Social Liberalism

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"Social and economic inequalities, for example inequalities of wealth and authority, are just only if they result in compensating benefits for everyone, and in particular for the least advantaged members of society."

Social Liberalism (SocLib) also called Left-Liberalism (LeftLib), Modern Liberalism (ModLib), Welfare Liberalism (WelLib) and New Liberalism (NewLib) is an economically center to center-left, civically liberal, culturally progressive, and diplomatically internationalist political ideology which combines elements of liberal democracy and economic interventionism in the name of "ensuring economic justice as well as civil liberty". Social Liberals view the common good as harmonious with individual freedom. Much of Social Liberalism's success is because its policies have gained broad support across the political spectrum because of its reform-minded policies that address societal problems without overhauling the capitalist economic system. As economic circumstances became direr in places, many were more willing to accept social liberalism since it seemed to be less radical and evil than other forms of a left-wing government. Because of this, Social liberalism has been characterized by cooperation between businesses, government and labor unions. Social liberals overlap with social democrats in accepting economic intervention more than other liberals, although its importance is considered auxiliary compared to social democrats. Addressing economic and social issues such as poverty, welfare, infrastructure, health care, education, and the climate using government intervention while emphasizing individual rights and autonomy are expectations under a social liberal government. Many governments throughout the modern world have successfully adopted social liberal policies, and is now the dominant form of liberalism in North America, where it's often referred to as simply 'liberalism'.

Variants

New Deal Liberalism

New Deal Liberalism is a form of social liberalism that is economically center-left. It was concieved by U.S President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This differs from modern social liberalism which is associated with center-right third-way neoliberalism, in that it sticks true to its center-left economic policies. This can be seen under FDR's "New Deal" during the Great Depression. It is also culturally ambiguous, as opposed to the culturally left social policies of modern social liberal parties.

Liberal Social Authoritarianism

Liberal Social Authoritarianism is a variant of social liberalism which incorporates elements of Illiberal Democracy or Liberal Autocracy.

An example of this would be the FDR administration in the 1930s and 40s; he expanded political centralization, aimed to maximize the Democrat Party's influence through Machiavellian power politics, suppressed civil liberties, attempted to hijack the court system, and took on a corporatist approach to economics. This anti-pluralistic approach to politics was in stark contrast to the political pluralism associated with Liberal Democracy. World War II exacerbated these majoritarian authoritarian tendencies. Woodrow Wilson and Lyndon B. Johnson also displayed these illiberal-democratic tendencies; the former suppressed voting rights for minorities while the latter cracked down on the anti-war movement.

In the modern day, the best example of "Liberal Social Authoritarianism" is the Trudeau administration in Canada. Although he belongs to the Third Way like most modern social liberals, Trudeau exhibits majoritarian authoritarian tendencies, including the suppression of indigenous communities, placing restrictions on civil liberties, censoring his right-wing opponents, and severely undermining press freedom. He has also used emergency powers to bust one of the largest wildcat strikes in Canadian history (the Trucker's Convoy).

History

Heavily inspired by his father Radicalism, SocLib began to take his first steps in the late 19th century as welfare states around the world started to grow. But it didn't become a more fully developed ideology until the post-war period when numerous Western democracies throughout the world began to implement social liberal policies in the aftermath of World War II.

United Kingdom

Social Liberalism started in the United Kingdom at the end of the 19th century as a trend within the Liberal Party that moved away from laissez-faire economics, accepting certain market regulations, and moved more towards a social welfare system and from the more traditional classical liberal deontological view of morality to a more utilitarian view of morality based on the philosophy of Jeremy Bentham.

The most influential figure behind the move toward this kind of liberalism is the English philosopher John Stuart Mill, who believed in certainly free markets along with welfare systems to assure equal opportunities.

The New Liberals

In the late 19th century and early 20th century, a group called the New Liberals began to argue against the laissez-faire economic system of classical liberalism and argued in favor of state interventionism in the economy as a way to ensure individual liberty would be secured under favorable social and economic circumstances.

The Liberal Party, one of the two major political parties in the UK during the 19th and early 20th century, established the foundations of the welfare state in the United Kingdom before World War I. These liberal welfare reforms included progressive taxation, pensions for poor elderly people, and the National Insurance Act of 1911 which established health, sickness and unemployment insurance. At this time, big business owners, who regularly opposed these reforms, started to leave the Liberal Party to join the Conservative Party. The welfare state in the United Kingdom became more robust after World War II, mainly due to the efforts of the Labour Party, and was heavily inspired by the economics of John Maynard Keynes and the welfare system of William Beveridge.

In the modern-day United Kingdom, Social Liberalism is most prominently represented by the Liberal Democrats and has had a strong influence on the Labour Party though nominally rejected by a majority of the party it has led to splinters from Labour most prominently the Social Democratic Party (SDP) which despite its name has been considered by most analysts and scholars to be closer to social liberalism instead.

Germany

In the 1860s, some left-liberal politicians in Germany started to establish trade unions to improve working conditions through cooperation between employees and employers. By the 1870s, some liberal economists were promoting social reform that rejected classical economics and supported an alternative to classical liberalism and Socialist Revolution.

In the 19th century, the German left-liberal movement began to fragment into new parties including the German Progress Party. The main objectives of these parties were free speech, freedom of assembly, representative government, and protection of private property but they were opposed to the creation of a welfare state which they called state socialism.

The Protestant pastor Friedrich Naumann founded the National-Social Association Party in 1896 which proposed a mix of nationalism, christian socialism, and social liberalism. He attempted to use this party to draw workers away from Marxism but it only lasted for roughly seven years and was unable to win any seats.

In the Weimar Republic, the German Democratic Party was founded in 1918. It had both a social-liberal and classical liberal wing. It heavily favored republicanism over monarchism. Its ideas consisted of a socially balanced economy with solidarity, duty and rights among all workers, but it struggled due to the economic sanctions of the Treaty of Versailles.

In 1932, the economist Alexander Rüstow called his version of social liberalism Neoliberalism, although that term now carries a meaning different from the one proposed by Rüstow. His form of liberalism provided an alternative to socialism and to the classical liberal economics developed in the German Empire. In 1938, Alexander Rüstow attended the Colloque Walter Lippmann conference. There, Rüstow advocated a strong state to enforce free markets and state intervention to correct market failures.

Following World War II, Rüstow's neoliberalism, now usually called ordoliberalism or the social market economy, was adopted by the West German government under Ludwig Erhard, who was the Minister of Economics and later became Chancellor. Price controls were lifted and free markets were introduced. While these policies are credited with Germany's post-war economic recovery, the welfare state—which had been established under Bismarck—became increasingly costly.

After 1945, the Free Democrats included most of the social liberals while others joined the Christian Democratic Union of Germany. Until the 1960s, post-war ordoliberalism was the model for Germany. It had the theoretical influence of social liberalism based on duty and rights. As the Free Democrats discarded social liberal ideas in favor of more conservative and economical liberal approach in 1982, some members left the party and formed the social liberal Liberal Democrats.

United States

American political discourse resisted this social turn in European liberalism. In the United States, the term social liberalism was used to differentiate it from classical liberalism or laissez-faire, which dominated political and economic thought for several years until the term branched off from it around the Great Depression and the New Deal. The New Deal included building infrastructures such as roads, water dams, bridges, and highways, increasing the influence of union organizations, increasing wages, increasing workers' rights by giving them the right to bargain, set a maximum work hour and establishing a federal minimum wage, banning child labor, public work programs, and social insurance such as Medicare and Social Security. The program was able to get the US out of the Great Depression and economically prepared for the World War II against the Axis Power.

In the 1870s and the 1880s, the American economists Richard Ely, John Bates Clark and Henry Carter Adams—influenced both by socialism and the Evangelical Protestant movement—castigated the conditions caused by industrial factories and expressed sympathy towards labor unions. However, none developed a systematic political philosophy and they later abandoned their flirtations with socialist thinking. In 1883, Lester Frank Ward published the two-volume Dynamic Sociology and formalized the basic tenets of social liberalism while at the same time attacking the laissez-faire policies advocated by Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner. The historian Henry Steele Commager ranked Ward alongside William James, John Dewey and Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. and called him the father of the modern welfare state. Writing from 1884 until the 1930s, John Dewey—an educator influenced by Hobhouse, Green and Ward—advocated socialist methods to achieve liberal goals. Some social liberal ideas were later incorporated into the New Deal, which developed as a response to the Great Depression when Franklin D. Roosevelt came into office.

While the economic policies of the New Deal appeared Keynesian to pursue full employment and the increase of consumer expenditures, which helped America to get out of the Great Depression. However, there was no revision of liberal theory in favor of greater state initiative. Even though the United States lacked an effective socialist movement, New Deal policies often appeared radical and were attacked by the right. The separate development of modern liberalism in the United States is often attributed to American exceptionalism, which kept mainstream American ideology within a narrow range.

FDR giving a speech to Congress regarding the new deal.

John Rawls' principal work A Theory of Justice (1971) can be considered a flagship exposition of social liberal thinking, advocating the combination of individual freedom and a fairer distribution of resources. According to Rawls, every individual should be allowed to choose and pursue his or her own conception of what is desirable in life, while a socially just distribution of goods must be maintained. Rawls argued that differences in material wealth are tolerable if general economic growth and wealth also benefit the poorest. A Theory of Justice countered utilitarian thinking in the tradition of Jeremy Bentham, instead of following the Kantian concept of a social contract, picturing society as a mutual agreement between rational citizens, producing rights and duties as well as establishing and defining roles and tasks of the state. Rawls put the equal liberty principle in the first place, providing every person with equal access to the same set of fundamental liberties, followed by the fair equality of opportunity and difference principle, thus allowing social and economic inequalities under the precondition that privileged positions are accessible to everyone, that everyone has equal opportunities and that even the least advantaged members of society benefit from this framework. This was later restated in the equation of Justice as Fairness. Rawls proposed these principles not just to adherents of liberalism, but as a basis for all democratic politics, regardless of ideology. The work advanced social liberal ideas immensely within the 1970s political and philosophic academia. Rawls may therefore be seen as a "patron saint" of social liberalism.

Barack Obama, social liberal and 44th president of the United States.

In recent US history, both former democratic President Barrack Obama and current democratic President Joe Biden have incorporated social liberal principles and policies throughout their presidencies.

France

Historically, Radicalism emerged in an early form with the French Revolution and the similar movements it inspired in other countries. It grew prominent during the 1830s in the United Kingdom with the Chartists and Belgium with the Revolution of 1830, then across Europe in the 1840s–1850s during the Revolutions of 1848. In contrast to the social conservatism of existing liberal politics, radicalism sought political support for a radical reform of the electoral system to widen suffrage. It was also associated with republicanism, liberalism, left-wing politics, modernism, secular humanism, anti-imperialism, civic nationalism, abolition of titles, rationalism and the resistance to a single established state religion, redistribution of property and freedom of the press.

A photograph of French radical Georges Clemenceau.

In 19th-century France, radicalism had emerged as a minor political force by the 1840s as the extreme left of the day, in contrast to the socially-conservative liberalism of the Moderate Republicans and Orléanist monarchists and the anti-parliamentarianism of the Legitimist monarchists and Bonapartists. By the 1890s, the French radicals were not organized under a single nationwide structure, but rather they had become a significant political force in parliament. In 1901, they consolidated their efforts by forming the country's first major extra-parliamentary political party, the Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party which became the most important party of government during the second half (1899 to 1940) of the French Third Republic. The success of the French Radicals encouraged radicals elsewhere to organize themselves into formal parties in a range of other countries in the late 19th and early 20th century, with radicals holding significant political office in Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. During the interwar period, European radical parties organized the Radical Entente, their own political international.

As social democracy emerged as a distinct political force in its own right, the differences that once existed between historical left-wing radicalism and Liberal Conservatism diminished. Between 1940 and 1973, radicalism became defunct in most of its European heartlands, with its role and philosophy taken on by social-democratic and Conservative Liberal parties.

Turkey

Kemalist Economic Model was designed by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Republic of Turkey. His economic model can be summarized as a "solidarist liberal economy". Atatürk put the principle of "Statism" in his Six Arrows and explained this principle as follows:

"State can't take the place of individuals, but, it must take into consideration the individuals to make them improve and develop themselves. Etatism includes the work that individuals won't do because they can't make profit or the work which are necessary for national interests. Just as it is the duty of the state to protect the freedom and independence of the country and to regulate internal affairs, the state must take care of the education and health of its citizens. The state must take care of the roads, railways, telegraphs, telephones, animals of the country, all kinds of vehicles and the general wealth of the nation to protect the peace and security of the country. During the administration and protection of the country, the things we just counted are more important than cannons, rifles and all kinds of weapons. (...) Private interests are generally the opposite of the general interests. Also, private interests are based on rivalries. But, you can't create a stable economy only with this. People who think like that are delusional and they will be a failure. (...) And, work of an individual must stay as the main basis of economic growth. Not preventing an individual's work and not obstructing the individual's freedom and enterprise with the state's own activities is the main basis of the principle of democracy."

A photo of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the "Father of the Turks."

Moreover, Atatürk said this in his opening speech on November 1, 1937: "Unless there is an absolute necessity, the markets can't be intervened; also, no markets can be completely free."

Also, he said that the principle of statism is a special economic system for Turkey, and said that it's different from socialism, communism and collectivism.

As it's understood from his words, Atatürk's statism is a social liberal economic system.

Liberal Kemalism

The Free Republican Party (sometimes referred to as the Liberal Republican Party; in Turkish: Serbest Cumhuriyet Fırkası) was a political party founded by Fethi Okyar upon President Kemal Atatürk's request in the early years of the Turkish Republic.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk requested that Okyar create it as an opposition party to confront the ruling Republican People's Party to establish the tradition of multi-party democracy in Turkey.

In addition, this party defended the Liberal Kemalist thought in line with Atatürk's wishes.

However, the party was quickly embraced by the conservatives who saw it as an opportunity to reverse the reforms of Atatürk, particularly regarding secularism and was personally dissolved in November 1930 by Okyar who himself was an ardent supporter of the reforms.

Greece

Venizelism

Flag of Venizelism

Venizelism is a nationalist, culturally centrist and economically center-left ideology, based on the policies of Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos. It believes in larger welfare programmes, land reform and free education. It is also Republican and believes in greater protection of the common people, but it is also very irredentists and supports the Megali idea, It can be considered also a left-wing variant of national liberalism.

Hungary

Democratic Coalition (DK) is a progressive, social liberal, social democratic, pro-European party in Hungary in founded October 22, 2011. It was formed by politicians leaving the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) under the leadership of former Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány and the intellectual milieu surrounding them. It defines itself as a westernised, bourgeois center-left party. His political goals are summarised in the Manifesto of the Republic and in the political analysis entitled "Let us dare to be patriots".

Party leader and former Prime Minister of Hungary Ferenc Gyurcsány is a supporter of Third Way politics. The party platform has adopted elements of social liberalism and strongly pro-European themes. During the 2019 European Parliament election campaign, the EP list leader of the Democratic Coalition, Klára Dobrev, announced to the press that her party would seek to build a United States of Europe during her mandate, thus becoming a European federalist. During the campaign, DK included a number of center-left proposals in its more social democratic platform, including tackling child poverty, an EU-wide minimum pension, an EU minimum wage, a new EU tax on multinational corporations and EU funds for affordable housing.

In the 2014 European election, DK received 9.75% of the vote, and had two MEPs returned. On 26 May 2014, Csaba Molnar announced that DK had applied to join the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. In October 2022, the party became an associate member of the Party of European Socialists.

Beliefs and Ideas

Consequentialism

Consequentialism, as its name suggests, is simply the view that normative properties depend only on consequences. This historically important and still popular theory embodies the basic intuition that what is best or right is whatever makes the world best in the future, because we cannot change the past, so worrying about the past is no more useful than crying over spilt milk. This general approach can be applied at different levels to different normative properties of different kinds of things, but the most prominent example is probably consequentialism about the moral rightness of acts, which holds that whether an act is morally right depends only on the consequences of that act or of something related to that act, such as the motive behind the act or a general rule requiring acts of the same kind.

Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is a version of consequentialism, which states that the consequences of any action are the only standard of right and wrong. Unlike other forms of consequentialism, such as egoism and altruism, utilitarianism considers the interests of all humans equally. Proponents of utilitarianism have disagreed on several points, such as whether actions should be chosen based on their likely results (act utilitarianism), or whether agents should conform to rules that maximize utility (rule utilitarianism). There is also disagreement as to whether total (total utilitarianism), average (average utilitarianism) or minimum utility should be maximized.

John Stuart Mill, a social liberal philosopher, author and social reformer.

Rule Utilitarianism

Rule utilitarianism is a form of utilitarianism, created by John Stuart Mill, that says an action is right as it conforms to a rule that leads to the greatest good, or that "the rightness or wrongness of a particular action is a function of the correctness of the rule of which it is an instance". Philosophers Richard Brandt and Brad Hooker are major proponents of such an approach.

For rule utilitarians, the correctness of a rule is determined by the amount of good it brings about when followed. In contrast, act utilitarians judge an act in terms of the consequences of that act alone (such as stopping at a red light), rather than judging whether it faithfully adhered to the rule of which it was an instance (such as, "always stop at red lights"). Rule utilitarians argue that following rules that tend to lead to the greatest good will have better consequences overall than allowing exceptions to be made in individual instances, even if better consequences can be demonstrated in those instances.

Economics

SocLib believes in modestly regulated capitalism with a large social safety net in a similar vein to Social Democracy. In the Vein of Keynesian School, Social Liberals generally argue that aggregate demand is volatile and unstable and that, consequently, a market economy often experiences inefficient macroeconomic outcomes – a recession, when demand is low, and inflation, when demand is high. Further, they argue that these economic fluctuations can be mitigated by economic policy responses coordinated between the government and central bank. In particular, fiscal policy actions (taken by the government) and monetary policy actions (taken by the central bank), can help stabilize economic output, inflation, and unemployment over the business cycle. Social liberals advocate a market economy – predominantly private sector, but with an active role in government intervention during recessions and depressions. These ideas were largely developed during and after the Great Depression.

A Theory of Justice

A Theory of Justice is a 1971 work of political philosophy and ethics by the philosopher John Rawls, in which the author attempts to provide a moral theory alternative to utilitarianism and that addresses the problem of distributive justice (the socially just distribution of goods in a society). The theory uses an updated form of Kantian philosophy and a variant form of conventional social contract theory. Rawls's theory of justice is fully a political theory of justice as opposed to other forms of justice discussed in other disciplines and contexts. However, the theory of justice itself applies to other moral systems, ironically including utilitarianism.

In A Theory of Justice, Rawls argues for a principled reconciliation of liberty and equality that is meant to apply to the basic structure of a well-ordered society. Central to this effort is an account of the circumstances of justice, inspired by David Hume, and a fair choice situation for parties facing such circumstances, similar to some of Immanuel Kant's views. Principles of justice are sought to guide the conduct of the parties. These parties are recognized to face moderate scarcity, and they are neither naturally altruistic nor purely egoistic. They have ends that they seek to advance but prefer to advance through cooperation with others on mutually acceptable terms. Rawls offers a model of a fair choice situation (the original position with its veil of ignorance) within which parties would hypothetically choose mutually acceptable principles of justice. Under such constraints, Rawls believes that parties would find his favoured principles of justice to be especially attractive, winning out over varied alternatives, including utilitarian and 'right wing' libertarian accounts.

A sketch of political and moral philosopher John Rawls.

Although A Theory of Justice itself was written to justify Rawl’s particular views, it is viewed as an articulation of social liberal beliefs in general. It can be, and often is, considered a flagship exposition of social liberal thinking, advocating the combination of individual freedom and a fairer distribution of resources.

Progressivism

Social Liberalism is in support of social reform based on the idea of progress in which advancements in science, technology, economic development and social organization are vital to the improvement of the human condition. Progressivism became highly significant during the Age of Enlightenment in Europe, out of the belief that Europe was demonstrating that societies could progress in civility from uncivilized conditions to civilization by strengthening the basis of empirical knowledge as the foundation of society. Figures of the Enlightenment believed that progress had universal application to all societies and that these ideas would spread across the world from Europe.

Civil Libertarianism

Most Social Liberals are strong advocates of Civil Libertarianism. Civil libertarianism is a strain of political thought that supports civil liberties, or which emphasizes the supremacy of individual rights and personal freedoms over and against any kind of authority (such as a state, a corporation, social norms imposed through peer pressure and so on).

One key cause of civil libertarianism is upholding free speech. Specifically, civil libertarians oppose bans on hate speech and obscenity. Although they may or may not personally condone behaviors associated with these issues, civil libertarians hold that the advantages of unfettered public discourse outweigh all disadvantages.

Other civil libertarian positions include support for at least partial legalization of illicit substances (marijuana and other soft drugs), prostitution, abortion, privacy, assisted dying or euthanasia, the right to bear arms, youth rights, topfree equality, a strong demarcation between religion and politics, and support for same-sex marriage.

With the advent of personal computers, the Internet, email, cell phones and other information technology advances a subset of civil libertarianism has arisen that focuses on protecting individuals' digital rights and privacy.

Feminism

Social Liberals have contributed monumentally to feminist theory. Liberal Feminism largely grew out of and was often associated with social liberalism; the modern liberal feminist tradition notably includes both social liberal and social democratic streams, and many often diverging schools of thought such as equality feminism, social feminism, equity feminism, and difference feminism Additionally, the most seminal work of early feminism, The Subjection of Women, written by John Stuart Mill, would go on to have a crucial influence of feminist politics.

Secularism

In political terms, secularism is a movement towards the separation of religion and government (often termed the separation of church and state). This can refer to reducing ties between a government and a state religion, replacing laws based on scripture (such as Halakha, and Sharia) with civil laws, and eliminating discrimination based on religion. This is said to add to democracy by protecting the rights of religious minorities.

Within this view, social liberals and liberalism, in general, has a long tradition of secularism. Thomas Paine, an American revolutionary and founding father famously said:

"I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.

I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church. All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.

Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and tortuous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we call it the word of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel."

A portrait of American revolutionary and founding father, Thomas Paine.

It can be seen by many of the organizations (NGOs) for secularism that they prefer to define secularism as the common ground for all life stance groups, religious or atheistic, to thrive in a society that honors freedom of speech and conscience. An example of that is the National Secular Society in the UK. This is a common understanding of what secularism stands for among many of its activists throughout the world. However, many scholars of Christianity and conservative politicians seem to interpret secularism more often than not, as an antithesis of religion and an attempt to push religion out of society and replace it with atheism or a void of values, nihilism. This dual aspect (as noted above in "Secular ethics") has created difficulties in political discourse on the subject. It seems that most political theorists in philosophy following the landmark work of John Rawl's Theory of Justice in 1971 and its following book, Political Liberalism (1993), would rather use the conjoined concept of overlapping consensus rather than secularism. In the latter, Rawls holds the idea of an overlapping consensus as one of the three main ideas of political liberalism. He argues that the term secularism cannot apply;

But what is a secular argument? Some think of any argument that is reflective and critical, publicly intelligible and rational, as a secular argument; [...], Nevertheless, a central feature of political liberalism is that it views all such arguments the same way it views religious ones, and therefore these secular philosophical doctrines do not provide public reasons. Secular concepts and reasoning of this kind belong to first philosophy and moral doctrine and fall outside the domain of the political.

Still, Rawl's theory is akin to Holyoake's vision of a tolerant democracy that treats all life stance groups alike. Rawl's idea is that it is in everybody's interest to endorse "a reasonable constitutional democracy" with "principles of toleration". His work has been highly influential on scholars in political philosophy and his term, overlapping consensus, seems to have for many parts replaced secularism among them. In textbooks on modern political philosophy, like Colin Farelly's, An Introduction to Contemporary Political Theory, and Will Kymlicka's, Contemporary Political Philosophy, the term secularism is not even indexed and in the former, it can be seen only in one footnote. However, there is no shortage of discussion and coverage of the topic it involves. It is just called overlapping consensus, pluralism, multiculturalism or expressed in some other way. In The Oxford Handbook of Political Theory, there is one chapter called "Political secularism", by Rajeev Bhargava. It covers secularism in a global context, and starts with this sentence: "Secularism is a beleaguered doctrine."

Separation of church and state is but one possible strategy to be deployed by secular governments. From the democratic to the authoritarian, such governments share a concern to limit the religious side in the relationship. Each state may find its unique policy prescriptions. These may include separation, careful monitoring and regulation of organized religion such as in France, Turkey, and others.

A major impact on the idea of state religious liberty came from the writings of John Locke who, in his A Letter Concerning Toleration, argued in favor of religious toleration. He argued that government must treat all citizens and all religions equally and that it can restrict actions, but not the religious intent behind them.

Technological Progress

Social liberals tend to emphasize technological progress, more so than other liberals. Social liberals tend to believe that technological, and material progress brings about more prosperity than cultural or spiritual progress.

And much like how Green Liberalism outgrew social liberalism into a separate ideology, the same can be said for Technoliberalism.

Technoliberalism is a political philosophy founded on ideas of liberty, individuality, responsibility, decentralization, and self-awareness. It also highlights the idea that technology should be available to everyone with minimal controls. Its core beliefs fit under five main interests that include the Construction of the Government, Economics, Civil Liberties, Education and Science, and the Environment. Technoliberals support such ideas as the balance of powers in the government, decentralization, affordable education, the protection of our planet, Fine Arts, and the freedom of speech and communication technologies.

In his book titled Technoliberalism, Adam Fish describes technoliberalism as a belief that networked technologies ameliorate the contradictions of a society that cherishes both the free market of economic liberalism and the social welfare of social liberalism. In this manner, technoliberalism has some links to neo-liberalism, yet with some core differences; "While Adam Smith conceived of a market that was in a way a natural and ineradicable part of the landscape (based on the human propensity 'to truck, barter and exchange'), and neoliberal thought continues to see the market in this way, technoliberalism holds up the idea that such complex systems can be contrived in their entirety" At the centre of the philosophy of Technoliberalism as a belief and a movement is "an overriding faith in technology, a suspicion of conventional modernist (top-down) institutions and a conviction that the aggregate effects of individual engagement of technology will generate social goods" Technoliberalism is about the combining of decentralism, individualism, responsibility and self-awareness, nothing in excess, sustainability, and engineering style regulation and governance. Its core beliefs fit under five main interests; Construction of the Government, Education and Science, Economics, the Environment, and Civil Liberties. They include:

  • The protection of the individuals' freedom, whilst maintaining that of others.
  • Free markets with strongly enforced rules.
  • Fair taxation, especially of big companies.
  • The protection of our planet through strong regulation on damage to the environment.
  • The power of small and medium-sized businesses.
  • The freedom of speech and communication technologies.
  • The emphasis on technological advancements instead of the status quo.

Personality

Social Liberalism either acts like a stereotypical western urban/suburban middle-class millennial, or a worn-out, sleepy old English man, similar to Classical Liberalism. If he's the former he's very modern and loves to read analytic philosophers such as Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Karl Popper, as well as some earlier philosophers like John Stuart Mill. He's also a massive DGGer.

If he's the latter he'll still read those analytic philosophers, although he'll usually take a much more pessimistic and pragmatic approach to politics. He'll also talk about "the glory days" like FDR's presidency and the women's suffrage movement.

How to Draw

Flag of Social Liberalism

The Social Liberal design is the Social Democratic Rose in the Liberal colours of Blue and Gold.

  1. Draw a ball,
  2. Fill it with a similar shade of blue as Liberalism (#005C94),
  3. Draw a rose in gold (#EEE8AA),
  4. Draw the eyes, and you're done!
Color Name HEX RGB
Blue #005C94 0, 92, 148
Gold #EEE8AA 238, 232, 170


Relationships

Friends

  • Enlightenment Thought - The greatest movement ever. Without you, I would be nothing.
  • Radicalism - My father, and greatest influence.
  • Classical Liberalism - My grandfather, and second greatest influence.
  • Civic Nationalism - The only acceptable nationalist.
  • Liberalism - Liberal Gang! Thanks for creating such a great system!
  • Keynesian School - He has some very good ideas but I don't like his opinion on military matters.
  • Social Capitalism - Believes in having a moderate welfare state but wants freer markets.
  • Social Democracy - A slightly more regulatory version of myself. We often form coalitions.
  • Neoliberalism - A slightly less regulatory version of myself. If SocDem is one step to the left of me, then Neolib is one step to the right. I like you a lot, but please stop doing austerity. Although I do admit I have begun to warm up to you more recently.
  • Social Libertarianism - My more extreme descendant, but his heart is definitely in the right place.
  • Libertarian Social Democracy - An even more extreme version of me. You’re a bit misguided but you’re certainly an ally.
  • Ordo-Liberalism - We share the principle of moderately regulated markets with a welfare state.
  • Nordic Model - Same as Ordo-liberalism.
  • Bull Moose Progressivism - My cool older cousin. Hope you don't mind if I borrowed some of your notes for the New Deal cuz.
  • Progressivism - Fellow liberal who fights for progress goes a bit too far sometimes but still good
  • Regulationism - Taught me that sometimes markets need rules and regulations.
  • Technoliberalism - Fellow liberal, and a man of science. You have some interesting takes, not gonna lie.
  • Liberal Feminism - My best friend! And my favorite sister.
  • Green Liberalism - My other best friend! I like a clean environment, too.
  • Civil Libertarianism - A good friend who defends the rights of all people.
  • Bleeding-Heart Libertarianism - We’re both culturally progressive and support liberty, we just have some differences regarding economics.
  • Reformism - Change is good, murdering dissenters is bad.
  • Milk-Tea Alliance - We work together against fascists, File:RamalX.png absolutists and commies.
  • Third Way - The synthesis between me and Neoliberalism. He shares my positions on safety nets and social programs.
  • Anti-Japaneseism - The time has come. Execute Order 9066.
  • Georgism - I think I am starting to warm up to the idea of implementing a Land Value Tax. Plus you're love for free trade is based.
  • Social Georgism - A bit better than his dad, but still maybe a little too out there; although I have to admit, Denmark is pretty cool.
  • Steiner-Vallentyne School - A bit to close to Libertarian Socialism but good in his proposals

Frenemies

  • Left-Wing Populism - Sometimes helpful for me, but he's still too radical.
  • Social Authoritarianism - Your economic ideas are ok, but you scare me.
  • Eco-Capitalism - Look, in principle you have good intentions to stop big corporations from damaging the environment, but trying to greenwash the companies by saying that they're using "green" technology without market regulations, is not the answer!
  • Liberal Socialism - You're kinda like me, and we share credit for a lot of important theorists, but I am the Social Democrat to your Socialism so maybe you can understand why I would want to distance myself from, ahem, such radicals.
  • Liberaltarianism - Better than the last guy, but still too libertarian.
  • National Liberalism - Well, if it isn't Mr. "I'm too cool for Alt-Right" himself. Although, I'll admit that working with you isn't always so bad.
  • Tridemism - That healthcare system and land reforms are nice, but you need to face up to what you did. Also, stop calling me Green Taliban!!!
  • Democratic Socialism - You have good cultural takes, but you're still way too far left.
  • Longism - If I borrow some of your "Sharing the Wealth" ideas, will you stop bugging me for not going far enough? And stop working with the mob!
  • Neoconservatism - Some of my followers support interventionist foreign policy while others don't.
  • Christian Democracy - One of my main opponents in elections, although your economic views aren't bad.
  • Paternalistic Conservatism - Stop making conspiracy theories and lying about me, Tucker! I am not an Islamic Marxist! Wait why do you call my economics book one of the best?
  • White Nationalism - I worked with you a lot in the USA,thanks for supporting the New Deal,but you really need to stop being so racist and culturally far right.And Trudeau did blackface once.
  • Anti-Fascism - Look, in principle you're fine, but can you PLEASE stop making us look bad?
  • Progressive Conservatism - Uhhh...based?
  • Fordism - As far as dystopian hellscapes go, you're not bad...
  • Kemalism - You did the right thing to destroy the outdated Ottoman Empire and abolish the Caliphate, but you are too statist and nationalistic for my taste. At least you're much better than them and the best leader Turkey ever had. It’s a shame that Erdogan is tarnishing your legacies and reversing your westernization and secularization policies.
  • Trudeauism - You did great at embracing my policies in Canada and making it an even better place but your later actions and your steps to freeze bank accounts of The Trucker Protestors and Keeping The Unvaccinated at home remind me of Someone.
  • Revolutionary Progressivism - You need to calm down, kid. Progress is great and all, but you go way too far—also, not a fan of your socialist ideas.
  • Rockefeller Republicanism - Part of me wishes you ran against me.

Enemies

Further Information

For overlapping political theory, see:

Liberalism, Social Democracy, Welfarism, Progressivism, Keynesian School, Regulationism, and Third Way.

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https://www.youtube.com/@thomhartmann

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Notes

  1. ↑ The FDR administration was characterized by numerous majoritarian authoritarian tendencies. He attempted to hijack the Supreme Court (making it more subservient to his agenda); used Machiavellian power politics to undermine the Republican Party in state, local, and federal elections; suspended the haebus corpus during the war to mass incarcerate Japanese-Americans; and heavily centralized the federal government to impose his New Deal objectives. He did, however, allow for limited pluralism within the Democratic Party, even making concessions to the racist-conservative wing of his party (despite the private belief in racial equality he and his wife held). Republicans to him were an existential threat to the United States, blaming them for the economic turmoil.
  2. ↑ When the Republican-appointed Supreme Court at the time struck down FDR's New Deal policies, they did so on the grounds the National Recovery Administration, by forming private cartels, was akin to cronyism.
  3. ↑ FDR was sympathetic to the corporatist economic policies of Benito Mussolini and the National Recovery Administartion to some degree was an attempt at replicating them in the United States.
  4. ↑ FDR was an admirer of Stalin (whom he affectionately called "Uncle Joe"), and was sympathetic to communists at home.

Citations

  1. ↑ https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/lyndon-johnson-civil-rights-racism-msna305591
  2. ↑ https://history.state.gov/milestones/1937-1945/atlantic-conf
  3. ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/1937/08/01/archives/roosevelt-lauds-ataturks-regime-turkish-president-in-reply.html
  4. ↑ https://natemat.pl/blogi/januszpalikot/67311,stop-faszystom
  5. ↑ https://natemat.pl/blogi/januszpalikot/67399,powszechny-spis-faszystow-psf
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