1. LIBERALISM
The Main Ingredients!

2. CORE VALUES
Individualism
Rationalism
Freedom
Justice
Toleration

3. THE INDIVIDUAL The individual is at the heart of liberal ideology
Attainment of individual happiness is one of its supreme goals
The individual is supreme, sacrosanct and inviolable
The liberty of the individual is of prime importance (see Mill)

4. THE INDIVIDUAL
Liberal regard for individual human life thus rules out war and violence, except in preservation of the liberal society itself
In elevating the individual, liberalism inevitably diminishes the importance of society as a whole

5. THE INDIVIDUAL
Liberalism had to provide a contrast to feudal society, hence its emphasis on individualism
Individualism promotes liberty, originality and self-distinction.

6. THE INDIVIDUAL
Liberalism assumes the individual to be essentially rational
This is essential given the individual’s importance in liberal ideology – difficult to value irrational beings!
Rationality helps liberalism determine the form of political organisation chosen

7. THE INDIVIDUAL
This is participatory government, as opposed to authoritarian government
Rationality also suggests individuals can pursue their own interests effectively
Seems to make a virtue of selfishness

8. THE INDIVIDUAL
From Hobbes and Locke onwards, pursuit of self-interest is seen as man’s proper motivation
Bentham (utilitarianism) talked of enlightened self-interest

9. PROBLEMS WITH INDIVIDUALISM
The conception of man as a free being leads liberals to condemn arrangements which put him in a state of dependency
Since man also knows his own interests best, liberals also oppose authoritarian or paternalistic governments

10. PROBLEMS WITH INDIVIDUALISM
Both of these premises lead classical liberals to have problems with the interventionist welfare state

11. PROBLEMS WITH INDIVIDUALISM
Early liberals also largely ignored human capacity for self-improvement
Bentham said ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ pleasures were qualitatively the same
Government had no role in elevating or improving people’s outlook

12. PROBLEMS WITH INDIVIDUALISM
J.S.Mill, however, did talk of ‘man’s interests as a progressive being’, and recommended intellectual pursuits and self-improvement through education and political activity. He opposed state education, however, as a dangerous extension of government activity.

13. PROBLEMS WITH INDIVIDUALISM
Liberal views of man as a social creature are also vague
Pursuit of self-interest is believed to lead to natural co-operation
Competition may arise as a result of shortage of resources
Locke’s social contract was envisaged as entered into co-operatively, in everyone’s benefit.

14. EQUALITY
Individuals are ‘born equal’, in the sense of having equal moral worth
They should enjoy equal opportunities
They will not necessarily take the same advantages of such opportunities
No ‘equality of outcome’ in liberalism
Belief in meritocracy

15. LIBERAL SOCIETY Pluralistic and diverse
Enshrines individual liberty in, e.g., a Bill of Rights
Limits government through constitutionalism
Asserts need for government to be by consent of governed

16. THE LIBERAL SPLIT – 1. Classical Liberalism
Belief in minimal state – negative freedom
Function limited to maintenance of domestic order and personal security
Economic belief in free, unregulated market
Importance of natural rights theories and utilitarianism
Key element of libertarianism

17. THE LIBERAL SPLIT – 2. Modern Liberalism
Positive Freedom
Unregulated capitalism produces new forms of injustice, oppressive to individuals
State intervention is acceptable to promote individual liberty
Overlaps with social democracy