24 Facts About Classical liberalism

Classical liberalism is a political tradition and a branch of liberalism that advocates free market and laissez-faire economics; civil liberties under the rule of law with especial emphasis on individual autonomy, limited government, economic freedom, political freedom and freedom of speech.

Notable liberal individuals whose ideas contributed to classical liberalism include John Locke, Jean-Baptiste Say, Thomas Malthus, and David Ricardo.

Classical liberalism is considered closely tied with right-libertarianism in the United States.

Classical liberalism liberals believed that individuals are "egoistic, coldly calculating, essentially inert and atomistic" and that society is no more than the sum of its individual members.

Classical liberalism liberals agreed with Thomas Hobbes that government had been created by individuals to protect themselves from each other and that the purpose of government should be to minimize conflict between individuals that would otherwise arise in a state of nature.

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Classical liberalism liberals argued that individuals should be free to obtain work from the highest-paying employers, while the profit motive would ensure that products that people desired were produced at prices they would pay.

Classical liberalism liberals argued for what they called a minimal state, limited to the following functions:.

Classical liberalism liberals asserted that rights are of a negative nature and therefore stipulate that other individuals and governments are to refrain from interfering with the free market, opposing social liberals who assert that individuals have positive rights, such as the right to vote, the right to an education, the right to health care, and the right to a living wage.

Classical liberalism refuses to give priority to liberty over order and therefore does not exhibit the hostility to the state which is the defining feature of libertarianism.

Guido De Ruggiero identified differences between "Montesquieu and Rousseau, the English and the democratic types of Classical liberalism" and argued that there was a "profound contrast between the two Liberal systems".

Classical liberalism claimed that the spirit of "authentic English Liberalism" had "built up its work piece by piece without ever destroying what had once been built, but basing upon it every new departure".

Ruggiero claimed that this Classical liberalism was challenged by what he called the "new Liberalism of France" that was characterised by egalitarianism and a "rationalistic consciousness".

Classical liberalism liberals were committed to individualism, liberty, and equal rights.

Classical liberalism was the dominant political theory in Britain from the early 19th century until the First World War.

Classical liberalism was often associated with religious dissent and nonconformism.

The ideas of classical liberalism remained essentially unchallenged until a series of depressions, thought to be impossible according to the tenets of classical economics, led to economic hardship from which the voters demanded relief.

Classical liberalism remained the orthodox belief among American businessmen until the Great Depression.

Idea that Classical liberalism comes in two forms assumes that the most fundamental question facing mankind is how much government intervenes into the economy.

View that modern liberalism is a continuation of classical liberalism is not universally shared.

James Kurth, Robert E Lerner, John Micklethwait, Adrian Wooldridge and several other political scholars have argued that classical liberalism still exists today, but in the form of American conservatism.

Classical liberalism assumed that workers could be paid wages as low as was necessary for their survival, which was later transformed by David Ricardo and Thomas Robert Malthus into the "iron law of wages".

Classical liberalism opposed restrictive trade preferences, state grants of monopolies and employers' organisations and trade unions.

Classical liberalism liberals following Mill saw utility as the foundation for public policies.

Classical liberalism liberals were divided on free trade as Ricardo expressed doubt that the removal of grain tariffs advocated by Richard Cobden and the Anti-Corn Law League would have any general benefits.