Principles of Political Liberalism - Article Example

In Political liberalism, all processes, the society revolves to further the ends of the individuals, who are considered as the center of all laws and institutions. Ranks imposed by the society and its institutions such as monarchy, government and businesses are held in less favor to the rights of the individuals to which the society and these institutions are based on. In Political Liberalism, it is the individuals who make the laws and norms of the society. Such characteristic is reminiscent although in a slightly different manner, of the previous ideas on social contract as thought of by Hobbes in his Leviathan and Rousseau in his treatise, The Social Contract.

Basically, the social contract3 holds that it is the individuals who make the laws to which they agree to abide by, under the premise that individuals have the knowledge of what is best for them. In other words, while the individuals are the basis of the laws, the individuals who collectively agree to abide by the law are each under the rule of the said law and have equal rights regardless of age, sex, race, economic and social status. Whereas in classical liberalism, such as in Hobbes' Leviathan, social contract3 refers to the subordination of individuals to the sovereign, particularly the one who governs, to which they are bound to by the consent under the "contract", the modern Political liberalism's emphasis on individualism is in opposition to such stand.

Rousseau, in his Social Contract, posits that each individual is a member of the collective and must submit not to the government but to the general will without regard to the individual interest, for the good of the society, thus, the term popular sovereignty. The principles of modern Political liberalism, however, are most commonly associated with the works and theories of John Rawl4. In general, the Political Liberalist theories of Rawl assume a position on justice as well as an idea of fairness that can be related to the economic game theory.

It aims to provide answers to current issues on the political stability as a result of pluralism (Blunden 2003) by generating an ideal for a society founded on justice through concepts on citizenship and political education (Callan 1997). According to Larmore (1990), Political liberalism has been dealing with two main problems. One of which is the problem of defining the limits to the power of the government which by essence limits the freedom and respect accorded to each individual and thereby limiting the conditions in which each would be enabled with self-realization and fulfillment (Young 2002).

Given the known plurality of ideas, which could almost always be contradicting, the problem lies in the difficulty in defining the limits to which the individuals can agree on (Young 2002). The second problem, according to Larmore (1990) is the identification of the ideas and values that would represent the general will or the common good. In other words, it is the presence and necessity of pluralism and diversity that makes the aims of Political liberalism difficult to achieve.The challenge to Political liberalism now is to create a set of principles that would target justice without impairing diversity.

As it is, the principles of Political liberalism are set to avoid any threat to diversity and with consideration to such diversity that characterizes