Right liberalism: definition of the concept, basic principles

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:43

The main difference between right and left liberalism concerns private property and business, which must serve all its customers, regardless of their religious beliefs. The liberal left would like to see even firms run by believers not turn away service to homosexuals. Right-wing liberals believe that this choice should be made by the owners of firms themselves, and the state should not influence their decision in any way. When it comes to America, the liberal right also tends to respect the constitution more than the left. This includes the constitutional right to bear arms freely.

Classical liberalism

Classical liberalism is a political ideology and industry that advocates civil liberties under the rule of law with an emphasis on economic freedom. Closely related to the economic side of the current, it developed at the beginning of the 19th century, based on the ideas of the last century, as a response to urbanization and the industrial revolution in Europe andUnited States. Notable individuals whose ideas contributed to classical liberalism include John Locke, Jean-Baptiste Say, Thomas Robert M althus, and David Ricardo. It was based on classical economic ideas expounded by Adam Smith and on the belief in natural law, utilitarianism and progress. The term "classical liberalism" was applied retrospectively to distinguish the early 19th century from the new social liberalism. As a rule, extreme nationalism is not characteristic of right-wing liberalism. Let's take a closer look at right-wing politics.

Convictions of classical (right-wing) liberals

The core beliefs of classical liberals included new ideas that moved away from the older conservative idea of society as a family and from the more recent sociological concept of society as a complex set of social networks. Classical liberals believe that people are "selfish, calculating, essentially inert and atomistic" and that society is nothing more than the sum of its individual members.

Influence of Hobbes

Classical liberals agreed with Thomas Hobbes that government was created by individuals to protect themselves from each other and that the goal of government should be to minimize the conflicts between people that inevitably arise in the state of nature. These beliefs were complemented by the view that workers could be best motivated by financial incentives. This led to the adoption of amendments to the Poor Law in 1834, which limitedproviding social assistance based on the idea that markets are the mechanism that most effectively leads to we alth. By accepting the population theory of Thomas Robert M althus, they saw that poor urban conditions were inevitable. They believed that population growth would outstrip food production, and they considered this quite acceptable, because famine would help limit population growth. They opposed any redistribution of income or we alth.

Smith's Influence

Based on the ideas of Adam Smith, classical liberals believed that in the common interest, all people can secure their own economic interests. They criticized the idea of public welfare as an ineffective intervention in the free market. Despite Smith's strong acknowledgment of the importance and value of labor and workers, they selectively criticized the group freedoms of the labor force exercised at the expense of individual rights, while accepting the rights of corporations, which led to inequalities in the negotiations.

People's rights

Classical liberals argued that people should be free to get jobs from the highest paid employers, while the profit motive ensures that the products people desire are produced at the prices they will pay. In a free market, both labor and capitalists will benefit the most if production is efficiently organized to meet consumer demand.

They claimedthat rights are negative, and require other individuals (and governments) to refrain from intervening in the free market, opposing social liberals who claim that people have positive rights, such as the right to vote, the right to education, he alth care and a living wage. To guarantee them to society, taxation above the minimum level is required.

Liberalism without democracy

The core beliefs of classical liberals do not necessarily include democracy or majority government, for there is nothing in the pure idea of majority rule to guarantee that the majority will always respect property rights or uphold the rule of law. For example, James Madison argued for a constitutional republic with the protection of individual liberty and against pure democracy, arguing that in a pure democracy the general passion or interest will in almost every case be felt by the majority … side.”

At the end of the 19th century, classical liberalism turned into neoclassical liberalism, which argued that government should be as small as possible to ensure maximum individual freedom. In its extreme form, neoclassical liberalism advocated social Darwinism. Right libertarianism is a modern form of neoclassical liberalism.

Conservative liberalism

Conservative liberalism is an option that combines liberal values andconservative politics. This is a more positive and less radical version of the classical movement. Conservative liberal parties tend to combine free market politics with more traditional positions on social and ethical issues. Neoconservatism has also been identified as an ideological cousin or twin to conservative liberalism.

In the European context, conservative liberalism should not be confused with liberal conservatism, which is a variant of the latter that combines conservative views with liberal economic, social and ethical policies.

The roots of the current discussed in this section can be found at the beginning of the story. Before the two World Wars, the political class in most European countries was formed by conservative liberals, from Germany to Italy. An event such as World War I, which ended in 1918, led to the emergence of a less radical version of the ideology. Conservative liberal parties tended to develop in those European countries where there was no strong secular conservative party and where the separation of church and state was less problematic. In those countries where the parties shared the ideas of Christian democracy, this branch of liberalism developed very successfully.

Neocons

In the United States, neocons can be classified as conservative liberals. In the words of Peter Lawler: “In America today, responsible liberals, commonly referred to asneoconservatives see that liberalism depends on patriotic and religious people. They praise not only individualistic human tendencies. One of their slogans is "conservative sociology with liberal politics". Neoconservatives recognize that the politics of free and rational people depend on a pre-political social world that is far from a free and rational beginning.”

National Liberalism

National liberalism, whose goal was the pursuit of individual and economic freedom, as well as national sovereignty, refers primarily to the ideology and movements of the 19th century, but national liberal parties exist today. Extreme nationalism, right-wing liberalism, social democracy are all equally 19th-century creations.

Józef Antall, a historian and Christian Democrat who was Hungary's first post-communist prime minister, called national liberalism "an integral part of the rise of the nation-state" in 19th-century Europe. At that time, constitutional democratic parties of right-wing liberals existed throughout Europe.

According to Oscar Muley, from the point of view of both ideologies and political party traditions, it can be argued that in the countries of Central Europe a special type of liberalism, characteristic of this region, successfully developed in the nineteenth century. The word "nationalism" was perceived as a partial synonym for the word "liberalism". Also, according to Muley, in Yugo-In Eastern Europe, "national liberals" played prominent, if not key, roles in politics, but with rather different, region-specific characteristics that largely distinguished them from their Central European brethren in ideology. In our time, national-liberal parties exist throughout Eastern Europe. Right-wing liberalism is the Petro Poroshenko Bloc and Popular Front parties in Ukraine, various Popular Fronts in the B altics, Saakashvili's former party in Georgia.

Lind himself defines "national liberalism" as combining "moderate social conservatism with moderate economic liberalism."

Gordon Smith, a leading scholar of comparative European politics, understands this ideology as a political concept that fell out of favor when the success of nationalist movements in creating nation-states no longer required clarification of whether a freedom, a party or a politician had a "national " subtext.

Individualism and collectivism

Liberal wing leaders also tend to lean more towards individualism than collectivism. Right-wing liberals recognize that people are different, and therefore their ability to make money is also different. Their concept of equality of opportunity, applied to the economy, does not deprive a person of the opportunity to pursue their business interests in the free market. Individualism, capitalism, globalization - right-wing liberalism in today's world can often be described by these three principles. left liberals,on the contrary, they believe in class struggle and the redistribution of we alth, but they also advocate globalization.

Right and left liberalism: attitude towards "labor discrimination"

The liberal left wing argues that there is a gender pay gap, with women earning less than men on average. They believe that this should be eliminated by rewarding women more for the same work.

Right-wing liberals say it doesn't seem liberal to them. Payment occurs in proportion to their performance. If there are any pay differences, it may be because there are performance differences.

This is a prime and exhaustive example of the difference between right-wing and left-wing liberalism.