HY 106 Lecture Notes - Lecture 40: The Communist Manifesto, Proletariat, Class Consciousness
Radical Ideas and Early Socialism
1. Liberalism
1. Revived conservatism, with stress on tradition, a hereditary monarchy, a
strong and privileged landowning aristocracy, and an official church, was
rejected by radicals
2. The principal ideas of liberalismāliberty and equalityāwere not
defeated in 1815
1. Political and social philosophy continued to challenge to revived
conservatism
2. Liberalism demanded representative government as opposed to
autocratic monarchy, equality before the law as opposed to legally
separate classes
3. The idea of liberty continued to mean specific individual freedoms:
freedom of press, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and
freedom of arbitrary arrest
4. Louis XVIIIās Constitutional Charter and Great Britain with its
Parliament and historic rights of English people had realized much of
the liberal program in 1815
3. Liberalism faced more radical ideological competitors in the early
nineteenth century and that liberalism resolutely opposed government
intrusion in social and economic affairs even if the need for action
seemed great to social critics and reformers
1. This form of liberalism is often called īclassicalī liberalism in the
United States in order to distinguish it sharply from modern
American liberalism, which favors more government programs to
meet social needs and to regulate the economy
2. Opponents of classical liberalism criticized its economic principles,
which called for unrestricted private enterprise and no government
interference (laissez faire)
4. The idea of a free economy had first been formulated by Adam Smith
(Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations) who
founded modern economics
1. Smith was highly critical of eighteenth-century mercantilism
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2. Smith argued that freely competitive private enterprise would result
in greater income for everyone, no just the rich (general economic
development)
5. British economy was liberalized as old restrictions on trade and industry
were relaxed or eliminated; this liberalization promoted continued
economic growth in the I.R.; economic liberalism and laissez-faire
economy were embraced by business groups and became a doctrine
associated with business interest; labor unions outlawed
6. Thomas Malthus, who argued that population would always grow faster
than supply of food and Ricardo, who said that wages would be just high
enough to keep workers from starving, helped make economic liberalism
an ideology of business interests
7. Liberal political ideals became more closely associated with narrow class
interests
1. Early-nineteenth-century liberals favored representative government,
but generally wanted property qualifications attached to the right to
vote
2. Liberalism became increasingly identified with the middle class after
1815 and inspired by memories of the French Revolution and
Jacksonian democracy, they called for universal voting rights, at
least for males (would lead to democracy)
8. Many people who believed in democracy also believed in the republican
form of government; they detested the power of the monarchy, the
privileges of the aristocracy, and the great wealth of the upper middle
class (democrats and republi-cans were also more willing than most
liberals to endorse violent upheaval for ideals)
2. Nationalism
1. Nationalism was the second radical idea that came after 1815, with three
major points
1. Nationalism has normally evolved from a real or imagined cultural
unity, manifesting itself especially in a common language, history,
and territory
2. Nationalists have usually sought to turn this cultural unity into
political reality so that the territory of each people coincides with its
state boundaries; explosive in central and eastern Europe where
there were too many states or too little states
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