Is Liberalism Still a Coherent Ideology in the 21st Century - Assignment Example

Is Liberalism Still a Coherent Ideology in the 21st Century? Liberalism is the belief in freedom and equal rights. McLean & McMillan (2009) state that the theory of liberalism advocates that the society or rather the people of the nations should have such freedoms as the freedom of speech and association. It further demands that some rights should be observed which include right to fair trial among others. The personalities that are feted for the rise of liberalism are John Locke and Montesquieu. There are two branches of liberalism: classical and social or welfare liberalism. Classical liberalism was advanced by theorists who believed in social liberties and political freedom with representative democracy guided by the sound rule of law and mostly economic freedom. It sprang up in the 19th century in Europe and the United States. In classical liberalism, the government role is to protect citizens and property without digging its nose in other matters of trade and commerce. As Locke puts: ”Men being, as has been said, by nature, all free, equal and independent, no one can put out this Estate, and subjected to the political power of another without own consent”, (Locke 1963,pp.374-75). Rohr (1964) states that in the 20th century, the classical liberalism had proved a difficult course to undertake due to its many challenges and limitations, so a new form of liberalism was born. It was the social or welfare liberalism which allowed the government to have broad intervention in the economic affairs of the citizens. The rise of this branch of socialism was necessitated by the misfortunes of the Economic Depression. In the words of Arthur Schlesinger Jr. : “When the growing complexity of industrial conditions required increasing government intervention in order to assure more equal opportunities, the liberal tradition, faithful to the goal rather than to the dogma altered its view of state and there emerged the conception of a social welfare state, in which the national government had the express obligation to maintain high levels of employment in the economy, to supervise the standards of life and labour, to regulate the methods of business competition, and establish comprehensive patterns of social security.” This meant that liberalism was to be adaptive to the dynamics of economy.”(Authur 2012) According to the developments highlighted above, liberalism is still a coherent ideology in the 21st century. This is evidenced by the fact that the government left to its own whims might turn out to do greater harm than good to its citizenry. Though the 21st century liberalism is not like the one that was in the 17th century, it remains very quintessential to the very existence since the people of the day borrow a lot from the maxims John Locke. Liberalism remains still the wheel that drives democracy and the same time protecting the minority interests, free press, better health care, better education, separation of the church from the state, rule of law and the right to existence inter alia. According to LI President Van Baalen, even if liberals are an embodiment of development, they should embrace the role of power which in real sense is the public sector in the 21st century. Were it not for liberalism the despotic politicians like Muamar Gaddafi of Libya and Copaure of Corte de vore would be in power up to date. The liberals who were thirsty for freedom from oppressive regimes took up arms and unseated them. This has been the fear of other leaders who have the evil desire of clinging to power like leeches. This validates a statement that the government and the citizens have a social contract that has terms and conditions implied and if they are in any way breached, the citizens have the express mandate to overthrow the government because it no longer serves the interests of its citizenry (The Theory of Social Contract, John Locke and Thomas Hobbes, 1651 & 1689).Therefore, the government is kept on its toes to see to it that it does the role it is appointed for, instilling a semblance of accountability on public sector officials. In the words of Abraham Lincolin,” Democracy is the government by the people and for the people” meant that democracy is born of people and retained by the people themselves. These people are the governors and the governed. If the governors decide to come up with Draconian rules then the governed will find a way of expressing their displeasure through civil unrest such as demonstrations and organized coups. Sometimes these events have lead to social disorder and even deaths of thousands of people giving credence to the words of Locke and Hobbes. It is this theory based on liberalism that the governments in all the world over go into elections to select leaders. (Burleigh 2005) Through liberalism the rights of the minority are also taken into consideration. The minority are emancipated. These include the handicapped in the society and women. Though democracy is wrought by the majority it does not mean a disregard of the minority. Many nations in the world have come up with a bill of rights that covers the interests of both the majority and the minority. It is the voice of liberals that rings to the highest decibels for the few underprivileged to be held in as much esteem as those privileged many. It is in observing the rights of the minority that equity is upheld. Henry Sidgwick in the analysis of impartiality states, ”It cannot be just for A to adopt towards B a conduct that would be wrong if B adopted it towards A for the unique reason that they are two different individuals and without any difference existing, between the nature and the situation of these two individuals, that could be invoked as a reasonable motive for treating them differently.” This was later echoed by Rawls who still was an equity crusader. The statement categorically tries to elucidate that in the same circumstances individuals should be treated equally regardless of their status.(Armitage 2007) The press is a fundamental source of information for its citizens. Citizens who are deprived of the right to a free press are vulnerable to the many ills of an unaccountable government. Moreover, they lag behind in terms of development because they cannot fully be informed about new developments trends. As noted by Burleigh (2005) many governments try to gag up the mouths of journalists so that their evils are not brought to light and be ashamed. For this reason therefore the liberals who long for a free press and a credible government, normally cry foul till the media is given ample space to breathe since they believe that it is the mouthpiece of the citizens and a prophet of things to come, both of hope and doom. Maurice Cranston, (1967) points out a liberal is a person who believes in liberty. This further corroborates the point that freedom of press which is one of the liberties is a child of liberalism. It is the people that believe in this liberty that nag the government to ensure that the press is given full authority to disseminate information that benefits the citizens. (Barker 1971) Since time immemorial, the church has been the seedbed of ideas where great reformers and revolutionarists. The governments thus have been trying their utmost to interfere with the functions of the church in order to muzzle the dissenting voices that whine when the weight of undue application of undue force is unleashed. The church which is full of liberals has sustained martyrdom in the hands of selfish politicians who do not like being denigrated for their wrongs. This is because most of the politicians want to maintain the status quo, the strong oppressing the weak, an anathema to the church. For these reasons, liberals still up to date fight tooth and nail to separate the church from the most-often-hypocritical government. That is why in countries have religious freedom acts in place due to pressure mounted by the liberals. On 20th February 2016, Grek Kirk, a Republican Senator in Georgia sponsored a bill on religious freedom which sought to protect the church and various rights of different groups in the church. In the case of Employment Division v. Smith, (494 US 872, 1990), Supreme court virtually eliminated the requirement that the state okays oppressions on religious people imposed by statutes disfavouring religion. The liberals today depend on this precedence to advance religious emancipation. This allows citizens of various states in the world to exercise religion without fear of attack by the governments in power. Brockliss (1987) states that education and health are the cornerstones on which development is laid. Without education, ignorance reigns supreme and with no health life becomes nightmarish. Policies in the US like the Obama healthcare bill advocates for access to sophisticated medical facilities by the US citizens. The Sustainable Development Goals orchestrated at the UNDP on 25th September 2015, still mention education and health as keys to development as enlightened and health people have the skills and energy to build their nations unlike ignorant and sickly ones who have less zeal to work for the betterment of their lot. It is in the spirit of liberalism that these goals were passed, and education and health, in particular, were among them. The rule of law is the anchor upon which justice is pegged. The courts of law must be independent of the executive arm of the government. The appointment of the judges of should not be at the mercies of the president but based on merit. Liberals in the 21st century still advocate for a fair judiciary. A Judiciary where the prosecutor gives sentences without the intervention of the executive and the who- is-who in the society. Any attempt to tilt the scales of justice towards the avarice of government whims, may attract the full force of liberals in the name of democratic activists through such actions as go-slows and demonstrations. Still in the words of John Locke that the liberals have the human potential to make rational decisions based on the happenings occurring in their immediate environment.(Henderson 2007) Though conservatives criticize it by saying that the current economic challenges like the great depression, the security threats like the rise of Islamic states and terrorist groups the likes of Al Qaida and Al Shaabab whose heinous atrocities have caused refugees to flee to countries of asylum causing a humanitarian crisis and death; and culture clash due to transfer of incompatible cultural practices, its stay is not a subject of debate since without it many would suffer even greater than with it. I therefore tend to gravitate towards modern liberalism because as seen in the benefits: keeping the government on its toes, promotion of health and education, freedom of the press, separation of the government from the church just to mention but a few. Therefore, in nutshell, the theory of liberalism is still relevant in the 21st century given the many functions the liberals perform all for the protection of the liberty of the common citizen. Bibliography Authur Schlesinger. Oxford Dictionary of political quotations. Oxford university press (2012) McLean and Alistair McMillan. The Concise Oxford dictionary of politics Third edition. Oxford university Press 2009 Camp, Roderic Ai, “The Cross in the Polling Booth: Religion, Politics, and the Laity in Mexico”, in the Latin American Research Review,vol.29, no.3 (1994). Burleigh, Michael, Early Powers: Religion and Politics in Europe from the Enlightenment to the Great War, London: Harper Collins (2005). Brockliss, L.W.B., French Higher Education in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, Oxford: Oxford University Press (1987). Henderson, Timothy T., A Glorious Defeat: Mexico and its War with the United Sates, New York: Hill and Wang (2007). Armitage, David, “The Declaration of Independence: A Global History, Cambridge: Harvard University Press (2007). Inventing the French Revolution: Essays on French Political Culture in the Eighteenth Century, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1990). Baker, Richard D., Judicial Review in Mexico: a Study of Amparo Suit, Austin: University of Texas Press (1971). Bazant, Jan, Alienation of Church Wealth in Mexico: Social and Economic Aspects of the Liberal Revolution, 1856-1875, Cambridge University Press (1971). Bell, David A.,” ‘The Public Sphere’, the state and the World of Law in the Eighteenth Century France”, French Historical Studies, vol. 17 no.4 (1994). Brading , David A., Church and State in Bourbon Mexico: the Diocese of Mechoac’an,1749-1810, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1994). Berry, Christopher, ed., The Philosophy of Law: an Encyclopedia, New York: Garland Publishing (1999). Rohr, Donald G. "The Origins of Social Liberalism in Germany". The Journal of Economic History(1964) Read More