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LIBERALISM.
Term Paper ID:28278
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Examines origins & development in 17th & 18th centuries. Individual vs state. Theories of Hobbes, Rousseau, Locke, Voltaire, Marcuse, H.G. Wells & others.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Examines origins & development in 17th & 18th centuries. Individual vs state. Theories of Hobbes, Rousseau, Locke, Voltaire, Marcuse, H.G. Wells & others.
Paper Introduction:
This research examines the origins and development of liberalism between the late 17th century and the revolutions of 1848 in Europe. The research will set forth the philosophical, political, and cultural context in which the discourse of liberalism emerged and discuss the manner in which it evolved as an idea and as the basis for real-world political application over the course of nearly 200 years, until 1848.
The challenge of defining classical liberalism as a concept is far more challenging than citing the writers with whom it is associated, such as John Locke or Adam Smith. As Ryan notes, the content of liberal theory is "not necessarily" democratic, since majority rule can be tyrannical, and it is "not always" progressive, since liberal theory offers no guarantee of beneficial human experience. Nevertheless, continues Ryan:
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Only in the area of nascent French nationalism, which emerged asthe Jacobin regime was forced into war, did radical and (more moderate)liberal revolutionary maintain an alliance. . where they all wanted to dominate the people, the most numerous, most virtuous, even, and consequently most respectable part of mankind, made up of those who study laws and sciences, merchants, artisans, in a word all who were not tyrants, the people I mean, were regarded by them as animals slower than humanity. Only when his nephew was assassinated "bya fanatical liberal" (Hayes, et al. Liberal principles can be said tohave governed the elections of the Second Republic, but they installedLouis Napoleon Bonaparte and a middle class cabinet, which proceeded todispossess urban workers from public-sector jobs. The Communist Manifesto. In Italy, aseries of revolts in its various kingdoms led to the establishment ofseveral liberal constitutions and the expulsion of Metternich. The promise to prepare a constitutional monarchy, which evolved intothe Declaration of the Rights of Man and the voluntary renunciation by manynobles of their privileges, can be seen as examples of the way liberalprinciples were realized at the time of the revolution. But displacement of the Bourbons was temporary, andNapoleon's Waterloo and exile were permanent. Radical politicsalso seems to dispense with the lure of Romanticism. The settling of accounts with Napoleon, begun but not completed whenthe Congress of Vienna initially convened in 1814, were hobbled by theFrench minister Talleyrand's successful back-room diplomatic machinationsand prevarications, which seem to have been meant to preserve theterritorial integrity and diplomatic presence on the Continent of post-Napoleonic France and which reestablished the Bourbons on the French throne(Wells, 79 ff). In their place would be a social contract representing thecoming-together of free individuals for the purpose of shaping society; inthat society, indeed, the general will would force all men to be free(Rousseau 95). Hobbes's discussion of the relationship between sovereignand citizens was to be taken up by Locke, whose political context was theGlorious Revolution (1688), and who developed it differently. 578-8 , passim). And whereas they beganwith cross-class alliances, they devolved into class cleavage thatpersisted long after they were over. 562) did Louis reimpose socialcontrols, including clerical control of French education. Only the AmericanRevolution, which France had very much financed, had been a success, butthe national debt was nonetheless huge, and the middle class was taxed tomake up the deficit. The practical effect wasreassertion of social order in the form of oppression: Secret police,trials, and summary executions were not uncommon. The challenge of defining classical liberalism as a concept is farmore challenging than citing the writers with whom it is associated, suchas John Locke or Adam Smith. In 1848, the various challenges and objections to that order tookshape as revolution. London: Blackwell, 1995. Freedom entails theoption of the individual to push the boundaries of action outward, inbeneficial pursuit of property and title as a product of reason and labor:The common society in such an environment of freedom is limited in itsability to push the boundaries backward, restricting the scope ofindividual action. Now the emerging industrialeconomy also created a new social class--the industrial workers -- who alsoturned out to have a constituency, as Marx was to explain in the CommunistManifesto. The February Revolution fostered similar movements throughout Europein 1848. Trans. The JulyRevolution touched off a revolution in Poland, which failed when Russiaintervened. Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, whichadvocated laissez-faire private-sector capitalism as opposed to nation-state mercantilism, was one aspect of this. Liberalism, as Wells indicates, was being programmatically pushedto the background: "Science and wisdom were conspicuously absent from thegreat council of the Allies. Louis XVI'senforced ratification of the constitutional monarchy (Hayes, et al. The statesmen of the conservativerestoration had decided that changes in society could be ignored eventhough geopolitical maneuverings could not. The Congresssystem would eliminate wars and reclaim the coherence of pre-Revolutionarysociety. The majority of men in Europe were what they still are in many parts of the north, serfs of some lord, a kind of cattle bought and sold with the land (Voltaire 48). New York: Macmillan, 1967.Hobbes, Thomas. Voltaire was to die in 1789, not long before the Revolution. Even an absolute monarch may lose legitimacy in a state that isan artifact of human association: "The Obligation of Subjects to theSoveraign is understood to last as long, and no longer, than the powerlasteth, by which he is able to protect them" (Hobbes 116). The French monarchy was ruling extravagantly and without alegislature of any kind and had engaged unsuccessfully in a series of wars(in the process depleting the national treasury). Liberalism and nationalism "were concealed but not eliminated.They became underground forces" (Hayes, et al. New York: W.W. By 1815, it was bound up with a voice ofnationalism and of Romanticism, to the degree these movements wereformulated as a concern for and with people (Wells 868 et passim; Hayes, etal. Introduction. What was new about the revolutions of 1848 is thatthey were social in character, not merely political. Liberal revolts inSpain, Italy, and Greece in the 182 s were met with military andmonarchical force. Macpherson. whether democracy, oligarchy, or limitedmonarchy, as long as it asserted sovereignty in its relations with otherstates and maintained its own authority in relation to its citizens"(Marcuse 172). Works CitedHayes, Carlton J.H., Marshall Whithed Baldwin, and Charles Woolsey Cole. Ed. Liberalism as movement and as political philosophywas a voice for the liberty of individuals and for constitutionalrestraints on governments. Louis XVIII, restored to the French throne in 1815, functionedfor some five years more or less as a constitutional monarch and retainedmany of Napoleon's civic reforms. Leonard Tancock. As Ryan notes, the content of liberal theoryis "not necessarily" democratic, since majority rule can be tyrannical, andit is "not always" progressive, since liberal theory offers no guarantee ofbeneficial human experience. The March Days in Prussia, dominated by the lower classes, withsome middle class support, led to the creation of a liberal ministry andliberal assembly in Prussia and elsewhere in Germany's states. And in France, where itall began, the liberal Second Republic of 1848 was by December 1851transformed, via coup d'état, into Louis Napoleon's Second Empire (Hayes,et al. In Belgium, a nationalist break away from Holland wassuccessful, but in Austria a liberal revolt failed. It can be inferred that legalistic, democratic, liberal movementswere no longer perceived to be effective in social change. . . By Marx and Engels. 532ff)could also be seen as consistent with the Lockean vision of a legitimatemonarchy, were it not that he almost immediately began to plot with Germanand Austrian enemies of France's revolution to undermine the new system.The radical Jacobin response (Hayes, et al. The bitter legacy of 1848 also included hatred between working andmiddle classes, or as it were between the radicals and proletariat (whichfelt betrayed), and the betraying bourgeoisie, which tended to ally itselfwith the upper class. But thesuggestion of an alternative to royal and/or majority tyranny was becomingmore credible. Letters on England. 2. Ed. It focuses on the idea of limited government, the maintenance of the rule of law, the avoidance of arbitrary and discretionary power, the sanctity of private property and freely made contracts, and the responsibility of individuals for their own fates (Ryan 292-3). But because no political society can be, nor subsist, without having in itself the power to preserve the property, and in order thereunto, punish the offences of all those of that society; there, and there only is political society, where every one of the members hath quitted this natural power, resigned it up into the hands of the community in all cases that exclude him not from appealing for protection to the law established by it (Locke, p. Nevertheless, continues Ryan: Whatever liberalism involves, it certainly includes toleration and an antipathy to closing ranks around any system of beliefs. But the dominant dynamic was one of social stability, not tosay social control, the reaction of a Europe that had been dislocated andthen exhausted by what had begun with the Revolution and completed byNapoleon's adventurism. 54 ), to dispense altogetherwith the monarchy and found a republic, might also be seen as consistentwith the liberal notion of a man-made state, were it not that the republicanointed itself by way of regicide and reinforced its power with theTerror. Thesechanges owed much to Enlightenment and liberal thought informing theAmerican and French Revolutions and to the fact and consequences of therevolutions themselves, however different the American and Frenchexperiences had been. Lonson: Penguin Books, 1985.Locke, John. . Liberals chafing at press censorshipand lack of the franchise had held protest banquets in provincial Francethroughout 1847, and when in February 1848 they were specifically preventedfrom assembling one in Paris, they took to the streets. Goodin and Philip Pettit. Macpherson. The convening of the Estates General seems to havebeen intended at least in part to lend legitimacy to royal policy, but thecollective mind of the third estate had been prepared, by discourse ofliberty and justice and by the example of the core documents of theAmerican revolution, for what became the Tennis Court Oath (Hayes, et al.,53 -2, passim; Wells 748-9). Geopoliticalrivalries nevertheless persisted over the period (e.g., Russian versusPrussian ambitions to control Poland and the awkward claims of petty Germanand Italian states as against residue of sentiment for the Holy RomanEmpire, which would have pushed either the Austrian or Prussian monarch offhis throne). The British attempt to retaketheir former colonies had been crushed in the War of 1812, and the Americanrepublic survived intact, which can be interpreted as a kind of victory forliberalism. . . Vol. No peoples came to the Congress, butonly monarchs and foreign ministers (Wells 79 ). Voltaire's discussion of the Magna Carta deals with thecommon people as such, though his major objective is a critique ofclericalism and the tyranny of divine right. Ed. The Communist Manifesto. There is no restraint onthe individual's option to act on the capacities of his reason for his ownbenefit (e.g., to acquire property), even though the action may not producethe desired result. Although thecivil reforms of Code Napoleon, which codified all French laws, set upequality of all people, opened public office equally to all, and guaranteedprotection of property and freedom of worship, can be interpreted asexamples of liberalism's influence, Napoleon's own imperial ambitions andwhat appears to have been an unquenchable appetite for wars of conquestovertook that influence. Censorship of press,history, and education was the rule (Hayes, et al. The Congress was also interrupted by Napoleon's (ultimatelyabortive) Hundred Days. 291- 311.Voltaire, Francois Marie Arouet. Where a country could be loved andcherished, human liberty and the potential for individual development couldbe available to and realized equally by all. Leviathan. Yet even nastybrutes have enough sense to relinquish personal liberty, construct amonarchist commonwealth, and remain subservient to it. Ed. And if it is the case that Locke's interest was in the more orless elite propertied common man and not the great mass of men, it is alsotrue that he implies a tension between claims of absolute sovereignty andclaims of individual sovereignty of the subjects. This is the case even thoughsome individuals may end up with more and better property than others,according as they have used their rational capacity to survive and prosper.Authority, like property, is diffused, or cut up into little pieces, in asystematic way in a legitimate state, even though that state might includea sovereign. The Outline of History: Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind. Boston: Beacon P, 1941.Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. Further, it appearedthat nationalist movements were ineffectual if grounded in liberalism,which meant that liberalism and nationalism were to go separate politicalways. C.B. The conservative settlement made at the Congress of Vienna was to bechallenged and objected to -- not solely, but not least -- by the discourseof liberalism and the residue of revolution. But Wells(811) cites "a strong intellectual process [that] undermined the system ofGrand Monarchy in France before 1789." Rousseau envisioned a utopia thatrejected all prevailing "models" of society, political, familial, orreligious. On theother hand, "he who appropriates land to himself by his labour, does notlessen, but increase the common stock of mankind" (Locke 23). This logically proceeds to the idea that citizens should not be merelysubject to the will of the ruler. 46). Rather, government is an artifact ofcitizen participation, for everybody has a stake in the fact that propertydistribution remains settled and organized. Rousseau's Political Writings. Meanwhile, as Wells notes (799), the Industrial Revolution was takingshape, a product of the "liberated mind" of the Renaissance and largelyindependent of geopolitics of the period, but developing a life andconstituency of its own that was increasingly incompatible withultraconservative social order. Locke expects and intends that human beings will use their reason tosurvive and/or prosper. (6 -6 1), cite the establishment of various social-reformprograms in the wake of the June Days, and the emphasis in the constitutionof the Second Republic on "family, rights of property, and public order"--all consistent with liberalism. Alan Ritter and Julia C. Over the course of the 18th century the way toward social reformand/or revolution was prepared by Enlightenment intellectuals -- in France,the philosophes -- engaging in a liberal critique of society demonstratingat the very least that society could be criticized without being destroyed.Liberalism in this period was concerned to find its way through governancetensions implicit in the rational being's desire for personal liberty andneed for civil society, issues that had been raised by Locke in 1688. The Congress was oblivious of permanent changes in geopoliticalconsciousness and in the sociopolitical experience of the great mass ofpeople, and in the content of Western political and social discourse. . The idea that independent countries were connected to love of countryhad been born in the French Revolution and amplified under Napoleon--partly, indeed, in those countries that Napoleon had invaded. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co, 198 .Malia, Martin. In either case, the Congress of Vienna formalized aconservative social structure that, as a practical matter, ushered in apattern of political tyranny on the continent that was to last until 1848.Hayes, et al. Reason and Revolution: Hegel and the Rise of Social Theory. C.B. Indeed, the GloriousRevolution installed a sovereign restricted by Parliament, if not by thepeople in whole. Workers rioted in June--the June Days--and were routed, which left a legacy of class hatred forworkers who had allied with the bourgeoisie in the February Revolution.Hayes, et al. There emerged factionalismbetween urban workers and highly taxed middle-class bourgeois andprovincial farmers who were highly taxed. Norton and Company, 1988.Ryan, Alan. 563). The republicans' persistent tinkering with the French constitution andthe degeneration of the Directory during and after the Terror facilitatedthe emergence of Napoleon as a stabilizing force in 18 . But any limitations on action will be,as Berlin says (127), recognizable, which is to say not changing accordingto the active interference or agency of others. Theevidence of Thomas Hobbes's political theory is that he is hostile to thenotion that the governed -- who are nasty, brutish, and murderous if leftto their own devices -- can participate in governance. Locke's idea that individual rights to life, liberty, and estate canbe diffused in the service of equitable protection and governance in commonimplies that the common will as a state structure is a collective rationalexpression. Because individuals by nature acquisitive, seeking out of the"common" property of mankind a beneficial share so that they may use theirrational capacity to exploit its advantages, a mechanism for keepingunlimited desire for property in check -- the state -- is required. In 1825, Nicholas I suppressed the Decembrist Revolt inRussia. Theresearch will set forth the philosophical, political, and cultural contextin which the discourse of liberalism emerged and discuss the manner inwhich it evolved as an idea and as the basis for real-world politicalapplication over the course of nearly 2 years, until 1848. "Liberalism." A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy. 2nd ed. 6 8 et passim). . Locke's concept of state derives from a more or less natural theory ofproperty. History of Western Civilization. . But during the 182 s, many changes occurred, and the hard fact turnedout to be that Europe could not really be rolled back to pre-1789 socialconditions. The disempowering of liberal ideals over the course of 1848 seems tohave radicalized some and encouraged others to acquiesce in the order ofthings. . Some individuals' prosperity may be limited bytheir capacities and available resources, while others may have unlimitedresources or capacities, hence a wider range of optional actions to choosefrom and a larger share of property. . . Robert E. New York: Signet, 1998.Marcuse, Herbert. Second Treatise of Government. . 562f). 557ff). New York: Signet, 1998.Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. It is but ashort step to the state's role in protecting the rational man's assertionof property rights and protecting what is shared in common from undueclaims. (559), cite the designation Era of Metternich for the period1815-1848, governed in geopolitical terms by what came to be called theQuadruple Alliance (Austria, Russia, Prussia, and Britain). In Hungary,and in Vienna, revolts against Austria were, however, crushed, as were therevolts in Italy and Prussia over the course of the second half of 1848.Germany was "for a time united under the Frankfort parliament" in 1848, butsundry foreign ministers and monarchs of the German statelets disapprovedof unity by "the will of its people," a liberal principle, and reimposedunity "by regal and diplomatic action" (Wells 83 ). The February Revolution in France in 1848 was born out of greatdissatisfaction with Louis-Philippe. Restriction may appear in the shape of the state andsovereign; however, both state and sovereign are limited in the extent towhich restrictions on human action may apply. The context in which Hobbes wrote the Leviathan was the English CivilWar (1632-1659), which culminated in the abdication and execution ofCharles I. While the barons, bishops and popes were tearing England to pieces . 1949; Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1971. The perception of political realities by Congress participants wasthat Europe had undergone extraordinary changes that had begun with theFrench revolution, marked by violence and domestic upheavals (notably theReign of Terror), and by wars of conquest under Napoleon. In 183 , Charles X of France, who was attempting to restore divine-right monarchy in France, was forced to abdicate by the July Revolution.Malia (x) describes this as a workers' revolt "captured by the upperclasses who established the 'bourgeois monarchy' of Louis-Phillipe." Maliadescribes the July Revolt as the "seedtime of modern socialism." The 1832Reform Bill in England enlarged the number of eligible voters and"restor[ed] something of its representative character to the House ofCommons" (Wells 81 ), though liberation was far from complete. The position of the individual vis-ŕ-vis the state is an issue as oldas Antigone and as new as libertarianism. Insuppressing Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna pretended that there was nosuch thing and that suppressing self-rule and self-determination would alsosuppress revolution and violence. New York: Penguin Books, 1985.Wells, H.G. Bondanella. Marcuse alsonotes that Hobbes, who tutored Charles II, managed to survive the CivilWar, Cromwell, and the Restoration, and that his theory considered the formof government "irrelevant . The conservative restoration appears originally to have been meanteither to begin a rollback to the imperial boundaries of pre-1789 and theFrench Revolution or to freeze the structure of European society in 1815for all time. What lends liberalism per se aspecial place in the discourse of that issue is the degree to which itexamines the content of state legitimacy in the lives of governedindividuals and claims standing for the governed in that examination. The revolutiongathered adherents and barricades from workers and radicals, as well assome of the military, and Louis-Philippe was forced to abdicate. The basic line of thought was that if the social goalsof liberalism could be attained, then nationalism, or the self-determination and self-rule of governed peoples bonded together by love ofcountry, could be attained as well. The tricolor flag and the"Marsellaise" national anthem, which were suppressed between 1815 and 1848,were reasserted afterward and survive into the modern period, althoughother elements of French nationalism, such as the new calendar (e.g.,Thermidor) and the abolition of the old religion in favor of the goddess ofreason did not. This research examines the origins and development of liberalismbetween the late 17th century and the revolutions of 1848 in Europe. Later thatyear the provisional government, comprising middle- and lower-classfactions, brought about a social revolution. Thence proceeded the Congressof Vienna, dominated by Austria's ultraconservative statesman Metternich,to settle accounts altogether with liberalism and revolution. After Napoleon's army was forced back from Russianand Germany into France in 1814 and he was force into exile, a new Europewas born, or more exactly reshaped in the form of the ConservativeRestoration, by way of the Congress of Vienna (Hayes, et al. In France on the eve of the Revolution, no restrictions existed forthe sovereign, and justice itself seemed increasingly elusive.
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