The Origin

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The Origin Growth of Liberalism Pg. 100
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Paul Gauguins art sought to answer the age old
questions of

• Where do we come from?
• Exploring the emergence of classical liberal
  ideology during the Enlightenment and the Age of
  Reason.
• What are we?
• Exploring the reaction of people within a society
  to the evolution of classical liberal ideology.
• Where are we going?
• Investigating the responses to economic and
  social conditions that arose based on the
  evolution of classical liberalism.
• These are three central questions to Social
  Studies they reflect the characteristics of
  ideology!

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Okay time to take a step back and
enter a world of history!As a response to the
factors that cried for changes to the old order,
great thinkers expounded a new way of organizing
society based on an ideology known as
Liberalism.
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What Are We Learning Today?

• 2.5 the relationship between the principles of
  liberalism and
• the origins of classical liberal thought.

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Classical Liberalism Embraces Individualism

• Classical liberalism is an ideology that embraces
  the principles of individualism
• Rule of law
• Individual rights and freedoms
• Private property
• Economic freedom
• Self-interest
• Competition
• www.learnliberty.org/content/what-classical-libera
  lism (709) - Take Notes Dr. Nigel Ashford

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Liberalism

• The word liberal comes from the Latin liber,
  meaning free.
• The word was first used in Spain during the
  Napoleonic Wars.
• Liberalism has been applied to those who favour
  the reform (change) of govt.
• It stresses the importance of human rationality.

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Origins of Classical Liberalism

• Renaissance and Protestant Reformation
  (1300s-1500s) Sparked a belief in the importance
  of the individual.
• The Renaissance was a rebirth of classical Greek
  and Roman thinking
• The Reformation reflected the belief that faith,
  in the rationality of the individual, was more
  important than the hierarchical concentration of
  religious power within the Roman Catholic Church.

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Enlightenment/Age of Reason(late 1600s-early
1700s)

• Promoted the beliefs of classical liberalism.
• Revived Greek Roman thinking.
• Thomas Aquinas sought to use Aristotles ideas to
  support teachings of the Catholic Church through
  logic and reason.
• New appreciations of logic and reason of this
  time traced back to the Humanists.

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The Humanists

• A group of thinkers that emerged in Italy and
  France in the late 1300s.
• Humanism Ideology that developed an
  interpretation of history, beliefs about human
  nature, and structure of society
• based on reason rather than religion.
• Humanists sought meaning and purpose in
• love, beauty, art, and the development of self.
• While Enlightenment thinkers believed that these
  new ideas could lead to freer and tolerant
  societies, their ideas were not widely accepted
  because they challenged the established
  foundations of society.

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Europe in Turmoil

• By the 1600s Europe was in turmoil over these new
  ideas about individuality and faith. Was a time
  of rigorous religious wars and imperial
  expansion.
• Feudal economic order broke down as cities grew
  and people expanded trade overseas. Saw the
  emergence of a wealthy middle class that saw the
  beginning of the eroding of the aristocracy,
  whose wealth had been primarily based on
  agriculture.

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Yet Society Ripe for Change

• In these turbulent times of
• political struggle for less authoritarian rule,
• demands for greater economic opportunities,
• and social movements challenging the status quo,
• society seemed ripe to embrace this new ideology
  of classical liberalism (gave citizens more
  economic, political, and social freedom in their
  lives).

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Classical Liberalism Factors

• Many ppl who believed in liberalism during this
  time believed
• Individual freedoms and rights should be
  protected.
• Nobody should be above the law.
• What is good for individuals within a community
  can also be good for the community as a whole.

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Classical Liberalism Factors Continued

• Most individuals, if left alone, will make good
  decisions for themselves as well as their
  communities.
• Govt intervention should be limited so as to
  allow individuals as much freedom of choice about
  their lives as possible.
• Individuals and companies should be allowed to
  create, market, purchase, and sell products
  within a minimum of govt intervention (a free
  market economy).

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The Basic Principles of Classical Liberalism

• The primacy (dominance) of individual rights and
  freedoms, to be exercised in the individuals
  self-interest. Example freedom of speech,
  religious liberty, private property.
• The protection of these civil liberties. Example
  everyone must abide by the same laws, which the
  govt enforces with impartiality (fairness) rule
  of law.
• The belief that humans are reasonable and can
  make rational decisions that will benefit
  themselves and society as a whole.

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The Basic Principles of Classical Liberalism
Continued

• Economic freedom, involving the ownership of
  private property and free markets markets with
  limited govt intervention.
• Constitutional limitations on the govt.
  Example govt is an instrument for serving a
  function in society rather than being in charge
  of all of society govt is responsible to the
  ppl and may be changed by them.

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Thinkers whose ideas contributed to the ideology
of economic, social and political liberalism

• Thomas Hobbes
• John Locke
• Baron de Montesquieu
• John Stuart Mill
• Adam Smith
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• Aboriginal Contributions

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Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

• Was concerned with the problems of social and
  political order how human beings could live
  together in peace and avoid the danger and fear
  of civil conflict.
• IMPORTANT His ideas are born out of the horrors
  of civil war and conflict!!! Therefore, he
  supported a strong central authority (Leviathan).
• As a result of the civil war he saw human beings
  as inherently selfish, and if left unchecked,
  this selfishness would result in chaos and harm
  to everyone.

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Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

• Hobbes's goal was the security of all
  individuals, which could be achieved if they gave
  up their individual sovereignty to the Leviathan.
• The Leviathan could only justify its power if it
  kept its subjects safe again the focus is back
  on the worth of the individual.
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vs7JIZ32-pII Hobbes
  and Locke Enlightened Thinkers

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John Locke (1632-1704)

• John Locke, an English philosopher, was the first
  to argue that individuals had innate (inborn)
  rights of life, liberty and property.
• Like Hobbes, he believed in a social contract,
  whereby ppl gave up natural rights to govt in
  order to receive social order and security for
  themselves and their property.

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More Locke

• Unlike Hobbes, he believed that the govt was
  accountable to the ppl. If the Contract was
  broken the people have the right to rebel.
• Government comes about through the agreement of
  free individuals that their rights are best
  protected by associating with one another.
• Lockes ideas justified the Glorious Revolution
  in Britain in 1688, the American Revolution of
  1776, and the French Revolution of 1789.
• Locke believed that people should have a private
  sphere that the government could not interfere
  with, (religion in particular). The state should
  be tolerant of all religions.

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More Locke Again

• Reason must be our last judge and guide in
  everything.
• Locke believed that individuals had the right to
  use their reason and logic to make their own
  decisions.

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American Declaration of Independence

• We hold these truths to be self-evident, that
  all men are created equal, that they are endowed
  by their creator with certain unalienable rights
  that among these are life, liberty and the
  pursuit of happiness that to secure these rights
  governments are instituted by men, deriving their
  just powers from the consent of the governed

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Declaration of the Rights of Man

• The National Assembly also took to Lockes ideas
  and put those very ideas into their Declaration
  of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
• The end of all political associations is the
  preservation of the natural and imprescriptable
  rights of man and these rights are liberty,
  property, security, and the resistance of
  oppression.
• Portrays the idea called Rule of Law.

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Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu
(1689-1755)

• Montesquieu was critical of the Church and the
  divine right of kings, who were the two great
  authoritarian powers of his time.
• Montesquieu believed in the worth of the
  individual, the equality of individuals, and the
  accountability of government.
• Supported the separation of powers the
  government divided into three branches
  executive, legislative, and judicial.

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More Montesquieu

• Three branches were independent of each other and
  could not exceed the power of the other two
  branches.
• People need to be involved in government need
  for a democracy.
• Citizens must participate in and be aware of the
  law and workings of government.
• The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy (rule by
  a few) is not so dangerous to public welfare as
  the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.

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John Stuart Mill(1806-1873)

• John Stuart Mill put together many themes on
  liberalism in his book entitled On Liberty.
• Interested in the protection of individual
  freedom and the promotion of individual decision
  making as the core of societal institutions.

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More Mill

• Here is a quote from Mills about liberty and the
  use of power. 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.
• A citizen should be able to act as he or she
  wants, so long as his or her actions would not
  harm others. HUGE advocate of free speech.
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vWy14_tMAH4Ifeature
  related Biography

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Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

• Rousseau was a Swiss philosopher who spent much
  of his adult life in France.
• He was very interested in the common good. He
  believed that ppl are inherently good and have
  been corrupted by civilization and society.
• Believed that humans are naturally free and are
  equal in principle Man is born free and
  everywhere he is in chains.

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More Rousseau

• Rousseau wanted humans to go back to the
  characteristics the were universal and
  unchanging the characteristics that made humans
  good and equal.
• His ideal state was one where the general will of
  the ppl was the absolute authority.
• Unlike Locke, was opposed to the idea of a
  representative democracy (a system where a small
  group of politicians are elected by a larger
  group of citizens.) Instead, he felt that
  citizens themselves should make the laws.

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Laissez-Faire Capitalism

• The French term laissez-faire leave ppl alone
  to do as they wish.
• This term is definitive of capitalism and refers
  to a reduction of govt involvement in the
  economy.
• Individual actions and achievements are deemed to
  be more productive in economic decision making
  than govt actions.

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Physiocrats Mercantilism

• Laissez-faire capitalism emerged from the
  theories of the physiocrats.
• Physiocrats a group of Enlightenment
  philosophers in France who critiqued the
  prevailing economics of mercantilism.
• Mercantilism the aim that all economic pursuits
  should be to strengthen the power and wealth of
  the state (govt).

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Adam Smith (1723-1790)

• Adam Smith was a Scottish political economist who
  spent time with the physiocrats, and they
  influenced his thinking.
• He, too, disagreed with existing mercantilist
  economic system.
• In 1776 he published the Wealth of Nations, in
  which he described a system where individuals
  work for their own self-interest in a free-market
  system.

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Adam Smith A Radical!

• Its important to realize how radical Smiths
  ideas were at the time.
• The mercantilist system increased the wealth of
  the state but not the wealth of the majority of
  ppl within that state, and very few ppl enjoyed
  the benefits of the labour that fed the states
  wealth.
• Smiths ideas were in stark contrast to this. He
  believed that if ppl worked first and foremost
  for themselves, everyone (including the state),
  would be better off.
• Smith insisted that individual self-interest in a
  free market would lead to a stronger economy and
  would benefit most ppl in society.

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The Invisible Hand

• The idea of the invisible hand, Smiths
  justification for self-interest as an economic
  motive, can be stated quite simply by having
  every individual look after his or her own best
  interests, he or she unwittingly ends up helping
  everyone else, by providing jobs and cheaper
  labour.
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v4FHxpoQqPTU

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So What is the Govts Role?

• Smith believed that the govts role should be
  limited to maintaining the rule of law, to
  ensuring contracts were followed, and to
  providing some public works (education, road
  maintenance).
• Smiths work provided the foundation for much of
  the capitalist system. These essential concepts
  the free market and a limited role for govt
  became the basis of laissez-faire capitalism, the
  economic system associated with classical
  liberalism.

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What Are We Learning Today?

• 2.4 Explore aboriginal contributions to the
  development of liberalism.

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Aboriginal Contributions to Liberalism

• It has been argued that many of the principles of
  liberalism originated in traditional Aboriginal
  societies.
• In Canada, our Aboriginal communities use liberal
  ideas such as elected leaders, government by
  consensus, leadership on the basis of merit, just
  punishment, and concepts of equality and equality
  before the law.

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Great Law of Peace

• The Great Law of Peace provided the Haudenosaunee
  peoples with a constitution that dates back to
  the 15th century.
• The Great Binding Law, as it sometimes is
  referred to, has three main principles
  righteousness, health and power all
  characteristics of liberalism.
• http//www.iroquoisdemocracy.pdx.edu/html/greatlaw
  .html
• Take a look at the original document.

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Liberalism Today

• Liberals today generally believe that every
  individual is unique. The purpose of life is to
  realize that potential, and to become whatever it
  is one is capable of becoming.
• The role of the state (government) is to produce
  the conditions under which individuals have the
  broadest possible choice in deciding upon their
  definition of good.
• Society, meanwhile, should celebrate this
  diversity while giving equal treatment to all,
  regardless of a persons origins, colour, sex or
  status in life.
• In exchange for this respect, the individual must
  acknowledge responsibility for his own fortunes
  and for the fortunes of the community.

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Liberalism in Canada

• In 1982 the Canadian Charter of Rights and
  Freedoms advanced the liberal cause by
  entrenching into the Canadian Constitution
  (Canada Act) both basic liberties and new
  linguistic (language) rights for minorities.
• The purpose of the Charter was to entrench (dig
  in) rights, especially language rights, where no
  government could ever take them away.
• With the Charter as a shield ,a single citizen
  can achiever Lockes vision of a society in
  which individual rights take precedence over
  authority.
• Our charter also protects collective rights of
  groups within the areas of language and culture.
  Thus supporting the principle of equality for all
  within society.