Classical Liberalism Vs Modern Conservatism

States today are run on the basis of political ideologies. Political ideology is a set of beliefs on politics and the way that governments are ran. Every ideology draws on the history of political theory and tries to apply the lessons of history to today’s society. Classical Liberalism, Modern Liberalism, and Modern Conservatism are all examples of political ideologies. All the above political ideologies differ in many ways on many different issues but they also have some similarities as well. This essay will define classical liberalism, discuss the differences between Modern Liberalism and Modern Conservatism as well as explain each ideologies stance on the proposition of requiring every employer in the state of Utopia to pay its workers a

Classical Liberalism is one of the first political ideologies and many other political ideologies have adopted/integrated ideas or concepts from classical liberalism. Classical Liberalism was founded by an English philosopher named John Locke (1632-1704). Classical liberalism advocates liberty. Since classical liberals advocate liberty they are in favor of strict and limited government action, as well as, the protection of individual rights. Locke based much of the classical liberalism ideology on what he called the state of nature. The state of nature was the time before the creation of governments. Locke and other Classical liberals believe that governments are voluntarily created by the people and therefore should serve the people by enforcing the laws of nature and protecting people’s natural rights. According to Locke, every human is born with freedom to do what they want, the ability to think with reason, and is equal because they are the same as everyone else. According to Locke, since humans are born with freedom, reason, and equality then all humans have the natural right to life, liberty, and property. From those natural rights are three specific laws of nature. Those laws of nature are to preserve yourself, not to harm others, and to help others when possible. Classical liberals believe that in an ideal society people are

Modern conservatism is associated with the ideas of Edmund Burke (1729-1797). Modern conservatives believe in the freedom of the individual from government intervention in economic and social matters. They also believe that there should be government intervention in matters of personal choice, conscience, values and morality. Modern conservatism is the complete opposite of modern liberalism. Modern conservatism also challenges almost all the ideas of classical liberalism. The only thing that modern conservatives adopted from classical liberals was the idea that government power should be limited to some way and that people need the government at times. Burke a conservative disagreed with Locke’s liberal ideology that human’s have ability to reason and are capable of running their own lives because they have commonsense. Burke made the point that people do not reason well all the time. According to Burke people are irrational, emotional, and unpredictable therefore the government needs to intervene to make sure that society is ordered and controlled. Modern conservatives believe that the only way to get an ordered and controlled society was through conserving traditions and moral values. Modern conservatives believe that traditional morality is more important than individual freedom and that there should be freedom but with boundaries limiting those from acting in an immoral manner. To a modern conservative an ideal society