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Description
Flashcards by Gabrielle Hamer, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by Gabrielle Hamer
almost 9 years ago
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| Question | Answer |
| Equality | They believe that people are all born equal in the sense that they are of equal moral worth. This implies formal equality, notably legal and political equality, as well as equality of opportunity; but social equality is likely to threaten freedom and penalise talent. |
| Classical Liberal view on equality | Emphasise strict meritocracy and economic incentives. |
| Modern Liberal view on equality | They argue that genuine equal opportunities require relative social equality. |
| Society | Regard society not as an entity in its own right but as a collection of individuals. To the extent that society exists, it is fashioned out of voluntary and contractual agreements made by self-interested human beings. Nevertheless, there is a general balance of interests in society that tends to promote harmony and equilibrium. |
| Ideology | Liberals, particularly during the Cold War period, have viewed ideology as an officially sanctioned belief system that claims a monopoly of truth, often through a spurious claim to be scientific. Ideology is therefore inherently repressive, even totalitarian. |
| Freedom | They give priority as its supreme indiciualistist value. While classical liberals support negative freedom, understood as the absence of constraints - or freedom of choice - modern liberals advocate positive freedom in the sense of personal development and human flourishing. |
| Democracy | Liberals understand democracy in individualist terms as consent expressed through the ballot box, democracy being equated with regular and competitive elections. Whilst democracy constrains abuses of power, it must always be conducted within a constitutional framework in order to prevent majoritarian tyranny. |
| Human Nature | They view human nature as a set of innate qualities intrinsic to the individual, placing little or not emphasis on social or historical conditioning, Humans are self-seeking and largely self-reliant; but they are also governed by reason and are capable of personal development, particularly through education. |
| The State | Liberals see the state as a neutral arbiter amongst the competing interests and groups in society, a vital guarantee of social order. While classical liberals treat the state as necessary evil and extol the virtues of a nightwatchman state, modern liberals recognise the state's positive view in widening freedom and promoting equal opportunities. |
| The Nation | Liberals subscribe to a 'civic' view of the nation that places as much emphasis on political allegiance as on cultural unity. Nations are moral entities in the sense that they are endowed with rights, notably an equal right to self-determination. |
| Authority | Liberals believe that authority arises 'from below' through the consent of the governed. Though a requirement of orderly existence, authority is rational, purposeful and limited, a view reflected in a preference for legal-rational authority and public accountability. |
| Gender | Liberals have traditionally regarded differences between women and men as being of entirely private or personal significance. In public and political life, all people are considered as individuals, gender being as irrelevant as ethnicity or social class. In this sense, individualism is 'gender-blind'. |
| Nature | Liberals see nature as a resource to satisfy human needs, and thus rarely question human dominion over it. Lacking value itself, nature is invested with value only when it is transformed by human labour, or when it is harnessed to human ends. |
| Religion | They view religion as a distinct 'private' matter linked to individual choice and personal development. Religious freedom is thus essential to civil liberty and can only be guaranteed by a strict division between religion and politics, and between church and state. |
| Culture | Liberals have sometimes been critical of traditional or 'popular' culture, seeing it as a source of conformism and a violation of individuality. 'High' culture, however, especially in the arts and literature, may nevertheless be viewed as a manifestation of, and stimulus to, individual self-development. Culture is thus valued only when it promotes intellectual development. |
| History | Liberals see history as progress, brought about as each generation advances further than the last through the accumulation of knowledge and understanding. Liberals generally believe that this will happen through gradual or incremental reform, not through revolution. |
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