What are the main ideas of liberalism?
Liberalism can be defined broadly as a political theory that prioritizes freedom over all else. Accordingly, liberalism advocates that states should create environments in which individuals can act according to their conscience while upholding moral and human rights.
Liberty as an ideal is grounded on the belief that each individual should enjoy life, property, and autonomy. It rejects natural hierarchies between races, classes or sexes and strives to ensure all people can access resources, opportunities, and education equitably; equality and social justice; economic freedom, and democracy are also promoted through its pursuit.
Liberalism focuses on the limits of coercive power and the right to alter institutions, while simultaneously seeking to reduce poverty, inequality, and injustice around the globe. It has played an influential role in global politics and helped shape both international law and policy.
Liberals have historically opposed any concentration of power that undermines personal liberty, including censorship, religious oppression, and military aggression. Liberals have advocated for dignity among middle classes and scientific progress against aristocracies and monarchies while championing national independence and advocating free trade within market economies while fighting slavery, and exploitation and advocating secularism and gender equality (Gauss 1998:67ff). John Stuart Mill and T.H. Green adopted an idealist moral theory of good that only regimes ensuring extensive liberty can achieve perfection (Gauss 1998:67ff).
What are the different varieties of democracy?
Democracies are systems of governance that enable citizens to select their leaders and participate in decision-making. There are various kinds of democracy, with some more effective at restricting power than others at limiting it, while other varieties provide protections for people’s rights and property.
Majoritarian democracy is the most widespread type of democracy, which relies on a majority vote for decisions. Unfortunately, however, critics have noted its failure to consider minorities’ interests adequately. Other types of democratic systems attempt to limit majority rule by mandating concurrent majorities (monitory democracy); guaranteeing regional government (federalism); or creating broad coalition governments (consociationalism).
Direct democracy is another form of democracy in which eligible citizens directly participate in decision-making by voting on laws and policies. While implementing it in large societies may prove challenging, direct democracy can ultimately provide better governance.
Other forms of democracy include participatory, radical, semi-direct, and consensus democracy. Participatory democracy emphasizes increased citizen involvement in the political process through plebiscites and referendums; radical democracy focuses on cultivating and tolerating differences; semi-direct democracy blends elements from representative and direct democracy together while consensus democracy utilizes circle organizations, subsidiarity, and double-linked representation to reach its end goals.
What are the main criticisms of liberalism?
Contrary to non-liberal ideologies that seek to force their values onto those who don’t share them, liberalism accepts and respects individual differences while working toward eliminating obstacles that prevent individuals from living freely or reaching their full potential. Such obstacles could include poverty, disease, ignorance, and discrimination.
Liberal political theory holds as its foundation the belief that concentrations of unaccountable violent power threaten liberty and must be reined in. Institutions and norms at both domestic and international levels provide mechanisms to curb such power by encouraging cooperation among its users while providing states a mechanism to enforce agreements when violated; norms further regulate power usage by shaping our understanding of acceptable behaviors.
Recent years have witnessed an intellectual debate between leftist and rightist intellectuals regarding liberalism. While their criticisms may differ somewhat, their common theme is finding liberalism unrealistic and nihilistic – this is false criticism as liberalism is grounded in evidence and theoretical tradition; liberalism does not offer utopianism visions and cannot lead to utopian worlds due to being pragmatic political philosophy that acknowledges that all ambitions cannot be fulfilled simultaneously but still strives to make progress possible.
