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Conservatism and liberalism
Compare and Contrast Liberalism and Conservatism
Classical liberalism vs conservatism today
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Everyone has heard the following words at one time or another "Democrats are liberal, while Republicans are Conservative". Is this really true? In order to resolve this question, two questions must be answered, what do the two terms mean? What is liberal and what is Conservative? Some Democrats are conservative and some Republicans are liberal. In this time of turmoil, Democrats and Republicans must work together to promote the common welfare. What exactly is liberalism? According to Sidlow (2013), liberalism is the belief that "big government" is necessary for the promotion of the common good (p.16). Without government action, many social and economic outcomes for many people would turn out badly. In other words, without government intervention, many children of poor individuals would never have access to health care in the first few critical years of life and may not get enough food to eat. Liberalism is the belief that social progress can be obtained by putting into action laws and reform rather that upheaval. It is a policy based on the rights of the individual. The accustomed view of liberals was freedom from tradition, and freedom to practice new policies and institutions. Liberals advocate change, Conservatives avoid it. What is Conservatism? It is the policy of looking to traditional practices and institutions for answers to the problems of society. Traditionally, conservatism referred to people who wished to 'conserve' traditional values and institutions (Sidlow, 2013, p.16). Conservatism accepts change slowly and values the traditional norm. Democratic influences can be seen in American culture. In 1971 the voting age was changed to 18. This meant that many younger people were now able to vote. ... ... middle of paper ... ...2, September 6). The 10 Best Economic Ideas in the Democratic Platform . In Bloomberg Politics The Ticker. Retrieved December 17, 2013, from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-06/the-10-best-economic-ideas-in-the-democratic-platform.html. Troy, T. (2013, March 21). Can Republicans Close the Pop Culture Gap?. In Real Clear Politics. Retrieved December 17, 2013, from http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/03/21/can_republicans_close_the_pop_culture_gap_117568.html. WATSON, B. (2013, March 22). Lee Harvey Oswald's rifle, and the gun control debate it ignited. In WFFA.com ABC. Retrieved December 17, 2013, from http://www.wfaa.com/jfk/Oswalds-rifle-and-the-gun-control-debate-it-ignited-199595691.html. Yglesias, M. (2013). Ten Good Economic Policy Ideas From the GOP Platform. In Moneybox A Blog About Business and Economics. Retrieved December 17, 2013, from
Today, the definition of the term “liberal” is relatively uncontested, and its content is relatively well defined. A liberal today is someone who advocates for governmental solutions to various problems, not for unaided individual freedom. Liberals today trust and call for governmental action, not for the type of self-determination supported by Hoover. Contemporary liberals believe in individual freedom, but they typically advocate f...
The typical philosophical ideals of the liberals seem to focus on the government helping the little guy and leveling the playing field. They oppose tax cuts for the rich, they are distrustful of big-business and those who are wealthy. They like government programs that help minorities and those with lower incomes. They want to raise the minimum wage, provide better national healthcare and provide better unemployment and welfare coverage’s. They nearly always side with unions over management, the guy who sues the big business.
The fundamental contradiction of Liberalism is that it produces inequality. In order to guarantee individual rights, in fact, a liberal government cannot force its citizens to promote equality. Furthermore, in a capitalist economy there is an incentive to produce on a mass scale, and the best way to increase productivity is to reduce the cost of labor; by reducing the cost of labor, the owners of the factories become richer, while the actual workers earn less money than they ought to. According to Karl Marx, this is the main problem of Liberalism: it somehow legalized inequality among people. So, in The Communist Manifesto, Marx explains why a total revolution of the society is inevitably going to happen.
So what is classical liberalism and how does it play a role in our society?
1 March 2014 -. The "Democratic Party Platform." 2013. The. On The Issues. 27 February 2014.
All across America the success of the Democratic Party platform can be seen. But we want more. The Democratic Party is determined to giv...
Liberals usually have the perspective that the government should help the people much more than they do presently, with more programs such as welfare (etc.). Liberals generally agree that the government should intervene, regulate, and promote the economy and ensure fairness in society always. Government policies are indeed needed and necessary for citizens to fulfill their daily needs. Most also do agree with a "free-market" society, however, they stress the need for government policies.
Kraft, Michael E., and Scott R. Furlong. 2013. Public policy: Politics, analysis, and alternatives, Anonymous Anonymous , ed. Charisse Kiino . 4th ed. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications.
Essentially, liberalism is a political philosophy that stresses individual liberty, freedom and equality of opportunity. The liberal feels more faith should be placed in progress and they prefer to look forward to the future, as opposed to the conservative focus on the past. Accordingly, liberals feel a return to a traditional morality is unrealistic, because this is a morality based on the inequality of women, and the moral values of the 1950?s. Inherently, this is repressive. Liberals believe government should intervene concerning economic affairs to protect its citizens from exploitation by multi-national corporations. One of the key elements of the liberal stance is a government, which should be large and strong enough to protect its people. For example, many social programs such as sex education, social security and health insurance would not exist without big government. Moreover, E.J. Dionne Jr. believes, ?the entire project of freedom going back to America?s founders rests not on weak government, but rather on an energetic government, a government strong enough to pro...
Liberalism is a political ideology that was founded on the basis of equality and liberty. According to Liberalism, life, liberty, and property are rights people are born with and they should not be taken away. In Liberia, the main political party is the Unity Party which is a liberal party that focuses on economic Liberalism. In South Africa, the Democratic Alliance is a liberal party that wants an open opportunity society. Although these two nations are faced with many issues involving the liberty of their citizens, they hope to better their country through the ideology of Liberalism.
Modern liberalism and modern conservatism are both political outlooks that involve acceptance or support of the balance of the degree of social equality and social inequality; while they tend to avoid political changes that would result in extreme deviation of society to either side. Modern liberalism and modern conservatism tend not to be as centrist or middle-of-the-road ideologies as they once could be. Ideology is a set of ideas and beliefs that guide the goals, expectations, and actions of a group (Webster’s Dictionary). Individuals who are conservative or liberal tend to have views that align within a political party, whether it be Republican or democratic, but this is not always the case. There are conservative democrats, such as, Jim Costa and Jim Cooper and there are liberal republicans, such as, Nathaniel Banks and George Washington Julian. Another name for conservative democrats would be blue dog democrats while the nickname for liberal republicans is the Rockefeller republicans. These two ideologies tend to be more of the centrist ideologies. Modern liberals tend to be members of the Democratic Party because they support a wide range of welfare programs and government support of the public sector and tighter corporate regulations (PP Modern Liberalism). U.S. Conservatism evolved from classical liberalism, which makes them similar, yet there is many differences between modern conservatism and modern liberalism. There are principles and tenets that govern each ideology. A tenant is a belief or idea that is held as being true from a group (Webster’s Dictionary). In understanding both ideologies, it is imperative to have an understanding of classical liberalism. Classical liberalism was built on ideas from the seventeenth ...
Liberalism is a political or social philosophy that advocating the freedom of the individual, parliamentary system of government, nonviolent modification of political, social, or economic institutes to assure unrestricted development in all sphere of the human endeavor, and governmental guarantees of individual rights and civil liberties.
A liberal in older days was not what one would be today; they were considered a person whom sought to use change, while a conservative is one who opposed change. The differences between a liberal and a conservative is a wide gap that focuses upon the fundamental beliefs of those within each group. Pure liberals are people who show themselves as liberal on both economic policy and personal conduct. This means "that they want the government to reduce economic inequality, regulate business, tax the rich heavily, cure the (presumably) economic causes of crime, allow abortions, protect the rights of the accused, and guarantee the broadest possible freedoms of speech and press." (Wilson, 121)
As both "conservatism" and "liberalism" have had various meanings sooner or later and transversely, the word liberal conservatism has been used in relatively different sanity. In political science, the word is used to pass on to ideologies that merge the support of capitalism, for instance value for contracts, protection of private property and free market require reference to validate with the principle of natural discrimination, the significance of religion, and the worth of traditional integrity need reference to validate in the course of a construction of inadequate, legitimate, representative government (Abdou & Zaazou 2013). It contrasts with traditional liberalism and particularly aristocratic conservatism, rejecting the belief of correspondence as a little in discordance with human nature, instead emphasizing the thought of natural inequality (Crozier. 2012).As the conservative thought in democratic countries holds typical liberal institutions such as the rule of law, private property, market economy, and constitutional representative government, the liberal factor of liberal conservatism became consensual outside the socialist camp.
Liberals believed in a popular government, which is the opposite of what the conservatives wanted.Which is why conservatives dislike liberals. Liberals did not want a monarch and they believed that Individuals should have political and economic freedom. Liberals strongly believed in Laissez Faire which gives individuals the right to manage their own economy.This made the government have less control over people's’ lives which is why conservatives where so against it. Liberals believed in a popular government, where people have the right to vote for officials and representatives. They believed that the proper role of government should be limited and more people based. France wanted a liberal government, which is why the french revolution was fought, however because of Napoleon, liberalism was never given a fair chance in France. After the Napoleonic era, Europe needed a less strict monarch and people needed more freedom. Which is why Liberalism was successful during 1815 through