Differences And Similarities Of Liberalism

Differences and Similarities of Liberalism

The purpose of this paper is to treat the similarly and differences of
liberalism. I will use John Locke and Adam Smith to represent classical
liberals. John Stuart Mill and John Maynard Keynes will be used to show
contemporary liberals.

John Locke

In John Locke's Second Treatise of Government he develops a theory of
government as a product of a social contract, which when broken justifies the
creation of a new government for the protection of life, liberty and property.
He begins his argument by developing a theory of the state of nature which is

...what state all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of
perfect freedom to order their actions and dispose of their
possessions and persons as they think fit, within the bounds
of the law of nature, without asking leave or depending upon
the will of any other man.1

The state of nature includes the “...law of nature to govern it, which obliges
everyone; and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind who will but
consult it...”2 The state of nature also includes inequality

...since gold and silver, being little useful to the life of a
man in proportion to food, raiment, and carriage, has its value
only from the consent of men, whereof labour yet makes, in
great part, the measure, it is plain that men have agreed to a
disproportional and unequal possession of the earth.3

In Locke's state on natu...

Differences And Similarities Of Liberalism

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