Nineteenth-Century Liberalism: Political, Social, and Economic Impact
Nineteenth-Century Liberalism
Liberalism is an ideology rooted in the principles of the Enlightenment, advocating for a new form of organization that significantly impacted political, social, and economic development.
Its main precursors were philosophers and thinkers of the Enlightenment (eighteenth century), before the French Revolution. American and French revolutions attempted to implement liberal ideas, which were confirmed in the United States but failed the first time in Europe.
Throughout the nineteenth century, many thinkers developed the liberal ideology and made it more suitable for its eventual triumph in Europe. The social group that best identified with this new ideology was the bourgeoisie, which initially drew in other elements of the Third Estate to the fight but later separated and faced them.
Liberalism in Politics
- The central idea of liberalism in politics is to ensure the freedom of the individual against the State and prevent it from having excessive power, as in the Old Regime with the absolute power of monarchs.
- Liberal ideology is based on Montesquieu’s ideas. It posits that the State should be based on the separation of its various powers to prevent any person or institution from accumulating too much power and becoming tyrannical. Therefore, the legislative, executive, and judiciary branches should be carried out by different institutions.
- The State should pursue a policy of minimum intervention. This is based on the belief that each individual seeking the best for themselves will, in the long run, benefit the whole society, and the State should address areas where this cannot be fulfilled.
- Liberal policy defends an organization aimed at the freedom of the individual. The ultimate holder of power is the people. This power, or popular sovereignty, implies restrictions on the authority of kings through Constitutions, which establishes the rights of citizens: personal and family integrity, freedom of religion, press, protection of private property, etc.
- The right to legislate is vested solely in parliaments elected by the citizens, and citizens are not required to meet more than what the laws provide, in accordance with the interpretation given to them by independent judges.
In short, the liberal ideology permeates our current democratic system in the organization and functioning of the state, although some of its principles have been relaxed.
Liberalism in the Social Field
- The idea of equal rights for all men (women were initially excluded) is fundamental to the Enlightenment. This idea is frontally opposed to the estate society.
- Liberalism defends no state interference in citizens’ private behavior and social relationships, admitting large dimensions of freedom of expression and religion.
- The legal equality of individuals is the basis of the new society in which there should be no privileges before the law, as each, according to its merits, can progress in life.
- However, economic equality is not a goal of liberalism, as it is considered that the wealth of each person is based on merit, and it is inevitable that there are poor and people with low purchasing power.
- Although liberalism ends with the privileges of estate society, it formed a dominant group, comprising the richest people, who controlled society, the economy, and the state according to their interests.
In short: All men are equal in rights, but not in their living conditions. Gone are the estates, but social classes were born: upper class, middle class, and lower class.
Economic Liberalism
Liberalism defends no state interference in economic relations between citizens (by reducing taxes to a minimum and eliminating any regulations on trade, production, etc.).
For liberalism, the best way to regulate the economy is on its own. The only regulatory law, advocates say, should be the law of supply and demand, which, of course, is not a law made by the State.
Free competition between individuals acting in the economy, and the desire of each to thrive, translates, according to liberalism, into the economic progress of society. The role to be played by government in the economy, according to liberalism, is to ensure law and order for the economy to develop in peace and freedom. Although Adam Smith best explains this.
The problems of economic liberalism: Freedom