O liberalism emerged in the 17th century as a set of political theories that sustained a structural struggle and policy against the Old Regime, that is, against the monarchy absolutist. Like economic theory, liberalism emerged in the 18th century to give a conceptual framework to the new economic movement that came up with high industrialization started in that century and consolidated in the following century.
the main classical liberal theorists they are Adam Smith, Alexis de Tocqueville and Benjamin Constant. already in the 20th century liberalism, adapted to new market demands, we have theorists such as Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek, representatives of the Austrian School of Economics, who originated neoliberalism and libertarianism.
Read too: Anarchocapitalism – a model of capitalism that aims to end state regulation
Characteristics of liberalism
when the first ideas called liberal emerged, even in the 17th century, they came from English philosophers, such as John Locke, and French
illuminists, like Montesquieu and Voltaire. The intent at that time was overthrow the Old Regime (the monarchy absolutist) and establish constitutional states of law in Europe.The most remote ideas of liberal political thought comes fromjusnaturalist philosophy of the English philosopher John Locke. For Locke, the human being has natural rights, which are, fundamentally, the right to life, liberty and property. Private property, to be legitimated as a natural right, should have a social function that serves the community.
Far beyond jusnaturalist ideals, liberalism admits that there shouldn't be an oppressive system that would take away their freedom from individuals, leaving them free, as far as possible, to live and produce. In this sense, the economic liberalism, first proposed by the English philosopher and economist Adam Smith. Smith argued that the State should have as little participation and management as possible in the economy, as it should be fully regulated by itself. For the English economist, there would be a kind of “invisible hand” of the economic market which would act in the regulation of all economic processes, without the need for any external interference.
Liberal theories were highly applied across much of nineteenth-century Europe and the United States. these were the highly industrialized territories that allowed the maintenance of a capitalist system governed by the liberal doctrines of the time. The rules for maintaining the economy were developed by the market. Salaries, hiring methods, prices and sales methods were decided by private institutions.
The corporate tax barely existed, falling, in most cases, on common people (entrepreneurs among them) and almost never on the companies themselves. This constitutes the essence of liberalism. As political thought, it guarantees individual liberties and, as an economic doctrine, it guarantees freedom of ownership and entrepreneurship.
history of liberalism
Emergence of political liberalism
THE glorious revolution in England was awakened by a feeling of displeasure of most common citizens (including bourgeois, commoners and peasants) against the English absolutist monarchy, who maintained the privileges of the noble class and concentrated power in the hands of the monarch.
In this sense, John Locke, a philosopher who lived in the seventeenth century and passed through the passage to the eighteenth century, developed his natural law theory in opposition to the natural law of another English philosopher, Thomas Hobbes.
Hobbes lived the beginning of the insurgency against the English monarchy, in the beginning of the 17th century, and wrote the bookLeviathan: or matter, form and power as a way to defend the monarchy. He was also a jusnaturalist, that is, he based his philosophy on a theory that there are natural rights inherent to all human beings. For this philosopher, human beings, in their natural state, are regulated only by the law of nature (the one that guarantees natural rights and unrestricted freedom).
For Hobbes, the human being, in his state of nature, was violent, because he had no moral regulation and needed take care of its survival, and had the natural right to provide for this without any regulation that would prevent it from being violent. To solve the problem of violent nature it was necessary, according to the philosopher, to create a strong and coercive state which, in his view, would only be possible through absolutist monarchy.
John Locke, even being a jusnaturalist, went against the Hobbes theory. Locke was opposed to the absolutist monarchy and recognized liberty, property and life as natural rights. For this theorist, the law of nature establishes natural rights and understands freedom as something unrestricted. In this sense, there is a loophole for one person to invade and take over another's property.
O state it should then be a regulatory institution through a body of laws that would establish the limits for peaceful coexistence among citizens. However, there would be no justification for the State to attempt against life, liberty and, principally, the property of citizens, unless they violated the state order itself in a unjustified.
Likewise, citizens should be allowed to legitimate insurgency against the state if he acted in a bad way (something the monarchy did not allow). The best way to govern, according to Locke, would be the constitutional and democratic parliamentarism. This is how Locke delivers the genesis of liberal political thought and unleashes the first sparks of liberal economic thought that would emerge a few decades later.
The French Enlightenment followed a similar course in the struggle against the monarchy during the French Revolution. Philosophers such as Charles de Montesquieu and Voltaire continued liberal political thought.
Voltaire was an advocate of individual liberties, such as freedom of expression and religious worship, in addition to defending the separation between the State and the Church. Montesquieu created the theory of the tripartition of the state, which proposes a measure of division of state power into three parts, namely the Executive power, the Legislative power and the Judiciary power. Montesquieu's intention was to present a way to prevent abuses of power and guarantee the maintenance of individual freedoms.
Emergence of economic liberalism
Also in the 18th century, the English philosopher and economist Adam Smith proposed a mode of liberalism closely linked to the economy, creating a true economic doctrine that would settle in Europe and the rest of the world in the following decades and centuries. THE Industrial Revolution it provided the high industrial development in Europe and the United States, in the 20th century, which provoked an appreciation of the liberal doctrine. Governments in Europe and the US have left the private companies self-regulate almost completely.
This worked for a while, but the 1929 economic crisis caused a turnaround and caused economic guidelines to be revised in Europe, through the ideas of economist John Maynard Keynes, and in the United States, through the so-called newDeal.
See too:Social-democracy – model aimed at the welfare state
Types of liberalism
- Political liberalism: is liberal thought grounded in the theories of classical liberal philosophers such as John Locke, the French Enlightenment and philosophers utilitarians Englishmen Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. The main idea of these thinkers was to present a break with the authoritarianism of the absolutist monarchies.
- economic liberalism: more than a philosophy or a thought, neoliberalism is a doctrine that governs the modes of economic behavior contrary to socialist principles. Liberalism defends, in short, the non-intervention of the State in the economy, as this should regulate itself.
neoliberalism and liberalism
In economics, we have the division between the classical liberalism and the revised version of this doctrine in the 20th century, the neoliberalism. The 1929 crisis was a decisive factor in the split of governments with liberal doctrines, as the governments of The world's biggest powers needed to inject money into the economy and take back the reins so that the world didn't failed. This period was necessary for the economic recovery and for the implementation of protective measures to workers worldwide, such as the creation of the Consolidation of Labor Laws (CLT) in Brazil.
However, intellectuals of the call Austrian School of Economics, led at first by economist Ludwig von Mises, began to propose new forms of a liberal doctrine that would reconcile the needs of a free market with some, well, timid, state participation in the economy (to save it when needed). Politically, the state and governments were needed to establish some relationships, but private initiative should be given freedom again.
![Economist Ludwig von Mises is one of the forerunners of the thought that gave rise to neoliberalism. [1]](/f/fd4d4fbde7ad88a8981235b053e034a9.jpg)
Theorists linked to Chicago School of Economics they also brought similar theories. The joining of all these theories of a new liberal doctrine with their practice in the 20th century, from the 1980s onwards, gave rise to neoliberalism. Countries like Chile and England were pioneers in the adoption of neoliberal measures, with the privatization of public service and the maximum reduction of nationalization and State interference in the economy. To learn more about this new stage of liberalism, visit: neoliberalism.
Image credit
[1]Ludwig von Mises Institute / commons
by Francisco Porfirio
sociology professor
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/sociologia/liberalismo.htm