Political Economy and Liberalism

The conservative perspective of human nature is that it is driven more by passion than reason and requires strong, hierarchical social structures to channel passion and foster individual personality development and the discovery of appropriate social roles. The view of government is that it should "maintain the natural order of society" (79), i.e., its hierarchical structure, functioning as a symbol of institutional order, tradition, and civic and family virtue while protecting property rights. Equality is absolute as far as basic citizenship and impartial dispensing of justice are concerned. Efficiency derives from orderly governance and material production (80) and maintaining social cohesiveness and individual virtue. At its extreme, it could degenerate into pathological nationalism.

The classical liberal perspective of human nature is that of rational self-interest. Society comprises such individuals, and government enables them to maximize their interests--typically economic and property-related (48-9). Equality is a matter of equal opportunity to

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r good or ill. Government in radical terms is meant to function as institutional representative of group interests and goals, since individuals cannot accomplish such goals on their own; compare the conservative view, which is that government must function institutionally to represent hierarchical values and structures. Equality of result, especially for disadvantaged groups, is the primary value to be guaranteed by the government, which may entail government regulation, taxation, etc. (64). In the conservative view, disadvantaged social status is irrelevant to the question of equality because unequal social status is merely a consequence of social organization. And whereas conservative perspective is that efficiency is a consequence of good social organization, the radical view is that it is the responsibility of society to use resources in ways that will result in individual development, equality, and justice (64). Comparison between radical and conservative perspectives of political economy suggests how neoconservatism derives from the conservative perspective. Neoconservatism subtly accepts the conservative view that hierarchically organized society is optimal by asserting that government should intervene in social organizati
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Modern Liberalism, , Bibliography Clark, Classical Liberalism, individual development, public choice, human nature, perspective human, public choice theory, perspective human nature, conservative perspective, conservative view, choice theory, social organization, institutional economics, modern liberal, Conn Praeger, development equality justice, consequence social organization, radical institutional economics,
Approximate Word count = 1223
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)