What was "New" about "New Liberalism"?

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James Murdoch What was “New” about “New Liberalism”? Old liberalism, otherwise know as classical or Gladstonian liberalism was centred around the fundamental rights of the individual. It was an ideology that the state should have little to no intervention in people’s lives and in the economy. It relied heavily upon the notion of laissez faire, and the Victorian mindset of self-help. Thrift was one of these ideas. It was the theory that any family could support itself if that income was managed wisely, and a pension could be saved for. The key pillars of old liberalism was low taxes and low state intervention. This was because they believed that the people should be able to spend their money as they wised, and not be forced to send it in taxes. The second principle of low state intervention was born out of the thought that “state intervention in the working of the market was both futile and wrong” especially reforms such as social intervention, which would require public expenditure. Classical liberalism was therefore based on personal liberty. If people were believed to be able to help themselves as long as they worked hard enough, then the state did not need to intervene and therefore peoples liberties to choose how they spent there earned money was their freedom. The government was restricted to removing obstacles to entrepreneurship and providing a very basic social service, such as the postal system, which they preferred to be
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funded by public donation than state funds. However if old liberalism was working, how did new liberalism manage to evolve. Towards the late 19th century political thought and theory was at an all time high, while conversely Britain’s economy was beginning to falter. For decades she had been the powerhouse of the world being more or less the only industrialised nation on the planet, and therefore became a great and powerful nation, with an unstoppable and unopposed economy. Towards the end of the century this was coming into question. Other European nations were industrialising and eating into Britain’s profits. There ...

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