Liberalism Vs. Conservatism and Libertarianism Essay

Political ideology within a state is established by examining individual ideas about politics and how they are related (Shively, 2014). Even though, not every political ideas are equal, however, they bear some sort of relationship or resemblance. Generally within a state, “ideologies are usually determine by intellectual structure from which one can derive number of disparate policy positions” (Shively, 2014, p. 25).

The idea of Liberalism, especially in the United States, is centered about the unalienable rights of an individual such as the freedoms found in the United States Bill of Rights. In the book, The Strange Death of American Liberalism by H.W. Brands, Brands says that liberalism in the United States could only survive during times of war. The United States retreats into liberalism when there is a war going on and they need the federal government’s assistance. On the other hand, the book, Liberalism: The Genius of American Ideals by Marcus G. Raskin, argued that there was no escaping from liberalism. According to Raskin, liberalism has not faded into history like many people think. Liberalism is important in the United States because it drives

Liberalism, in general, was an ideological movement that emerged out of the ideas of the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution in the early 19th century. It embraced the ideas of individualism which were established in the Renaissance and Reformation era. The Renaissance period sparked a belief in the importance of the individual in society. It helped promote the beliefs of classical liberalism which gradually formed into the liberal ideology of the 19th century. Individuals that were waiting to get their individual rights and freedoms were allowed to finally gain liberty and power through this period of time. Classical liberalism developed

As a liberal group, there were many ideas and beliefs we came up with. We came up with many issues and things that could either be done better, or completely fixed. A few of examples of issues we came up with are the poor education in our country, candidates being against the option for abortion, poor health care, and the gun laws needing to be more strict. These few examples are very important in making our country better because it can make us stronger, smarter, safer and more free. There are a few groups that support these issues and a few groups that are against them.

The ideals and the composition of liberals and conservatives are radically different at times, and yet these same beliefs work together to make up the basic framework of American political thought. They both have the same goals for prosperity and yet they have polar opposite ways of achieving them. Ideologically, they are at odds with the size of government and the role that it plays. Some want big government that provides for people, while others elect for a small government that does not interfere with the lives of people. As is expected liberals tend to vote for certain issues that conservatives will disagree with and vice versa. Of course the issues are not random, each side will vote for and against particular kinds of issues.

Being two of the most respected and qualified academicians on public policy, Charles Murray, and Robert B. Reich have never been short of making controversial and contradicting statements which arguably serves only their interest of getting an audience. Public policy as it is has been subjected to lots of changes throughout the history leading to different reactions and opinions from different individuals. “What it means to be a Libertarian-A Personal Interpretation” written by Charles Murray, explicitly describes how the society should view the government by claiming it can help in achieving overall happiness and allowing members of the society to have a right to individual freedom when coping with the changes brought by public policy. On the other hand, Robert B. Reich’s “Aftershock the next Economy and America’s Future” talks about overcoming our problems by keeping a tier of classes. This paper discusses the contradicting views of these two writers.

Many people have a strong belief in what side they take a part of, but some others may not be as informed, thus putting them in the middle of the two sides. A few of the topics that liberals and conservatives usually have different views on include abortion, affirmative action, death penalty, the economy, education, stem cell research,climate change, gun control, homeland security, healthcare, immigration, religion & government, same sex marriage, social security, taxes, and welfare. Although many college students do not have a full knowledge on many of these topics, they do have enough to form an opinion on them. Their opinions on these tops are usually what persuade them to fall under either the liberal or conservative category.

Attempts to characterize Liberalism are typically futile, since their outcome is either a catalogue of existing definitions, from which we accumulate just that they are distinctive, fragmented and conflicting; or still another arbitrary definition that simply stretches this rundown without taking out any uncertainty and disagreements in drawing closer the same topic, which by its inclination is unclear and packed with natural inconsistencies. It is difficult to define Liberalism in the world today. Liberalism origins can be followed to the beliefs of the Enlightenment in Europe in the eighteenth century (Cheyne, O’Brien, & Belgrave,2008). This strain of liberal thought can likewise be seen to rise in the philosophy and actions of the French

280-282. This journal discusses why abstinence-only programs are still taught in schools. It comes from a social work point of view and discusses the role the Bush administration played in promoting abstinence-only programs. Marx and Hopper call Bush the most religious president the country had ever had, and blame faith-based political decisions for the federal funding designated strictly to abstinence-only programs (281). They believe that the government needs to reevaluate the funding choices and put funding toward fact-based programs that work. As a conclusion,

During the colonial period, America developed traditions of limited government and individual autonomy, therefore, in a post war climate, there was a rise in liberalistic ideas in America, which was endorsed by the Founding Fathers who designed the US Constitution. The liberal idea of individualism promotes a government that protects the individual rights of its citizens, acting in each citizen’s best interest without intruding on any civil liberties. Hence, the liberal preoccupation

Even though, libertarianism and liberal contractarianism both believe in promoting individual rights, they have many differences. Libertarianism believes in liberty, and freedom as the main principals, whereas, liberal contractarianism main principal is equality. There is no surprise that both libertarianism and liberal contractarianism would have different views on raising the minimum wage.

1. Define both ‘Classical liberalism’ and ‘democracy’ and explain how they complement one another and cause tension with one another. - Classical Liberalism consisted of individual liberty, personal responsibility, and very little government interference with a person’s ability to pursue happiness. This values the freedom of people. For example, freedom of speech, religion, press, and so on.

In most cases, few Americans view liberalism as an ideology and believe that it is natural and obvious, but in reality the liberal tradition is not dominant in many societies. A liberal society by nature lacks feudalism and is instead governed by Lockian concepts. The main goal of this tradition is enhancing the freedom of the individual, which is viewed as the central concern of politics and emphasizes the primacy of an individual in society. A commonly held belief is that the purpose of government is to protect individuals from being harmed by others. Liberalism features social and class fluidity as well as the capitalist mentality, which early on rejected the old artisan, and cottage and mill mentality.

Liberalism is one of the two most common ideologies in the United States, with the other being conservatism, and the ideology that I identify with the most. The other two common ideologies, social democracy and libertarianism, are not brought up as often in politics, and as such, I will be talking about them minimally. According to the textbook, By The People: Debating American Government, liberalism is, “[rejecting] the idea that public officials should interfere in people’s private lives,” and being, “all for active government when it comes to economic policy or corporate regulation.”(Morone, Kersh, 2016, p.36). Liberalism is, in my words, the belief that government has little need to restrict certain behaviors or actions in the lives of its citizens, but instead that the time and money that would be spent on restricting these should go towards helping the economy or regulating the actions of companies. Some efforts that liberals have been working towards are protecting the environment, limiting the actions of banks, and creating more government programs to help people who need it, or at least increasing funding for said programs. Liberals tend to work towards equality for all, whether it be equality of genders, of race, or minimizing the gaps between socioeconomic classes. Liberals are more accepting to new areas of science and new breakthroughs in science than conservatives, and science is the general path I see my life going on. As such, I feel like I fit in much

Following World War II, several northern European countries responded to the United States’ efforts regarding sex education with curriculum that predominantly esteemed individual rights and pleasures in lieu of larger social goals. As for the U.S., this new topic became especially controversial between the liberals and conservatives. Liberals believed that sex education was simply overlooked and that the subject needed more attention. Conservatives on the other hand “argued that parents had the right to withdraw their children from sex education courses if it went against their religious beliefs” (Zervas, 2016). Sex education in the United States was originally advocated in 1926 by the National Education Association’s Committee on Character Education (Spring, 2014). It was promoted “as a means of combating the decline of the family and regulating sexual impulses for the good of society” (Spring, 2014). According to an article by Jennifer L. Greenblatt, “congress began promoting abstinence-only sex education in 1981 with its passage of the Adolescent Family Life Act (AFLA)” (Greenblatt, 2008). Soon thereafter, religious organizations began financially supporting AFLA in “religion-advancing ways” (for example, abortion was in no way encouraged) which led to a skewed sex education system that only taught from a specific religious perspective. This issue was addressed in court, and the final decision was that AFLA funding by