Impact Of Liberalism

Following the 18th-century Age of Reason and the Enlightenment, liberalism influenced 19th-century Europe and United States. Centered on individual liberty and free institutions, a perfect society under the rule of law would emerge in the industrialized world. While liberalist ideals lacked popular support and did not achieve all goals, they nevertheless reformed the world, introducing a dynamic dialogue in the economic, political, and social contexts of the time. As an economic doctrine in the 19th century, liberalism was set predominantly in the perspective of the suddenly wealthy social class individual ascending from the industrial revolution. Free trade with no regulations assured industrial owners nothing would hinder their ventures.

Great Britain was politically stable and liberals favored political participation but voting rights were only for a few. Equality was frightening since it led to violence, revolutions and chaos; even French liberals reconsidered their ideals and voted conservatively, afraid of possible anarchy after their revolutions’ experiences. Endorsing the rule of law, governmental institutions were to guarantee everyone’s freedom was respected . New capitalists mistrusted the old regime and its representatives whose privileges were antinomic to their interests; therefore, they demanded political and social parity, with a parliament freely elected. Government’s role was to be minimal: “The “trop governer,” is no less common, than mischievous.” Nothing positive resulted from governmental involvement: “by our poor laws and our charities, we have pauperised, and almost ruined the country.” Liberals professed a definite cynicism towards authority, as the individual knew best where his own interest resided; the only intercession was education, preparing valuable citizens: “Reasonable doubts may, however, be entertained of the propriety of interference with children resident at home under the protection of their parents, except so far as securing to them an education, which will fit them for the performance of their duties, as members of the social body” . Smith

More important than the group, the individual had to be judged on his own merits, knowledge, and accomplishments; Smith portrayed him as owner of his own body and mind and of the labor he creates, liberalism gave the worker the “comfortable hope of bettering his condition” . His idealism proved unrealistic; life was dreadful for miners neither respected nor able to lift their personal condition, often abused, and treated like animals “crawling on all fours, with belts round their waists and chains passing between their legs” . Supposed to elevated humankind condition, industrialization did the opposite to Gaskin’s hero, whose living conditions gave no hope . While liberals trusted society unaffected by bureaucracy would proved more efficient and flexible to react to changes, reality differed as Barton complained: "If I am sick, do they come and nurse me?”, “If I am out of work (…) does the rich man share his plenty with me, as he ought to do, if his religion wasn't a humbug?” Engels exposed “this Hell upon Earth” conditions of Manchester’s workers where only in an emergency the government acted: “Allen's Court, was in such a state at the time of the cholera that the sanitary police ordered it evacuated, swept, and disinfected” . Without guidance, chaos reigned and when government did not intervene, society evolved alienated even geographically as “the working people's quarters are sharply separated from the sections of the