Political and Economic Liberalism

Liberalism strongly focuses on the importance of individual freedom and equal rights. The Age of Enlightenment has been the ground for liberalism to act upon. It has rejected several assumptions which dominated the earlier theories of the government.

Political liberalism: “Theory of Justice” by John Rawls makes an attempt to showcase the truth that the theory of justice is compatible with a liberal conception of the role of justice and not a comprehensive conception of the good. Even under the conditions of pluralism the theory of right which is opposed to the theory of good if properly understood would be accepted and sustained by all reasonable individual says John Rawl.

Economic liberalism:

The Economic liberalism strongly believes that the political and social freedom is inseparable with the economic freedom. It promotes free market and opposes the social market and the mercantilism.

The social contract which enables the citizens to make up their own laws to which they all will agree upon is the main emphasize of this political liberalism. Political liberalism believes that the individuals know the best thing for them. Granting every adult citizen the political representation, the political liberalism favors a liberal democracy. The principle that this liberalism works on is in its strong belief that individuals are the foundation of rules and civilization.

On the other hand, the rights of personal property and the independence of the agreement are concentrated on the economic liberalism. Economic liberalism is the basic cause for the implementation of freedom. Laissez faire approach is the bottom line of the economic for it believes in giving the individuals freedom to work on. The private proposals and the production are preeminent in this liberalism where the economic interference and the taxation by the state is maintained at a pace what is necessary for the peace and security of the nation. The economic differences, that are created as a result of imbalanced negotiations, are well understood and recognized by the liberalism.  This idea states that the value of goods and services that is very much influenced by the market forces should be set by the free choice of individuals.

The thought that this political and economical liberalism have worsened our situation instead of making us better off was not agree by the popular philosophers Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Locke. They strongly believed that it is the job of the government to implement laws that the society would agree upon which eventually will help the citizens to remain liberated and protect themselves. 

Questions

• What is liberalism?
• What is the motive of economic liberalism?