Liberalism advocates civil liberties, political freedom & equality.

Advocates o f classical liberalism are Adam Smith, John Locke & David Ricardo. However as th e nations progressed, it was believed that governments role especially in addres sing economic issues (trade, free market economy) & social issues such as educat ion, health care & transportation was extremely important. That led to a more pr actical view of liberalism & is known as social liberalism. Advocates are John S tuart Mill, Emile Durkheim & Prof Amartya Sen. Adam Smith known as the father of modern economics was a scotsman & a pioneer of political economy. He is well known for his contributions as a philosopher & an economist ("The Wealth of Nations"). He was totally against the idea of mercant alism & said nations did not become wealth due to accumulation of capital (Gold & Silver) but in the basis of absolute advantage a nation had in producing diffe rent commodities. David Ricardo another proponent of the classical liberalism introduced the idea that nations who were superior to other nations in terms of technology, wealth & capital were actually on the basis of comparative advantage not absolute advant age but was none the less supporter of free trade. Ricardo argued that there is mutual benefit from trade (or exchange) even if one party (e.g. resource-rich co untry, highly skilled artisan) is more productive in every possible area than it s trading counterpart (e.g. resource-poor country, unskilled labourer), as long as each concentrates on the activities where it has a relative productivity adva ntage. John Stuart Mill was in the modern sense was a social liberalist. His conception of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited s tate control. He defined "social liberty" as protection from "the tyranny of pol itical rulers." On liberty he addresses the nature & limits of the power that ca n be legitimately exercised by society over the individual. Mill states that it is acceptable for someone to harm himself as long as he is not harming others. H owever since no one lives in isolation, harm done to oneself may also harm other s, and destroying property deprives the community as well as oneself. He strongl y argues against despotism & states it is an out of date governance system suite d only for backward socities. According to Marxist analysis, class conflict within capitalism arises due to in tensifying contradictions between highly-productive mechanized and socialized pr oduction performed by the proletariat, and private ownership and private appropr iation of the surplus product in the form of surplus value (profit) by a small m inority of private owners called the bourgeoisie. As the contradiction becomes a pparent to the proletariat, social unrest between the two antagonistic classes i ntensifies, culminating in a social revolution. The eventual long-term outcome o f this revolution would be the establishment of socialism - a socioeconomic syst em based on cooperative ownership of the means of production, distribution based on one's contribution, and production organized directly for use. Karl Marx hyp othesized that, as the productive forces and technology continued to advance, so cialism would eventually give way to a communist stage of social development. Co mmunism would be a classless, stateless, moneyless society based on common owner ship and the principle of "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs". According to Marxism, capitalism is a system based on the exploitation of the pr oletariat by the bourgeoisie. This exploitation takes place as follows: the work ers, who own no means of production of their own, must use the means of producti on that are property of others in order to produce, and, consequently, earn thei r living. Instead of hiring those means of production, they themselves get hired by capitalists and work for them, producing goods or services. These goods or s

ervices become the property of the capitalist, who sells them at the market.

Mercantilism advocates strict government control of the national economy. Its ad herents believe a healthy economy can only be achieved through state regulation. The goals were to accumulate bullion (gold or silver bars), establish a favorab le balance of trade with other countries, develop the nation's agricultural conc erns as well as its manufacturing concerns, & establish foreign trading policies .

Mercantilism dominated Western European economic policy from the 16th to late-18 th centuries. However mercantalism was also the biggest causes of frequent wars among European nations in the struggle for power & colonization.