classical liberals

(noun)

Classical liberals believe in classical liberalism, a political ideology developed in the 19th century that advocates limited government, constitutionalism, rule of law, due process, and individual liberties including freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and free markets.

Related Terms

Examples of classical liberals in the following topics:

  • Classical Liberalism

    • Classical liberalism is a political philosophy committed to limited government, the rule of law, individual liberties, and free markets.
    • Hence, classical liberals believed that individuals should be free to pursue their self-interest without societal control or restraint.
    • Classical liberalism determined that individuals should be free to obtain work from the highest-paying employers.
    • Classical liberals also saw poor urban conditions as inevitable, and therefore opposed any income or wealth redistribution.
    • Classical liberals extended protection of the country to protection of overseas markets through armed intervention.

  • Liberalism

    • Both modern American conservatism and social liberalism split from Classical Liberalism in the early 20th century.
    • At that time conservatives adopted the Classic Liberal beliefs in protecting economic civil liberties.
    • Conversely social liberals adopted the Classical Liberal belief in defending social civil liberties.
    • Neither ideology adopted the pure Classical Liberal belief that government exists to protect both social & economic civil liberties.
    • While many modern scholars argue that no particularly meaningful distinction between classical and modern liberalism exists, others disagree.

  • Conservatism

    • Liberal conservatism is a variant of conservatism that combines conservative values and policies with classical liberal stances.
    • Historically, the term referred to combination of economic liberalism, which champions laissez-faire markets, with the classical conservatism concern for established tradition, respect for authority, and religious values.
    • It contrasted itself with classical liberalism, which supported freedom for the individual in both the economic and social spheres.
    • The meaning of "conservatism" in America has little in common with the way the word is used elsewhere, since what most Americans consider conservatism is what much of the world considers liberalism or neoliberalism.

  • The Republican Party

    • American conservatism of the Republican Party is not wholly based upon rejection of the political ideology of liberalism, as many principles of American conservatism are based upon classical liberalism.
    • Rather the Republican Party's conservatism is largely based upon its support of classical principles against the modern liberalism of the Democratic Party that is considered American liberalism in contemporary American political discourse.
    • Prior to the formation of the conservative coalition, which helped realign the Democratic and Republican Party ideologies in the mid-1960s, the party historically advocated classical liberalism, paleo-conservatism, and progressivism.

  • The Development of Sociology in the U.S.

    • As a political approach, Ward's system became known as "social liberalism," as distinguished from the classical liberalism of the 18th and 19th centuries.
    • While classical liberalism (featuring such thinkers as Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill) had sought prosperity and progress through laissez-faire policies, Ward's "American social liberalism" sought to enhance social progress through direct government intervention.
    • He has, in fact, been called "the father of the modern welfare state. " The liberalism of the Democrats today is not that of Smith and Mill, which stressed non-interference from the government in economic issues, but of Ward, which stressed the unique position of government to effect positive change.

  • Fours Schools of Economic Thought: Classical, Marxian, Keynesian, and the Chicago School.

    • Mainstream modern economics can be broken down into four schools of economic thought: classical, Marxian, Keynesian, and the Chicago School.
    • Classical economics, also called classical political economy, was the original form of mainstream economics in the 18th and 19th centuries.
    • Classical economics focuses on both the tendency of markets to move towards equilibrium and on objective theories of value.
    • Anders Chydenius (1729–1803) was the leading classical liberal of Nordic history.
    • A Finnish priest and member of parliament, he published a book called The National Gain in 1765, in which he proposed ideas about the freedom of trade and industry, explored the relationship between the economy and society, and laid out the principles of liberalism.

  • The Capitalist Critique of Socialism

    • Economic liberals, pro-capitalist libertarians, and some classical liberals view private enterprise, private ownership of the means of production, and the market exchange as central to conceptions of freedom and liberty.

  • Education and Humanism

    • Most of Feltre's ideas were based on those of previous classical authors, such as Cicero and Quintilian.
    • The main foundation of the school was liberal studies.
    • Liberal studies included philosophy, history, rhetoric, letters, mathematics, poetry, music and astronomy.
    • Humanist schools combined Christianity and the classics to produce a model of education for all of Europe.
    • A painting symbolizing the liberal arts, depicting individuals representing the seven areas of liberal arts study, all circling around Plato and Socrates.

  • The Spread of Liberal Democracy

    • Liberal democracy is a common form of representative democracy.
    • The possibility of democracy had not been seriously considered in political theory since classical antiquity, and the widely held belief was that democracies would be inherently unstable and chaotic in their policies due to the changing whims of the people.
    • Liberalism ceased to be a fringe opinion and joined the political mainstream.
    • By the end of the 19th century, liberal democracy was no longer only a liberal idea, but an idea supported by many different ideologies.
    • Defend the notion of liberal democracy using examples from its enlightenment origins

  • The Empire Style

    • The style was considered to have "liberated" and "enlightened" architecture just as Napoleon "liberated" the peoples of Europe with his Napoleonic Code.
    • Although this building is a church, it more closely resembles a classical temple, combining elements from ancient Greece (origin of democracy and Western philosophy) and Rome (a republic turned empire).