Liberalism

A PROPER UNDERSTANDING of liberalism must include perceptions of the term within both a historical and a contemporary setting. Historical, or classical liberalism, has been used to describe both a political and an economic school of thought. The foremost proponents of classical liberalism were Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson, and John Stuart Mill. Politically, classical liberalism evolved as a response to tyrannical governments that attempted to control the beliefs and consciousness of individuals, going so far as to mandate particular religious beliefs. Economic liberalism grew in response to mercantilism, which dominated economic European policies with its goals of furthering the interests of property owners at the expense of the general population.

Classical liberalism was based on the assumption that human beings are rational, granting them the right to make decisions for themselves. This rationality allowed individuals to establish a social contract, thereby creating a laissez-faire, or limited system of government. Hobbes believed that once a contract was negotiated, it became absolute. Locke disagreed, arguing that individuals retained the right to break a contract whenever government ceased to honor the terms of the contract.

Each individual was assumed to be the best judge of what makes him or her happy. Therefore, no government had the right to take away what Locke identified as the “natural rights” of life, liberty, and the right to own property. Locke argued that each individual owned the fruits of his own labors. As the founder of classical economic theory, Smith contended in An Inquiry into the Wealth of Nations (1776) that the interests of society were best served through a hands-off policy on the part of the government, allowing the economy to achieve a natural state of equilibrium.

Because resources were scarce, classical liberals believed that self-interested individuals were intent on controlling those resources. Rousseau believed that most crimes could be traced to the ownership of property and the struggle to amass resources. It became the responsibility of government to protect individuals from others who would take property by force and from outsiders who sought to drain the resources of a country. In the U.S. Constitution, these responsibilities were dealt with by insuring “domestic tranquility” and providing “for the common defense.” Classical liberals also believed that government had a responsibility to provide public works and services that individuals could not provide for themselves.

As a 19th-century liberal, Mill went further than earlier liberals in extending individual rights, expressing great concern about government infringement on basic rights. For example, Mill defended the rights of citizens to criticize their governments. He also expanded concepts of equality by assuming that women deserved political rights. Unlike the European liberals, Jefferson had the opportunity to take part in creating a government grounded from the outset in liberal thought.