Liberalism Is Defined by the Desire to Minimise the Roll of the State, Discuss

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Modern Liberals completely differ to classical liberals in the sense that they believed in positive freedom, and the more the state does, they could ‘enable and empower’ the individual to do more. They believe it is through the empowering of the individual that individuality can be achieved as the state will be able to maximise the individual and make them achieve their full potential, whilst making them more free, rather than if they weren’t able to do everything they could, due to the state being rolled back. New liberals argue that the biggest threat to freedom is not the state, they believe that social and economic reasons are restricting individual freedom. Modern liberals therefore believe that the state possesses a social responsibility to reduce or remove these disadvantages by providing welfare. Social liberalism is highlighted in a “Theory of Justice” where Rawls developed a defence of redistribution and welfare based on the idea of ‘equality of fairness’. He proposed the ‘difference principle’ that social and economic inequalities should be arranged by the state to support those who are well off in order to diminish inequality.

Modern liberal thinkers such as T.H Green challenged the classical liberal theory of freedom. Negative freedom only removes external constraints on the individual, giving the individual freedom of choice. However negative freedom can be questioned in areas such as the work place where businesses wish to maximise profits, negative freedom justifies their ability to hire the cheapest labour possible. Economic freedom can therefore lead to exploitation. Therefore the role of the state is critically important to uphold freedom of choice in the marketplace. Green then proposed the idea of positive freedom where freedom is the ability of the individual to develop individuality, where individuals can develop their skills and knowledge. In contrast to negative freedom which only acknowledges legal and physical constraints on liberty. Positive freedom highlights how liberty can be affected by ones social disadvantage and inequality thereby the role of the state is critical as by protecting individuals can expand freedom therefore modern liberals endorse an enabling state and uphold social and economic responsibilities.

In addition to welfare, modern liberals believed in managing the economy. This differed from the classical liberal view of laissez faire as they believed capitalism needed to be controlled by the state. However, once The Great Depression of the 1930s keynes argued that government should ‘reflate’ their economies by either increasing public spending or cutting taxes. Without the involvement of the state these economic difficulties would continue to grow. Unemployment could therefore be solved, not by the invisible hand of capitalism but by the government intervention. Modern liberals therefore view economic management as being constructive in promoting harmony in civil society.

In conclusion, It can be argued both ways on whether the state should be minimised. if the state was to be minimised rights could be infringed upon and social welfare and economic management would not occur therefore liberalism would not be able to uphold their key believe of freedom of the individual, however one can argue if the state is not minimised then such core principles such as individualism and liberty may be restricted as it imposes a collective will on society.