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32-1-Norton-Andrew.Pdf BOOK REVIEWS Degrees of Freedom: individuality and the institutions of spontaneous Liberal Political order—are liberalism’s political agenda. Other Philosophy and Ideology concepts are assumptions or theories about Edwin van de Haar people and social organisation, such as rationality, Transaction Publishers, sociability, and the feasibility of spontaneous 2015 order. Others still provide high-level normative US$52.89, 155 pages justifications for liberalism: the value of ISBN 978-1-4128-5575-4 individuality, progress, the general interest, and natural rights. Liberalism: Differences in the two authors’ lists are not always A Very Short Introduction or necessarily as significant as they appear. Freeden’s Michael Freeden ideas are more abstract, and some concepts from Oxford University Press, van de Haar’s list could be implied. Tolerance, 2015 which Freeden mentions directly only a few times, $15.95, 143 pages could flow from liberty, individuality, sociability ISBN 978-1-0-19-967043-7 and limited power. Nevertheless, the two men differ substantially on how to characterise contemporary Reviewed by liberalism. Freeden is not convinced that classical Andrew Norton liberalism and libertarianism are clearly within the current liberal family, while van de Haar hese two books both set out to answer the regards this issue as settled in favour of inclusion. question ‘What is liberalism?’ They share Freeden’s doubt comes, at least in part, from his view a methodology for reaching a conclusion. of liberalism’s history. He sees liberalism as having TBut they leave readers with quite different impressions five ‘temporal layers’ or time periods in which certain of contemporary liberal thought. liberal ideas become prominent (he acknowledges In classifying political beliefs, both books use that the chronology is not strict). A theory of Michael Freeden’s work on ideology. Borrowing restrained government power developed first a term from linguistics, Freeden argues that (for example, John Locke), then a theory of ideologies have ‘morphologies’. By this he means markets providing individual benefits through that ideologies share common clusters of concepts. exchange (for example, Adam Smith), then a theory These concepts can vary in their meaning and of individual development provided no harm is weight, but similar cluster content puts intellectuals, done to others (for example, John Stuart Mill), activists and parties into the same ideology. then state-supported welfare to ensure individuals Peripheral or adjacent concepts can exist alongside develop both liberty and flourishing (for example, the base cluster of concepts. Leonard T. Hobhouse and John A. Hobson) and For Freeden, liberalism’s conceptual core consists finally a theory of recognising and supporting of liberty, rationality, individuality, progress, minority identities (for example, Will Kymlicka). sociability, the general interest, and limited and In Freeden’s analysis, thinkers such as Friedrich accountable power. Edwin van de Haar doesn’t list Hayek, usually described as classical liberals, are his core liberal concepts in a way clearly intended throwbacks to liberalism’s first two stages, and miss to be comprehensive, but on my reading it includes too much of what came later to be fully liberal. freedom, individualism, tolerance, classical natural Freeden puts Hayek in the blurred area between rights, belief in spontaneous order, a realistic view liberalism and conservatism, sharing morphological of human nature, constitutionalism, and limited characteristics of each. government. The adjective ‘classical’ is doing temporal work. These lists contain ideas that serve different It distinguishes classical liberalism from the purposes within an ideology. Some—liberty, ‘social’ liberalism that developed in the second tolerance, constitutionalism, limited government, half of the 19th century in Mill’s later thinking POLICY • Vol. 32 No. 1 • Autumn 2016 53 BOOK REVIEWS and that of Hobhouse and Hobson. Freeden is support people on low incomes. Although in the an important scholar of social liberalism’s history. morphology of classical liberalism these are Some classical liberals, however, think that social peripheral rather than core ideas, the social liberal liberals are (at best) in a blurred ideological area legacy is partly intact within contemporary with social democracy. classical liberalism. While Freeden rightly notes that just because Degrees of Freedom covers the range of liberal people call themselves liberals does not mean that ideas more reliably than Freeden’s book. Although they are liberals, van de Haar’s broach church van de Haar’s own sympathies are classical liberal, approach is preferable. If Freeden’s definition of he describes major social liberal ideas fairly. liberalism excludes self-described liberal thinkers He says it became the most dominant of the liberal who draw explicitly on liberal history, use a range ideologies, and discusses the big impact since the of concepts favoured by liberals, and are regarded 1970s of John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice. But if by others as liberals, then something is wrong with Freeden is not broad church enough, sometimes his definition of liberalism or his understanding of van de Haar is too indiscriminate in who he lets classical liberalism. sit in the social liberal pews. Van de Haar thinks that other work by Freeden Drawing on a book by Gerald Gaus, Contemporary mischaracterises aspects of classical liberal Theories of Liberalism, van de Haar discusses Jurgen thinking. Liberalism: A Very Short Introduction Habermas’s idea of deliberative democracy, which does not have enough on classical liberalism to does not obviously share significant overlapping let readers make a judgment. Except for Hayek it morphology with any version of liberalism. The ignores classical liberal writers, although it spends same section refers to John Gray’s suggestion of a several pages on ‘neoliberalism’, a caricature of modus vivendi liberalism, which is closer to early market economics that tells us little about real-world ideas of liberal tolerance than to social liberalism. intellectual movements. Isaiah Berlin is also discussed in this chapter. Like van de Haar, I see classical liberalism as While Berlin is an ambiguous liberal figure, as very much within the liberal tradition. Its primary van de Haar recognises, his best-known essay concerns go back to the first two or three stages of defended the negative liberty (freedom from) Freeden’s temporal layers, but in ways that are of classical liberalism against the positive liberty prompted and shaped by much later events. In (freedom to) favoured by social liberals and the second half of the 19th century many liberals non-liberals. Whichever way Berlin’s personal beliefs believed that the state could and should do more should be characterised, his major contribution to improve individual lives. By the second half of was on the classical liberal side. the 20th century, industry nationalisation, the While putting both classical liberalism and welfare state and war had vastly expanded libertarianism in the liberal family, van de government even in countries regarded as liberal Haar distinguishes between them. He regards democracies. It is unsurprising that liberal ideas libertarianism as having a simpler morphology, evolved again to respond to new threats to with little room for the peripheral ideas in favour individual freedom. of a welfare state found in classical liberalism. As van de Haar’s book points out, classical Libertarians on van de Haar’s account support a liberalism advances on as well as draws on pre- very limited or no state, justified by a strict 20th century liberal thought. Particularly in interpretation of natural rights and strong belief economics, Austrian and Chicago school economics in the power of spontaneous ordering forces. added significantly to our understanding of how Many years ago I wrote a blog post expressing economies work. Public choice analysis contributed similar views. It was vigorously disputed by some to our understanding of politics. Van de Haar readers. They pointed to thinkers regarded as notes that Hayek supported a range of welfare libertarians who drew on utilitarian rather than state activities; he might have added that Milton rights-based arguments. An online poll I conducted Friedman advocated a negative income tax to subsequently offered support for both perspectives. 54 POLICY • Vol. 32 No. 1 • Autumn 2016 BOOK REVIEWS The poll showed that self-described libertarians are high in a political movement’s priorities, hold more radical views than self-described it can reasonably be regarded as liberal. The classical liberals, but they tend to be on the same adjectives—such as social or side on policy issues. This political relationship classical—add nuance. They may between libertarians and classical liberals helps be quarrelling relatives, but both explain why the two terms can sometimes be are part of the liberal family. used interchangeably. Liberalism’s complex political relationships with Andrew Norton is conservatism on the right and social democracy on the Higher Education the left also contribute to definitional issues. Van Program Director at the de Haar reports on how various conservative or Grattan Institute. conservative-leaning thinkers relate to liberalism, especially classical liberalism. The two ideologies are deeply intertwined in democratic politics. Many individuals hold ‘classical liberal’ views on The China Model: some issues
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