Classical Liberalism – A Primer. Eamonn Butler

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СКАЧАТЬ from the monarchy to an assembly of barons. Henry reissued the charter, voluntarily, in 1225. But further confrontations with the barons, mostly over taxes for wars, led to another classical liberal initiative in England – the creation of Parliament.

      The rise of classical liberalism

      Cultural and religious revolutions

      The English historian Lord Acton (1834–1902) wrote that: ‘Liberty is established by the conflict of powers’. In mainland Europe, the authority of the Roman Empire in the West and of subsequent feudal lords and monarchs had been challenged by the rise of the Christian Church. They did not consciously develop free institutions, but the mutual limitations that they imposed on each other opened up the opportunity for greater personal freedom.

      Two other historical events in Europe cemented the importance of individual freedom over state power. A key part of the cultural revolution that was the Renaissance, roughly between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, was the introduction of the printing press into Europe in 1450. This simple invention broke the elites’ monopoly over science and learning, making knowledge accessible to ordinary individuals. No longer did anyone have to consult authorities for guidance and permission: they had the information on which to base their own choices.

      The Protestant Reformation, sparked by Martin Luther in 1517, reinforced this further. It challenged the power of the Catholic Church, and raised the self-esteem of ordinary people by asserting that they could have direct, personal and equal access to God, without needing the intermediation of an elite priesthood.

      All this served to raise the position and importance of the individual over the established institutions of power. In the countries where this greater freedom flourished most, art, industry, science and commerce flourished too.

      Political revolution

      Politically, things were also changing. A pro-freedom mass movement, the Levellers, swept over England in the 1650s. It was led by John Lilburne (1614–57), who insisted that people’s rights were inborn rather than bestowed by government or law. Arrested for printing unlicensed books (in defiance of the official monopoly), he appeared before the notorious Star Chamber, but refused to bow to the judges (insisting that he was their equal) or accept their procedures. Even in the pillory he continued to argue for freedom and equal rights, and inevitably he was imprisoned for his challenge to authority – as he would be several times more.

      Lilburne became a popular anti-establishment figure. He petitioned for the end of state monopolies and spelt out what amounts to a bill of rights. This was taken further by Richard Overton (c. 1610–63), also imprisoned for refusing to acknowledge the judicial authority of the House of Lords, who called for a written constitutional ‘social contract’ between free people whom he saw as having property in their own persons that could not be usurped by anyone else.

      Curbing the power of monarchs

      After the English Civil War (1642–51), the reigning monarch, Charles I, was put on trial and executed for high treason – a stark assertion of the limits on government authority.

      But the power relationship between king and Parliament had already turned. The island nation of Great Britain (as it had become) needed no standing army to protect itself against frequent invasions. So, unlike continental Europe, the monarch had no force that could be used to repress and exploit the public. Charles needed Parliament to agree to raise taxes for foreign wars.

      This frustrated a jealous monarch and led to many conflicts. Among other things, Charles suspended Parliament, sought to levy taxes without its consent and attempted forcibly to arrest five of its most prominent members. He had broken the implicit contract with the people, by which their rights were secured.

      The Glorious Revolution

      After an interregnum (1649–60) under the dictatorship of Oliver Cromwell, the balance of authority was made evident again when Charles’s son Charles II had to appease Parliament in order to return as king. When his successor, Charles’s second son, James II, was deposed, it was Parliament who invited William (the Dutch Prince of Orange) and Mary to the throne. The direction of authority, from people to monarch, could not have been clearer.

      In 1689, William and Mary signed the Bill of Rights, an assertion of the rights and liberties of British subjects and a justification of the removal of James II on the grounds of violating those rights and liberties. It called for a justice system independent of monarchs, an end to taxation without Parliament’s consent, the right to petition government without fear of retribution, free elections, freedom of speech in Parliament and an end to ‘cruel and unusual punishments’. It would directly inspire another great classical liberal initiative, America’s own Bill of Rights, a century later.

      John Locke (1632–1704)

      John Locke drew together the older tenets of classical liberalism into a recognisably modern body of classical liberal thinking. Part of his purpose was to show how James II had forfeited his throne by violating the social contract. All sovereignty, he asserted, comes from the people, who submit to it solely in order to boost their security and expand their general freedom. When this contract is broken, individuals have every right to rise up against the sovereign.

      Locke also developed natural rights theory, arguing that human beings have inherent rights that exist prior to government and cannot be sacrificed to it. Governments that infringe these rights were illegitimate.

      But central to Locke’s ideas was private property, and not just physical property. Locke maintained that people have property in their own lives, bodies and labour – self-ownership. From that crucial understanding, he reasoned that people must also have property in all the things that they had spent personal effort in creating – ‘mixed their labour’ with. The principle of self-ownership therefore makes it crucial that such property should be made secure under the law.

      These ideas would inform many of the thinkers behind the American Revolution.

      The Enlightenment

      The eighteenth century saw another revival of classical liberal thinking. In France, Montesquieu (1689–1755) developed the idea that in a free society and free economy, individuals have to conduct themselves in ways that maintain peaceful cooperation between them – and do so without needing direction from any authority. He therefore called for a system of checks and balances on government power – another idea that would inform American thinkers.

      Meanwhile, a growing intellectual revolt against the authoritarianism of the church led to thinkers such as Voltaire (1694–1778) calling for reason and toleration, religious diversity and humane justice. In economics too, intellectuals such as Turgot (1727–81) argued for lifting trade barriers, simplifying taxes and more competitive labour and agricultural markets.

      The Scottish philosopher and economist Adam Smith (1723–90) explained, along the lines of Montesquieu, how, in many cases, the free interaction between individuals tended to produce a generally beneficial outcome – an effect dubbed the invisible hand. Self-interest might drive our economic life, but we have to benefit our customers to get any benefit for ourselves.

      Smith railed against official monopolies, trade restrictions, high taxes and the suffocating cronyism between government and business. He believed that open, competitive markets would liberate the public, especially the working poor. His ideas greatly influenced policy and ushered in a long period of free trade and economic growth.

      The Rechtsstaat

      On the European continent, meanwhile, thinkers such as the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) were developing СКАЧАТЬ