Classical Liberalism: The Unvanquished Ideal

158 Pages·1995·8.32 MB·English

by  David Conway (auth.)

Classical Liberalism
The Unvanquished Ideal
David Conway
CLASSICAL LIBERALISM
Also by David Conway
A FAREWELL TO MARX: An Outline and Appraisal of his Theories
FREE-MARKET FEMINISM
Classical Liberalism
The Unvanquished Ideal
David Conway
Professor of Philosophy
School of Humanities and Cultural Studies
Middlesex University
Published in Great Britain by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
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and London
Companies and representatives
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A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
ISBN 978-0-333-76052-9 ISBN 978-0-230-37119-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-0-230-37119-4
ISBN 978-0-333-76052-9 paperback
Published in the United States of America by
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ISBN 978-0-312-12867-8 clothbound
ISBN 978-0-312-21932-1 paperback
Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
Conway, David.
Classical liberalism : the unvanquished ideal/David Conway.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-312-12867-3
I. Liberalism. L Title.
JC574.C66 1995
320.5'I--dc20 95-21527
CIP
© David Conway 1995
First edition 1995
Reprinted 1998
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made
without written permission.
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with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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sustained forest sources.
1098765432
07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00
To Caroline
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
1 Introduction
2 Classical Liberalism 6
2.1 The Fundamental Problem of Political Philosophy 6
2.2 The Classical Liberal Solution: The System of Natural
Liberty 8
2.3 Why Liberty Implies Property 10
2.4 The Economic Case for Liberty 13
2.5 The Non-Economic Case for Liberty 17
2.6 The Starving Man in the Liberal Polity 20
3 Modern Liberalism 25
3.1 Modem versus Classical Liberalism 25
3.2 Justice as Fairness, Natural Endowment and Desert 27
3.3 Impartiality, Inequalities of Sacrifice, and Legitimacy 35
3.4 Equal Worth, Equal Treatment and Equality of
Resources 39
3.5 Radical Egalitarianism and the Formal Principle of
Justice 42
3.6 Well-Being, Equality and the Politics of the Left 43
3.7 The Modem Feminist Critique of Classical Liberalism 56
4 Communitarianism 65
4.1 The Communitarian Case against the Liberal Polity 65
4.2 Community and the Liberal Polity 66
4.3 The Liberal Polity, Individualism and the Good of
Community 71
4.4 The Liberal Polity, Individualism and the Virtues 79
4.5 The Liberal Polity and Rational Morality 91
5 Conservatism 101
5.1 Varieties of Modem Conservatism 101
5.2 Allegiance, Patriotism and Nationhood 103
5.3 Post-Modem Liberal Conservatism 110
5.4 Radical Value Pluralism 114
vii
viii Contents
5.5 Personal Autonomy and Well-Being in Modem Pluralistic
Society 119
5.6 The Conditions of Personal Autonomy 126
5.7 Human Well-Being and Illiberal Society 129
6 Conclusion 133
Notes 139
Bibliography 145
Name Index 149
Subject Index 150
Acknowl edgements
This book was made possible through the award of a Bowling Green State
University Visiting Scholar Fellowship. This award enabled me to stay at
the Social Philosophy and Policy Center of Bowling Green State University,
Ohio, during the Spring Semester of 1993, where the first draft was written.
I wish to register my special thanks to the Center's directors, Fred
Miller, Jeffrey Paul and Ellen Paul, for making me feel so welcome and
giving so generously of their time. I learned a great deal from each of
them.
I should like also to thank Gerald Gaus and John Gray who were at the
Center while I was there and from whom I benefited from discussion.
Thanks are also due to Alisdair Macintyre and to his UK and US
publishers, Duckworth and University of Notre Dame Press, for their kind
permission to quote from the second edition of his book, After Virtue,
London and Notre Dame, 1987.
Towards those on this side of the Atlantic, lowe a different amalgam
of thanks. First, I must thank Middlesex University for having granted me
leave to take up the Fellowship. Second, lowe thanks to Arthur Seldon for
reading through and commenting upon an early draft. His many helpful
suggestions have done much to improve the final version.
Finally, and above all, I am indebted to my wife, Caroline, for all she
has done to make this book possible. It is to Caroline, fellow classical
liberal and muse, that the book is dedicated.
DAVID CONWAY
Middlesex University
ix
1 Introduction
The 1980s bore witness to two momentous political events. The first was
a veritable renaissance of capitalism world-wide. The second was a no less
dramatic decline in the fortunes of Soviet-style communism. The demise
of communism culminated at the end of the decade in the collapse of the
Soviet Union and the reunification of Germany. For one brief moment,
the prospects for mankind never seemed rosier. Paeans were sung to the
arrival of the end of history. It was confidently forecast that we could
now all look forward to the enjoyment of perpetual peace and affluence
safe within the citadels of liberal democracy.
Sadly, and all too soon, that brief euphoric moment has passed away.
Today, the liberal democracies of the West find themselves once more
plunged into the turbulent maelstrom of history. In the difficult and uncer
tain times of the present, to what political doctrine should nations of the
West tum for guidance?
With the Soviet experiment having ended in such ignominious fail
ure, it might have been expected that few in the West would harbour any
lingering doubts as to the superiority to all alternatives of some form of
liberal democratic capitalism. Indeed, for a period during the eighties, it
seemed that, quite independently of the events unfolding on the other side
of the Iron Curtain, Western societies had finally reached some kind of con
sensus on the overwhelming case for capitalism and for concomitantly
limited government. As well as witnessing the decline and fall of Soviet
style communism, the 1980s also witnessed on both sides of the Atlantic
the election to office of administrations that had been mandated - and
seemingly were whole-heartedly determined - to roll back the frontiers of
the state. It seemed as if the preceding decades of drift into ever-increasing
state regulation and intervention were destined to be reversed.
Looking back with hindsight, it now seems clear just how limited and
short-lived was the success of the Reagan and Thatcher governments
in achieving their similar economic and social policy objectives. Neither
was able to do much to reduce the proportion of gross national product
expended by their respective governments. In both cases, the passing of
these administrations has been followed by policy changes which have
reversed the endeavour of these two former leaders to establish greater
freedom for private enterprise and a more restricted role for government.
A variety of circumstances has conspired to bring about this reversal
of trends. Shortly after the return to power of the Thatcher government in
1