Difference Between Classical And Modern Liberalism

The liberalism of each individual country is different and subject to change at any given moment due to its high sensitivity to time and circumstance. Liberal-based ideas of democracy and individual freedom are first found emerging out of Athens, Greece and then later from the Roman Republic. After the fall of the Roman Empire, chaos spread and such liberal-based ideas disappeared as people spent a millennium trying to create an organized society to get rid of the anarchy that existed. As societies became more stable in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, people had time to think about other things than just how to survive.. During the Renaissance, the role of the individual in society became viewed with more importance and this …show more content…
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, classical liberalism was focused on restraining laws that may be passed in order to to maintain minimal government intervention. In the nineteenth century, the focus of the people moved to the ends of government, with the belief that there be a great leveling between people, with no class distinctions and high degrees of equality. Rather than focusing on using government means, the government must be restrained from tyrannical laws and excessive taxation. Modern liberalism has more to do with social equality than classical liberalism, with values based on sustainability and peace. Classical and modern liberalism refers to the same intellectual tradition of liberty for those holding a different point of view.The hostility to any concentration of power that threatened the freedom of an individual was an inspiration that bound them. The willingness to always question social institutions is what differentiates a liberal from a radical, and the eagerness to welcome useful change is was what distinguishes a liberal from a conservative. To further this distinction, the opposite of classical liberalism is utilitarianism, as the opposite of modern liberalism is conservatism. Liberalism is a loaded word, with a meaning that has changed over time, The definition depends on the context. A true liberal has no set definition on what makes “the good life” and believes that all individuals should be able to live their life as they please as long as it has no detrimental effect on another person. While the ideology of liberalism has changed over time, in modern society the belief in individual human rights remains unchanged. In summary, a liberal is a person who believes in the protection and promotion of individual