By Rishi Kothari.
We are humans first. No matter what any of us say, we as individuals are more important than any group—we're stronger together.
Liberalism, pioneered by John Locke in the 17th century, is a world in which individuals and the governed can make choices to better their society. It's a world where democracy and the governed matter above everything else. It's a world in which individuals have their unique merits, and deserve to receive equal opportunities to better themselves.
Welcome to Liberalism, the ideology that believes in change, individualism, and the innate human desire to care.
John Locke: The father of Liberalism.
Liberalism is a political ideology focused around the individual as opposed to the system. Rather than governing an abstract system, liberalism sees a society as a pure function of its people, and so focuses on governing individuals before all—individualism is the most important part of a liberal society.
As opposed to conservatism (which criticises humans as being negatively resourcefull, cunning, and evil when given power), liberalism views humans as rational, logical individuals that may focus on their own needs, but are able to resolve their differences using debate and conversation, and believe that humans are part of a bigger system.
Liberalism also focuses on progress; liberals believe in the innate human desire of change. They believe that humans as individuals are the best possible indicators and the best possible decision-makers.
Although Liberalism focuses on the good in humans as opposed to the negatives, they are not blind to the darkness; they recognize that when individuals are given a large amount of power with no way of keeping them in check, they will become corrupt. This is why Liberalism takes on a stance of Big Government for individuals. Unlike conservative societies, where government is to be feared, Liberalism sees government as a power for social good; it's a way for individual rights and freedoms to be preserved, while still allowing for total social freedom to be given to the public.
Liberal societies believe that government should be focused on and created by the 'lower' classes; "consent of the governed" reigns supreme. As such, governments are usually given a moderate amount of power, but are decentralized (as opposed to having one singular governing body, there would be a number of different categories, so that no one person can ever dictate what the entire society does). In addition, there is always a general document that states the core principles behind the society, usually detailed as a Bill of Rights. This shows another core idea behind liberalism; diversity is necessary for a well-functioning society. If diversity is not there, democracy can never occur for all groups and parties; just as a journalist cannot write an accurate article without knowing the full story, legislation and execution cannot be passed or done if there is not input from as wide of a group as possible.
Liberal societies also see the government as a sort of 'parent' to the rest of the population; although individualism is the most important part, Liberalism believes that individuals cannot grow and mature responsibly without a definition of what responsible means.
All mankind... being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions. The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom.
This quote by John Locke shows just how liberalism functions; rather than being a way for higher-ups to restrain the society, liberalist governments use the law as an incredibly powerful force for good as a society. Liberalism focuses on a society as made up of discrete individuals, not as a group of people to govern. All of them have an innate desire to better themselves, while bringing their society up with them.
This is a topic that varies between liberal societies, but in general, the facets remain the same. Liberalism generally favours a more relaxed view on crime and punishment, when viewed from a conservative stance. This stems from two core ideals in particular: individualism and progress.
As aforementioned, Liberal societies focus on individuals, not large-scale governance. This, combined with the fact that Liberalism believes that humans are willing to change for the greater good, means that there's a more complex view of crime (and by extension, punishment). Rather than merely seeing it as a breaking of the law, crime is seen an effect of some societal failure, not as a result of the person themselves.
As such, liberal societies see the punishment of crime as something that is incredibly deep as well. In contrast to the "crime control" model of conservative societies, where they believe that crimes are committed purely because of individual greed (this is synonymous with conservatives' view of humans as inherently evil), liberal societies view it as an opportunity for growth and rehabilitation.
In Liberalism, economies—just as the government—have to be dictated first and foremost by the people. Unlike far-left ideologies like communism, liberal societies focus on having markets be dictated by the people. Indeed, Winston Churchill said in 1908 that "Socialism attacks capitalism; Liberalism attacks monopoly."—liberalism is far from anti-capitalist. Rather, it embraces the core spirit of individualism and socioeconomic equality (while still maintaining individual rights and freedoms; as opposed to Marxist Socialism).
This focus on equality means that free markets is a core pillar of liberal societies; quoting 1908 Winston Churchill once more, "...Liberalism would rescue enterprise from the trammels of privilege and preference." Liberalism focuses on bringing the same benefits that high-class individuals in conservative societies to the rest of the population, not just the privileged few. While the government may not interfere with economic affairs as much as a communist society would, liberals agree that monopolies must be stopped; economic benefits have to affect everyone, seeing as everyone participates in it.