Have modern Liberals abandoned individualism and embraced collectivism?

Authors Avatar

Have modern Liberals abandoned individualism and embraced collectivism?

Modern liberalism is a development within liberal ideology that has revised some of the ideas of classical liberalism. Some classical liberals argue that modern liberalism has abandoned individualism and embraced collectivism to the extent that it has abandoned a belief in the free market and the minimal state and endorsed economic and social intervention.

An alternative view is that modern liberalism has built on and revised core liberal ideas rather than abandoned them, much like the relationship between traditional conservatism and the New Right. The two schools of thought in this case agree on the same core values and goals, but the way in which they go about attempting to achieve them is different. Thus the modern liberal case for government is based on a belief in developmental individualism (linked to human flourishing), and positive freedom (viewed as personal fulfilment). The modern liberal case for state intervention is an equivocal one: they only support intervention when individuals can’t help themselves, usually because of social disadvantage.

Join now!

A further view could be that modern liberalism is characterised by an attempt to reconcile individualism with collectivism.

Collectivism is the belief that collective social action is morally and practically superior to individual self-striving. It highlights the social aspect of human nature and portrays collective bodies or social groups as meaningful entities.

Individualism is often associated with attempts to contract or minimising the state with a view to widening individual freedom and strengthening individual responsibility .This is reflected in the classical liberal preference for a minimal state and, in its most extreme form, in anarcho-individualism.

...

This is a preview of the whole essay