Liberalism
Liberalism: Classical → Welfare → Neo
Liberalism is the ideology of the modern West, emerging with the decline of feudalism and the rise of capitalist society. It places the individual at the centre: rationality, inherent equality, autonomy, rights, and limited government.
EVOLUTION OF LIBERALISM: Classical Liberalism (Locke · Smith · Spencer — Night-watchman state; laissez-faire; liberty as absence of restraint) → Welfare / Social Lib. (Mill · T.H. Green · Hobhouse · Dewey · Keynes — Liberty as capacity; positive state; distributive justice) → Social Liberalism (Sen · Stiglitz · Rawls — Capabilities; market regulation; aid to least advantaged) → Neoliberalism (Hayek · Friedman · Nozick — Deregulation; privatisation; minimal state; free trade)
Classical Liberal thinkers & signatures:
| Thinker | Core Claim | Key Text / Line |
|---|---|---|
| John Locke | Natural rights, consent, limited government | Social Contract; property as pre-political right |
| Adam Smith | Laissez-faire; “invisible hand” | Acknowledged public goods: education, infrastructure |
| Thomas Jefferson | Minimal government | “That government is best which governs the least.” |
| Herbert Spencer | Social Darwinism | “Survival of the fittest” |
| Graham Sumner | Radical individualism | “A drunkard in the gutter is just where he ought to be…” |
Welfare / Social Liberal thinkers:
| Thinker | Contribution |
|---|---|
| J. S. Mill | Reformed utilitarianism; primacy of liberty; accepted limits of laissez-faire |
| T. H. Green | Father of positive liberalism; liberty as capacity; state must create conditions for moral development |
| L. T. Hobhouse | Liberty as positive welfare; distributive justice, public health, universal education |
| John Dewey | Active state; democratic social reform |
| J. M. Keynes | Showed capitalism’s instability; mixed economy; planning; wage & tax policy |
| Harold Laski | Welfare state; socio-economic rights: “Every state is known by the rights it maintains.” |
“Rights are those conditions of life without which no man can seek in general to be at his best.”
Harold Laski
“Social order not based on recognition of claims of persons is based on sand.”
Harold Laski
UPSC 2020 · 150w
Liberalism as a revolutionary idea
UPSC 2024 · 150w
Decline of Liberalism
Neoliberalism: revival of classical economic liberalism from the 1970s–80s.
- Hayek — planning is a “road to serfdom”; social justice is misguided
- Milton Friedman — Capitalism and Freedom: freedom possible only through the market
- Robert Nozick — Anarchy, State and Utopia: minimal state; redistributive justice illegitimate
Washington Consensus institutionalised: free trade, privatisation, deregulation via WTO, IMF, World Bank, OECD. Critics: Stiglitz (“failed ideology”), Piketty (wealth concentration), Naomi Klein (crisis politics), Karl Polanyi (markets require state power), Vandana Shiva (ecological destruction).
UPSC 2016 · Comment
“The political ideology of globalization is neo-liberalism.”
UPSC 2022 · Discuss — Community, culture and nation weaken the hegemony of neo-liberalism
What UPSC has asked
Ten years of PSIR Mains questions, each with the flow snapshot and the model answer.
Open the PYQ Finder →How this is taught
The same ground, taught in the order the subject holds together, with the answer written in class.
The first session of Foundation 2027 is published in full.
Six programmes across three levels.