Freedom's Power: The True Force of Liberalism

by adminPolitical Theory

Freedom's Power: The True Force of Liberalism

Paul Starr

Language: English

Pages: 288

ISBN: 046508186X

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


Liberalism in America is under siege. Conservatives now treat it as an epithet and even some progressives spurn it. But according to Paul Starr, liberalism is a sturdy public philosophy, deeply rooted in our traditions, capable of making America and the world more free and secure.“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” remains as good and concise a definition of liberalism’s aims today as it was when Thomas Jefferson borrowed the language of John Locke for the Declaration of Independence. What distinguishes liberalism, however, is not just high aspirations but strikingly effective principles for the creation and control of power. From its origins as constitutional liberalism in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the liberal project has provided the basis of the most prosperous and powerful states in the world. Modern democratic liberalism has carried forward the constitutional liberal tradition by favoring a more inclusive and egalitarian conception of liberty and opportunity. It has responded to threats to freedom and the public good from excessive concentrations of private power, while maintaining a dynamic market economy. And it has shown how government can respond to economic crisis and injustice—yet keep arbitrary power in check—by providing stronger guarantees of civil liberties and equal rights. At a time when conservative policies are weakening America’s long-term fiscal, economic, and international strength as well as its liberties, liberalism is more urgent than ever. Freedom’s Power shows why liberalism works—and how it can work for America again.

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To assuming a central role in American politics. From the early 1900s, the American Federation of Labor backed the Democrats rather than the Socialists, and by the time Franklin Roosevelt won the presidency in 1932, liberals and labor had formed a lasting alliance. 112 FREEDOM’S POWER As a result of these cultural, legal, and political developments, American liberalism had crossed an ideological divide by the time of the New Deal. Both the Progressives of the early 1900s and the liberals of.

Life and to enjoy access to such basic requirements of human development and security as are necessary to ensure equal opportunity and what Franklin Delano Roosevelt called “freedom from fear.” The recognition of these rights entailed corresponding civic responsibilities and mutual obligations and, under the pressure of both domestic and international conflict, led to a series of political changes, notably including the rise of mass democratic citizenship and public education; a turn toward.

Interpretation dating to the 1930s and covering such issues as federal powers and relations of church and state. In foreign policy, conservatives rejected liberal internationalism in favor of a unilateralist foreign policy with more emphasis on military force. In the collapse of the Soviet Union, conservatives saw a vindication of these policies, and in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, they saw grounds for renewing them. The collapse of Soviet communism and socialism generally also.

Condition. 181 182 FREEDOM’S POWER By the last quarter of the twentieth century, however, most parties calling themselves “socialist” in the capitalist democracies had largely given up on the idea of socializing the means of production as a way of advancing either economic rationality or equality and instead focused on providing broad social-welfare guarantees. Despite the Marxist grandparents on their family tree, they came to accept the basic economic institutions as well as political.

World were similarly unable to prevent networks of drug dealers, sex traffickers, and terrorists from operating in their territory. In these and other contexts, the view of the state as an evil to be minimized misstated the problem. Whether in its classical, eighteenth-century or modern democratic form, as I have emphasized throughout this book, liberalism has always been concerned with building effective and trustworthy public institutions; not even markets can function properly without them. If.

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