[Download] "Liberalism Reconsidered" by Douglas MacLean ~ eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Liberalism Reconsidered
- Author : Douglas MacLean
- Release Date : January 01, 1983
- Genre: Politics & Current Events,Books,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 1771 KB
Description
RONALD DWORKIN
Liberalism has two aspects, and they are both under powerful attack. Liberals believe, first, that government must be neutral in matters of personal morality, that it must leave people free to live as they think best so long as they do not harm others. But the Reverend Jerry Falwell, and other politicians who claim to speak for some “moral majority,†want to enforce their own morality with the steel of the criminal law. They know what kind of sex is bad, which books are fit for public libraries, what place religion should have in education and family life, when human life begins, that contraception is sin, and that abortion is capital sin. They think the rest of us should be forced to practice what they preach. The old issue of political theory—whether the law should enforce a state morality—is once again an important issue of practical politics.
The second side of liberalism is economic. Liberals insist that government has a responsibility to reduce economic inequality, both through its management of the economy and through welfare programs that redistribute wealth to soften the impact of poverty. But the “New Right†rejects the idea that these are responsibilities of government, and Reagan’s administration believes it has a mandate to curtail long-standing liberal programs, like food stamps, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, low-income housing, and legal services to the poor.
What is the connection between these two aspects of liberalism—its opposition to moralism in the social sphere and to inequality in the economic sphere? That is hardly an academic question. Liberalism has often been said to be incoherent as well as outmoded, just a ragbag of positions developed by different politicians who chose to call themselves liberals. It plainly requires a fresh statement of its fundamental principles and consequent policies. How the two aspects of liberalism are related has become an important substantive question, because both the appeal and content of liberalism will depend upon the answer.