History 121D11

Socialism and Marxism are going to begin to compete with

Liberalism
Marxism will become the driving force behind the majority of the

revolutions in the 20th century

Nationalism becomes another driving force
Nationalism moves in several different directions: it leads to
unification and to the decline of the 4 great empires in central

Europe
As bourgeois society begins to mature, liberalism becomes more

familiar
The modern state also becomes familiar
At the beginning of the 19th century, liberalism is unfamiliar, you

never know what ideology is going to be supported

In the middle of the 19th century, liberalism and nationalism

begin to sharply diverge

Liberals primary concern were the rights of the individual

against the rights of the state

They championed laissez faire because if the government

interceded, then rights would be threatened

Liberals favored property requirements to vote because the un-

propertied, unsophisticated masses lacked the maturity to vote

Liberals begin to favor widening suffrage to the masses
They also begin to favor using government to curtail the abuse of

industry
In the 1840s, there begins an unprecedented reform of
humanitarian and social welfare movements

In the 20th century, liberalism begins to transform into liberal

democracy with at least a reluctant acceptance to social

democracy and government regulation

The central concern of liberalism remains the protection of

individual rights
This is the core concern that began the whole movement
There is a transition to a more democratic, social liberalism
John Stuart Mill is one of the first to break fairly early from the
strict laissez faire liberalism into a more socially conscious

liberalism and he took it with him

Mill provided a democratic basis for liberalism
Mills main pamphlet was On Liberty
It remains the main statement in defense of individual liberty
It claims that neither government, nor the masses have the right
to interfere with the liberty of another person who does no harm

to another
From this viewpoint, government had no right to force an

individual to hold a particular view

In Mills view, limits needed to be placed on the powers of

government
There is a necessity of state intervention to promote self
development: public schooling, regulating working

hours/conditions, regulating public health

In Considerations on Active Government, Mill said he would

include all people in the affairs of state, even the lower classes
But Mill still feared the tyranny of the unprepared masses
Mill still favored a weighted electorate, such as by education or

character
?? still protects the interests of the wealthy and ignores those of
the masses

Traditional liberalism condemned the majority of citizens to

destitution, ignorance, and despair

The state was seen as holding a moral obligation to secure the

common good
By the early 20th century, the foundations of a modern

interventionist state are being laid

Liberalism remains staunchly opposed to revolution after 1848
The major political challenge from liberals comes from an

expansions of parliamentary powers

This liberal model was extremely popular and begins to come

into its own

Liberalism is malleable and able to change
Aristocrats become supporters of liberalism in places like

Hungary and Spain

Liberalism is adaptive. This adaptation is the reason that it

continues to thrive
There is a faith that progress in the march towards modernity

cannot be halted
The only qualification is that progress should come slowly rather

through revolution
Liberalism differs from virtually all other political ideologies
Conservatism is backward-looking, so it is virtually impossible to

achieve its goals

Liberalism proclaims the possibility of attaining utopia, for

everyone, relatively within ones lifetime

At the center of that theory of progress is the individual
Mature liberalism feels that the collective and the community

takes second place to the individual

Liberalism opposed everything and anything that limited the
freedom of the individual

They represented the possibility of attainment of an egalitarian

future
The liberal conception argues for education as the tool for

intellectual and social development

This model still promotes inequality
Liberals say that equality before the law was necessary, but

political equality was not

Liberals still favor unequal political rights
Even in the 1870s, very few liberals were arguing for voting

rights for women

They would accept the vote for women when it became

inevitable
There was a rejection in 19th century liberalism of legal equality

for both sexes

Liberals held onto the natural and eternal inequality of the sexes
If you want sharp, striking evidence about inequality, look at

the ?? codes
There was an intention of maintaining a patriarchal society
Liberalism, because of its success, breeds its own enemies
Often this was because of the inherent contradictions seen in

liberal ideology
Classical liberals continue to be challenged from within by a

more radical branch

Radical liberals favored expanded franchise, favored the

emancipation of women, and sympathized with socialism

In the 1870s, we have entered the age of the masses
Modern political parties begin to get formed, instead of just

banquets in Paris
Conservatives begin to become successful politically

Many liberals entered into alliance with conservatives out of

fears from revolution and of the lower classes getting the right to

vote
In the 1880s, political Catholicism enters the scene, not always

with the support of the church

Political Catholicism is mostly an anti-left movement of the

peasants and the lower middle classes

Following the failures of the revolutions of 1848, liberals abandon

revolution
They begin to seek change through the ballot box and the

political structure
Socialism, and ultimately Marxism, become the dominant

political movements that begin to argue for revolution

Very few people are speaking directly for the lower classes in the

language they would understand

In the past, the lower classes did have a political voice in the way

of peasant revolutions
The ideologies presented in these times of change is not
connected to abstract theory or aims of the enlightenment, they

base it on their concrete ideas of freedom

Most often, the views that are expresses during these peasant

outbursts come from scripture

There was an idea that the poor would inherit the earth, and if
that was going to happen, the rich must be stripped of all their

property
They are other more millenarian movements who believed that
Christ was going to return any day, so the redistribution of
wealth should begin at once

One reason you would draw from scripture is a defensive

measure
It was in the peasants interest to pretend to believe
One of the most common things for escaped peasants to do is to

say that they dont remember their name

There is a widespread phenomenon of social banditry
Many of these social bandit movements are popular across Italy

and Spain
These peasant revolutions were backward looking to a time when

they didnt belong to noble lords

Socialism was an attempt to institute greater equality in social

relations
Socialism is a direct product of the industrial revolution
Many became aware that the only solution to the problems faced

by rising industrialization is increased equality

Socialism springs out of evangelicalism, which is used as a very

conservative force in much of the continent

In early industrial England, Christianity played a major role in
stimulating awareness of these problems among the lower

classes
Early Christians called for no change in class structure, but called

for more rights

It would become a vital component of the early British Labor

Party
Many of the early British socialists come to socialism through this

evangelicalism
This is why socialism is less radical in Britain than on the rest of

the continent
Charles Kingsley formed the Taylor association which would let
workers compete on an open market

Robert Owen was viewed as the real founder of British Socialism

Owen claimed laissez faire was an inferior way to order society

which led to misery

Owen proposed a school that included the first British nursery

school
Owen proposed the compound of New Harmony which collapsed

after 3 years
In France, the theories the early socialists come up with are

divorced from early Christianity

They are focused on creating a science of society based on

general laws for everybody

Saint-Simon believed that human society passed through

different stages of history

Some of Saint-Simons followers argued for a social organization

that would control all aspects of society

Many of these people despise the lower classes
Liberty was subordinated to this elite structure
Charles Fourier stated that society must be restructured to

include things like pleasure

Fourier stated that society must be structured from the bottom-

up and based on free association

For the first time in history, these people are espousing the

creation of a new social system

All of them viewed liberalisms doctrine of individualism as

selfish that kept the majority in poverty and oppression

Louis Blange: the state itself should organize all social operations
This is the idea that was pushed by the working classes in the
French Revolution