Dissertation on Liberalism

North American society has been changing in its social and economic spectrum over the past two decades. In turn, the current political ideological viewpoints of liberalism have digressed toward those of John Locke and John Stuart Mill of the eighteenth century in order to compensate for these changes. Reform liberalism, the popular political ideology at that time, was insufficient to deal with the problems that were arising due to these social shifts. Society's recent turn toward classical liberalism in particular can be explained with the discussion of the main concepts on which classical liberalism is based.

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Classical liberalism is composed of many ideologies that are shared by both it and reform liberalism. Reform liberalism grew from classical liberalism because of the limited nature that the classical liberal ideologies possess. The nature of classical liberalism can be viewed as limited in a negative or a positive light depending on who is being subjected to it. The presence of the government can be interpreted as helping or detrimental. Classical liberals choose to view the state as more harmful than helping and therefore choose to promote the idea of limited government, which will be discussed further as it pertains to the economy and other social matters. Classical liberalism also promotes an ideology in which people believe in the absolute freedom from coercion by the government and in all other aspects of a person's life. This negative liberty is a major downfall of the existence of government, according to classical liberals. In the eighteenth century, when liberalism began, the monarchy was totalitarian in nature and gave rise to an ideology that saw the state as a threat to freedom and equality. Classical liberals believe in the equality of right, while reform liberals believe in the equality of opportunity. Equality of right is the right for every individual to have the same claim to the same resources such as jobs and income. Equality of opportunity describes the ideology in which everyone is given the resources that they need in the beginning to ensure a fair competitive environment later on. Another ideology that both classical liberalism and reform liberalism have in common is the need for the consent of the governed. Those who are being led by the state must be of a majority agreement regarding the credibility of the ruling party. The classical and reform liberal ideologies disagree with respect to the breadth of the population that is valid in providing their consent. Reform liberals feel that a larger group is necessary while the classical liberals are satisfied with a smaller group in comparison.

Classical liberals believe that society should be left to itself on all matters except for those concerning the protection of people from the harm of other people. This suggests that the state should take on a "nightwatchman" entity and keep its contributions in a minimal respect. One single entity cannot be expected to successfully direct a complex society as well as it can direct itself. The works of Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek propose that people have to live in communities to survive and that the best way to ensure the common welfare of everyone is to work collectively to achieve the common goal of freedom. Classical liberals acknowledge that there will inevitably be a gross inequality of wealth in this situation, but that it is necessary for equality of right to exist. In this system, everyone must live under the same rules, which does not ensure that living under these rules will produce the same outcome for all members of society. Inevitably, some will have more than others. This will create an economic gap and in doing so, will help to feed the common desire for each individual to increase their overall worth. Without this gap, people will not have the incentive to better themselves since the state would supposedly ensure that their economic position would be secure enough to remain average.

Classical liberalism is associated with the free market in the economic sphere. The idea that people will be best able to thrive if they are subject to free competition in the market and therefore free from government control in that respect (limited government). The purpose of the government in the free market is to enforce the laws and regulations that enable the free market to take place to ensure that the people's property is protected. This theory is important in realizing why a government would propose a "laissez-faire" situation.

The liberal government in Canada is more of a conglomerate of the two classical and reform liberal ideologies that existed in the past. The leaders of the liberal party can change the genre of ideology toward which they lean if the state of society deems it necessary. The economy in the eighties and nineties has been dwindling compared to the booming economic growth in prior years. Many other problems were arising such as increased welfare dependancies and the eruption of violence in inner cities. The liberal reform government of the early eighties was unable to solve these problems through their current policies, so classical liberalism fell back into favor. The Canadian leaders during the era, Jean Chretien and Brian Mulroney, cut spending in the public sector to facilitate the expansion of the private sector. This increase in the development of the private sector was good for the economy in this sordid time. Another policy that the classical liberal government in Canada in the eighties and nineties implemented to increase the development of the private sector was the systematic cutting of taxes when is it possible. The Chretien government even dismantled some of the participatory programs set in place by Trudeau, whose party was leaning toward reform liberalism before the Chretien government came into power. These actions brought about the desired changes that were necessary for the economy and were examples of limited government. With the exception of a decrease in taxes, the public seems to see these actions in a negative light. The cutting of funding in areas such as education and health care are never smiles upon by the governed partly because they fail to see the big picture and are focused on their own immediate welfare. These actions are also being used by competitive parties to win taxpayer votes in recent electoral campaigns. The classical liberal government is being portrayed as having destroyed all of the hard work of the pre-nineteen eighties' elected officials. If the liberal caucus wishes to be successful in winning the majority in the 2003 provincial elections, they will have to work hard to vindicate their actions by helping citizens to see that limited government does not mean limited gain.

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