Liberalism (from the Latin liberalis, "of freedom; worthy of a free man,

gentlemanlike, courteous, generous") is the belief in the importance of individual

freedom. It is a political orientation that favors social progress by reform and by
changing laws rather than by revolution. It’s society whose members are free to
pursue their own ideas and interests with as little interference as possible (Reader
61). Liberalism’s interpretation of human’s natural right is that all men are created
equal. The main agent of this ideology is self interest. The individual must achieve
the self choice to achieve its success. There are 3 major obstacles however that this
ideology comes across. First, is other people preventing fair competition. Second is
government. Government must be limited in a liberal society. The final obstacle is
massive inequality. Everyone must have an equal opportunity to achieve their self
interests. Many writers and philosophers had many opinions that agreed and many
that differed slightly.
Thomas Hobbes is better considered as a pre-liberal because his ideas
support the ideology of liberalism but he reached a distinctly illiberal conclusion.
Thomas Hobbes believed that all man is equal but that man is born evil, power
hungry and competitive. This made the point that all every man is against every
man, creating war. Hobbes argued that in order to obtain safety from the evilness
of man, man must setup a government to control and prevent unfair competition
and make sure that everyone has a fair opportunity. Man out of necessity
surrendered most of his liberties to a monarchic government in order to get safety.
On the slight contrary, John Locke debated that man out of convenience created
government for protection and not out of necessity. Locke had the same principles
as Hobbes but he arrived to much more recognizable conclusion to liberalistic
ideology. Locke said that that everyone has a natural right to life, liberty and
property. He declared that every man has a state of nature. In the state of nature,
natural law governs behavior, and each person has license to execute that law
against someone who wrongs them by infringing on their rights and liberty. People
then exchange some of their natural rights to enter into society with other people.
People who violate and ignore the state of nature of another person is a considered
a transgressor. Then the state of nature of people must be protected by common
laws and a common executive power to enforce the laws. People need executive
power to protect their property and defend their liberty. This is better known as the
social contract. People have the right to dissolve their government, if that
government ceases to work solely in their best interest. The government has no
sovereignty of its own--it exists to serve the people.
Thomas Paine can be described as a blend between Thomas Hobbes and John
Locke in my opinion. Society, according to Paine, is everything constructive and
good that people join together to accomplish as described by Locke. Paine stated as
well that government is bad but is needed because society’s morals are not good
enough; it is an institution whose sole purpose is to protect us from our own vices
as described by Hobbes.
In our American government we have a taste of the ideology of liberalism in
one of our most important documents. The declaration of independence is one the
most respected documents in American history. Little do some people know that it
is not entirely the works of Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson has very
adequately summarized the writing and ideologies of John Locke. He divides them
in seven clear points that basically summarize Liberalism’s ideas in limited
government and the value of the natural rights. In his first point, he clearly states
the doctrine of natural rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Second, is
the social contract that consent the formation of government. The third point
explains that whenever any form of government becomes destructive the people
have a right to rebel against it and the fourth point is the right to create a new
government. In the fifth point it warns people not to revolt for simple problems but
it the problem becomes bigger and the abuses are severe, as stated in point six,
than an uprising should occur. The final point describes the repeated abuses of the
British Empire, which proves the justification of revolution. We see clearly that in
the declaration of independence, they tried to come across the idea that when
government governs least, government governs best.
Adam Smith is also in the list of major philosophers in Liberalism. He is well
known for his work in political economy. While others might of developed the idea of
laissez-faire, Smith provided the most thorough and influential defense of this
doctrine. Laissez- faire is a doctrine that states that there should be no intervention
of the government in man’s economic market-place. In all economic activity
individuals should be free to make own decisions to make profit. He stated that in
order to get more profit there should be competition. The only of government in the
economic market-system is to regulate fair competition and true competition,
prevent monopoly, prevent unfair information, and regulate massive inequality. He
states several times that man is responsible to make his own profit and defend itself
independently. But Smith also saw people as economic agents being as it were
guided by an "invisible hand". High prices (in terms of a "natural" price related to
the costs of production) of any good or service would automatically induce people
to engage in its production. Increased production would lead to a greater supply
and lower prices. People as buyers would get more of what they wanted more
cheaply. People as producers would tend to be earning enhanced wages as a result
of producing the formerly high priced good or service. A reversal of the argument
would see "low" priced items falling away in terms of their production. Governments
in search of a strengthening of their states through economic policy, and many
individuals in search of personal gain, have all drawn lessons from Adam Smith.
Utilitarian Liberals are considered to be a step further of the traditional
classical liberals. They strongly believed that the government role should be limited.
The only purpose, for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a
civilized community against his will, is to prevent harm to others (Reader 104). The
three points of the “harm principle” explain in simpler terms the ideas of John Stuart
Mill. Mill believed that no one could live a fully human life unless he or she was free
to think and act for themselves. The “harm principle” explains: 1 -Government has a
very limited right to intervene and restrict the liberty of a person if their actions
harm or threaten another person. An example could be someone who comes into a
public building and starts to shoot aimlessly. 2 - Government has a very limited
right to intervene and restrict the liberty of a person if their inactions harm or
threaten another person. An example of this is when a person witness’ a murder
and does not call the police. 3- Government has absolutely no right to intervene
and restrict the liberty of a person if their actions harm or threaten themselves. For
example if a person decided to drink non-stop in the privacy of their own home.
These limited situations allowed government to respectively interfere with the
thinking and actions of the people.
On the other hand on Liberalism, there is the extreme liberal. A perfect
example of an extreme liberal is William Graham Sumner. He went by the ideology
of Social Darwinism; everyman for himself. It is interesting to see that when Sumner
wrote his work on Social Darwinism, it was in the 1880’s when there was a big gap
between the poor and the rich.