Development of Liberalism

The challenge of defining classical liberalism as a concept is far more challenging than citing the writers with whom it is associated, such as John Locke or Adam Smith. As Ryan notes, the content of liberal theory is "not necessarily" democratic, since majority rule can be tyrannical, and it is "not always" progressive, since liberal theory offers no guarantee of beneficial human experience. Nevertheless, continues Ryan:

Whatever liberalism involves, it certainly includes tolera tion and an antipathy to closing ranks around any system of beliefs. . . . It focuses on the idea of limited government, the maintenance of the rule of law, the avoidance of arbitrary and discretionary power, the sanctity of private property and freely made contracts, and the responsibility of individuals for their own fates (Ryan 292-3).

The position of the individual vis-à-vis the state is an issue as old as Antigone and as new as libertarianism. What lends liberalism per se a special place in the discourse of that issue is the degree to which it examines the content of state legitimacy i

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ennis Court Oath (Hayes, et al., 530-2, passim; Wells 748-9). The promise to prepare a constitutional monarchy, which evolved into the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the voluntary renunciation by many nobles of their privileges, can be seen as examples of the way liberal principles were realized at the time of the revolution. Louis XVI's enforced ratification of the constitutional monarchy (Hayes, et al. 532ff) could also be seen as consistent with the Lockean vision of a legitimate monarchy, were it not that he almost immediately began to plot with German and Austrian enemies of France's revolution to undermine the new system. The radical Jacobin response (Hayes, et al. 540), to dispense altogether with the monarchy and found a republic, might also be seen as consistent with the liberal notion of a man-made state, were it not that the republic anointed itself by way of regicide and reinforced its power with the Terror. Only in the area of nascent French nationalism, which emerged as the Jacobin regime was forced into war, did radical and (more moderate) liberal revolutionary maintain an alliance. The tricolor flag and the "Marsellaise" national anthem, which were suppressed between 1815 and 1848, were reasserted afterward
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Glorious Revolution, Congress Vienna, Magna Carta, German Austrian, American French, Ryan Whatever, Louis-Philippe Liberals, Empire Hayes, Louis XVIII, Napoleon Congress, hayes et, et al, hayes et al, congress vienna, communist manifesto, middle class, french revolution, february revolution, conservative restoration, ed cb macpherson, york signet, signet 1998, york signet 1998, penguin books 1985,
Approximate Word count = 3643
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)

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