In this essay, I will be discussing Liberalism and Socialism, what exactly they entail, and how they were and are still used in societies today. Liberalism is defined as a political orientation that favors social progress by reform and by changing laws rather than by revolution. Socialism is defined as a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole. While the intentions of liberalist and socialist governments are the same, what makes them different is how they believe is the best ways to obtain a prosperous and peaceful nation.
Liberalist government was founded on the ideas of liberty and equality. It involves free and fair elections, civil rights, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, free trade, and private property. During the Age of Enlightenment, political movements among philosophers and economists in the west pushed forward with the ideas of a liberal government. They rejected what was common at the time, like state religion and monarchy. John Locke was acknowledged for finding the traditions of liberalism. He argued that individuals have rights and that the government must not violate those rights. He opposed traditional conservatism.
The ideas of liberalist government spread throughout the world. For the United States, it helped abolish slavery. For Latin America, it paved the way for independence from Spain and Portugal. In the 19th Century, the Austrian Empire, German states, and Italian states brought forward the ideas of liberalism. They demanded written constitutions, suffrage rights, and freedom of the press. However, by the end of the 19th Century, liberalism was challenged ...
... middle of paper ...
...ecisions. They believe that state power should be limited and that state should only intervene when really necessary. They believe it is an individual’s right to be as successful as they chose. They support private businesses, and the wanting of an individual to better himself. To liberalists, economic freedom is more important than economic equality. Socialists believe that citizens are best served by policies focused on meeting the basic needs of the entire society rather than an individual. All citizens should work equally as hard and put in equal contributions. The goal is equality.
While liberalists and socialists have the same intentions of creating the best nations, that are peaceful and prosperous, they have very different views and approaches on how to create said nations. These are the differences between liberal and social ways of governing a nation.
The typical philosophical ideals of the liberals seem to focus on the government helping the little guy and leveling the playing field. They oppose tax-cuts for the rich, they are distrustful of big-business and those who are wealthy. They like government programs that help minorities and those with lower incomes. They want to raise the minimum wage, provide better national healthcare and provide better unemployment and welfare coverage’s. They nearly always side with unions over management, the guy who sues the big business. They are sick and tired of conservatives telling them that the poor are poor because they don't work hard enough. They are sick and tired of being criticized for caring about the little guy.
From the description of both classical liberalism and socialism provided above, it is clear that the two are conflicting ideologies where one supports individualism, the other supports collectivism that believes in the wellbeing of all citizens in a community. 2. What is the difference between a.. Franklin D. Roosevelt, president of the United States from 1933 to 1945 (and the distant cousin of Theodore Roosevelt), was the first to convert to Keynes’s theories. He implemented massive public works programs to put people to work. Called the “New Deal”, an echo of Theodore Roosevelt’s square deal, it consisted of a series of programs from 1933 to 1938.
Liberals usually have the perspective that the government should help the people much more than they do presently, with more programs such as welfare (etc.). Liberals generally agree that the government should intervene, regulate, and promote the economy and ensure fairness in society always. Government policies are indeed needed and necessary for citizens to fulfill their daily needs. Most also do agree with a "free-market" society, however, they stress the need for government policies.
Liberals see humans as both moral and rational beings, who are egotistical and altruistic as well as competitive and cooperative (Mullaly, 2007). They assume that everyone should be able to support themselves, because they are sufficiently motivated by self-development, and through this motivation they can be successful and move upwards in class status (Mullaly, 2007). The nation-state in the liberal paradigm exists to ensure fair competition, and generally acts in the best interests of society to promote harmony (Mullaly, 2007). The basic liberal belief is in equality of opportunity, which stresses that anyone can move up through the class system (indeed, they often see the class system as being “upper class”, “middle class” and “those working towards middle class”, ignoring the “low class” component of society) through hard work and individual effort, after being granted basic equality (Mullaly, 2007). Liberals are in general favour of social change that improves conditions for individual members of society, but do not see a reason to change society as a
Socialism is basically the opposite of liberalism because it appeals to the working class and worked in countries with authoritative governments with large presences in their countries economy. Russia and Germany are two of the countries socialism absolutely thrived in. The working class appealed to this ideology in government because it balanced everyone, made everyone equal, by giving everyone the same wage. So a manager of the factor would make as much as a janitor in the same factory. Under Russian rule Jews were treated as aliens. The Russians would form pogroms or riots so that jews would flee Russia. This was one of the examples of anti-Semitism, or anti-judaism in Europe. Jews were considered evil and were chased out of many towns and villages because of their association to money. And with the new government reforms if money was bad then jews had everything to do with it. These ideologies have helped shape the world in the place it is
Liberal ideas arose from the breakdown of the feudal system that was commonplace in Europe, which saw the growth of the capitalist society currently in place. Liberalism was the aspiration of the rising middle classes, which had conflicting interests with the power of absolute monarchs and landed aristocracy.
Both socialism and democratic socialism overlap and interact with a few different ideologies. The most notable are the intersection between democratic socialism and liberalism. Both liberals and social democrats advocate for a relatively large welfare state, in order to take care of the poor and offer a social safety net. Both ideologies also believe in a sort of collective responsibility to society. They believe the purpose of people is greater than just the individual. Socialism and Liberalism also both see flaws in capitalism and have strategies to address them. Whether it’s replacing them or preventing the downsides.
Communism and Socialism are different economic views that were adopted by two very different countries. Adopted first by Russia, communism teaches “the complete merging of the individual in the society to which he belongs. There is no private ownership whatever. (xxx)” On the other hand socialism (first adopted in France) is the belief the economy should be run via a collective ownership of all goods by all the people. However, despite their many differences both had in terms of how to the economy should be run, both also share multiple similarities as well. There are many similarities and differences between socialism and communism include the following: philosophies, centralized ownership, national and global impact, Karl Marx, political
Liberalism-derived from the Latin word ‘liber’ which means “free and not enslaved”- is seen as the dominant ideology of the western civilisation. During the European history before the modern society, it was characterised by absolutism and feudalism. That time was also called ‘the age of absolutism’.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Socialism is a social and economic system where the means of productions are shared indivisibly throughout the community or enterprise rather than in the names of a few individuals. Or more simply put Socialists believe that the Chief Executives of a corporation are not the ones who deserve the big pay check. They believe that the working men and women deserve more money because they are they ones out in the field doing the work. The main goal of socialism is to more evenly distribute the wealth. They care more about having more people living comfortably than just a few individuals getting wealthy. Socialist ideas in todays politics are what they believe will make it easier for Americans to live in America.
Socialism means equality of income and nothing else. Socialism is a type of economic system in which the means of production and distribution should be in the hands of people. Socialism does not make the society classless as class differences are reduced but not finished. Its aim is to socialize the means of production distribution and exchange. Socialists believe that land and capital should belong to all but not to a few rich classes. Socialism would secure economic equality for all. Socialism is equalizer and leveler. Socialism eliminates antisocial form of competition, because competition is unfair which leads to wastefulness. In socialism all factors of production should be used by the people and for the people. Socialism is a social theory and it is based on the idea that governments should own and control a nation's resources rather than individuals. Socialists believe that all human beings are social by nature and society should own their property, not individuals. The key proponents of...
Socialism is a formal economic system that ends up in failure. It gives economy greater social welfare and fewer business instabilities. The Individuals of this economy are paid by the principal of their contribution. Socialism allows people to be equal. Socialist beliefs the economic inequality can be unethical for society and the government reduces it by creating programs to help the poor for example, social security benefits and Medicare. The economy’s activity and production are based on individual intake and demands. It is planned by the Central Planning Authority.
To start, Liberalism traces its roots back to the Enlightenment period (Mingst, 2008) where many philosophers and thinkers of the time began to question the established status quo. Such as the prevailing belief in religious superstition and began to replace it with a more rational mode of thinking and a belief in the intrinsic goodness of mankind. The Enlightenment period influenced Liberalism’s belief that human beings are thinkers who are able to naturally understand the laws governing human social conduct and by understanding these laws, humans can better their condition and live in harmony with others (Mingst, 2008). Two of the most prominent Liberal Internationalists of the Enlightenment period were Immanuel Kant and Jeremy Bentham who both thought that international relations were conducted in a brutal fashion. It was Kant who compared international relations as “the lawless state of savagery” (Baylis and Smith, 2001, pp 165). It was also Kant who believed nations could form themselves into a sort of united states and overcome international anarchy through this (Mingst, 2008). This was probably the beginning of a coherent belief in a sort of union of sovereign states. Toward the end of the seventeenth century William Penn believed a ‘diet’ (parliament) could be set up in Europe, like the European Union of today (Baylis and Smith, 2001). We can see much of this liberal thinking today in organizations such as the United Nations.
Capitalism primarily puts the control of the in the hands of the people through consumer choice, whereas socialism gives government control of the economy leaving the individual powerless. Socialism does not allow the individual to choose what is done with the money he earned thus giving control to the government. In socialism there is little chance of