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Contributions to liberal theory


 

This is an (partial) overview of individuals that contributed to the development of liberal theory on a worldwide scale and therefore are strongly associated with the liberal tradition and instrumental in the exposition of political liberalism as a philosophy. The contributors are listed in approximately chronological order, beginning from the roots of realism, rationalism and humanism in the Renaissance, all movements which were influential in the creation of what is thought of as liberal political theory. These include Desiderius Erasmus, Hugo Grotius and Baruch Spinoza through the Age of Reason's English philosopher John Locke and the Frenchman Voltaire and other philosophers of The Enlightenment. Liberalism as a specifically named ideology begins in the late 18th century as a movement towards self-government and away from aristocracy. It included the ideas of self-determination, the primacy of the individual and the nation, as opposed to the family and the state, as being the fundamental units of law, politics and economy.

Mill and further, the development of (international) liberalism

:See for the somehwat different development of a American liberalism after World War II the section on American liberal theory. American liberal theorists who also had influence on liberalism outside the United States are included in this section.

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John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill (United Kingdom, 1806-1873) is one of the first champions of modern "liberalism" as such, his work on political economy and logic helped lay the foundation for advancements in empirical science and public policy based on verifiable improvements. Strongly influenced by Bentham's utilitarianism, he disagrees with Kant's intuitive notion of right and formulates the "highest normative principle" of morals as:

Related Topics:
John Stuart Mill - Political economy - Logic - Utilitarianism

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Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.

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Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln (United States, 1809-1865) is best known as the President of the United States from 1861-1865. He argued for the theory of political equality and the supremacy of natural law over present political arrangements. Most famous for his debates with Stephen Douglas, Second Inaugural Address and Gettysburg Address, as well as the Emancipation Proclamation - which converted the American Civil War into a struggle to end slavery.

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Juan Bautista Alberdi

Juan Bautista Alberdi (Argentina, 1810-1884)

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  • Some literature:
  • Bases y puntos de partida para la organización política de la República Argentina (Bases and Points of Departure for the Political Organization of the Argentine Republic), 1852
  • Sistema económico y rentistico de la Confederación Argentina, según su Constitución de 1853, 1854

Jakob Burkhardt

Jakob Burkhardt (Switzerland, 1818-1897) State as derived from cultural and economic life

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  • Some literature:
  • The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy

Herbert Spencer

Herbert Spencer (United Kingdom, 1820-1903)

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  • Some literature:
  • Social Statics, 1851
  • First Principles, 1862
  • The Man versus the State, 1884
  • Essays, Scientific, Political and Speculative, 1892

Thomas Hill Green

Thomas Hill Green (United Kingdom, 1836-1882)

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Carl Menger

Carl Menger (Austria, 1840-1921)

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  • Some literature:
  • Grundsätze der Volkswirtschaftslehre (Principles of Economics), 1871
  • Untersuchungen über die Methode der Sozialwissenschaften und der Politischen Ökonomie insbesondere (Investigations into the Method of the Social Sciences: with special reference to economics), 1883
  • Irrthumer des Historismus in der deutschen Nationalokonomie (The Errors of Historicism in German Economics), 1884
  • Zur Theorie des Kapitals (The Theory of Capital), 1888

William Graham Sumner

William Graham Sumner (United States, 1840-1910)

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  • Some literature:
  • Socialism, 1878
  • The Argument Against Protective Tariffs, 1881
  • Protective Taxes and Wages, 1883
  • The Absurd Effort to Make the World Over, 1883
  • State Interference, 1887
  • Protectionism: the -ism which teaches that waste makes wealth, 1887
  • The Forgotten Man, and Other Essays, 1917

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (United States, 1841-1935) was a jurist and writer. He wrote the influential book on legal theory The Common Law, which traced the creation of individual rights from familial rights common under Roman and Feudal law, and presented the "objective" theory of judicial interpretation. Specifically that the standard for intent and culpability should be that of the "reasonable man", and that individuals can be said to objectively intend the reasonable consequences of their actions.

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Lujo Brentano

Ludwig Joseph Brentano (Germany, 1844-1931)

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Tomás Masaryk

Tomá? Garrigue Masaryk (Czechoslovakia, 1850-1937)

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Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk

Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk (Austria, 1851-1914)

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  • Some literature:
  • Kapital und Kapitalzins (Capital and Interest), in three volumes, 1884, 1889 and 1909
  • Die Positive Theorie des Kapitals (The positive theory of capital and its critics), in three volumes, 1895 and 1896
  • Zum Abschluss des Marxschen Systems (Karl Marx and the Close of his system),1898

Louis Brandeis

Louis Brandeis (1856-1941)

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Thorstein Veblen

Thorstein Veblen (1857-1926) is best known as the author of Theory of the Leisure Class. Veblen was influential to a generation of American liberalism searching for a rational basis for the economy beyond corporate consolidation and "cut throat competition". Veblen's central argument was that individuals require sufficient non-economic time to become educated citizens. He caustically attacked pure material consumption for its own sake, and the idea that utility equalled conspicuous consumption.

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John Dewey

John Dewey (United States, 1859-1952)

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Friedrich Naumann

Friedrich Naumann (Germany, 1860-1919)

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Max Weber

Max Weber (Germany, 1864-1920) was a theorist of state power, the relationship of culture to economics and founder of what is now called "sociology". Argued that there was a moral component to capitalism rooted in "protestant" values. Weber was along with Friedrich Naumann active in the National Social Union and later in the German Democratic Party.

Related Topics:
Max Weber - Friedrich Naumann - National Social Union - German Democratic Party

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Leonard Hobhouse

Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse (United Kingdom, 1864-1929)

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Benedetto Croce

Benedetto Croce (Italy, 1866-1952)

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  • Some literature:
  • Che cosa è il liberalismo, 1943

Walther Rathenau

Walther Rathenau (Germany, 1867-1922)

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William Beveridge

William Beveridge (United Kingdom, 1879-1973)

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  • Some literature:
  • Full Employment in a Free Society, 1944
  • Why I am a liberal, 1945

Ludwig von Mises

Ludwig von Mises (Austria/United States, 1881-1973)

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  • Some literature:
  • Socialism, 1922
  • Liberalism, 1927
  • Human Action, 1949

John Maynard Keynes

The economist John Maynard Keynes (United Kingdom, 1883-1946) is best known for his work on monetary theory and macroeconomics, which was an attempt to restructure private sector capitalist economies in the wake of the lessons of World War I and The Great Depression. He proposed policies which included short term intervention in the market, statistical econometrics as an important instrument of social policy, and an active use of government power. He was sharply critical of using economics for purely nationalist goals, or economic punishment as a means of attaining political ends, as well as the architect of the Bretton-Woods system. Keynes was an active member of the British Liberal Party.

Related Topics:
John Maynard Keynes - Macroeconomics - World War I - The Great Depression - Bretton-Woods - British Liberal Party

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José Ortega y Gasset

José Ortega y Gasset (Spain, 1883-1955)

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  • Some literature:
  • La rebelión de las masas (The Rebellion of the Masses), 1930

Salvador de Madariaga

Salvador de Madariaga (Spain, 1886-1978)

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Upton Sinclair

While Upton Sinclair (United States, 1878-1968) himself was a socialist, his novels and writings attacking the excesses of corporations and industrialization, particularly The Jungle would have a tremendous influence towards persuading the public and political classes that regulation of products and labor standards was essential.

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Will Durant

Will Durant 1885-1981 with Ariel Durant 1898-1981

Related Topics:
Will Durant - Ariel Durant

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Adolf Berle

Adolf Berle (United States, 1895-1971) was author of The Modern Corporation and Private Property, detailing the importance of differentiating between the management of corporations and the share holders who are the owners. Influential in the theory of New Deal policy.

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  • Some literature with Gardiner Means:
  • The Modern Corporation and Private Property

Wilhelm Röpke

Wilhelm Röpke (Germany, 1899-1966)

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  • Some literature:
  • International Economic Disintegration, 1942
  • The Social Crisis of Our Time, 1942
  • Civitas Humana, 1944
  • International Order and Economic Integration, 1945
  • The Solution of the German Problem, 1946

Bertil Ohlin

Bertil Ohlin (Sweden, 1899-1979)

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  • Some literature:
  • Interregional and International Trade, 1933

Friedrich Hayek

Friedrich Hayek (Austria/United Kingdom/United States/Germany, 1899-1992)

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Karl Popper

Karl Raimund Popper (Austria/United Kingdom, 1902-1994)

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Alan Paton

Alan Paton (South Africa, 1903-1988) contributed with his book Cry, The beloved country to a clear anti-apartheid stand of South African liberalism. His party, the South African Liberal Party was banned by the apartheid government.

Related Topics:
Alan Paton - South African Liberal Party - Apartheid

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  • Some literature:
  • Cry, The Beloved Country, 1948

John Hicks

John Hicks (United Kingdom, 1904-1989) is known for his work in macro-economics and social choice theory. His macro-economic work produced the ISLM model of macro-economics, which would be the basis for much theory since then, including the work of Paul Krugman and Robert Mundell. In the area of social choice he argued for the necessity of placing freedom of choice in balance against social welfare to produce the best practical outcomes.

Related Topics:
John Hicks - Macro-economics - Social choice theory - ISLM - Paul Krugman - Robert Mundell

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Raymond Aron

Raymond Aron (France, 1905-1983)

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  • Some literature:
  • Essais sur les libertés, 1965
  • Démocratie et totalitarisme, 1965

Simone de Beauvoir

Simone de Beauvoir (France 1908-1986) argued in her book The Second Sex that women were treated as legal and social inferiors, and that this was morally untenable. She was influential in the Women's Liberation movement.

Related Topics:
Simone de Beauvoir - The Second Sex - Women's Liberation

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John Kenneth Galbraith

John Kenneth Galbraith (Canadian who worked in the United States, 1908- )

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  • Some literature:
  • The Affluent Society, 1958
  • The Liberal Hour, 1960

Isaiah Berlin

Isaiah Berlin (Latvia/United Kingdom, 1909-1997)

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  • Some literature:
  • Two Concepts of Liberty, 1958
  • Four Essays on Liberty, 1969
  • From Hope and Fear Set Free, 1978

Milton Friedman

Milton Friedman (United States, 1912- )

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  • Some literature:
  • Capitalism and Freedom, 1962
  • Free to Choose, 1980
  • Tyranny of the Status quo, 1984
  • Economic Freedom, Human Freedom, Political Freedom, 1992

Arthur Schlesinger Jr.

Arthur Schlesinger Jr. (United States, 1917- ) is an historian and philosopher of history, who chronicled the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and theorized on the importance of progressive moments in advancing liberalism.

Related Topics:
Arthur Schlesinger Jr. - Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Progressive moments

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  • Some literature:
  • The Age of Roosevelt
  • The Cycles in American History

James Buchanan

James Buchanan (United States, 1919- )

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  • Some literature:
  • The Calculus of Consent / James Buchanan & Gordon Tullock, 1962
  • The Limits of Liberty, 1975
  • Democracy in Deficit / James Buchanan & Richard E. Wagner, 1977
  • The Power to Tax / James Buchanan & Geoffrey Brennan, 1980
  • The Reason of Rules / James Buchanan & Geoffrey Brennan, 1985

John Rawls

John Rawls (United States, 1921-2002)

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Murray Newton Rothbard

Murray Rothbard (United States, 1926-1995) was one of the foremost advocators of liberty and freedom in the late 20th Century. He has been associated with many different movements throughout his life, notably with Ayn Rand and, later, the Libertarian Party of United States. For the most part, Rothbard preached Austrian Economics, arguing against government involvement in both the economy and in personal life. His influence is felt strongly today in the libertarian and anarcho-capitalist movements, as well right wing organisations in general.

Related Topics:
Murray Rothbard - Liberty - Ayn Rand - Libertarian Party - Austrian Economics - Anarcho-capitalist

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Gore Vidal

Gore Vidal (United States, 1925- )

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Noam Chomsky

The work of Noam Chomsky (United States, 1928 - ) work on "Universal Grammar" was seen as the first significant challenge to the behaviorist school of thought in psychology, which argued that all behaviors were merely the result of punishment and reward. Chomsky argued that the mind is cognitive, and therefore contains mental states and awareness, linking him to the liberal tradition of the dignity and uniqueness of the individual above and beyond environmental influences. In addition to his theories on linguistics, he has also become well known for his books and lectures that are critical of American foreign policies, such as financial support to Israel. In the political sense, he is not a liberal, but styles himself an anarchist.

Related Topics:
Noam Chomsky - Israel - Anarchist

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Ralf Dahrendorf

Ralf Dahrendorf (Germany/United Kingdom, 1929- )

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  • Some literature:
  • Die Chancen der Krise: über die Zukunft des Liberalismus, 1983
  • Fragmente eines neuen Liberalismus, 1987

Karl-Hermann Flach

The journalist Karl-Hermann Flach (Germany, 1929-1973) was in his book Noch eine Chance für die Liberalen one of the main theorist of the new social liberal principles of the Free Democratic Party (Germany). He places liberalism clearly as the opposite of conservatism and opened the road for a government coalition with the social democrats.

Related Topics:
Karl-Hermann Flach - Free Democratic Party (Germany) - Conservatism

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Joseph Raz

Joseph Raz (United Kingdom)

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  • Some literature:
  • The Morality of Freedom

Ronald Dworkin

Ronald Dworkin (United States, 1931- )

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Richard Rorty

Richard Rorty (United States, 1931- )

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Amartya Sen

Amartya Sen (India, 1933- ) is an economist whose early work was based on Kenneth Arrow's General Possibility Theorum, and on the impossibility of both complete pareto optimality and solely procedural based rights. Won Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences for his work on famine, welfare economics and social choice theory. Advocate of rationality as the fundamental safe guard of freedom and justice.

Related Topics:
Amartya Sen - Kenneth Arrow - Pareto optimality - Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences - Famine - Welfare economics - Social choice theory

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  • Some literature:
  • Development as Freedom

Robert Nozick

Robert Nozick (United States, 1938-2002)

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Hernando de Soto

The economist Hernando de Soto (Peru, 1941- ) is an advocate of transparency and private property rights, arguing that intransparent government leads to property not being given proper title, and therefore being "dead capital" which cannot be used as the basis of credit. Argues that laws which allocate property to those most able to use them for economic growth, so called "squatter's rights", are an important innovation.

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  • Some literature:
  • The Other Path, 1986
  • The Mystery of Capital, 2000

Bruce Ackerman

Bruce Ackerman (United States)

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  • Some literature:
  • We, The People

Joseph Stiglitz

The economist Joseph Stiglitz was awarded a Nobel Prize for his work on market failures caused by imperfect information. While this work is rather dry to a non-economist it demonstrates how states can give great benefits to their populations with a light hand and avoid socialist policies like nationalisation. He is best known politically for his work first as an adviser to international institutions like the World Trade Organisation, and then as a commentator supportive of their principles but critical of their practices. (United States, 1943- )

Related Topics:
Joseph Stiglitz - Nobel Prize - Imperfect information - World Trade Organisation

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  • Some literature
  • Globalisation and its Discontents

Martha Nussbaum

Martha Nussbaum (United States, 1947-present) elaborates the Rawlsian Theory of Justice. For her, Rawls's Liberty Principle is only meaningful if viewed in terms of substantial freedoms, i.e. real opportunities based on personal and social circumstance. Likewise, inequality in the Difference Principle has to be clarified in terms of capabilities.

Related Topics:
Martha Nussbaum - Theory of Justice - Inequality

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Francis Fukuyama

Francis Fukuyama (United States, 1952- )

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Fukuyama is best known as the author of the controversial book The End of History and the Last Man, in which he argues that the progression of human history as a struggle between ideologies is largely at an end, with the world settling on liberal democracy after the end of the Cold War.

Related Topics:
Controversial book - The End of History and the Last Man - Liberal democracy - Cold War

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However, Fukuyama is not a liberal but a (neo)conservative (an ideology many state is associated with or part of liberalism, due to its strong emphasis on the expansion of individual liberty), even called a bio-Luddite or bioconservative.

Related Topics:
Luddite - Bioconservative

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  • Some literature:
  • The End of History and the Last Man, 1992
  • Trust, 1995
  • The Great Disruption, 1999
  • Our Posthuman Future, 2002
  • State-Building, 2004

Dirk Verhofstadt

In his book Het menselijk liberalisme Dirk Verhofstadt (Belgium, 1955- ) outlines a social liberal response to anti-globalism. Dirk Verhofstadt is brother of Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt, member of the Flemish Liberals and Democrats and of Liberales http://www.liberales.be, an independent think tank within the liberal movement. Its members consider liberalism as a progressive movement supporting individual freedom, justice and human rights. Liberales reacts against narrow minded conservatism related to social economic, ecological and ethical issues supported by compartmentalized parties and structures.

Related Topics:
Dirk Verhofstadt - Guy Verhofstadt - Flemish Liberals and Democrats

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Will Kymlicka

Will Kymlicka (Canada, 1962- ) tries in his philosophy to determine if forms of ethnic or minority nationalism are compatible with liberal-democratic principles of individual freedom, social equality and political democracy. In his book Multicultural Citizenship. A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights he argues that certain "collective rights" of minority cultures can be consistent with these liberal-democratic principles.

Related Topics:
Will Kymlicka - Nationalism

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◄ Contributions to liberal theory: From Locke to Mill
 

~ Table of Content ~

►Introduction
►"Humanism"
►From Locke to Mill
►Mill and further, the development of (international) liberalism

 

 

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