1. In the feudal period there was little idea of individuals having their own interests or

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1 Liberalism Core concepts The individual 1. In the feudal period there was little idea of individuals having their own interests or possessing personal and uniue identities. Tahter people were seen as members of the social groups to which they belonged. However, as feudalism was displaced by increasingly market-orientated societies, individuals were confronted by a broader range of choices and social possibilities. 2. Rational and scientific explanations gradually displaced traditional religious theories, and society was increasingly understood from the viewpoint of the human individual, possessing personal and distinctive qualities. This was the evident in the growth of natural rights and autonomy. 3. The emphasis on the individual has two implications. a) uniqueness: it draws attention to the uniqueness of each human being. b) equality: the nevertheless share the same status in that they are all individuals. 4. Atomistic view of society: Some liberals view society as simply a collection of individuals, each seeking to satisfy his or her own needs and interests. It can lead to the belief that society itself does not exist, but is merely a collection of self-sufficient individuals. Such extreme individualism is based upon the assumption that the individual is egotistical, essentially self-seeking and lagrely self-reliant. C. B. Macpherson characterized this as possessive individualism because it regarded the individual as the proprietor( 所有者 )of his own person or capacities, owing nothing to society for them. 5. In contrast, later liberals have held a mor optimistic view of human nature, and believe that individuals possess a social responsibility for one another. Freedon 1

2 1. For early liberals, liberty was a natural right, an essential requirement for leading a truly human existence. It also gave individuals the opportunity to pursue their own interests by exercising choice. Later liberals have seen liberty as the only condition in which people are able to develop their skills and talents and fulfil their potential. 2. Nevertheless, liberals do not accept that individuals have an licence entitlement to freedom. J. S. Mill in his On Liberty distinguished between self-regarding and otherregarding actions. 3. Isaiah Berlin s Two concepts of liberty. Reason 1. The liberal case for freedom is closely linked to a faith in reason. Liberalism is, and remains, very much part of the Enlightenment project. The central theme of Enlightenment was the desire to release humankind from its bondage to superstition and ignorance, and unleash an age of reason. 2. Enlightenment rationalism influenced liberalism in a number of ways. a) It strengthened its faith in both the individual and in liberty. To the extent that human beings are rational, thinking creatures, they are capable of defining and pursuing their own best interests.==> a strong bias against paternalism. b) A further legacy of rationalism is that liberals are strongly inclined to believe in progress. In the liberal view, the expansion of knowledge, particularly through scientific revolution, enabled people not only to understand and explain their world but also to help shape it from the better. Rationalism thus emancipates humankind from the grip of the past and from the weight of custom and tradition.==> emphasis upon education. 3. Reason, moreover, is significant in highlighting the importance of discussion, debate and argument. Conflicts can be settled trugh debate and negotiation The great advantage of reason is that it provides a basis upon which rival claims and demands can be evaluated. Furthermore, it highlights the cost of not resolving disputes peacefully. 2

3 Noth only does violence mark the failure of reason, but all too often it also unleasheds irrational blood lusts and the desire forr power for its own sake. Justice 1. Justice denotes a particular kind of moral judgement, in particular one about the distribution of rewards and punishment. In short justice is about giving each person what he or she is due. The narrorer ida of social justice refers to the distribution of materaial rewards and benefits in society, such as wages, profits, housing medical care and so on. 2. The liberal theory of justice is based upon a belief in equality of various kinds. a) individualism implies a commitment to foundational equality. Each individual is of equal moral worth, an idea embodied in the notion of natural rights or human rights. b) Foundational equality implies a belief in formal equality, that individuals should enjoy the same forman status in society, particularly in terms of the distribution of rights and entitlements. Consequently liberals disapprove of any social privileges. The most important forms of formal equality are ligal equality and political equality.==>equality before the law and one person, one vote; one vote, one values. c) Liberals subscribe to a belief in equality of opportunity. People are not born the same. Equality, for liberals, means that individuals should have an equal opportunity to develop their unequal skills and abilities. ==> meritocracy: rule by the talented or able. 3. However, liberal thinkers have disagreed about how these broad principles of justice should be applied in practice. Classical liberals have endorsed strict meritocracy on both economic and moral grounds. Those with more ability or who have worked hard have earned their wealth and deserve to be more prosperoous than the lazy or feckless ( 無能的 ).Modern liberals, on the other hand, have taken social justice to imply a belief in some measure of social equality.==> Rawls principle of difference. Toleration and diversity 1. The liberal social ethic celebrates moral, cultural and political diversity. Indeed, 3

4 pluralism or diversity can be said to be rooted in the principle of individualism. However, the liberal preference for diversity has more commonly been associated with toleration. 2. Toleration is a willingness to allow people to think, speak and atc in ways of which we disapprove. It is both an ethical ideal and social principle. One the one hand, it represents the goal of personal autonomy; on the other, it establishes a set of rules about how human beings should behave towards one another. 3. Toleration highlights the distinction between public and private spheres of life. Toleration should be extended to all matters regarded as private and thus is a guarantee of negative freedom. 4. Mill developed a wilder justification for toleration as is important to society. Only within a free market of ideas will truth emerge, as good ideas displace bad ones and ignorance is banished. Liberal hold that there is a deeper harmony or balance amongst competing interests. Sympathy for tolerance and diversity is thus linked to a balanced society. 5. However, liberal toleration does not imply suport for unrestricted pluralism and diversity. toleration my be qualified in relation to views that are in themselves intolerant. 6. Since the late twentieth century, however, many liberals have gone beyond toleration and endorsed the idea of moral neutrlity. LIERALISM, GOVERNMENT AND DEMOCRACY The liberal state 1. Liberals do not believe tat a balanced and tolerant society will develop naturally out of the free actions of individuals and voluntary associations. This is where liberals disagree with anarchists. The liberty of one person is always in danger of becoming a licence to abuse another. Each person can be said to be both a threat to and under threat from every other member of society. 4

5 2. This argument is the basis of social contract theories, c.f. Hobbes and Locke. It embodies several important liberal attitudes towards the state. a) It suggests that the political authority comes from below. b) The state as an umpire( 仲裁者 )or neutral referee in society. Constitutional Government 1. Although liberals are convinced of the need for government, they are also aware of the dangers that government embodies. All governments are potential tyrannies against the individual. On the one hand, government exercises sovereign power and so poses a constant threat to individual liberty; on the other, As human beings are self-seeking creatures, if they have power, they will naturally use it for their own benefit at the expense of others. 2. A constitution is a set of rules that seek to allocate duties, powers and functions amongst the various institutions of government. 3. Support for constitutionalism can take two forms. a) the powers of government bodies and politicians can be limited by the introduction of external and usually legal constraints. b) constitutionalism can be established by the introduction of internal constraints which disperse( 傳播 )political power among a number of institutions and creat a network of checks and balances. Democracy 1. As a model of democracy, liberal democracy has three central features. a) it is an indiret and representative form of democracy, on the basis of formal political equality; b) it is based upon competition and electoral choice, which is ensured by political pluralism and a tolerance of contending beliefs; c) it is characterized by a clear distinction between the state and civil society, to maintain the distinction between the public and the private, both by internal and external checks on government power and autonomous groups, and by the market or economic life. 5

6 2. The earliest liberal justification for democracy was based on consent==> Locke. 3. A more radical endorsement of democracy is linked to the virtues of political participation==>mill. For Mill the central virtue of democracy is that, by participating in political life, citizens enhance their understanding, strengthen their sensibilities and acheive a higher level of personal development. 4. Since the 20 th century, liberal theories about democracy focus mor on the need of consensus in society. It is argued tha t organized groups, rather than individuals, have become the primary political actors and portrayed modern industrial societies. The attraction of democracy, thus, is that it is the only system of rule capable of maintaining equilibrium within complex and fluid modern societies. As democracy gives competing groups a political voice it binds them to the political system and so maintains political stability.==> Robert Dahl s polyarchies, namely rule by the many as distinct from all citizens. Whilst this may fall a long way short of the classical ideal of popular selfgovernment, it has the crucial advantage of maintaining a consistent level of accountability and popular responsiveness. 6