Classical Liberalism – Part I

Adam Smith

Written by ‘Classical Liberal’

Introduction

The mainstream media would have us all believe that Remainers are good liberals, and Brexiteers are narrow-minded bigots. This is a big lie. A brief survey of the development of classical liberalism shows that Brexiteers are the heirs of John Locke, Adam Smith, and John Stuart Mill, and the true champions of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Remainers take their cue from Marx, Lenin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and are the enemies of freedom. 

Beginnings of Liberalism

Liberalism has a long history stretching back to the Middle Ages. During the Middle Ages, a person’s rights and duties were governed by their rank within a hierarchical social system that demanded conformity and acquiescence. Owing to the slow commercialisation and urbanisation of Europe which brought the Middle Ages to an end, the intellectual flowering of the Renaissance, and the increasing popularity of Protestantism in the 16th century, the old feudal order started to crumble. The ensuing vacuum created such a fear of civil unrest that absolute monarchy was perceived as the only solution. By the beginning of the 17th century, the Pope had lost his authority in most of northern Europe. The rulers attempted to consolidate their power by enforcing conformity either to Catholicism or their interpretation of Protestantism. This led to the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) which devastated much of Europe. Wherever neither Catholicism nor Protestantism succeeded in vanquishing its foe, religious tolerance was eventually seen as the price of peace. And, in some states where Catholicism or Protestantism had triumphed, it was gradually realised that interference with peoples’ religious beliefs harmed the economy and promoted disorder. 

The ambitions of kings, and the needs of ever-growing trade and industry, led to the adoption of mercantilist economic policies, encouraging state interference in the economy to increase the state’s economic and military power. This benefitted established interests and prohibited entrepreneurship and was challenged by the burgeoning middle class. The middle classes’ challenge to the established order was a key driver of the revolutions that shook England and France in the 17th and 18th centuries – particularly the English Civil Wars (1642-1651), the Glorious Revolution (1688), the American Revolution (1775-1783), and the French Revolution (1789). Classical liberalism as a political philosophy was born in these conflicts.

The absolutist monarch Charles I was beaten by Parliamentary forces in the English Civil Wars and executed. The Glorious Revolution led to James II’s abdication and the formation of a balanced government with power shared between the sovereign, his ministers, and Parliament. This would eventually become a model for liberals in other states. The political philosophies that inspired these revolutions were articulated by the English political theorists Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. In Leviathan (1651), Hobbes proposed that the ruler’s absolute power was only legitimised with the consent of the people who consented, in a tacit social contract, to obey the ruler in return for peace and security. Locke also advocated a social-contract theory of government. However, he argued that people should not be expected to live under the absolute power of a sovereign. He felt that absolute rule went against the rationale for government, as being necessary to protect individuals and their property and to safeguard their natural rights to freedom of thought, speech, and religion. Locke also believed that revolution is legitimised when a ruler fails to meet these obligations; and wrote Two Treatises of Government (1690) to justify the Glorious Revolution.   

By this time, English politics had evolved into a rivalry between two political parties, the Tories and the Whigs. They are the ancestors of Britain’s Conservative and Liberal parties. Locke was a well-known Whig, and liberalism is typically seen as taking its impetus from Whig aristocrats, whose business interests led them to oppose a powerful monarchy. The Whigs held the upper hand in English politics from the death of Queen Anne (1714) to the accession of King George III (1760). 

Democracy 

Thus, these early liberals fought to set people free from two kinds of social control that had been enforced by the government – feudal privilege and religious conformity. Their goal was to limit the government’s power over individuals and hold it accountable to them. Locke, among others, contended that this necessitated a form of government founded upon majority rule, whereby the government carries out the will of a majority of the electorate. This would be achieved by the periodic election of lawmakers by popular vote, and the election of a leader by popular vote or the vote of the law-making body. 

However, when it came to addressing the key issue of who should be allowed to vote, classical liberalism was caught in a quandary, divided between the emancipatory forces caused by the revolutions and middle-class concerns that a broad or universal electoral franchise would threaten private property. Benjamin Franklin expressed the Whig liberalism of the USA’s Founding Fathers: 

“As to those who have no landed property in a county, allowing them to vote for legislators is an impropriety. They are transient inhabitants, and not so connected with the welfare of the state, which they may quit when they please, as to qualify them properly for such privilege.”

John Adams was even more forthright in his Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America (1787). He opined that if the majority controlled all parts of government, ‘debts would be abolished first; taxes laid heavy on the rich, and not at all on others; and at last a downright equal division of everything be demanded and voted’.

Thus, most 18th and 19th century liberal politicians opposed popular sovereignty. Therefore, they limited the electoral franchise to property owners. Even the British Reform Bill (1867) did not entirely remove property qualifications from the right to vote. Although the idea of universal male suffrage was affirmed in 1789 and reaffirmed in the Revolution of 1830, in a population of approximately 30,000,000, France had only 200,000 voters in 1830. Despite the emancipatory tone of the Declaration of Independence, the USA did not provide universal male suffrage (for whites only) until 1860. For much of Europe, universal male suffrage was not achieved until the late 19th century. Sexual and racial prejudice also limited the franchise. Campaigns to allow women to vote achieved very little until the early 20th century. 

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