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02 POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC LIBERALISM - Coggle Diagram
02 POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC LIBERALISM
CRITICISM OF THE OLD REGIME
Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau
formulated more radical criticisms
Liberalism
Based on enlightened thought
liberals developed a radical opposition to the Old Regime
Political absolutism
estate system
agricultural economy
Aspects criticised by liberals
The legal inequality of the estate system
Privileged social groups
nobles
the clergy
rest of the population
the commoners or third estate
peasants
artisans
merchants
doctors
The survival of a feudal economy
obstacles to development caused by
fiefdoms
privileged corporations such as guilds
goods that could not be sold or bought
trade restrictions
price controls established by the authorities
during bad harvest
The power of absolute monarchs and the Church
limited individual rights and freedom of expression
censored
criticism
the development of new ideas
The survival of manorialism in the fiefdoms of the nobility and the Church
the situation was not the same everywhere
inhabitants of fiefdoms
pay taxes
had to work for their lords
be subject to their laws
Serfs and subjects
Serfs
were required to serve a lord
were usually inhabitants of a fiefdom
where they lived under manorialism
subjects
were all the inhabitants of a kingdom, regardless of their class
owed obedience and loyalty to their king
Mercantilism and physiocracy
Mercantilism
the idea that more precious metals a kingdom owned ->
the more powerful it was
Craft exports were encouraged
imports limited by tariffs
accumulate currency
main theorist
Jean-Baptiste Colbert
Physiocracy
agriculture should be the main source of wealth
main theorist
François Quesnay
IDEAS OF POLITICAL LIBERALISM
an alternative social and political order to the existing one
Equality of people before the law
abolition of
privileges
fiefdoms
manorialism
the whole estate system
EVERYONE (including the King)
subject to the same laws regardless of their social origin
The existence of unalienable individual rights
cannot be taken away
human beings naturally possessed the right to
life
liberty
property
freedoms regarding issues and areas
press
printing
education
assembly
The division of powers
Following Montesquieu’s theories
power had to be moderated by
individual rights
division into three powers
the executive
exercised by the government
the legislative
exercised by parliament
the judicial
in the hands of the courts
separation between the Church and the state
Sovereignty resides in the nation
Based on Rousseau
people should govern themselves
through their representatives in Parliament
elected by voting
representative political power
people would no longer be serfs and subjects ->
instead they would be citizens
individuals who enjoy all the rights and duties established by law
MODERATE LIBERALS
monarchists
wanted to keep the king and official religion
their power should be subject to the law
eserved part of the executive and legislative power from the king
limited the right of election through censitary suffrage
restricting the right to vote for the wealthiest only
RADICAL LIBERALS
democrats
advocated universal suffrage
broad freedoms and the suppression of the role of religion
IDEAS OF ECONOMIC LIBERALISM
individual property
greater freedom to trade
The British economist Adam Smith (1723–1790)
developed the economic liberalism
freedom of the individual to
produce and buy within a free market
own private property
main work: The Wealth of Nations (1776)
It was believed that
the role of public power should be reduced to mediating in economic relationships
due to the restrictions imposed by
privileges
assets that could not be sold
price controls
commercial regulations
theories like
mercantilism
physiocracy
The state should not intervene
as the law of supply and demand in a free market would decide
what to produce
how much to produce
at what price
