Politics Essay: Liberalism

Why do liberals support the principle of limited government and how do they propose that it be achieved? 45

Liberals don’t believe that a balanced and tolerant society will develop naturally out of the free actions of individuals. Liberals fear that free individuals may want to exploit others if it is in their interest to do so. Therefore our liberty requires that they are restrained from encroaching on our freedom and vice versa. Such protection can only be provided by a sovereign state capable of restraining all individuals and groups within society. While liberals are convinced of the need for government they are also aware of the dangers.

All governments are potential tyrannies against the individual as government exercises sovereign power and so poses a constant threat to individual liberty. This reflects a liberal fear of power as humans are self-seeking creatures so they naturally use power for their own benefit and at the expense of others. Liberals believe egoism plus power equals corruption and follow the quote by Lord Acton that ‘power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely’. Liberals therefore fear arbitrary government and uphold the principle of limited government. Liberals believe government can be limited through the establishment of constitutional constraints and by democracy.

A constitution is a set of rules that govern the government itself and defines the extent of government power and limits its exercise. The power of government bodies and politicians can be limited by external and legal constraints. A codified constitution codifies the major powers and responsibilities of government institutions within a single authorative document. A codified constitution codifies higher law. The first codified constitution was the US constitution but now all liberal democracies have one except for the UK, Israel and New Zealand.

A bill of rights entrenches individual rights by providing a legal definition of the relationship between the individual and the state. This limits government power by limiting their control over the actions of the individual and protects individual liberty.

Where there is no codified constitution or bill of rights liberals stress the importance of statute law in checking government power through the principle of the rule of law. This can be established by the introduction of a number of internal constraints which disperse political power among a number of institutions and creates a network of checks and balances. All liberal political systems exhibit some kind of internal fragmentation. An example is the doctrine of the separation of powers which keeps the judiciary, the executive and parliament as three separate branches that cannot overlap. The principle of judicial independence is respected in all liberal democracies because the judiciary interprets the meaning of law and therefore reviews the powers of government itself. It must have formal independence and political neutrality to protect the individual from the state. Governments can also be fragmented by cabinet government, parliamentary government, bicameralism and territorial divisions such as feudalism, devolution and local government.

Liberal democracy is the most common liberal political system and the political force in the developed world. It balances the principle of limited government against the idea of popular consent. Liberals are concerned that democracy can become the enemy of individual liberty as the people are not a single authority but a collection of individuals possessing different opinions and opposing interests. The democratic solution to conflict is the application of the majority rule which liberals describe as tyranny of the majority. Majoritarianism would have a great effect on elections and referendums as governments could be elected that are in fact unwanted by many individuals and decisions in referendums could go against what many individuals want, thereby permitting government to do things that individuals do not want. Individual liberty and majority rights can be crushed in the name of the people. The best defence against majoritarianism is a network of checks and balances that would make government responsive to competing minorities.

Democracy limits government through consent and the idea that citizens must have a means of protecting themselves from the encroachment of government. Utilitarian theorists developed the notion of democracy as a form of protection for the individual into a case for universal suffrage. Utilitarianism implies that individuals will vote so as to defend their interests as they define them. Therefore the government elected is most likely the one wanted by individuals, ensuring that they are still in control.