s an abstract. Malthus, like Adam Smith, argued against government interference with the economy in any way, advocating that the poor, by whom he meant the incompetent, had to left alone to sink or swim, else population growth would overwhelm all social resources. However, Smith already had realized that the tendency for monopolies to form in a laissez faire economy would require the government to provide some basic social services and protect the freedom of the market. Suffrage was expanded steadily from the eighteenth century on, as it became clear that only an enfranchised population could participate meaningfully in a free-market economy.
B. John Stuart MillÆs Developments of Liberalism.
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