The meaning of liberalism

    Liberalism is a political and moral doctrine opting for the greatest political, religious, social, and moral freedom possible for each person, consistent with a like freedom for others. Routine interaction among people means that we need to have some form of control over that interaction, but because each person should be free to make many personal choices about his or her moral and nonmoral standards, social control over people should be as limited to necessary control. The problem is to identify required forms of control.  Top

Traditional liberalism

    Traditional liberals, such as John Locke, consider people to be basically independent or self-reliant. However, since people do interact, general standards are needed to keep people from harming each other and to facilitate socially required interaction. Since people are basically independent, only a few generally valid moral standards are needed, such as the prohibition against harming another. Other standards, such as those required support and regulate legally binding contracts, or paying taxes to pay for systems of public transportation (e.g., roadways), are needed to facilitate economic commerce.
    Traditional liberalism rejects the enforcement of personal standards as overly intrusive, leaving them instead up to each individual. A few basic common rules are enough to allow people to go their own ways.  Top

Contemporary liberalism

    According to contemporary liberals, traditional liberalism fails to realize the actual extent of mutual interaction. A strike of subway workers in New York City or the signing of a trade agreement with Mexico can affect millions of people. Failure to take proper care of a house may cause the value of a neighbor's house to fall. The availability of handguns and cigarettes costs nonowners billions of dollars in the United States alone. The list could go on and on, but we say, in short, that interdependency seems pervasive. The trouble with traditional liberalism is that it is outdated. Whether people ever were basically independent, they are not today. This is not to say that traditional liberalism is incorrect in its conclusion, that the enforcement of common restrictions should be limited, but that the basis of its argument, that people are largely independent, is incorrect.
    Social structures, social power, and economic power influence our life prospects at birth. If we lose a job, we face significant harm because we cannot fully care for ourselves in a world where so much of what we need depends on having money. In days of greater independence many people could raise their own food, make their own shelter, and so on. Health care was primitive, and most people did not have a formal education. These things are not true today in advanced industrial societies. One way or another, social influence is pervasive.   Top

Regulating social life

    Contemporary liberals rely on local and national governmental action to overcome the harmful aspects of social life. They believe that everyone should be committed to basic rights, basic economic livelihood, basic education and health care, equal justice, and equal opportunity. These, for the liberal, are the main generally acceptable values; all else -- religious, sexual, and personal lifestyle standards -- are up to the individual.
    Liberals reject aggressive behavior toward other people; the criminal law, however, must only regulate harmful activities. If drug use is not harmful, or is less harmful than the cost of its regulation, it should be left alone, and speech, religion, and thought should not be regulated or controlled, unless these prove to be directly and clearly socially harmful. The modern liberal hopes to establish a safe zone for pluralistic styles. One need not respect the style of another, but all need to support the right of people to have the basic goods needed to successfully pursue any reasonable lifestyle. The contemporary liberal's answer to pluralism is to establish the support needed to bring about basic effectiveness in relation to the demands of social life, and then let people go their own way. Liberals resist attempts to evaluate the value systems people accept; what they want is to provide a rich common, safe, and secure environment so that people can be genuinely free to do pursue their own life plans. Thus, liberals respond to pluralism by refusing to interfere with private values and insist that private values can only thrive under a socially supported provision of a stable economy, proper health care, education, safety, and so on.  Top