Analyse how different ideologies treat the concept of liberty.

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Analyse how different political ideologies treat the concept of liberty.  What advantages and disadvantages does each have?

Liberty can be interpreted as meaning the freedom to do something without restrictions.  The principal interpretations of liberty are ‘negative liberty’, which can be understood as freedom from restrictions; ‘positive liberty’, which can be understood as freedom to do things; and the view that there is such a small difference between these two interpretations that a distinction is unwarranted, as the ability to do something necessarily involves a lack of restrictions.  The differences between the two interpretations regard the way in which people wish to treat liberty.  Those who view liberty in the ‘negative’ sense, for example liberals and anarchists, generally feel that the role of law should be as limited as possible, whereas those who view it in the ‘positive’ sense generally feel that laws are needed so as to help people to achieve their full potential liberty.  In this essay I will consider liberal, conservative and anarchist (the end result of the Marxist dialectics is anarchism, and as such Marxism will be treated as a form of anarchism) interpretations of liberty.

Most conservatives believe that human nature is intrinsically irrational and thus conservative interpretations of liberty are complex.   Conservatives focus on some aspects of positive liberty and some aspects of negative liberty.  For example law enforcement is an important institution to make sure people are safe and secure, but free market capitalism is important as it gives businesses the freedom to grow and provides the best service for consumers.  

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This interpretation of the importance of different forms of liberty is based upon the idea that a hierarchy of individuals will always exist in society and that it is impossible to change.  However, this idea can be contested with the use of contemporary examples of ‘collectives’, ‘free cultural spaces’ and ‘autonomous zones’, where people seem to show that it is possible to live in a society that is not hierarchical.  The way that conservatives ‘pick and choose’ between positive and negative interpretations of liberty is also questionable.  Free market capitalism can be seen as incredibly dangerous, as for example first ...

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