Liberalism

A good place to start is with the English Whigs. In the 17th century, England was torn by civil war. The issues were complex, pitting Protestant against Catholic and Crown against Parliament. The Whig Party represented the interests of some landed aristocrats. It advocated tolerance in matters of religion and appealed to the rights of Englishmen, affirmed in Magna Carta (traditionally dated 1215) and English tradition, as checks on the power of kings. When the Crown attempted to levy taxes without the approval of their elected representatives in Parliament, the Whigs resisted, advancing the slogan “no taxation without representation.” In his Second Treatise on Civil Government, John Locke (1632–1704) formulated a philosophical defense of the Whig position, arguing that human beings had natural rights of life, liberty, and property; that these rights limited the powers of government; and that citizens had a right and an obligation to resist violations of these rights. In the end, Parliament prevailed. Charles I was beheaded in 1649, the idea of parliamentary restraint on the royal prerogative became an established principle of British politics, and the ideas of natural rights and representative government became core components of an emerging tradition of liberalism.

The Lockean theory of natural rights had a radical edge to it not present in the appeal to Magna Carta and English tradition. The appeal to tradition worked to defend the long-established rights and prerogatives of the landed aristocracy. In contrast, Locke's theory of natural rights threatened the whole idea of a ruling aristocracy. It held that all men shared a common nature and that because of this equality of nature, all men shared the same natural rights. Thinkers like Thomas Paine and Mary Wollstonecraft, both sympathetic to the French Revolution, took the Lockean theory of natural rights in radical directions, rejecting the ruling pretensions of custom and tradition.

In England, the ruling aristocracy looked upon this revolutionary radicalism with alarm, repressing radicals and resisting reform well into the 19th century. Meanwhile, Britain was changing. Traditional methods of manufacturing were giving way to larger, capitalist enterprises embracing and stimulating an industrial revolution in technology. A new class of capitalist entrepreneurs was emerging, leading the revolution in manufacturing, industry, and commerce. As early as 1776 the Scottish philosopher Adam Smith had foreseen and championed the new capitalist order. In An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Smith analyzed free-market economic systems. Noting the tendency of competition to increase efficiency and noting the self-regulating mechanisms of market systems, Smith argued in favor of economic freedom. Whereas the Whigs favored government policies that regulated manufacturing and commerce in ways that favored their relatives and friends within the ruling aristocracy, Smith argued that free and open competition would stimulate growth, which in turn would work to the benefit of all citizens.

Utilitarianism provided the philosophical foundation for Smith's argument. The fundamental principle of utilitarianism holds that the morally right thing to do is whatever among the available options will maximize the total amount of happiness in the world. Smith argued that by increasing the wealth of the nation, free-market policies would increase the size of the economic pie, thereby increasing the happiness of its citizens. Jeremy Bentham, an admirer of the economic doctrine of Adam Smith, provided the classic statement of the utilitarian theory in The Principles of Morals and Legislation, published in 1789. Bentham was bent on achieving major reforms to British laws, British institutions, and British politics. Where Smith had aimed at freeing the economy from government regulations benefiting the few, Bentham aimed at freeing all laws and institutions in Britain from the self-serving control of the privileged elite. Confronted with appeals to rights to defend traditional privileges, [Page 852]Bentham became skeptical of the whole idea of rights. Just what were the “rights of men” and how could disputes about those rights be settled? Bentham saw utilitarianism as providing an objective, scientific alternative to the empty pretensions of rights theory.

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