Positive And Negative Freedoms: Classical And Modern Liberalism Views

Freedom allows people to behave as what they want and get the right to make a decision to own what they deserve. It gives people the idea to free themselves to perform in their own favor. Some people thinks that freedom can lead them to do something that out of their control which could risk their life. In addition, different people have a different perspective toward the freedom that reflect the idea of positive and negative freedoms.

In the early nineteenth century, the idea of Liberalism started to develop the political belief even though the liberal theories and principal had dramatically been improved since 300 years ago (Heywood, A. 2013). Liberalism is the belief of economy and politic which consist of five key ideas such as individualism, freedom, reason, equality, toleration, consent and constitutionalism. It has required in any case regarding political ideologies. Moreover, liberalism also reflects the meta-ideology that the ideological debate may occur in the higher or second-order (Heywood, A. 2013).

Freedom is the core value of the liberalism that give the priority toward the equality, justice and authority, which included the individual freedom or liberty (Heywood, A. 2013). This idea gives people the right to do what they want and what they choose but under the term “freedom under the law” because one person’s liberty can be a consequence to another person’s liberty (Heywood, A. 2013). There are two types of freedoms including the positive and negative freedoms. According to Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2016), Positive freedoms is the acting of one person’s liberty that free from their internal restrain. As an example, positive freedoms helps people to get away of the idea of being greedy. There are a lot of people who keeps wanting thing more and more to themselves which sometimes they can go over their limitation. Aside from this, it helps people to control their inner feeling and set them free. This idea also involves with the government by having the support from the state such as help with poor people. Whereas, the negative freedom is the freedom that one person has the right to act which does not interfere with the government. Handover, the barrier or constrain is absence in the negative freedom which it allows people to get the freedom from their external restrain. For instance, the right to own the property which the government cannot obstruct with their decision. Moreover, there is no obstacle from the state to prohibited the right of people to perform which they have the freedom to live and it helps to promote equity. Even though, there are a distinguish between the positive and negative freedom but these ideas give people the right to set themselves free which the government take the different part to perform.

The idea of positive and negative freedom also illustrates the role of the state in classical and modern liberalism. In classical liberalism, it goes with idea of the negative liberty which support the non-interference from the state. According to Andrew Heywood (2013), it reflects the term of “economic liberalism” which people believe that the economy is improving and developing when it does not involve with the government. The classical liberalism forms the idea of individualism as well as the government have to protect one person’s liberty from violating from another person’s liberty (ScienceDaily, 2019). People cannot harm or hurt other people by their action. This idea focus on the individual acting rather than the matter of the state. They can take part to help other people unless it does not lead to the risk to their action. This group believe in the free market which the government should not intervene with the citizens’ economy (Ashford, 2016). For instance, if the citizen run their own business, the state cannot control about their economy which they have to allow them to perform legally as what they want to. In this case, only the private parties in the company that can intervene with the issue. Based in United States, people have the freedom of speech to raise their concern and vote in the election. The citizens have the right to do whatever but the state helps to prevent other people to make sure they are doing the right thing.

In contrast, modern liberalism is the idea that support the positive liberty which the government involve with the economy or the need of the citizens. The citizens have the right to do what they want but they can ask the offer from the state such as social welfare program for the people that face with poverty (Heywood, A. 2013). When people face with the problem such as lack resources, government can step in, to help them. On the other hand, when the government involves with the citizens, their economy tends to drop. For an example, if they run the business, the company has to follow what the state tell them to do. Additionally, when the poor people has the support program from the state, this issue can affect with the economy sector. The group of people does not seem to have a motivation for them to work for other company since they get the support from the state. This could lead to increase of unemployment rate in the country when the state offers the welfare program. As an example in the united states based on the Obama care program, the purpose is to increase of the number of people that be able to have the health insurance and decrease the cost of it by restricting certain insurance company and taxing high-income family. However, the company have to responsible for health care of the employees which the big corporation has a high turnover rate because they have to make a high revenue. This illustrates that when the government intervene into their economy, the consequence might occur and affect the performance of their private life.

Aside from this, there are some similarities between the modern and classical liberalism specifically in politic freedom which they value on the people right and they can express their prospect toward the state. Nonetheless, modern liberalism believes that individual can possess this right and more; while also giving the support to them.

In conclusion, the positive liberty plays an important role in modern liberalism to support the people which interfere from the state. Whereas, negative liberty has an impact on the classical liberalism to support the individualism as well as people have the equal right in their economy or private life which the government cannot step in their issue. Nevertheless, both of these focus on the equity of people right, make sure their liberty does not violate another person’s liberty.

Bibliography

1. Ashford, N. (2016). What is classical liberalism? Retrieved from Learn Liberty: https://www.learnliberty.org/blog/what-is-classical-liberalism/
2. Heywood, A. (2013). Politics (Forth Edition). Palgrave Macmillan.
3. ScienceDaily. (2019). Classical liberalism. Retrieved from ScienceDaily: https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/classical_liberalism.htm
4. Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2016). Positive and Negative Liberty. Retrieved from Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/liberty-positive-negative/