maximum equal negative liberties in the sense that the individual should be protected from interference from the state and the collective as much as possible by limiting the powers and reach of the government. This is in line with what Berlin (1979) argues to be liberty, that is, the ability to act without any hindrance from others or the state. Market economies best preserve individual liberty and economic freedom. (Hayek 1944). Market economies effectively give property owners the freedom of choice to use or sell as they see fit, It then follows from this reasoning that any attempt by the government or collective to manipulate market forces will be an infringement of not only individual rights of capital owners but on property rights as well. Liberalism seeks to guarantee liberty and protect the individual against the state. Liberalism uses a series of checks and balances to achieve these goals. In liberal democracy these
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THE United States, along with numerous European capitalist countries, is in the midst of a crisis of accumulation. Despite the current move to the right in American politics-exemplified by the recent Reagan victory-there is little doubt but that this crisis presents an opportunity for the left unequalled since the mid-1930s. A coherent socialist alternative, however, requires a clear analysis of the origins of the crisis and a consistent set of principles for its resolution.
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Subscribe to The Independent Review and receive your FREE copy of the 25th Anniversary Edition of Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government, by Founding Editor Robert Higgs. The Independent Review is the acclaimed, interdisciplinary journal by the Independent Institute, devoted to the study of political economy and the critical analysis of government policy. Provocative, lucid, and engaging, The Independent Review's thoroughly researched and peer-reviewed articles cover timely issues in economics, law, history, political science, philosophy, sociology and related fields. Undaunted and uncompromising, The Independent Review is the journal that is pioneering future debate! Student? Educator? Journalist? Business or civic leader? Engaged citizen? This journal is for YOU! SEE mORE at: INdEpENdENt.ORG/tIROFFER SUBSCRIBE to The Independent Review NOW and Receive a FREE copy of Crisis and Leviathan OR choose one of the following books: q q YES! Please enroll me with a subscription to The Independent Review for: q Individual Subscription: 28.95/1−year(4issues)qInstitutionalSubscription:28.95 / 1-year (4 issues) q Institutional Subscription: 28.95/1−year(4issues)qInstitutionalSubscription:84.95 / 1-year (4 issues) q Check (via U.S. bank) enclosed, payable to The Independent Institute q VISA q American Express q MasterCard q Discover q The Challenge of Liberty Classical Liberalism Today