Liberalism

1
Liberalism

• Alternate Visions

2
Rousseau and Human Nature

• Self-Preservation and Commiseration
• Free-Will, Perfectabilite, and Imagination
• Property rights and the emergence of the social
  contract
• More murders, p. 91

3
A New Social Contract

• No citizen will be wealthy enough to buy
  another, and none poor enough to sell himself p.
  92
• The general will as the basis of the a new social
  contract
• The general will is not always the majority
  opinion. The legislator should guide the people
  toward the general will
• Participatory government is essential

4
Questions

• Is Rousseau the father of totalitarianism?
• Is his form of government practicable?
• Are we better off in a world like the one
  conceived by Rousseau? If so, how do we approach
  his ideal form of governance?

5
Jeffersons Self-Evident Truths

• The Declaration of Independence, p. 96
• Liberal equality and natural rights
• Happiness replaces Lockes property

6
Jeffersonian Government

• Concerns about the Constitution, p. 97
• Empowering the disenfranchised through land
  grants
• Politics at the ward level an essential part of
  Republican government
• Jeffersons view of politics in harmony with the
  ancient Greek conception of politics and
  citizenship

7
Purpose of Ward Republics

• Check petty tyrants at home
• Maintain revolutionary spirit of 1776
• Provide a base for General Education
• Provide a space where citizens could be become
  proficient in the art of politics

8
Property Economic and Political Freedom

• The earth belongs in usufruct to the living
• The dead have neither powers nor rights over it
• Nineteen year cycle of responsibility creates an
  interesting cycle of credit
• Institutionalized revolution

9
Happiness The Ultimate Goal

• Jefferson worked toward reforming property laws
  to move toward greater equality
• By giving workers land, he would permit them to
  more effectively negotiate with businesses for
  better working conditions

10
Jeffersons View of Human Nature

• Jefferson believed in a moral sense as the
  foundation of democracy
• Essential to the happiness of man she laid
  their foundation therefore in sentiment, not in
  science. That she gave to all, as necessary to
  all this to a few only, as sufficing with a few.

11
Jeffersonian Politics

• Whether no law or too much law submits man to
  the greatest evil
• Wolves over sheep
• Contrast Jefferson with Madison, p. 105

12
Individualistic/Alternate Liberalism
Politics Reason Commiseration or moral sense
Equality Contentiousness Moral being
Individuality A-partness Inherently social
Rights Property as ends Property as means
Citizenship Minimal participation Maximum participation
Government Representative (trustee) Direct democracy
Liberty Secondary to authority More important than authority
Humans Static developmental
Economics Class-divided capitalism One-class simple market
13
John Dewey and the Liberal Tradition

• Political science needs to work through
  hypotheses instead of through a search for
  discreet units such as rights and so on
• Reject individualistic politics as incorrect
• face to face communities with symbolic
  interaction where appropriate

14
Economics and the Common Man

• Eliminate class bifurcation democratic
  socialism
• Undemocratic environmental conditioning as a main
  impediment to democratic governance
• Democracy and participation as a commitment to
  alternative forms of action

15
Final Thoughts on Liberal Democracy

• Capitalist vs. non capitalist
• Expansion of franchise facilitated growth of
  majoritarian liberalism
• The U.S. lagged behind because of Madisonian
  legacy
• Alternative liberalism equality, participatory
  democracy, challenges the individualistic vision
  of liberalism
• Toleration and Dialogue