Ronald Dworkins Liberal Morality

Dworkin begins by roughly defining liberalism according to the New Deal: “It combined an emphasis on less inequality and greater economic stability with more abundant political and civil liberty for the groups campaigning for these goals.” Dworkin states that such a definition is inadequate and goes on to elaborate on liberalism in more depth. The liberal, in economic policies, demands that the inequalities of wealth be reduced through social programs such as “welfare and other redistribution financed by a progressive tax.” Liberals also take a Keynesian policy toward the governments stabilizing intervention in the economy, such as controlling inflation and unemployment. And liberals support freedom of speech, racial equality and are “suspicious of criminal law.”

Dworkin states that in a society, liberty and equality, the most important political ideals, often come into conflict with one another. “In these cases, good government consists in the best compromise between the competing ideals, but different politicians and citizens will make that compromise differently.” Liberals tend to favor equality more than liberty than conservatives do. But the former statement is a tricky one according to Dworkin because liberty, unlike equality, cannot be shown because we lack a concept of liberty that “is quantifiable in the way that a demonstration would require.” Because of this, it would be mistaken of us to state that conservatives favor liberty more t...