Liberalism: Meaning and Basic Principles

Its consequence. A commitment to free discussion, to education, to a free press, and to progress by criticism.

4. Equality

Not equality of outcome, but a foundational equality: every person is of equal moral worth, and equality before the law and of opportunity follow.

Its consequence. Careers open to talent, equality before the law, and the abolition of hereditary privilege.

5. Toleration

Because people disagree, and because reason does not compel agreement about religion or ways of life, the state must permit ways of living it does not endorse.

Its consequence. Freedom of religion and conscience, and the idea that the state is not to prefer one conception of the good life.

6. Consent and constitutionalism

Political authority is legitimate only if it is derived from those subject to it and exercised within limits. Chapter 300's contract theory is liberalism's founding argument.

Its consequence. A written constitution, separation of powers, judicial review, and periodic elections.

7. Limited government

Government is necessary, because chapter 320 showed what the absence of it costs, and dangerous, because power concentrated is power abused. So it must be limited, divided and answerable.

8. Justice, and the rule of law

Like cases treated alike, by known general rules applied by independent courts, with nobody above the law.

The two propositions that hold it together

An answer that lists eight principles has listed. An answer that shows what connects them is doing political theory.

Power requires justification, and the justification must be one the person subject to it could accept. This is the single idea from which the rest follow. If authority must be justified to each person, then it must be limited, consented to, exercised by known rules, and open to criticism, and the person must be free to disagree.

The state may not decide how people should live. Liberalism separates the question of how people should live, which individuals answer for themselves, from the question of how they should live together, which is politics. Toleration, freedom of religion and freedom of speech all descend from that separation.

Liberalism in the Indian Constitution

MU asks for the influence on the Indian Constitution at 3.1.2 and 3.3.1, and it helps to see the general shape here before the detail.

The Preamble secures liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship, and equality of status and of opportunity, which is the liberal vocabulary exactly.

Part III confers rights on persons and on citizens rather than on communities, and makes them enforceable against the state.

Article 19 states the freedoms and permits only reasonable restrictions on stated grounds, which puts the burden on the state.

Article 14 guarantees equality before the law and equal protection of the laws.

Articles 25 to 28 guarantee freedom of conscience and religion, which is toleration made justiciable.

Article 18 abolishes titles, which is the assault on hereditary privilege.

And the Constitution is not purely liberal, which is why this book returns to it at chapter 710. The Directive Principles are socialist in inspiration, group-based reservations qualify pure individualism, and the freedoms are subject to restrictions no classical liberal would accept. The Indian Constitution is a considered mixture, and saying so is more accurate than calling it liberal.

A worked example

A State proposes a law prohibiting the sale and consumption of alcohol, on the ground that drinking harms the drinker, impoverishes families and offends the moral sense of the community.

Test it against the principles.

Individualism and liberty. The prohibition restricts what an adult may do with their own body, which is exactly the case liberalism protects most strongly.

The justification offered. Three grounds are given, and a liberal separates them.

Harm to the drinker. This is paternalism, and Mill's principle at chapter 610 rejects it: a person's own good is not a sufficient warrant.

Harm to the family. This is harm to others, and is a permissible ground. A liberal then asks whether prohibition is the appropriate and necessary means, or whether the harm can be met by rules on domestic violence, by welfare measures, or by restrictions on hours and places of sale.

Offence to the moral sense of the community. A liberal rejects this ground outright. That others disapprove of how a person lives is precisely what toleration exists to overrule, and a state that legislates on it has decided how people should live.

Notice what the analysis has done. It has not answered whether prohibition is a good policy. It has sorted the reasons into those a liberal state may act on and those it may not, and it has put the burden of justification on the state. That sorting is what liberalism contributes.

Distinctions that carry marks

What liberalism is NOT

It is not the absence of government. That is anarchism. Liberalism wants government limited, not abolished, and chapter 320 explains why it wants it at all.

It is not a demand that everyone be equal in outcome. Its equality is of moral worth, before the law and of opportunity.

It is not indifference. Toleration means permitting what one disapproves of, which requires that one has a view and declines to impose it.

It is not a single doctrine. Classical and modern liberalism disagree about the role of the state so sharply that the next chapter is needed to separate them.

It is not the same as the economic policy called liberalisation. The economic sense is one strand of classical liberalism and is not the political ideology.

Quick revision

1. Liberalism takes the individual as the basic unit, treats liberty as the supreme political value, and holds that all political power requires justification to those subject to it.
2. Eight principles: individualism, liberty, reason, equality of moral worth, toleration, consent and constitutionalism, limited government, and justice under the rule of law.
3. Two propositions hold it together: power requires a justification the person subject to it could accept; and the state may not decide how people should live, only how they live together.
4. In the Indian Constitution: the Preamble's liberty and equality; Part III's rights held by persons; article 19's reasonable restrictions on stated grounds; article 14; articles 25 to 28; article 18.
5. But the Constitution is a mixture: Directive Principles socialist in inspiration, group-based reservations qualifying pure individualism, and restrictions no classical liberal would accept.
6. Not anarchism, not equality of outcome, not indifference, not one doctrine, and not the economic policy called liberalisation.

Test yourself

1. Define liberalism and state its basic principles. Liberalism takes the individual as the basic unit of society and as the bearer of rights existing independently of the state, holds liberty to be the supreme political value, and insists that all political authority requires justification and consent and must be limited, constitutional and accountable. Its principles are individualism, liberty, reason, equality of moral worth with equality before the law and of opportunity, toleration, consent and constitutionalism, limited government, and justice under the rule of law.

2. What single idea connects liberalism's principles? That power over a person requires a justification which that person could accept. Everything else follows: if authority must be justified to each individual, it must be limited in scope, derived from consent, exercised through known general rules rather than arbitrary command, and open to criticism, and the individual must be free to disagree and to live differently. The second connecting proposition is that the state may settle how people live together but not how they should live, from which toleration, freedom of religion and freedom of speech descend.

3. Where does liberalism appear in the Indian Constitution? In the Preamble's securing of liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship, and of equality of status and opportunity. In Part III, which confers rights on persons and citizens rather than on communities and makes them enforceable against the state. In article 19, which states the freedoms and permits only reasonable restrictions on stated grounds, so that the burden falls on the state. In article 14's equality before the law. In articles 25 to 28's freedom of conscience and religion. And in article 18's abolition of titles.

4. Is the Indian Constitution a liberal document? Give reasons. It is substantially liberal and is not purely so. Its rights are individual and justiciable, its restrictions must be reasonable, and it abolishes hereditary privilege. But its Directive Principles are socialist in inspiration and direct the State towards distributive ends; its provisions for reservation confer benefits on groups, which qualifies pure individualism; and its freedoms are subject to restrictions on grounds, such as public order and the sovereignty and integrity of India, that a classical liberal would resist. The accurate description is a considered mixture rather than a liberal document.

5. A State proposes prohibition of alcohol on three grounds. Analyse them as a liberal would. Harm to the drinker is paternalism, and liberalism rejects it: a person's own good is not a sufficient warrant for compelling them. Harm to the family is harm to others and is a permissible ground, but the liberal then asks whether prohibition is appropriate and necessary or whether laws on domestic violence, welfare measures or restrictions on hours and places of sale would answer it. Offence to the moral sense of the community is rejected outright, since disapproval of how others live is precisely what toleration exists to overrule. The analysis does not decide whether prohibition is wise; it sorts the reasons into those the state may act on and those it may not.