2- What is Liberalism

ucla | HIST 12B | 2023-10-03T20:38

Table of Contents

Supplemental

Lecture

Liberalism

  • concept of “liberty of the individual”

7 Principles

  • freedom of thought and speech
  • consent from the people for the legitimacy of political power
  • limited government
  • application of the rule of law - law enforcement
  • market economy
  • transparent and democratic system of government

Classical liberalism

  • real freedom - freedom from coercion
  • state intervention is considered coercive power
  • laissez-faire econ. policy
  • 19th cent. - emphasized free trade (contradicted need for tariffs to maintain security)

Modern Liberalism

  • unacknowledged foundations
  • based on idea that liberty places property before human freedom and needs
  • a definition that PERMITS unfree labor, dispossession, subordination based on race, gender, etc.]
  • thus, slavery, dispossession, colonialism, genocide were not AGAINST liberalism (many latin and european philosophers allowed this as liberalism)

Liberal exclusions

  • who is human?
    • savages/barbarians not self-governed were seen as justification for enslavement/colonialism and clarified/supported it
    • move from state of nature to political society was necessary to prevent war and protect human life - even if it meant slavery and dispossesssion
    • thus, liberal govt SECURES transferring violence of state of nature to political state through transferring africans, asians, indigenous pppls

Early Colonialism

Ireland - first sig. target of english colonialism

  • declared 0.5 million acres of land for settlement
  • stamped out irish culture, clans
  • govt paid bounties for heads of clans
  • 19th cent English - suggested irish and other colored descended from apes while english descended from man

Crusades of 11th century

  • conquest of muslims of North Africa and east mediterranean for trade routes into Asia
  • domestic crusades against heretics and commoners against poor
  • anti-muslim cursades reduced class antogisms bw barons and commoners - united in racist holy war

Enclosure of commons

  • commons - land available o peasents, grazing, wood, fuel, water
  • still held by crown but maid available to all
  • Enclosure Acts 17th cent. - fenced off commons for crown → forced migration, growth of cities, industrial agriculture, degredation of land, creation of proletariat
  • opposed by diggers and levellers - invoked Magna Carta to push for their rights

Workhouse and Factory system

  • 1576 workhouse - pre-modern jail, put idle migrants and poor to work
  • William Temple and John Locke argued children of poor should be sent to work from age 3-4 as educating idle population would increase unproductivity
  • Francis Hutcheson (Scottish philosopher) criticized racial slavery - suggested only use perpetual slavery if idlers cannout be productive after trying to “help”

John Locke, 1632 - 1704

  • helped frame Constitution of Carolina
  • secretary council of trade and plantations
  • authored Two Treatises of Government - condemns absolute power, sanctions govts and ppl who deprive men of liberties and slavery
  • strong advocate for enclosures for private ownership of commons for progress

Justifies colored slavery/dispossession

  • Two Treatises of Govt condemns slavery as a concept but justifies African and Indian slavery
  • He states its the liberal citizen’s RIGHT to kill those who try to bring conflict upon him or his property
  • captives taken in a just war gave up their lives to slavery → they had “chosen” to give up their lives to slavery
  • Locke’s Fundamental Constitution of South Carolina 1669 - every Carolinian has absolute power over colored slaves, regardless of assimilation
  • Locke - promoted depossession of unproductive indigenous ppls - as given the right by european catholic church (doctrine of discovery 1493)

Anti-slavery Liberalism

  • Marquis de Condorcet, Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind (1795) - promoted abolition of slavery inequality, imperialism, racism, sexism
  • Adam Smith (wealth of nations) - abolition of slavery, but did not believe it was possible under liberal govt (in Lectures on Jurisprudence) - turned out true as it was abolished due to war not vote/democracy
  • John Stuart Mill (On Liberty 1859) - argued for small govt to protect indiv. rights and was agent of colonialsim under British East India Company (1823-1858)
  • Mill defended British imperialism - theres a difference bw barbarians and civilized (barbarians cannot be governed unless vigorous despotism) - believed liberty could not be applied to people who practiced pre-liberty ideals of nature

Discussion

Resources

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