{"id":1161,"date":"2021-08-17T08:51:45","date_gmt":"2021-08-16T21:51:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/?p=1161"},"modified":"2026-04-12T08:11:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T22:11:40","slug":"classical-liberal-movements-a-four-hundred-year-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/classical-liberal-movements-a-four-hundred-year-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Classical Liberal Movements: A Four Hundred Year History"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Note<\/strong>: This post is part of a series<\/a> on the History of the Classical Liberal Tradition]<\/p>\n

The Intellectual and Political History of the Liberal Tradition<\/h2>\n

There is a complex relationship between the emergence and development of political and economic ideas about liberty and the actions taken by people to put these ideas into practice. Elsewhere I have explored some of these relationships from an \u201cAustrian\u201d perspective, where I apply some of the ideas of the economist Ludwig von Mises concerning how individuals understand their own \u201cinterests\u201d, the \u201cideas\u201d people have about what their interests are, and how they take \u201caction\u201d in order to satisfy these interests.<\/p>\n

Some of the \u201cinterests\u201d which people have are political in nature or can only be understood through the \u201cintellectual filter\u201d of the political ideas they happen to have at any given time. For example, a personal might value \u201cfreedom\u201d for its own sake, as they enjoy making decisions to do certain things without having others make those decisions for them, and exercising their freedom in order to pursue those interests. Or they might think that \u201cfreedom\u201d is the best tool available for them (and others) to achieve whatever interests and goals they might have. And also, people reflect upon their past successes and failures in formulating and achieving their goals, learn lessons from these, and adjust their thinking accordingly. Thus, I would argue, there is a complex relationship between ideas, interests, and actions which I cannot explore in detail here.<\/p>\n

I have used this approach in my study of the history of classical liberal ideas, the actions individuals have taken over the century to create liberal institutions of various kinds, and the changes people have made to their thinking in the light of their successes and failures, which I would like to outline here.<\/p>\n

Liberal Movements and the Ideas which have inspired them<\/h2>\n

In summary, I argue that \u201cpro-liberty intellectual and political movements were a reaction to and opposition against the abuse of political power.\u201d [See the sections on \u201cWhat Classical Liberals were For\u201d and \u201cWhat Classical Liberals were Against.\u201d] Ideas about individual liberty did not appear in a vacuum but were often inspired by the political events which were going on around them and in turn inspired others to take political action to put these ideas into practice. The way in which theoretical ideas are spread to a broader, popular audience, is a complex matter which I cannot go into detail here, except to say that there have been numerous \u201ctransmission belts\u201d which historians have studied. [The role of what I call \u201cintellectual entrepreneurs\u201d is very important and significant.]<\/p>\n

Take one example to illustrate this process, John Locke\u2019s Two Treatises of Government<\/em> (1688). Locke had been influenced by the political writings of the radical Leveller movement of the 1640s. He wrote his treatise in the midst of another political crisis which led to the removal of the last of the Stuarts and the coming to power (by a virtual coup d\u2019\u00e9tat) by a Dutch Prince, William of Orange. His ideas were taken up by two English writers (who were \u201cjournalists\u201d in a way) in their weekly columns which were widely read and discussed in the North American colonies in the 1720s. Lockean ideas were also spread through sermons preached by liberal ministers in the colonies, and read by the leadership of the revolutionary movement which would defeat the British empire in a war and create the American Constitution 100 years after the appearance of Locke\u2019s book. Thus, Lockean ideas about \u201cthe consent of the governed\u201d (to take only one of his many influential ideas) went from words written on the page of his theoretical treatise, to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, and then into the popular culture of American democracy.<\/p>\n

I think we can multiply this specific example many times when we study the \u201cclassical liberal\u201d movement over the past 400 years.<\/p>\n

Note<\/strong>: I have developed my own \u201c70 Year Rule\u201d to explain how long it takes for ideas to go from pure theory to practical application. For example, it was 70 years after the appearance of Adam Smith\u2019s treatise on The Wealth of Nations<\/em> (1776) that his free trade ideas were successfully put into practice in England with the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 by the \u201cpolitical entrepreneur\u201d Richard Cobden. On the other side of the political ledger, it was nearly 70 years after the publication of Karl Marx\u2019s Communist Manifesto<\/em> (1848) and the coming to power of Lenin in the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. The example of John Locke and the American Revolution stretches my 70 Year Rule to nearly 100 years but the idea is still the same.<\/p>\n

The following is a list of the most significant moments during this period when CLs developed ideas about liberty and attempted to put them into practice in order to create a freer society. There are four key periods of more intense activity (or “clusters”) when CL ideas were especially prominent and influential, namely:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. 1640s: the English Civil War and Revolution (proto-liberalism)<\/li>\n
  2. 1750s-1790s: the American and French Revolutions (early liberalism, the \u201cliberal \u201c Enlightenment)<\/li>\n
  3. the long liberal 19th century 1815-1914 (classical liberalism)<\/li>\n
  4. the post-WW2 liberal renaissance and the rise of \u201clibertarianism\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    There was also a long period of what I term the \u201cpre-history\u201d of liberal thought during which some key ideas which would later become part of the we now know as \u201cliberalism\u201d were developed by people who could not be called \u201cliberals\u201d but who are nevertheless important for understanding its history.<\/p>\n

    What follows is an intellectual and historical \u201croad map\u201d which is designed to lay out the \u201cbig picture\u201d of a tradition which has been more than 400 years in the making. Wherever possible I have provided links to the relevant articles of the online version of the Encyclopedia of Libertarianism<\/em> (Sage, Cato Institute, 2008) which is an excellent, concise guide to this history. It originally appeared on the Learn Liberty website with a table of contents modelled closely on the print edition.<\/p>\n

    Note 1<\/strong>: I first made links to this version but later it was changed to a much less useful list of contents. I have retained the older links as they seem to be automatically redirected to the new version without problem. I have also created my own table of contents<\/a> for the Encyclopedia<\/em> which I think is more useful<\/p>\n

    Note 2<\/strong>: I wrote the entries on the French Revolution and many of the French liberals.<\/p>\n

    Note 3<\/strong>: For each of these key periods and movements we can list an important theoretical text which inspired many of the participants, a means by which these ideas were spread to a broader audience, and a key document which was produced, such as a Declaration of Rights or a Constitution. I plan to add examples of these later.<\/p>\n

    The Pre-History of Liberalism: Precursors and Influences<\/h2>\n