English
Extreme liberalism
[Edit this paragraph] 1 The origin and original meaning of liberalism
The origin and usage of the name 1. 1
The word "freedom" comes from the Latin liber. In his magnum opus History of Rome, Titus Livius described the struggle of the ordinary class in the Roman Republic to get rid of the rule of the aristocratic class. Marcus hollier wrote in his book Meditation: "There should be equal rights and equal freedom of speech in politics, and a government that respects most free politics ..." This progress was temporarily stopped in the long Middle Ages until the Italian Renaissance freedom struggle resumed, and supporters of free city-states clashed with those of the Pope. Nicolo Machiavelli expounded the principles of Republican government in his book On Levi. John Locke of England and French enlightenment thinkers described the struggle for freedom rights in their masterpieces.
The Oxford English Dictionary points out that the word "liberal" has existed in English for a long time, meaning "decent, noble and generous free man", and the word "Liberal arts" stands for "freedom of speech and action without being suppressed". This word was originally a derogatory term, but in 1776- 1788, with the use of Gibbon and others, it began to change into a more positive word "free from discrimination".
During the French Revolution, the moderate bourgeoisie also tried to establish a government based on the concept of freedom. Economists such as Adam Smith expounded the principle of free trade in The Wealth of Nations 1776. The liberal Spanish word "Liberales" first appeared in Spain in 18 12. At that time, the Spanish Liberal Party used this word to flaunt their determination to promote constitutionalism. 18 16 British Tories first used the word "liberalism" to belittle their opponents with contempt. 1822, British writers and poets Byron and Shelley founded a magazine called Liberalism, but it had little influence. It was not until the late19th century that "liberalism" was applied. The influence of liberalism on China began to appear in the late 1970s, advocating bourgeois liberalism and opposing the Four Cardinal Principles. Deng Xiaoping clearly put forward the problem of opposing bourgeois liberalization at the the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China working conference. Later, he repeatedly stressed this issue, pointing out that the core of bourgeois liberalization is to oppose the leadership of * * *. Without the leadership of China, there would be no revival of China and the socialist system of China. The four cardinal principles are the foundation of the country. Adhering to the four cardinal principles and opposing bourgeois liberalization are related to the future and destiny of the party and the country. Deng Xiaoping also pointed out: "In the whole process of realizing the four modernizations, at least in the last decade of this century, plus the first 50 years of the next century, there is a problem of opposing bourgeois liberalization." "Since this is a long-term task, we cannot engage in sports. The main method is education and guidance." (Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping, Vol.3, p.211page) It has been 30 years since China's unprecedented reform and opening-up revolution and construction practice, which is roughly synchronized with the process from the heyday of western neoliberalism to its complete exposure, which led to the global financial crisis. The 30-year history of reform and the successive economic crises in western countries have proved that Comrade Xiaoping's report, 13 National Congress and subsequent party congresses' warnings against bourgeois liberalization are very correct.
During China's reform and opening-up, although the international situation was favorable to me, it was also at the peak of the western bourgeois neo-liberal economic thought. The fanaticism of the petty bourgeoisie in our society has a broad social foundation and is also influenced by the idea of worshipping foreign things and obsessing foreign things. Some people blindly follow the trend for cognitive reasons, and some people go to the west, especially the United States, to learn from it. Although they have learned some basic knowledge of market economy, they are more keen to promote this fashionable commodity just as the West is vigorously promoting neo-liberalism. Just using China's rigid ideological climate of emancipating the mind and criticizing the "Left", one tendency covered up the other. With the title of "reformist", they monopolized the right to speak for a long time as scholars or media celebrities, turned correcting "Left" into "correcting" socialism and Marxism-Leninism, and interpreted reform and opening up from the perspective of liberalization, mainly neoliberalism. In various academic conferences and university halls, neo-liberalism is widely publicized and sown, advocating the omnipotence of market economy and private ownership, and generally opposing government intervention. Some even proposed to cancel the goal of China's economic system reform, the attributive socialism before the socialist market economy, and some publicly criticized Marxism for being outdated or even wrong, saying that communism would still be a market economy, which made the socialist public ownership economy, especially the state-owned economy, useless.
Under the influence of these public opinions, there has been a general deviation from socialism in many places and fields for quite a period of time. For example, privatization is carried out in the name of reform, the social security of some socialist systems is described as a "burden", the rural cooperative medical system is disintegrated, compulsory education is abolished, medical care is "marketized" and education is "industrialized"; Advocating capital orientation and conniving at capital squeezing labor, some threatened to sacrifice 30 million workers, regardless of social justice and resources and environment. As long as GDP ranks in the forefront, they distort development into simple money making and corrode people's souls. Food safety and frequent mine accidents have led to serious social injustice and social problems, forming what people call "three new mountains". The differences between classes, urban and rural areas and regions have expanded sharply, and a large number of workers and peasants have fallen into the bottom of society.
As reported in 13, the struggle between the socialist concept of reform and opening up and the bourgeois concept of liberalization has been going on. Some so-called "mainstream" economists and media people who insist on distorting socialist reform and opening up with bourgeois liberalization have a prominent and charming technique, which is to distort Comrade Xiaoping's southern tour speech and say that when he talks about reform, he should not ask his surname. Although Scientific Outlook on Development put forward by the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Hu Jintao as the general secretary actually criticized this trend of thought, some people still insisted on saying so by virtue of their monopoly right to speak, and some overbearing people who opposed liberalization, advocated reform and adhered to the socialist direction were labeled as opposing reform.
Knowledge comes from practice, and it should be tested in practice. Through the cycle of practice, understanding, re-practice and re-understanding, it will gradually approach the truth. There's a saying in China that you stand at thirty. According to the law of cognition, twenty or thirty years or so is a period for a person to know the truth through practice. The two serious twists and turns in the history of China's democratic revolution and socialist construction have both gone through more than 20 years. China's reform and opening up, an unprecedented revolution and construction practice, has been going on for 30 years, which is roughly synchronized with the course of western neoliberalism from its heyday to the complete exposure of its drawbacks, leading to the global financial crisis. Leading the United States through the longest period of economic growth in history, firmly believing in free market economy and opposing government intervention in market operation are regarded as absolutely reliable "masters". /kloc-Alan Greenspan, who was in charge of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve in 0/8, testified at the hearing of tracing the source of the financial tsunami in the U.S. House of Representatives, admitting that his world outlook was incorrect and his ideas when he took office were wrong, saying that he mistakenly believed that an unconstrained free market was the foundation of an excellent economy. Officials and scholars in bourgeois countries can also review their mistakes. China's reform and opening up, due to the reform of the economic and political system that was too concentrated in the past and the correct choice of the market economic system, has made brilliant achievements in the common development of various economies with public ownership as the main body, laying a material foundation for resisting the impact of natural disasters and the US financial crisis this year; This also includes the contributions of scholars and media people. However, in the process of reform and opening up, it has also been obstructed and interfered. In addition to the "Left" rigid ideology and power corruption, as mentioned above, the bourgeois liberalization ideology dominated by neoliberalism has distorted the direction of economic system reform aimed at the socialist market economy, and the consequences are also very serious.
The mistakes and harms of neoliberalism have been fully exposed in other parts of the world, such as some countries in Asia (such as Thailand), Africa and Latin America. The most typical example is that the former Soviet Union implemented the World Bank's neo-liberal prescription and completely privatized it, which led to the death of the party and the country, the disintegration of the alliance, the great economic retrogression, the people's life was very difficult, the people's income level and national strength were greatly discounted, and the recovery has been slow so far.
1.2 differences in liberalism
Under the above framework, many profound and even fierce disputes and conflicts began to appear among liberals. In these debates, many schools began to deviate from classical liberalism. In many debates, all parties use different words to describe the same concept or use the same words to describe different concepts.
Some liberals mostly agree with this principle:
Social liberalism is also called improved liberalism and neo-liberalism, so be careful not to confuse it with neo-liberalism, which has the same Chinese translation. It appeared in many developed countries in the late19th century and was influenced by the utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. Some liberals accepted the partial or total exploitation theories of Marxism and socialism and criticized the "profit motive", and thought that the government should use its power to improve these problems. According to john dewey and Mortimer Adler's explanation of this form of liberalism, since individuals are the foundation of society, all individuals should have the basic elements needed to achieve their goals, such as education, economic opportunities and protection in case of unsolvable disasters. For social liberalism, these elements are also considered as a part of rights. These elements are called positive freedom, which is different from the classic negative freedom, because they must be produced and provided by others-negative freedom only requires non-aggression between people. Social liberals believe that ensuring these positive freedoms is a necessary process to guarantee the right to freedom. Schools, libraries, museums and art galleries must be supported by taxes. Social liberalism also supports some restrictions on economic competition, such as antitrust laws and minimum wage restrictions. They also advocate that the government should provide basic social welfare and collect taxes to support these welfare systems, so as to give full play to people's best talents and avoid the emergence of revolution.
Political liberalism holds that the individual is the foundation of society and law, and the existence of society and system is to advance individual goals without favoring those with higher social status. Magna Carta is a political document, which declares that the status of individual rights is even higher than the privilege of the monarch. Politically, liberalism emphasizes the social contract between the ruler and the ruled, under which citizens make laws and agree to abide by them. This is based on the belief that individuals will take the best action for themselves. Political liberalism gives all adult citizens the right to vote, regardless of gender, race and economic status. Political liberalism emphasizes the rule of law and supports liberal democracy.
Cultural liberalism pays attention to the rights of individuals in morality and lifestyle, including topics such as sexual freedom, religious freedom and cognitive freedom, and protects individuals from the government's invasion of their private lives. John stewart Mill skillfully wrote about cultural liberalism in his thesis: "Only for the purpose of self-protection, individuals or groups can interfere with the free behavior of other human beings. Only by preventing one person from hurting others can we properly prevent the free intentions of other members of civilized society. And that person's own interests, whether material or spiritual, are not sufficient reasons for this principle. " Cultural liberalism usually opposes government restrictions on literature, art, academics, gambling, sex, prostitution, legal marriage age, abortion, birth control, alcohol, marijuana and other drugs. Most liberals oppose government intervention in these areas. In this respect, the Netherlands can be considered as the freest country in the world.
However, liberalism also has some obvious differences:
Economic liberalism is an ideology that supports personal property and the right to freedom of contract. The slogan of this liberalism is "free enterprise". Supporting laissez-faire capitalism means removing legal barriers, such as trade barriers and monopoly and subsidy privileges imposed by the government. Economic liberalism wants the government to control the economy as little as possible, or not at all. Some economic liberals will accept the government's restrictions on monopoly and oligarchy, but some of them think that monopoly and oligarchy are caused by government intervention. Economic liberals advocate that the value of products and services should be freely chosen by individuals, that is, the power of the market. Some people agree that the government can play a monopoly role in some areas, such as police and court services. Economic liberalism believes that the economic inequality caused by unequal negotiation status is the result of natural competition-as long as it does not involve the use of coercive means. This form of liberalism was especially influenced by British liberalism in the19th century. Small government and anarchic capitalism are both forms of economic liberalism. (See Free Trade and Liberalization)
The debate between economic freedom and social equality has a long history as freedom itself. Plutarch wrote in his book about Solon, an ancient Greek legislator, "Solon has the privilege of exempting others from debts; This is the tool he used to confirm civil liberties; It is useless for the law to give all people equal rights. If the poor have to sacrifice these rights in exchange for debt relief, then they just ask and nod to the rich everywhere, whether in judicial courts, government officials or public affairs discussions. "
Comparison of the influence of 1.3
Early thinkers of the Enlightenment regarded liberalism as a contrast with the old political system, feudal system, mercantilism and Catholic herbert spencer Church before the French Revolution. Later, more radical philosophers associated their thoughts with the French Revolution and the route of19th century. Liberalism defines itself as the opposite of socialism and communism, but the modern European Liberal Party often forms an alliance with the Social Democratic Party. In the 20th century, liberalism defined itself as the antithesis of totalitarianism and collectivism. Some liberals also oppose the classical theory of just war with neutrality and free trade as the core, and prefer the concepts of interventionism and collective security among many countries.
Liberalism advocates limiting the power of the government. The most extreme anti-centralized liberals, such as herbert spencer, Frederic Bastiat and Gustav de Maurines, are sometimes regarded as a form of anarchism or libertarianism. Most liberals believe that the existence of government is necessary to protect individual rights. Recently, liberalism began to conflict with those who pursue a stable society based on belief values: Islamic fundamentalists, for example, completely rejected liberalism.
[Edit this paragraph ]2 The development of liberalism
2. 1 the origin of liberalism
John Locke emphasized that "freedom" is a necessary right of human beings, which has been repeated in history. As mentioned earlier, the conflict between civilians and nobles in ancient Rome, the struggle between Italian cities and the Vatican. In the whole15th century, the Republic of Florence and the Republic of Venice formed the electoral system, laws and regulations and the pursuit of free enterprise, until16th century, they were dominated by other external forces. Dutch resistance to Catholic oppression often occurs-although they also refuse to give Catholics freedom.
As an ideology, liberalism can be traced back to the confrontation between humanism and national religious authority in the Renaissance. Whigs in Britain's glorious revolution claimed that the people had the right to choose a king, which could be regarded as a pioneer in promoting people's sovereignty. However, it was not until the Enlightenment that these movements began to be recognized as true "liberalism", especially the Whig Party in Britain, the French philosopher and the North American colonies moved towards autonomy. These movements oppose absolute monarchy, mercantilism and other religious orthodoxy, as well as religious and political forces. They are also the first people to expound the concept of individual rights through laws and regulations, and it is equally important to realize autonomy through the parliamentary election system.
Liberalism began to produce a clear definition after putting forward the concept that free individuals can form the basis of a stable society. John Locke's concept was first put forward in John Locke's works. In his two papers on government, he put forward two basic concepts of freedom: economic freedom, that is, the right to own and use property, and intellectual freedom, including moral freedom. However, he did not extend his views on freedom of belief to Catholics. Locke encouraged the early concept of natural rights and defined it as "life, freedom and property". His view of natural rights became the pioneer of modern human rights view. However, for Locke, he believes that property rights are more important than the right to participate in government and public decision-making: he did not endorse democracy because he was worried that empowering the people would undermine the supremacy of property rights.
Montesquieu in continental Europe, the principle that the law restricts the power of the king was first expounded by Montesquieu. In his book "On the Spirit of Law", he advocated that "the government that best conforms to the natural state is the government that best conforms to the people's temperament and character, and was established with the support of the people", not just by the power of ruling. Following Montesquieu's thought, political economists such as Jean-batiste and De Tracy enthusiastically expounded the "harmonious state" of the market, which may lead to the emergence of the word "laissez-faire". This also involves physiocracy and Rousseau's political economy.
Then there are two figures in the French Enlightenment who have a great influence on liberalism: Voltaire advocates that France should implement constitutional monarchy and abolish the second class, and Rousseau advocates that human beings have natural rights. Both of them, in different forms, argue that society can suppress a person's natural rights, but it cannot erase his natural state. Voltaire's idea is more intellectual, while Rousseau's idea is related to essential natural rights, perhaps similar to Diderot's idea.
Anders Chydenius also advocated a concept that constantly appeared in the history of liberalism, namely, the social contract between the ruler and the ruled. He bases this on the natural state of individuals and claims that everyone knows how to take the best action for them. He claimed that everyone was born free, but education would completely confine him to the norms of that society, which shocked the monarchy at that time. He claimed that the people had the will of the people and advocated self-determination, which also violated the political tradition at that time. His thoughts became an important part of the manifesto of China People's Assembly during the French Revolution, and also influenced American thinkers such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. His point of view is that the unity of the country is produced by people's agreed behavior, or by "the will of the people." Such a unified behavior can make the country exist without being bound by the existing social order (such as aristocratic politics).
The main thinkers who contributed a considerable part of their works to the trend of liberalism are those related to the Scottish Enlightenment, including david hume and Adam Smith, and the German Enlightenment philosopher Emmanuel Kant.
Adam Smith and david hume have made many contributions in category and quantity, but the most important thing is that in his book "Theory of Human Nature" (1739- Theory of Human Nature 1740), the fundamental practice of human behavior will overcome those things that try to limit and control them. One example is his contempt for mercantilism and the accumulation of gold and silver bullion. He believes that the price is related to the amount of money, and the accumulation of gold and paper money will only lead to inflation.
Although Adam Smith is the most famous economic liberalism thinker, he is not the first person to put forward similar concepts. The early French physiocrats put forward a systematic study of political economy and the view that the market can organize itself. Benjamin Franklin supported the freedom of American industry in his works. From 17 18 to 1772, Sweden-Finland's liberal and parliamentary government produced a Finnish parliamentarian Anders Chydenius, who was one of the first people to put forward the concepts of free trade and unregulated industry. His ideas had a long-term impact on the Nordic countries in particular, but also had a great impact on other regions later.
Adam Smith, a Scotsman, explained in his theory that individuals can build a life with both economic and moral values without government guidance. If citizens of a country can have the right to move freely, the country will become stronger. He advocated ending the mercantilist control of feudal system and state monopoly and a "laissez-faire" government. In On Moral Sentiments (1759), he developed a set of motivation-oriented theories, trying to mediate human egoism and uncontrolled social order. In The Wealth of Nations, he thinks that under certain conditions, the market will naturally adjust its own problems and produce a more effective state than the regulated market at that time. The role he assigned to the government is the work that cannot be entrusted by profit motives, such as protecting individuals from violence and fraud and terminating competition, trade and production. His view on taxation is that the government can only collect taxes that will not harm the economy, and "the tax rate that everyone pays to the state should depend on how much he earns under the protection of the state." He agreed with david hume that "capital" is the source of a country's wealth, not gold.
Kant was deeply influenced by david hume's experimentalism and rationalism. His greatest contribution to liberalism is in the field of ethics. He put forward the concept of absolute command. Kant claimed that the acceptance system of reason and morality is lower than the laws of nature, so trying to contain the laws of nature is doomed to failure. His idealism is exerting more and more influence, and he claims that there are more important truths on the basis of cognitive system.