What are liberal political views. The main features of classical liberalism

Contrary to popular belief that liberalism is something completely new, brought into Russian culture trends from the West, liberal Political Views in Russia have a very extensive history. Usually, the arrival of these political views in our country is usually dated to the middle of the 18th century, when the first thoughts about freedom began to creep into the minds of the most enlightened citizens of the state. M. M. Speransky is considered the most prominent representative of the first generation of liberals in Russia.

But, if you think about it, liberalism is a phenomenon almost as ancient as Christianity, and even as Greek word, denoting freedom, liberal political views, first of all, imply the value of this very freedom as the greatest gift that is in the power of man. And we are talking not only about the internal but also the freedom of a citizen from the state. This implies the non-interference of the state in any private affairs of its citizens, the ability to freely express their political views, the absence of censorship and diktat on the part of the leaders of the country, and this is what both the ancient philosophers and the first adherents of Christianity preached.

By personal freedom, people who preach liberal views understand the freedom of self-realization, as well as the freedom to resist any force that comes from outside. If a person is internally not free, this inevitably leads to his collapse as a person, because external interference can easily break him. Liberals believe that the consequence of lack of freedom is an increase in aggression, the inability to adequately assess key worldview concepts such as truth, good, evil.

In addition, the liberals mean by themselves and which must be guaranteed by the state. Freedom of choice of residence, movement, and others are the foundations on which any liberal government must rest. At the same time, even the slightest manifestation of aggression is unacceptable for adherents of liberalism - any changes in the state should be achieved only in an evolutionary, peaceful way. Revolution in any of its forms is already a violation of the freedom of some citizens by others, and, therefore, it is unacceptable for those who profess liberal political views. In Russia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the liberals lost precisely because they expected reforms from the authorities that would help transform the country without bloodshed. But, unfortunately, this path of development of the state was rejected by the monarchy, which resulted in a revolution.

Thus, to summarize, we can say that liberal political views are such worldview ideas and ideological concepts, which are based on exceptional respect for freedom as the highest value. Political and economic rights of a citizen, the possibility of exercising throughout the country a free entrepreneurial activity, absence total control on the part of the state for its citizens, the democratization of society - these are the main features of liberalism as political system views.

To implement such a system, a clear division is necessary in order to avoid its concentration in the hands of individuals or oligarchy. Therefore, clearly defined and independent from each other executive, judicial and legislature- an integral attribute of any state that lives according to liberal laws. Considering this, as well as the fact that in almost all democratic countries of the world freedom and human rights are the highest value, we can safely say that it was liberalism that became the basis for the creation of modern statehood.

Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus

Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics

Department of Humanities

discipline: "Fundamentals of the ideology of the Belarusian state."

On the topic: “Basic principles of liberalism. social liberalism”.

Done: Checked:

Student gr. 863001 Rudakovskiy N.K.

Zhitkevich Inna

Liberalism

Historically, the first formulated political ideology was the ideology of liberalism, which arose in the 18th century. By this time, a class of free proprietors who did not belong to the nobility and clergy, the so-called third estate or bourgeoisie, had matured in European cities. It was an active part of society, not satisfied with its own good financial situation and saw its path in political influence.

The British are considered to be the founders of the theoretical substantiation of liberalism. Englishman John Locke(1632-1704), first put forward the idea of separation of powers and interpreted the role of the state as a contractual obligation to protect the natural and inalienable human rights to life, liberty and property. Scot Adam Smith(1723-1790), "the father of economics", showed, in particular, that the exchange of goods takes place if and only if it is beneficial to both parties. "In order to raise the state from the lowest stage of barbarism to the highest stage of prosperity, only peace, light taxes and tolerance in government are needed; everything else will do the natural course of things. All governments that forcibly direct events in a different way or try to stop the development of society are unnatural "To stay in power, they are forced to exercise oppression and tyranny."

The basic value of liberalism, as the name of this ideology implies, is freedom personality. Spiritual freedom is the right to choose in a religious matter, freedom of speech. Material freedom is the right to own property, the right to buy and sell for one's own benefit. Political freedom is freedom in the literal sense of the word, subject to the observance of laws, freedom in the expression of political will. Individual rights and freedoms take precedence over the interests of society and the state.

The ideal of liberalism is a society with freedom of action for everyone, the free exchange of politically significant information, the limitation of the power of the state and the church, the rule of law, private property and the freedom of private enterprise. Liberalism rejected many assumptions that were the basis of previous theories of the state, such as the divine right of monarchs to power and the role of religion as the only source of knowledge. The fundamental principles of liberalism include the recognition of:

natural rights given by nature (including the right to life, personal liberty and property), as well as other civil rights;

equality and equality before the law;

market economy;

government accountability and transparency state power.

The function of state power is thus reduced to the minimum necessary to ensure these principles. Modern liberalism also favors an open society based on pluralism and democratic government, while protecting the rights of minorities and individual citizens.

Some current currents of liberalism are more tolerant of state regulation of free markets for the sake of equality of opportunity to succeed, universal education, and reduction of income disparity. Supporters of such views believe that the political system should contain elements of a welfare state, including state unemployment benefits, homeless shelters and free healthcare.

According to the views of liberals, state power exists for the benefit of the people subject to it, and the political leadership of the country should be carried out on the basis of the consent of the majority of those who are led. To date, the political system that is most consonant with the convictions of liberals is liberal democracy.

Initially, liberalism proceeded from the fact that all rights should be in the hands of individuals and legal entities and the state should exist solely to protect these rights. Modern liberalism has significantly expanded the scope of the classical interpretation and includes many currents, between which there are deep contradictions and sometimes conflicts arise. Modern liberalism in most developed countries is a mixture of all these forms. In third world countries, "third generation liberalism" often comes to the fore - a movement for a healthy environment and against it.

Liberalism is distinguished by a number of features within different national traditions. Separate aspects of his theory (economic, political, ethical) are sometimes opposed to each other. Thus, there is a certain meaning in the conclusion of T.Spragens: "Liberalism as something unified has never existed, there was only a family of liberalisms." Apparently, we are dealing with a multitude of theories united by certain general principles, adherence to which distinguishes liberalism from other ideologies. Moreover, these principles allow for different interpretations, can be combined in a very bizarre way, and are the basis for the most unexpected, sometimes refuting arguments.

In my opinion, these principles include, firstly, individualism, the priority of the interests of individuals over the interests of society or a group. This principle received various justifications: from ontological concepts in which the individual person with his natural rights precedes society, to the ethical understanding of individuality as the highest value. It was embodied in different interpretations of the relationship between the individual and society: from the idea of society as a mechanical sum of individuals realizing their own interests, to a more comprehensive approach, in which a person is considered as a social being, requiring both cooperation with other people and autonomy. . However, the idea of the rights of the individual, from which the basic requirements for social order follow, undoubtedly underlies all liberal theories, distinguishing them from illiberal approaches.

Secondly, liberalism is characterized by commitment to the idea of human rights and the value of individual freedom. Although the content of rights, as well as the interpretation of freedom in the course of long history liberal ideas have undergone significant changes, the priority of freedom as the main value for liberals has remained unchanged. Supporters of “classical” liberalism interpret freedom negatively, as the absence of coercion, and see its natural limitations in the equal rights of other people. They consider the equality of formal rights to be the only kind of equality compatible with freedom as a priority value. The rights of individuals are reduced by them to the sum of "fundamental rights", which include political freedoms, freedom of thought and freedom of conscience, as well as rights relating to the independence of the individual, backed by guarantees of private property. The New Liberals offer a positive understanding of freedom that complements freedom with equality of opportunity as a guarantee of the exercise of rights. Freedom in their understanding is real opportunity a choice that is not predetermined either by other people or by the circumstances of the life of the individual himself. In this regard, the “new liberals” are expanding the framework of “fundamental rights”, including in them the most essential social rights.

But one way or another, the main premise of liberalism is the idea that each person has his own idea of life, and he has the right to realize this idea to the best of his abilities, so society should be tolerant of his thoughts and actions, if the latter do not affect the rights of other people. Over its long history, liberalism has developed a whole system of institutional guarantees of the rights of individuals, which includes the inviolability of private property and the principle of religious tolerance, limitation of state intervention in the sphere of private life, backed by law, constitutional representative government, separation of powers, the idea of the rule of law, etc.

Thirdly, an important principle characteristic of the liberal approach is rationalism, the belief in the possibility of a gradual, purposeful improvement of society by reformist, but not revolutionary measures. The liberal doctrine imposes certain requirements on the nature of the reforms being carried out. According to V. Leontovich, “the method of liberalism is the elimination of obstacles to personal freedom. Such elimination cannot, however, take the form of a violent upheaval or destruction... According to the liberal worldview, it is necessary to eliminate first of all the unlimited powers of state power... On the contrary, liberalism treats the subjective rights of individuals with the greatest respect... In general, the liberal state completely alien to violent interference in the existing life relationships of people and any violation of habitual life forms...”. This characteristic quite fully reflects the principles arising from liberal theory. Although, in practice, liberals have repeatedly retreated from them, since social transformations are always “violation of habitual life forms”, however, the imperative liberal reforms is the principle of minimal violation of existing individual rights.

Related to this is another feature of liberal methods - their "anti-constructivism": liberals usually support "social engineering" only to the extent that it removes obstacles to the development of already established institutions and relations. Their goal is not to invent concrete projects of the "good society" and to put into practice some arbitrarily constructed models.

These, in our opinion, are the basic principles of liberalism. However, this list can be continued. However, no matter how detailed it is, it will always be possible to refer to some liberal concepts that do not fit into it. As E. Shatsky writes, “no matter what we say about the views allegedly characteristic of liberalism, it should be remembered that during its long history it served different goals and interests, adapted to different local traditions and used different theoretical languages. For this reason, any description that assumes a high level of generalization is bound to be incorrect. The same can be said about all “isms” with the exception of those that created dogmatic systems...”. Therefore, one should not see in the description proposed above a certain strict definition. Liberalism is not a system consisting of a once and for all given set of elements, but rather a certain area of ideas that allows various combinations, but at the same time has quite definite boundaries.

social liberalism

Social liberalism arose in late XIX century in many developed countries under the influenceUtilitarianism. Some liberals have embraced, in part or in full, Marxism and the socialist theory of exploitation and have come to the conclusion that the state must use its power to restore social justice. Thinkers such as John Dewey or Mortimer Adler explained that all individuals, being the backbone of society, must have access to basic needs such as education, economic opportunities, protection from harmful large-scale events beyond their control in order to realize their abilities. Such positive rights, which are granted by society, are qualitatively different from classical negative rights, the enforcement of which requires non-intervention from others. Proponents of social liberalism argue that without the guarantee of positive rights, the fair realization of negative rights is impossible, since in practice the poor people sacrifice their rights for the sake of survival, and the courts more often tend to favor the rich. Social liberalism supports the imposition of some restrictions on economic competition. He also expects the government to provide social protection to the population (through taxes) in order to create conditions for the development of all talented people, to prevent social unrest, and simply "for the common good."

There is a fundamental contradiction between economic and social liberalism. Economic liberals believe that positive rights inevitably violate negative ones and are therefore unacceptable. They see the function of the state as limited mainly to issues of law enforcement, security and defense. From their point of view, these functions already require a strong centralized government. On the contrary, social liberals believe that the main task of the state is social protection and ensuring social stability: providing food and housing for the needy, health care, schooling, pensions, care for children, the disabled and the elderly, helping victims of natural disasters, protecting minorities, preventing crime, support for science and art. This approach makes it impossible to impose large-scale restrictions on the government. Despite the unity of the ultimate goal - personal freedom - economic and social liberalism radically diverge in the means to achieve it. Right-wing and conservative movements often lean in favor of economic liberalism while opposing cultural liberalism. Movements on the left tend to emphasize cultural and social liberalism.

Some researchers point out that the opposition between “positive” and “negative” rights is in fact illusory, since social costs are also required to ensure “negative” rights (for example, the maintenance of courts to protect property).

Liberalism- this is where the principle of limited intervention in social relations is implemented.

liberal content public relations manifested in the presence of a system of restraints on the pressure of organs political power designed to guarantee the freedom of the individual and ensure the protection of the rights of citizens. The basis of the system is private enterprise, organized on market principles.

The combination of liberal and democratic principles of public relations makes it possible to single out a political system called " liberal democracy". Modern Western political scientists believe that this concept denotes an ideal that has not yet been realized, therefore, it is proposed to designate the regimes of democratically developed countries with the term “Western polyarchy” (the rule of many). In other political systems, liberal authoritarian mode. In principle, we are talking only about a greater or lesser degree of manifestation in all political systems.

Liberalism and neoliberalism

As an independent ideological trend (worldview), liberalism arose at the end of the 17th century. thanks to the work of such scientists as J. Locke, III. Montesquieu, J. Mill, A. Smith and others. Fundamental ideas and attitudes classical liberalism were formulated in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789 and the French Constitution of 1791. The very concept of "liberalism" entered the socio-political lexicon at the beginning of the 19th century. In the Spanish Parliament (Cortes), "liberals" were a group of deputies of nationalist legates. Liberalism as an ideology was finally formed by the middle of the 19th century.

The liberal ideology is based on the concept of the priority of personal rights and freedoms over all others (society, state). At the same time, of all freedoms, preference is given to economic freedoms (freedom of entrepreneurship, priority of private property).

The fundamental features of liberalism are:

individual freedom;
respect and observance of human rights;
freedom of private ownership and enterprise;
the priority of equality of opportunity over social equality;
legal equality of citizens;
contractual system of state formation (separation of the state from civil society);
separation of powers, the idea of free elections of all institutions of power;
government interference in private life.

However, following the classical model of liberal ideology led to the polarization of society. Unrestricted liberalism in economics and politics did not ensure social harmony and justice. Free, unrestricted competition contributed to the absorption of the weak by stronger competitors. Monopolies dominated all sectors of the economy. A similar situation developed in politics. The ideas of liberalism began to experience a crisis. Some researchers even began to talk about the "decline" of liberal ideas.

As a result of lengthy discussions and theoretical searches in the first half of the 20th century. certain basic principles of classical liberalism were revised and an updated concept of "social liberalism" was developed - neoliberalism.

The neoliberal program was based on such ideas as:

consensus of the rulers and the ruled;
the need for the participation of the masses in the political process;
democratization of the adoption procedure political decisions(the principle of "political justice");
limited state regulation of the economic and social spheres;
state restriction of the activities of monopolies;
guarantees of certain (limited) social rights (the right to work, to education, to benefits in old age, etc.).

In addition, neoliberalism presupposes the protection of the individual from abuse and negative consequences market system.

The core values of neoliberalism were borrowed by other ideological currents. It attracts by the fact that it serves as the ideological basis of the legal equality of individuals and the rule of law.

A few years ago, the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion conducted a survey of the population, the main question of which was: "What is liberalism, and who is a liberal?" Most of the participants were confused by this question, 56% could not give an exhaustive answer. The survey was conducted in 2012, most likely, today the situation is unlikely to change for the better. Therefore, now in this article we will briefly consider the concept of liberalism and all its main aspects to educate the Russian audience.

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About the concept

There are several definitions that describe the concept of this ideology. Liberalism is:

political movement or ideology that unites admirers of democracy and parliamentarism;
worldview, which is characteristic of the industrial, defending their rights of a political nature, as well as entrepreneurial freedom;
theory, which absorbed philosophical and political ideas, which appeared in Western Europe in the 18th century;
the first meaning of the concept was free-thinking;
tolerance and tolerance for unacceptable behavior.

All these definitions can be safely attributed to liberalism, but the main thing is that this term denotes an ideology that affects the structure and states. With Liberalism is Latin for freedom. Are all the functions and aspects of this movement really built in freedom?

Freedom or restriction

The liberal movement includes such key concepts as about public good, individual freedom and equality of people within the policy and . What liberal values does this ideology promote?

Common good. If the state protects the rights and freedom of the individual, and also protects the people from various threats and controls compliance with the implementation of laws, then such a structure of society can be called reasonable.
Equality. Many shout that all people are equal, although it is obvious that this is absolutely not true. We differ from each other in various aspects: intelligence, social status, physical data, nationality and so on. But liberals mean equality in human opportunity. If a person wants to achieve something in life, no one has the right to prevent this on the basis of race, social and other factors . The principle is that if you put in the effort, you will achieve more.
natural rights. British thinkers Locke and Hobbes came up with the idea that a person has three rights from birth: life, property and happiness. It will not be difficult for many to interpret this: no one has the right to take a person’s life (only the state for certain misconduct), property is seen as a personal right to own something, and the right to happiness is that very freedom of choice.

Important! What is liberalization? There is also such a concept, which means the expansion of civil liberties and rights within the economic, political, cultural and social life, it is also a process when the economy gets rid of the influence of the state.

Principles of liberal ideology:

there is nothing more valuable than human life;
all people in this world are equal;
everyone has his inalienable rights;
the individual and his needs are more valuable than society as a whole;
the state arises by common consent;
a person forms laws and state values independently;
the state is responsible to the person, the person, in turn, is responsible to the state;
power must be divided, the principle of organizing life in the state on the basis of the constitution;
only in fair elections can a government be elected;
humanistic ideals.

These principles of liberalism formulated in the 18th century English philosophers and thinkers. Many of them never materialized. Most of them look like a utopia, to which humanity so vehemently strives, but cannot achieve in any way.

Important! Liberal ideology could be a lifeline for many countries, but there will always be some "pitfalls" that hinder development.

Founders of ideology

What is liberalism? At that time, every thinker understood it in his own way. This ideology has absorbed completely different ideas and opinions of thinkers of that time.

It is clear that some of the concepts may contradict each other, but the essence remains the same.

The founders of liberalism we can consider the English scientists J. Locke and T. Hobbes (18th century) along with the French writer of the Enlightenment Charles Montesquieu, who was the first to think and express his opinion about the freedom of man in all spheres of his activity.

Locke laid the foundation for the existence of legal liberalism and stated that only in a society in which all citizens are free can there be stability.

The original theory of liberalism

The followers of classical liberalism gave more preference and paid more attention to the "individual freedom" of a person. The concept of this concept is expressed in the fact that a person should not obey either society or social orders. Independence and equality- these are the main steps on which the whole liberal ideology. The word "freedom" then meant the absence of various prohibitions, limits or vetoes on the implementation of actions by a person, taking into account the generally accepted rules and laws of the state. That is, the freedom that would not go against established dogmas.

As the founders of the liberal movement believed, the government should guarantee equality between all its citizens, but a person already had to take care of his financial situation and status on his own. Limiting the scope of governmental power was what liberalism, in turn, tried to achieve. According to theory, the only thing the state was supposed to provide for its citizens was security and policing. That is, the liberals tried to influence the reduction to a minimum of all its functions. The existence of society and power could only be on the condition of their general subordination to laws within the framework of the state.

The fact that classical liberalism still exists became clear when, in 1929, a terrible crisis arose in the United States. economic crisis. Its consequences were tens of thousands of bankrupt banks, the death of many people from starvation and other horrors of the state's economic recession.

economic liberalism

The main concept of this movement was the idea of equality between economic and natural laws. Government intervention in these laws was prohibited. Adam Smith is the founder of this movement and its main principles:

for the impetus of economic development, personal interest is needed;
state regulation and the existence of monopolies harm the economy;
economic growth must be promoted discreetly. That is, the government should not interfere in the process of the emergence of new institutions. Enterprises and suppliers operating in the interests of income and within the market system are subtly guided by an "invisible hand". All this is the key to competently meeting the needs of society.

neoliberalism

This direction was formed in the 19th century and implies new trend c, which consists in the complete non-interference of the government in trade relations between its subjects.

The main tenets of neoliberalism are constitutionalism and equality between all members of society in the country.

Signs of this current: the authorities should promote self-regulation of the economy in the market, and the process of redistributing finances should first of all take into account the low-income strata of the population.

Neoliberalism does not oppose state regulation economy, while classical liberalism denies this. But the regulation process should include only the free market and the competitiveness of subjects to guarantee economic growth along with social justice. main idea neoliberalism – support of foreign trade policy and domestic trade to increase gross income state, i.e. protectionism.

All political concepts and philosophical movements have their own characteristics, and neoliberalism is no exception:

the need for government intervention in the economy. The market must be protected from possible appearance monopolies, and a competitive environment and freedom are provided;
protection of principles and justice. All citizens must be involved in political processes to maintain the right democratic "weather";
government should support different economic programs, associated with financial support for low-income social strata.

Briefly about liberalism

Why is the concept of liberalism distorted in Russia?

Conclusion

Now the question is, "What is liberalism?" will no longer cause dissonance among the respondents. After all, the understanding of freedom and equality is simply presented under other terms that have their own principles and concepts that affect different areas state structure, but remaining unchanged in one thing - only then the state will flourish when it ceases to restrict its citizens in many ways.

(from the Latin liberalis - free) first appeared in literature in the 19th century, although as a current of socio-political thought it was formed much earlier. The ideology arose in response to the disenfranchised position of citizens in the conditions absolute monarchy.

The main achievements of classical liberalism are the development of the "Theory of the Social Contract", as well as the concepts of the natural rights of the individual and the theory of separation of powers. The authors of the Theory of the Social Contract were D. Locke, C. Montesquieu and J.-J. Rousseau. According to her, the origin of the state, civil society and law is based on an agreement between people. The social contract implies that people partially renounce sovereignty and transfer it to the state in exchange for ensuring their rights and freedoms. Key Principle consists in the fact that a legitimate governing body must be obtained with the consent of the governed and it has only those rights that have been delegated to it by citizens.

Based on these signs, the supporters of liberalism did not recognize absolute monarchy and believed that such power corrupts, because. it has no limits. Therefore, the first insisted on the expediency of the separation of powers into legislative, executive and judicial. Thus, a system of checks and balances is created and there is no room for arbitrariness. A similar idea is described in detail in the works of Montesquieu.

Ideological liberalism developed the principle of the natural inalienable rights of a citizen, including the right to life, liberty and property. The possession of them does not depend on belonging to any class, but is given by nature.

classical liberalism

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a form of classical liberalism emerged. Its ideologues include Bentham, Mill, Spencer. Proponents of classical liberalism put at the forefront not public, but individual interests. Moreover, the priority of individualism was defended by them in a radical extreme form. This distinguished classical liberalism from the form in which it originally existed.

Another important principle was anti-paternalism, which assumed minimal state interference in private life and the economy. State participation in economic life should be limited to the creation of a free market for goods and labor. Freedom was perceived by liberals as a key value, the main guarantee of which was private property. Accordingly, economic freedom had the highest priority.

Thus, core values classical liberalism was the freedom of the individual, the inviolability of private property and minimal state participation. However, in practice, this model did not contribute to the formation of the common good and led to social stratification. This led to the spread of the neoliberal model.

Modern liberalism

In the last third of the 19th century, a new trend began to take shape -. Its formation was due to the crisis of liberal doctrine, which went to the maximum rapprochement with conservative ideology and did not take into account the interests of the widespread stratum - the working class.

As the leading advantage of the political system, justice and harmony were proclaimed by the ruled. Neoliberalism also sought to reconcile the values of equality and freedom.

Neoliberals no longer insisted that man should be guided by selfish interests, but should contribute to the formation of the common good. And although individuality is the highest goal, it is possible only with a close relationship with society. Man began to be perceived as a social being.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the need for state participation in economic sphere for a fair distribution of wealth. In particular, the functions of the state included the need to create an education system, establish a minimum wage and control working conditions, provide unemployment or sickness benefits, etc.

They are opposed by libertarians who advocate the preservation of basic principles liberalism - free enterprise, as well as the inviolability of natural freedoms.