Charvet - Liberalism

John Charvets Liberalism is lively, opinionated, full of examples, and always admirably clear. The route from practices to values to theory takes the reader from actual liberal societies to its inner architecture. Anyone wanting to know what liberalism stands for and why, need look no further than this book.

Jonathan Seglow, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK.

This is a lively and original introduction to liberalism. Charvet articulates a distinctive understanding of liberalism as set of practices embedded in modern social life and provides an engaging exploration of the role played by liberal ideas in contemporary political controversies.

Cillian McBride, Queens University Belfast, UK.

LIBERALISM

Liberalism: The Basics is an engaging and accessible introduction to liberalism. The author provides a comprehensive overview of liberal practices, liberal values and critically analyses liberal theories, allowing for a richer understanding of liberalism as a whole.

The book is divided into three parts:

Liberal practices: the rule of law, free speech, freedom of association and movement, economic freedom and sexual freedom.

Liberal values: freedom, autonomy, equality and the universal values of political societies the communal identity and well-being of their members.

Liberal theories: natural rights, utilitarianism, Kants rationalism and the contemporary theories of John Rawls and the post-Rawlsians.

Presented in a clear and concise way, this book will be an ideal introduction for students and scholars of liberalism, political philosophy, political theory and political ideology.

John Charvet is an Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the London School of Economics, UK. He has also been a Visiting Professor at Johns Hopkins University, USA, and a Visiting Fellow of the Australian National University, Australia.

THE BASICS

For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com/The-Basics/book-series/B

LANGUAGE (SECOND EDITION)
R.L. TRASK

MEN AND MASCULINITIY
NIGEL EDLEY

MEDIEVAL LITERATURE
ANGELA JANE WEISL AND ANTHONY JOSEPH CUNDER

MODERNISM
LAURA WINKIEL

NARRATIVE
BRONWEN THOMAS

POETRY (THIRD EDITION)
JEFFREY WAINWRIGHT

THE QURAN (SECOND EDITION)
MASSIMO CAMPANINI

RESEARCH METHODS
NIGEL EDLEY

SEMIOTICS
DANIEL CHANDLER

SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS AND DISABILITY (THIRD EDITION)
JANICE WEARMOUTH

SPORT MANAGEMENT
ROBERT WILSON AND MARK PIEKARZ

SPORTS COACHING
LAURA PURDY

TRANSLATION
JULIANE HOUSE

LIBERALISM

THE BASICS

JOHN CHARVET

First published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2019 John Charvet

The right of John Charvet to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Charvet, John, author.

Title: Liberalism : the basics / John Charvet.

Description: New York : Routledge, 2019. | Series: The Basics | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018036867| ISBN 9780815362913 (hardback) | ISBN 9780815362920 (paperback) | ISBN 9781351111034 (master ebook) | ISBN 9781351111027 (web pdf) | ISBN 9781351111010 (ePub) | ISBN 9781351111003 (mobipocket/kindle)

Subjects: LCSH: Liberalism.

Classification: LCC JC574 .C488 2019 | DDC 320.51dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018036867

ISBN: 978-0-8153-6291-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-8153-6292-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-11103-4 (ebk)

Typeset in Bembo
by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon, UK

This little book is dedicated to all those who have contributed to bringing about and defending, through their words and deeds, a liberal and democratic way of life, as a precious thing not to be lightly discarded or thoughtlessly despised.

I wish to thank the following people for their time and trouble in reading and trying to improve earlier drafts of this work: Tony Amatrudo, Anne Charvet, Christopher Cherry, Alan Haworth, David Martin Jones, Eliza Kaczynska-Nay, Lloyd Reinhardt and Fred Rosen. I owe a special thanks to Matt Matravers for the many enjoyable occasions on which we have discussed the ideas of this book at length as well as for his painstaking efforts to improve several of its drafts.

This book is intended to be an introduction to liberalism. I understand liberalism both as a set of practices regulating important spheres of human life that have actually been adopted in many modern political societies, and as a body of ideas about what is valuable in liberal practices and why members of political societies should adopt them. As an introduction, the book is intended to be accessible to readers who have no previous knowledge of the literature on liberalism or on political theory more generally. All that is presupposed is that the reader has some experience of what it is to be a member of a political society interacting with other members on the basis of authoritative laws. The authority of the laws derives in the first place from the constitution which designates who has the right to make and enforce them. Although at any point in time the constitution settles (more or less) the question of what the laws are, any member of the society can always ask herself whether some other set of laws would not be better than the present ones. For modern states liberal laws and constitutions are one option. This book is written not just, or even primarily, for the student of politics and political theory but for the reflective citizen who is concerned with this question and wants to know how we should live together as members of a political society.

The book is divided into three parts: the first discusses liberal practices, the second liberal values and the third liberal theories. This tripartite structure does not chart a temporal sequence. I am not suggesting that, historically, liberal practices arose in some societies and then people started reflecting on the values embedded in these practices, and finally developed theories to show why liberal practices and values are superior to other possible arrangements of society, such as communism or fascism or religious authoritarianism. The sequence is, in the first place, a pedagogical one. If you set out, as I am now doing, to identify what liberalism is, what values it commits its adherents to prioritize and why they think that this is the best way for human beings to live together as members of a political society, then it makes most sense to begin with some description of what living together under legal and moral rules of a liberal character actually involves or is supposed to involve. This is what I mean by liberal practices. For example, a standard liberal practice is that of religious toleration. In a liberal regime, people are free to hold and express whatever religious beliefs they choose and are also free to engage in public worship of God in accordance with their beliefs. The laws, consequently, penalize any individual or state official who prevents or tries to prevent others from enjoying these freedoms. Hence, the members of such a liberal society interact, or are supposed to interact, in the sphere of religious belief and conduct by respecting each others freedom.