CLASSICAL LIBERALISM
Classical Liberalism is basically a political principle which promotes civil liberties especially economic freedom, it promotes private ownership with minimal state intervention. In short, liberalism is model of society in which state is a necessary evil, and it should minimize its role to protection of individuals’ life and property and other services not undertaken privately. Liberalism defended the principle of ‘Laissez Faire’, which basically means leave alone; Liberalism stands for least-to-no interference in the economic activities of individuals by the state.
There are two broad concepts of Liberalism; (a). Individualism; and, (b). Utilitarianism. For the purpose of this series the author is going to discuss only one of them which is;
- Individualism- Individualism is a concept of governance which gives utmost importance to an individual being’s independence while framing public policies, this concept dictates that no one should suffer in order to benefit the whole society or a large section of a society.
Individualism states that only individuals should have constitutional rights instead of a family, or a union, or a group. Thus, in a sense individualism promotes capitalism, because capitalism in its most basic sense means an economic setup in which all the means of production are privately owned/controlled. Since, liberalism provides for least governmental interference in private transactions, capitalism would thrive in a social setup such as this.
MARXIST THEORY OF DEMOCRACY
Democracy in today’s world is basically termed as liberal democracy, which as discussed above means that the individual’s rights are prioritized and protected by the government. While, on the other hand Marxists are of the view that liberal democracy gives rise to a capitalist society which subsequently identifies as a class conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Marxists severely criticise the liberalist form of government and often refer it as Bourgeoisie dictatorship. Karl Marx was particularly of the view that equal representation of the people doesn’t matter when there is such deep inequalities of wealth, he argues that the wealthy class purchase the representation through powerful influence, bribes, media propaganda, and economic coercion.
Liberal Democracy Servant of the Bourgeois- According to Marxists, the liberalist form of democracy exclusively serves the interests of the Bourgeoisie, because of its political structure which inevitably divides the society into two classes, and the Bourgeoisie because of their wealth and power control such forms of governments. Marxists argue that since liberal democracy harbors capitalism, it would be foolish assume that it serves the proletariat. The main contention here is that the private ownership of the means of production gives the Bourgeoisie an edge over the proletariat class, which helps them control the will of the masses making them think that it is their will. The wealthy class usually benefits from the economic setup of liberal democracy, which deepens the divide between the haves and the have nots, and the worker class because of their subjugated will are made to think that this liberal democracy is for their own welfare. Thus, liberal democracy from Marxist’s point of view is exploitative and is deemed to be incompetent in averting class conflict.
Aishwarya Says:
I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.
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