Liberal Perspective of the State in Political science
“Liberalism is a compound of two separate elements as a political theory. One of these is democracy and second individualism”. -W.M.McGuvern
In the history of political thought, liberal ideology has existed for the past four centuries. It is a flexible and dynamic ideology that has modified and changed itself according to the need of time. But it has always kept its central idea that the individual is a person and the state and other institutions are mere means.
Based on the historical development of liberalism, two levels can be seen. First Classical Liberalism and Second Modern Liberalism. These two categories of liberalism and the liberal thought related to them can be explained as follows-
(1) Classical Liberalism-
Classical Liberalism is also called negative liberalism because it emphasizes the negative role of the state in order to protect the individual’s independence. In England, the form of liberalism at the early stage was called the Classical Liberalism. It was limited to the demand for constitutional protection of individual rights. Later, questions related to economic and political organizations and political programs also came under it. At this stage liberalism emerged as a demand for religious freedom, tolerance, constitutionalism and political rights. The revolution of 1688 is considered the first biggest liberal revolution in history. It consolidated the liberal achievements of that century and gave a definitive constitutional form. In the development of this liberalism, Jeremy Bentham (1748 to 18326) Adamsmith (1723 to 1790) and Herbert Spencer (1820 to 1903) were major contributors. According to Classical Liberism, which is also called Individualism or Negative Liberism, the conceptions regarding state are as follows:
(1) Mechanical form of society and state-
According to the liberals, the state and society are artificial and created by man. They have been created by the people for their convenience as per their wish, so they can amend and change it as per the requirement. There is no separate existence of the society and the state from the individual. The life of a person is the life
of the society and the state and in the welfare of a person, the welfare of the society and the state lies in itself. Normal or collective welfare can be the same in which every person is a partner.
(2) Individual as an End, while state and society as means-
The liberals consider the individual to be an end, and the society and the state means. According to them, the ethical and spiritual welfare and its development is the most important thing. Therefore, no system, tradition or law of any community, society or state can be such that the person is sacrificed in the name of it because these are all for the individual and the individual is not for them. Therefore, all of these have significance as long as they are helpful in fulfilling the interests of the individual and if they do not fulfill this purpose, they can be destroyed or even changed.
(3) Recognition to the natural form of the individual’s rights-
According to liberalism, the rights of the individual are natural. The society and the state are not entitled to violate them. Society and state are not the creators of the rights, rather they have been created to protect the rights of the individual. These natural rights of the individual give him the guarantee of independence. According to the Lock, “Life, property and freedom are the main natural rights of a person, which are not given by the state or society. So neither the state nor the society can make any reduction in them nor can they eliminate them.”
(4) Recognition to the ideal of liberty-
Liberalism does not support the independence of a person in absolute terms. Its belief is that the man is born free. So independence is his proven authority. Therefore, there should not be any control over such a power which can arbitrarily impede his liberty. Liberalism supports the complete independence of the individual in all areas of life. The great supporter of the individual’s liberty, Hobhouse has discussed nine types of independence of a person. (i) Citizen Freedom, (ii) Personal (iii) Economice (iv) Financial (v) Family (vi) Social (vii) Political (viii) Ethnic and National and (ix) International Freedom.
(5) Recognition to the ideal of equality-
The liberals support the freedom of the individual alongwith the equality of the individuals. According to them. people are born with similar natural rights. Therefore, they should be considered equal. Though not all people can be equal in political, mental and spiritual form, but in the eyes of the state’s law and governance, all persons should be considered equal and on the basis of caste, religion, gender or language etc., they should not be discriminated.
(6) Minimum functions of state-
During this phase Liberalism considered Personal Liberty as an antonyn of the scope of state’s functions. Therefore it was felt necessary to guarante the maximum liberty of individual that the scope of state’s function should be minimum. Accordingly, it was proposed that state should confined itself to protect from the external aggression, to maintain enternal peace and order and operate the texation system to execute the abovesaid to functions. This is called the principle of Laissez Faire which supports free market economy based on unrestricted market and free trade.
The above description explains that classical Liberalism considers state as an artificial institution, who establishes peace and order in society through its supreme authority. During this process the liberty of individual is some what restricted but in reciprocation individual is saved from violent conflict and anarchy. In other words, state is a necessary evil.
(2) Modern liberalism –
In the first half of the nineteenth century, there was an ever-changing transformation in ancient liberalism and contemplation related to it. It emphasized its positive side rather than the negative role of the state. Hence it is also called ‘positive liberalism’. In this transformation, the fundamental ideals of the “person’s independence” remained unchanged, but the means of attaining it were changed. As a result of the success of classical liberalism, the individual got the desired political and economic independence. Therefore, he was not limited to the demand of the state’s non-egoistic nature, but demanded such a political and economic organization that could give full freedom to the Individual. At the beginning the rights demanded by liberalism for elites and the middle class, were received. But the farmers and the working class were still deprived of them. Economic freedom for them was possible only when the state took any concrete action in this regard. In modern liberalism, the welfare of the person, especially of the weak and poor, was considered to be the condition of his freedom. Contrary to classical liberalism, modern liberalism believes that the state should play a positive role in order to make the relationships of individuals regular and balanced. Later this modern liberalism developed into the concept of ‘welfare state’. Modern liberalists include John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), T.H. Green (1836-1882), L. T. Hobhouse (1864-1929) H.J. Laski (1893-1950) and R.M. MacIver (1882-1970).
Modern Liberism, which is also called Positive Liberism has seen state as a Beyond-Class institution which partially accomodates the antagonistic class interest. Now the personal Liberty and states authority are not antonym to each other. Through its positive activities, state creates such socio-economic conditions, in which all individuals are able to use there liberties and rights. T.H. Green has called this as ‘restraining the restrictions. Accordingly state does not remain merely a power structure, which has to establish public order only, but it becomes an institutions which realizes Liberty through public welfare. In this order state not only executes negetive functions but also the positive functions such as making avaible free and compulsary public education, public health, labour welfare etc. In chapter-6 the concept of welfare state is discussed in detail.
Criticism of Liberalism
Things going on against the liberals can be understood as follows-
(1) State is not a necessary evil–
The liberals consider state a necessary evil, but the notion is misleading. The state has been created to meet the requirements of human life. Therefore, it is to increase its ideal human welfare. Without a state, a decent and cultured society cannot be imagined.
(2) State does not destroy liberty –
The notion of Liberals that the expansion in the work area of the state will mean to destroy the individual’s independence is also inappropriate. Whereas the reality is that laws created by the state protect the individual’s independence, they do not have to be abusive.
(3) Open competition is harmful to the weaker sections –
Some liberals believe in open competition and support the survival of the fittest These conditions will be detrimental to the weaker sections of society. Also, the open competition in the financial sector is not socially profitable.
(4) Philosophy of capitalist class –
Liberalism is the philosophy of the capitalist class. It wants to keep the capitalist system in existence. It also gives the State the right to interfere in economic matters to save the capitalist economy.
(5) Wrong theory of social change-
Liberalization is the belief that it is possible to bring social change through gradual development. While the reality is that change is brought about only through class struggle and revolution in the class-divided society. Liberalism believes that it is possible to establish economic equality through economic reforms, whereas economic equality is not possible without ending personal property.
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