> Throughout the discussion of the models, Macpherson identified how the theorists attempted to combine the two meanings. Macpherson took the position that liberal could mean freedom of the stronger to dominate the weaker by following market rules or that liberal could mean equal freedom for all to use and develop their capacities. In his view, the latter was incompatible with the former.
Liberal democracy began in capitalist market societies approximately 150 years ago. John Stuart Mill, described by Macpherson as an ethical liberal, combined the theories of market freedom and the claim for equal individual rights to self- development in various writings published in 1820. Mill established the justification of liberal democracy largely by the claim that individual fredom could exist in a capitalist market society. After that time, the two definitions of liberal democracy shared an uneasily alliance.
Macpherson suggested that liberal democracy as currently defined depended on the lessening of ma
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