Social liberalism

Examples of Social liberalism in the following topics:

• The Development of Sociology in the U.S.

  • Spencer had argued that society would naturally evolve and progress while allowing the survival of the fittest and weeding out the socially unfit.
  • Thus, social ills such as poverty would be naturally alleviated as the unfit poor were selected against; no intervention was necessary.
  • 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.

• Evaluating Global Theories of Inequality

  • Social theorists think differently about global inequality based on their sociological perspective.
  • There is significant debate among sociologists, other social scientists, and policy makers over the best approach to global inequality.
  • The idea that all members of a society should be equal is often associated with modern liberalism.
  • In modern liberal societies, individuals tend to value human rights according to the idea that all people are born with equal value.
  • Differentiate between the positions on social inequality taken by functionalists, Marxists, modern liberalism, and social justice advocates

• New Social Movements

  • The term new social movements (NSMs) is a theory of social movements that attempts to explain the plethora of new movements that have come up in various western societies roughly since the mid-1960s (i.e. in a post-industrial economy), which are claimed to depart significantly from the conventional social movement paradigm .
  • The most noticeable feature of new social movements is that they are primarily social and cultural and only secondarily, if at all, political.
  • The concept of new politics can be exemplified in gay liberation, the focus of which transcends the political issue of gay rights to address the need for a social and cultural acceptance of homosexuality.
  • Hence, new social movements are understood as "new," because they are first and foremost social, unlike older movements which mostly have an economic basis.
  • Evaluate the significance of new social movements (NSMs), which are more concerned with social and cultural issues, and the implications NSMs have on modern-day society

• The Capitalist Critique of Socialism

  • Critiques of socialism generally refer to its lack of efficiency and feasibility, as well as the political/social effects of such a system.
  • Milton Friedman supported his assertion that socialism fails by taking a look at the American economy, contending that the weakest areas were those that were state-owned.
  • Criticism of socialism refers to a critique of socialist models of economic organization, efficiency, and feasibility, as well as the political and social implications of such a system.
  • 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.
  • Some critics of socialism argue that income sharing reduces individual incentives to work; incomes should be individualized as much as possible.

• Politics

  • The higher one's social class, the higher their levels of political participation and political influence.
  • Educational attainment, an indicator of social class, can predict political participation.
  • Social class impacts one's level of political participation and political influence.
  • Those who vote as members of a social class can be said to be participating in identity politics.
  • Identity politics is a phenomenon that arose first at the radical margins of liberal democratic societies in which human rights are recognized, and the term is not usually used to refer to dissident movements within single-party or authoritarian states.

• The Feminist Perspective

  • Mary Ann Weathers demonstrates intersectionality in action in "An Argument for Black Women's Liberation as a Revolutionary Force."
  • It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality, and examines women's social roles, experiences, and interests.
  • Intersectionality suggests that various biological, social and cultural categories, including gender, race, class and ethnicity, interact and contribute towards systematic social inequality.
  • Mary Ann Weathers demonstrates intersectionality in action in "An Argument for Black Women's Liberation as a Revolutionary Force."
  • This 1919 German social democratic election poster advocates for the rights of women.

• Status Inconsistency

  • Status inconsistency occurs when an individual's social positions are varied and these variations influence his or her overall social status.
  • Status inconsistency is a situation where an individual's social positions have both positive and negative influences on his or her social status.
  • All societies have some basis for social stratification, and industrial societies are characterized by multiple dimensions to which some vertical hierarchy may be imputed.
  • According to Lenski, the concept can be used to further explain why status groups made up of wealthy minorities who would be presumed conservative tend to be liberal instead.

• Social Interaction in Urban Areas

  • Social scientists have focused on social interactions in urban areas because cities bring together many cultural strands.
  • Urban social structure differs in significant ways from rural life, which in turn affects the form of social interactions.
  • Urban anthropology is an anthropological subfield primarily concerned with urbanization, poverty, and the consequences of neoliberalism, or the contemporary political movement that advocates economic liberalization, free trade, free movement, and open markets.
  • Social scientists thus ask two sets of questions about social life in urban areas.
  • The first set asks how social interactions are shaped by urban environments and how social interactions in urban environments are distinct from social interactions in other contexts.

• Sociology and the Social Sciences

  • Sociologists occasionally posit the existence of unchanging, abstract social laws.
  • The social science disciplines also include psychology, political science, and economics, among other fields.
  • The use of scientific methods differentiates the social sciences from the humanities.
  • Only with the development of mathematical proof did there gradually arise a perceived difference between scientific disciplines and the humanities or liberal arts.
  • But social life is rarely predictable enough to be described by such laws.

• Sociology and Other Social Sciences

  • The social sciences comprise the application of scientific methods to the study of the human aspects of the world.
  • Social sciences diverge from the humanities in that many in the social sciences emphasize the scientific method or other rigorous standards of evidence in the study of humanity.
  • In ancient philosophy, there was no difference between the liberal arts of mathematics and the study of history, poetry or politics.
  • Only with the development of mathematical proof did there gradually arise a perceived difference between scientific disciplines and the humanities or liberal arts.
  • The combination of these quantitative and qualitative advancements thus established social science as an empirical endeavor distinct from the humanities.