Liberalism


Liberalism, since it has been around (Began around the 18th century), consisted of three cores. These are moral, economic and political cores. These cores are the foundation of what we call liberalism. The moral core consists of a persons unalienable rights, life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The economic core consists of a persons rights to produce, consume and enter into contracts through a market economy. The political core is made up of a person’s right to participate in the government, associated with a representative democracy.
The ideas expressed in the moral core have been around since the times before Christianity. The main beliefs in these times were that each person should be protected, respected, and able to seek fulfillment in their lives. The Stoics and Epicureans put an individuals personal life the highest priority, above even social or political considerations.
Within the moral core there are three main ideas. An individual has certain personal liberties that guarantee protection from the government, and that everyone has the right to live under a form of law with known procedures, that corresponRAB to everyone, including the people in the high offices or positions. This also pertains to a person’s right to think, talk, and worship in any way that they feel they need to without depriving other people of their rights. Also within the moral core exists a persons civil liberties. These are a persons right to think for themselves and learn from their own experiences without anybody obstructing their ability to do so. Civil liberties also include a person’s right to express oneself, to speak ones mind, and to write and publish freely. There is also a persons social liberties that fall under the moral core of liberalism. A persons social liberties are their right to advance in society, on their own merit, not based on race, sex or religious beliefs. This opportunity should be available for everybody.
The economic core of liberalism is just as important as the moral core in that each person has the right to own property, to earn money/ improve their net worth, produce and sell gooRAB, inheritance, and the right to enter into a contract. The economy is what resulted when the values of the economic core are put to use. The economy is controlled by the individual, who looking out for his best interests, consumes, sells, hires workers, loans or borrows money, finRAB work, and invests in companies or stock. The neeRAB and wants of the individual are what control the movement of the economy or the market. The laws of quantity and demand will remove all the inferior gooRAB, and maintain prices at a reasonable level through competition, and no government interference. The laws of quantity and demand will also regulate the work force, in that it will keep wages honest, in that the quantity and the demand for laborers also works with the same principals as the gooRAB being sold. The system in theory favors the consumer; competition allows the consumer the ability to make decisions, which makes the consumer the regulating factor of the economy.
The political core of liberalism is made up of four concepts: representation in government, popular sovereignty, individual consent, and constitutionalism. Individual consent gives people the right to enter into a contract on their own will and if they do not wish to they do not have to follow it (there are some exceptions to this). Political authority begins only upon the consent of the individual, and more people are willing to abide this authority if decidedly done so by their own decisions. An individual also has the right to be represented in the legislature. This representative is one elected by the people, and this individual should reflect the ideas and desires of the majority of the people the representative has been elected by. The political core of liberalism comes from the people, which is different than the other cores in the fact, that the others are believed to be with every individual indefinitely, whereas the political core is decided upon by the individual. Constitutionalism is the system of checks and balances that controls any one particular section of the government form having absolute power. Instead each branch regulates the other with no individual one with more power than another. The government in this way is able to protect the civil and moral liberties of the individual.
Liberalism is about the individual, and the rights that they have. Liberalism uses three main cores to express how to protect these rights; they are the moral core, the economic core, and the political core. The moral core protects the rights of the individual for life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The economic core protects the rights of the individual to be the controlling factor in the economy/market. The political core gives a person the ability to let their voice be heard in the government, and to restrict the power of the government, and allowing each branch to control the next without surrendering absolute power to any one. Without these basic ideas put in place, liberalism wouldn’t be able to fulfill the neeRAB of the people, the ideas expressed in liberalism protect the unalienable rights of the individual, and is an excellent tool that is used in many political systems.