The
Struggle for Freedom and Democracy
Liberalism
is one of the oldest political traditions. Its roots stretch back to 1688. Far
from being a philosophy of the status quo, liberalism has a rich radical history.
For centuries it was the philosophy of radical political and social change. It
is time that the lost political tradition of radical liberalism was
rediscovered.
The
father of liberalism, John Locke, laid the foundations for the philosophy in
his Second Treatise of Government in 1689. Government was only to be justified
through the consent of the people and should any government violate the
fundamental rights to life, liberty and property; then the citizenry had a
right of revolution. Right from the beginning, there were two aspects of
liberalism which often came into conflict with each other. These were the
political aspects such as liberty, individual rights and government by consent;
and the economic aspects such as private property, capitalism and a limited
state. The political aspects became radical liberalism and the economic aspects
became laissez-faire liberalism or modern day neoliberalism.
In
1776, the American revolutionaries took up arms against the British Empire. In
the Declaration of Independence, the Founding Fathers echoed John Locke by
stating that man had unalienable rights such as "Life, Liberty and the
Pursuit of Happiness.” Liberalism also inspired the French Revolution which
began in 1789. The radical liberal philosopher, Thomas Paine wrote a staunch
defence of the revolution in his "Rights of Man." Liberalism
throughout the 18th century was seen as a radical revolutionary philosophy. In
the name of “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity” the old aristocratic tyrannies were
to be challenged and overthrown in favour of democratic governance.
Whose
Land is it Anyway?
Liberalism's
challenge to the power of the aristocracy took a different form at the end of
the 19th century. Many nations in Western Europe had become republics or exchanged
their autocratic monarchs for constitutional monarchs. In constitutional
monarchies such as the United Kingdom, the aristocratic land owners drew their
wealth and power from the land and as a result many had wealthy estates. It was
this fact that made radical liberals such as Henry George support land value
taxation.
The
taxation of land became a popular movement especially within the British
Liberal Party in the early 20th century. Working class Liberals supported land
taxation as a means of shifting wealth away from the aristocratic land owners
towards the working poor.
Social
Liberalism and Freedom from Industrial Inequality
Throughout
the 1800s, liberalism had been the philosophy of the Industrial Revolution.
Liberals such as William Gladstone had pursued a policy of laissez-faire. A
century earlier liberalism had proclaimed "Liberty, Equality and
Fraternity" now it appeared to be the philosophy of a capitalist
industrial elite. Liberalism was derided by socialists as being a bourgeois
ideology, which they thought should be overthrown and replaced by a
“dictatorship of the proletariat.”
It
appeared that radical liberalism had run its course and that it would soon be
replaced by socialism. It was at the turn of the last century that the radical
liberalism of the 18th and 19th centuries became the social liberalism of the
20th century. Social liberal thinkers such as Thomas Hill Green and Leonard
Trelawny Hobhouse argued that liberalism needed to promote social justice in
order to help the industrial poor. Equality was therefore seen as a means to
advance liberty. Social reform was needed to combat the tyranny of unrestrained
industrial capitalism. As a result liberals began to support welfare policies
and workers rights.
The
British Liberal Party under Herbert Asquith and David Lloyd George began to lay
the foundations of the welfare state. In 1942, another social liberal William
Beveridge published a report calling for social security from the cradle to the
grave and founded the modern welfare state. Liberalism had therefore gone from
being a philosophy of a laissez-faire elite to a philosophy with a genuine
concern for the welfare of the poorest.
Power
to the People
Throughout
the 1950s, 60s and 70s the Liberal Party in Britain was seen as a political
irrelevance by its opponents. It was during this period that the Liberal Party
began to believe in placing power directly in people's hands. The Liberal Party
leader, Jo Grimond placed great emphasis on cooperatives and workplace
democracy. In the early 1970s a new philosophy began to emerge called
"community politics." This was the legacy of a left wing libertarian
group within the Young Liberals often referred to as "the Red
Guards." Community politics emphasised the need for people to use power at
the grassroots level. It was not just meant as a campaigning strategy but as a
means of creating a more participatory democracy. The radical liberalism that
had toppled regimes in America and France was now embarking on a peaceful
democratic revolution in the way that power was used within local communities
and in the workplace.
Neoliberalism:
The Death of the Radical Tradition
If
radical liberalism had been about anything it was about putting power into the
hands of ordinary people and about holding the powerful to account. This
changed in the 1980s as laissez-faire liberalism re-emerged in the form of
neoliberalism. Early neoliberal politicians such as Margaret Thatcher and
Ronald Reagan sought to unleash free market capitalism, privatise state assets,
restrict workers’ rights and shrink the welfare state.
Far
from bringing power closer to the people as neoliberal economists argued; in
reality power shifted upwards towards global corporations. In an age of
economic globalisation the ability of nation states to pursue welfare policies
has been limited. Furthermore the ability to hold wealthy corporations to
account is limited at best and non-existent at worst. Added to this global
institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
advocate and reinforce neoliberal philosophy. Neoliberalism is a reaction
against the historic principles of radical liberalism and social liberalism.
Global
Radical Liberalism
In
the 21st century the principles of radical liberalism and social liberalism are
needed to mitigate neoliberal globalisation. Radical liberalism sought to
tackle unaccountable power. A new democratic globalisation based on radical
liberalism is needed to hold the global corporate elite to account. Global
institutions underpin contemporary economic globalisation. Therefore new global
institutions will be needed to wrestle back democratic sovereignty from global
corporations and the Washington Consensus. Hopefully, global radical liberalism
will in time help to replace global neoliberalism.
Radical
liberalism might date back to the end of the 17th century; however it is needed
once again in the 21st century. Transnational corporations are the unaccountable
kingdoms of the 21st century. In the age of globalisation; the
lost political tradition of radical liberalism needs to be rediscovered.
