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ACTA UNIVERSITATIS UPSALIENSIS Skrifter Utgivna Av Statsvetenskapliga Föreningen I Uppsala 196 ACTA UNIVERSITATIS UPSALIENSIS Skrifter utgivna av Statsvetenskapliga föreningen i Uppsala 196 Svante Nycander The History of Western Liberalism Front cover portraits: Thomas Jefferson, Baruch de Spinoza, Adam Smith, Alexis de Tocqueville, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Joseph Schumpeter, Woodrow Wilson, Niccoló Machiavelli, Karl Staaff, John Stuart Mill, François-Marie Arouet dit Voltaire, Mary Wollstonecraft, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant, Ludwig Joseph Brentano, John Dewey, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Charles-Louis de Secondat Montesquieu, Ayn Rand © Svante Nycander 2016 English translation: Peter Mayers Published in Swedish as Liberalismens idéhistoria. Frihet och modernitet © Svante Nycander and SNS Förlag 2009 Second edition 2013 © Svante Nycander and Studentlitteratur ISSN 0346-7538 ISBN 978-91-554-9569-5 Printed in Sweden by TMG Tabergs AB, 2016 Contents Preface ....................................................................................................... 11 1. Concepts of Freedom before the French Revolution .............. 13 Rights and Liberties under Feudalism and Absolutism ......................... 14 New Ways of Thinking in the Renaissance ........................................... 16 Calvinism and Civil Society .................................................................. 18 Reason as a Gift from God .................................................................... 21 The First Philosopher to Be Both Liberal and Democratic ................... 23 Political Models during the Enlightenment ........................................... 24 Economic Thought after the Middle Ages ............................................ 25 Two Different Models: England and France ......................................... 28 “All Men Are Created Equal” ............................................................... 32 2. The Idea of the Limited State ....................................................... 33 Machiavelli: Fortuna, Virtù, and Virtus ................................................ 34 Self-Preservation the Basis for all Law and all Power .......................... 35 The State as Artificial Man ................................................................... 37 Hobbes and the Language of Liberalism ............................................... 38 An Un-Christian Interpreter of the Bible .............................................. 40 The Philosophy of Natural Rights ......................................................... 44 A State without Responsibility for the Souls of its Citizens ................. 45 The Separation of Powers according to Montesquieu ........................... 47 Free Markets: Interests in Harmony ...................................................... 50 A Critique which Could Not Be Dismissed .......................................... 52 3. The French Revolution: Its Friends and Enemies ................... 54 The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen ..................... 54 The Catholic Church in Trouble ............................................................ 56 War, the Reign of Terror, and Cultural Revolution .............................. 57 Harvest Time for the Revolution ........................................................... 60 Edmund Burke and the Rights of Englishmen ...................................... 62 Asking Questions that a Child Can Answer .......................................... 65 Branches of Liberalism ......................................................................... 68 4. Benjamin Constant and Modern Liberty ................................... 70 The Liberty of the Ancients ................................................................... 70 Napoleon’s Opponent and Confidant .................................................... 72 Liberty in Large Modern States ............................................................. 74 Political Indifference Encourages Tyranny ........................................... 76 “The Majority Never Oppresses” .......................................................... 77 A Lifelong Grappling with Rousseau .................................................... 79 Two Kinds of Tyranny .......................................................................... 82 Constant and Anti-Liberalism ............................................................... 84 5. Lockean Liberalism or Classical Republicanism .................... 87 A New Paradigm ................................................................................... 88 Civic Virtue or Contending Interests ..................................................... 90 The Conflict with Anti-Modernity ........................................................ 92 The Ambiguities of Machiavelli ............................................................ 93 Finding Meaning in the Intolerable ....................................................... 95 Modern Virtues More Beneficial than Ancient Ones ............................ 97 The Founding Fathers Were Lockean Liberals ..................................... 98 Genuine Republicanism Stronger in France ........................................ 102 6. Francis Place and English Radicalism ...................................... 104 Wielding Influence behind the Scenes ................................................ 105 A Link between Craftsmen and the Middle Class ............................... 107 Utility as the Highest Value ................................................................ 108 The Father of All Social Engineers ..................................................... 110 When There Are Too Many People .................................................... 113 Utilitarianism, Political Economy, and Poor Relief ............................ 115 Adam Smith on Wages and Trade Unions .......................................... 117 The Fight for Trade-Union Rights ....................................................... 119 Parliamentary Reform and the Threat of Revolution .......................... 120 The Liberal Face of Labour Radicalism .............................................. 122 7. Republicanism and Liberalism in Kant .................................... 124 A Republican Monarchy ..................................................................... 125 The Basis of Politics in Critical Philosophy ........................................ 127 Peace through Universal Principles of Law ........................................ 130 Liberalism according to Locke or according to Kant .......................... 133 Renaissance for Kant as a Political Thinker ........................................ 135 8. The American Model .................................................................... 138 A Liberal Absolutism .......................................................................... 139 Two Political Traditions ...................................................................... 141 No Feudalism No Socialism ................................................................ 143 The Influence of Locke Pushed America to the Right ........................ 145 Free and Less Free Employment Contracts ......................................... 146 Military Involvement in Five Hundred Labour Disputes .................... 148 Labour Law Shaped the American Labour Movement ....................... 149 Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Value Relativist ..................................... 151 9. Tocqueville: A Reluctant Democrat ......................................... 154 A Study of Jacksonian Democracy ..................................................... 154 Royal French Equality ......................................................................... 155 Liberty’s Preconditions ....................................................................... 157 Orthodox Catholic without Personal Faith .......................................... 160 Three Countries, Three Models ........................................................... 161 Jurists as Aristocratic Counterweight to Democracy .......................... 162 Democracy Is Better, Despite Everything ........................................... 164 The Right is Superior to the Useful ..................................................... 165 Classes as Object of Study for the Historian ....................................... 166 Freedom in Great Things and in Small ............................................... 167 10. John Stuart Mill, Rationalist and Romantic ............................ 170 From Calculating Utility to Finding Truth in Poetry .......................... 171 Individuality Is the Highest Value ....................................................... 173 Reinterpreting Utilitarianism ............................................................... 174 Voting Is a Trust, not a Right .............................................................. 176 No Friend of Homo Economicus ......................................................... 177 A Protected Private Sphere .................................................................. 181 Declared a Saint by Gladstone ............................................................ 183 Idealism and a Critique of Christianity ............................................... 184 11. German Liberalism—on Terms Set by its Adversaries ....... 187 Liberal Reformers and State Officials ................................................. 188 Another World from France, England, and the United States ............. 190 No Agitation, No Parties, No Programmes ........................................
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