Liberalism (from the Latin liberalis , "of freedom; worthy of a free man, gentlemanlike, courteous, generous") is the belief in the importance of individual freedom. This belief is widely accepted today throughout the world, and was recognized as an important value by many philosophers throughout history. The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote praising "the idea of a polity administered with regard to equal rights and equal freedom of speech, and the idea of a kingly government which respects most of all the freedom of the governed".
Modern liberalism has its roots in the Age of Enlightenment and rejects many foundational assumptions that dominated most earlier theories of government, such as the Divine Right of Kings, hereditary status, and established religion. John Locke is often credited with the philosophical foundations of modern liberalism. He wrote "no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions."
In the 17th Century, liberal ideas began to influence governments in Europe, in nations such as The Netherlands, Switzerland, England and Poland, but they were strongly opposed, often by armed might, by those who favored absolute monarchy and established religion. In the 18th Century, in America, the first modern liberal state was founded, without a monarch or a hereditary aristocracy. The American Declaration of Independence includes the words (which echo Locke) "all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to insure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
Liberalism comes in many forms. According to John N. Gray, the essence of liberalism is toleration of different beliefs and of different ideas as to what constitutes a good life.
Etymology and historical usage
The earliest recorded governments in which free citizens played an important role were the democracy in Athens and the republic in Rome. The Athenian lawgiver Solon wrote, "...men who wore the shameful brand of slavery and suffered the hideous moods of brutal masters -- all these I freed." The Roman historian Titus Livius, in his History of Rome From Its Foundation , describes the struggle of the plebeians to win freedom from the domination of the patricians. Largely dormant during the Middle Ages, the struggle for freedom began again during the Italian Renaissance in the conflict between supporters of free city-states on the one hand and supporters of the Pope or of the Holy Roman Emperor on the other. Niccolò Machiavelli, in his Discourses on Livy , laid down the principles of republican government.
The Oxford English Dictionary ( OED ) indicates that the word liberal has long been in the English language with the meanings of "befitting free men, noble, generous" as in liberal arts ; also with the meaning "free from restraint in speech or action", as in liberal with the purse , or liberal tongue , usually as a term of reproach but, beginning 1776–88, imbued with a more favorable sense by Edward Gibbon and others to mean "free from prejudice, tolerant."
The first English language use to mean "tending in favor of freedom and democracy," according to the OED, dates from about 1801 and comes from the French libéral, "originally applied in English by its opponents (often in Fr. form and with suggestions of foreign lawlessness)." An early English language citation: "The extinction of every vestige of freedom, and of every liberal idea with which they are associated."
The editors of the Spanish Constitution of 1812, drafted in Cádiz, may have been the first to use the word liberal in a political sense as a noun. They named themselves the Liberales, to express their opposition to the absolutist power of the Spanish monarchy.
Liberalism in this sense became a widespread ideal during Age of Enlightenment, when philosophers such as John Locke in England and Jean-Jacques Rousseau in France articulated the struggle for freedom in terms of the Rights of Man .
The American War of Independence established the first nation to craft a constitution based on the concept of liberal government, especially the idea that governments rule by the consent of the governed. The more moderate bourgeois elements of the French Revolution tried to establish a government based on liberal principles, but the radical Robespierre seized power, leading to the Reign of Terror followed by a reactionary movement which restored the monarchy.
The main thrust of liberalism was freedom from despotic rule and the replacement of aristocracy by social equality, but it also had an economic side. Adam Smith, in The Wealth of Nations (1776), enunciated the liberal principles of free trade and progressive taxation.
Liberal philosophy
There were many precursors to liberalism, including certain aspects of the Magna Carta , which reduced the power of the English monarch, and medieval Islamic ethics, which allowed some freedom of religion. But most histories of modern liberal thought begin with John Locke (1632 - 1704).
Locke's Two Treatises on Government (1689) discussed two fundamental liberal ideas: intellectual liberty, including freedom of conscience, which he further expounded in the same year in A Letter Concerning Toleration , and economic liberty, the right to have and use property. These early liberal ideas were tentative (and published anonymously). Locke did not extend religious freedom to Roman Catholics and considered slaves to be lawful property. Locke developed further the earlier idea of natural rights, a forerunner of the modern conception of human rights, which Locke saw as the rights to life, liberty and property (Locke's actual words are "life, health, liberty, or possessions")..
Another 17th-century Englishman, John Lilburne (also known as Freeborn John ), argued for basic human rights which he called freeborn rights, the natural rights that every human being is born with, as opposed to rights bestowed by government or by human law.
On the European continent, the doctrine of laws restraining even monarchs was expounded by Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, whose The Spirit of the Laws argues that "Better is it to say, that the government most conformable to nature is that which best agrees with the humour and disposition of the people in whose favour it is established," rather than accept as natural the mere rule of force. Following in his footsteps, political economist Jean-Baptiste Say and Destutt de Tracy were ardent exponents of the "harmonies" of the market, and in all probability it was they who coined the term laissez-faire . This evolved into the physiocrats, and to the political economy of Rousseau.
The late French enlightenment saw two figures who would have tremendous influence on later liberal thought: Voltaire, who argued that the French should adopt constitutional monarchy and disestablish the Second Estate , and Rousseau, who argued for a natural freedom for mankind.
Rousseau also argued the importance of a concept that appears repeatedly in the history of liberal thought, namely, the social contract. He rooted this in the nature of the individual and asserted that each person knows their own interest best. His assertion that man is born free, and that education was sufficient to restrain him within society, rocked the monarchical society of his age. His ideas were a key element in the declaration of the National Assembly during the French Revolution, and in the thinking of Americans such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. In his view the unity of a state came from the concerted action of consent, or the "national will". This unity of action would allow states to exist without being chained to pre-existing social orders, such as aristocracy.
The "Scottish Enlightenment" included the writers David Hume and Adam Smith.
David Hume's contributions were many and varied, but most important was his assertion that fundamental rules of human behavior would overwhelm attempts to restrict or regulate them. In A Treatise of Human Nature , 1739-1740, he disparaged mercantilism and the accumulation of gold and silver by governments. He argued that prices were related to the quantity of money, and that hoarding gold and issuing paper money would only lead to inflation.
Although Adam Smith is the most famous of the economic liberal thinkers, he was not without antecedents. The physiocrats in France had proposed the systematic study of political economy and asserted the self-organizing nature of markets. Benjamin Franklin wrote in favor of the freedom of American industry in 1750. In Sweden-Finland the period of liberty and parliamentary government from 1718 to 1772 produced a Finnish parliamentarian, Anders Chydenius, who was one of the first to propose free trade and unregulated industry, in The National Gain , 1765. His impact has proven to be lasting particularly in the N
Democratic Politics and Financial Markets A Prospectus
1 Democratic Politics and Financial Markets A Prospectus William ... We employ the capital asset pricing model ... empirical chapter, we examine bond market reactions to the process of ...
The Politics of Economic Stimulus Spending and Bank Bailouts :: The ...
The Politics of Economic Stimulus Spending and Bank Bailouts :: The Market Oracle :: Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting Free ... role played by the old guard of Democratic Party ...
Federal Reserve, Treasury Chiefs Ask Congress for Stronger Protection ...
Politics Home ... authority to oversee systems that process payments and other financial ... the Fed into a super cop in charge of financial market ...
Politics Flunks Test as Stock-Market Predictor: Caroline Baum ...
Whether financial markets will be happy with the outcome is a different matter. ... to tie stock-market performance to politics. And ...
Delivery Plan Is Next Step for Bailout Bill - Politics | Republican ...
... votes and billions of dollars in stock market losses to get the massive financial ... government will have to determine what price ... Barney Frank, D-Mass. See Next Story in Politics
Amazon.com: Democratic Processes and Financial Markets: Pricing ...
This item: Democratic Processes and Financial Markets: Pricing Politics by William Bernhard ... models of the political process. They draw on a variety of models of market behavior ...
Introduction: Progressive politics after the financial crisis ...
... strength of modern social-democratic politics ... to the challenge of financial market governance. With credit markets frozen and equity prices ... who must ensure that the process ...
Democratic Politics and Financial Markets
Democratic politics affects asset markets ; Financial market behavior ... The Process of ... literature/politics influence variability of asset prices
Democratic Processes and Financial Markets - Cambridge University ...
Democratic Processes and Financial Markets Pricing Politics William Bernhard ... models of the political process. They draw on a variety of models of market behavior ...
Amazon.com: "standard financial market": Key Phrase page
Key Phrase page for standard financial market: Books ... upper hedging price, terminal wealth problem, cumulative income process, optimal consumption process, pairwise maximization, ...