Liberalism Ideology

To what extent does liberal ideology encourage the breakdown of social bonds?

For the very reason liberalism has become the world’s dominant ideology, specifying it as a single, definitive ideology is rather problematic. There are quite a few categorical (coexisting) concepts of liberalism such as; ‘liberalism as toleration’ (of different religions, moral and political opinions), ‘contractarianism,’ ‘rights-based liberalism’ (commonly referred to as libertarianism) and ‘utilitarianism.’ Nonetheless, whether discussing about modern liberalism or classical liberalism, the liberal schools of thought appear to share a common fundamental value: individual freedom (Hoffman, Graham, 2015). This essay will attempt to explain what individual freedom

Naturally, there are different variants of liberalism that may argue on the extent the government is allowed to interfere; classical liberalism strongly believes in the minimalism of the state while modern liberalism recognises the state as an active participant in the economy (Schapper, 2018). However more broadly, liberalism is essentially about ensuring and trusting that the government will respect the people’s individual freedom while there are perhaps more radical variants such as the one of libertarianism which is about considering individual freedom as a given due to as little government involvement as possible (Johnson,

Thus, one could argue that liberalism does indeed break down social bonds as through these ‘radical’ reforms traditional views deeply rooted in society are being challenged and altered. Yet, there are examples of implementations of liberal reforms of less radical and controversial nature. Conservative governments, for instance, while following the ideals of conservatism such as the preservation of tradition and insurance of political stability, have often followed liberal ideals; Margaret Thatcher’s government followed a more liberal economic model: “it extended the use of market mechanisms in the domestic sphere, and pursued a pro-free trade policy in the international sphere, through, for example, the Single European Act (1986)” (Hoffman, Graham,