Liberal View of State

The state has been envisaged from various points of views. Every theorist conceives and
defines the state in terms of his own discipline. The liberal has its own theory regarding the
origin, nature, sphere, function and ends of the state.
Liberal is an offshoot of liberalism that emerged during the 16th and 17th century rooted in the
historic movements of reformation, renaissance and industrial revolution in Europe and
expressed in the writings of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Adam Smith, Bentham, James
Mill, J.S. Mill, Herbert Spencer and a host of writers. It challenged the socio-political order
based upon birth, privileges, religious fundamentalism, feudal economy and absolute power
of the Kings and replaced it by secularism, nationalism, individualism, free-market capitalism
and consent-based state. As an ideology it believes in change, dynamism, growth, mobility,
accumulation and competition.
Liberal perspective on the state has been a dynamic one i.e. it has been changing from time to
time. During the 17th century, the requirements of the capitalist class- which supported
liberalism were quite different and during the 18th, 19th and the 20th centuries, the
requirements of this class changed, thereby necessitating a different role of the state in
society. Classical liberalism of the 18th and the early 19th century, which supported the
negative state with minimal functions, changed to modern liberalism in the later half of the
19th and the early 20th century that supported the positive state with welfare functions.
In the light of above, the liberal perspective of state can be analysis as follows
1. Notion of Individualism- The early liberal perspective of the state was based upon
individualism. So as regards the origin of the state, it assigns due role to individuals,
their natures, activities, interests and objectives. It viewed the liberty of individual and
the authority of the state as antithetical and declared that the freedom of the individual
could be secured by limiting the sphere of state action. It advocated that man is
endowed with certain inalienable and natural rights such as right to life, liberty and
property- which are not dependent on the will of State.
2. Mechanistic view of State- Liberal rejected the earlier Greek theory of state as an
organic community or an ethical institution but an artificial institution created as a
result of human will. Secondly, the state is for specific purpose. State is not the whole
society but only a special organisation of the society (State is for society not the other
way). Thirdly, since state is created by man, it cannot be superior to the creator. It
functions is to regulate the interest of the individuals. Lastly, like a machine, state is
not static; it is dynamic.
Hobbes was the first thinker to give the view of state as a machine. For Locke also,
the state was nothing more than a device for securing the rights of the individual. The
utilitarian like Bentham and Mill also held that man seeks happiness, pleasure alone is
good and the function of the state is to make possible the greatest happiness by
protecting the rights and liberty of the individual.
3. The Basis of the State is Consent- The liberals rejected the earlier theory which
believed that state is the result of superior physical force and that force is the basis of
the state. It replaced this notion of ‘force’ by the notion of ‘consent’. This meant that
the individual is tied to the state because he along with other has made a contract with
a person or a body of persons under which the person or the body will receive the
authority to make and enforce laws and the individual will get the guarantee of
protection of his life and property. And conversely, if the state violates the contract,
the people have not only a right but a duty to resist it. This view on state has been
strengthen especially due to the three contractualist- Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau,
even though, three of them gave a different view on the nature and term of contract
but all agree on the issue of ‘consent’ at the time of contract.
 4. Supremacy of Law- The liberal perspective believed that social control, security and
freedom could be best secured though man-made laws. The idea of state as a legal
entity was put forward by Bodin and Hobbes but was redefined by Bentham and
Austin who presented the state as a law-making body. Law was conceived both as a
product of individual will and an embodiment of reason. In course of time, this legal
view came to be associated with constitutional perspective- law make by parliament
as the source of law- rights, liberty, equality, democracy are all legal in character.
5. States is a Necessary Evil- The liberal saw the state in negative terms. It was term as
necessary because only it could provide law, order, security of life and property, but it
was an evil also because it was an enemy of human liberty. The philosophy of state as
a necessary evil and the self-regulating economy left a very limited role for the
government. The liberal slogan was ‘that government is the best which governs the
least’- as illustrated by Adam Smith, the functions of the state is restricted as only to
protect the society from violence and invasion and to protect every member from
injustice and oppression of other member; Bentham reduced the task of the
government to security and freedom and Herbert Spencer advocated the doctrine of
‘survival of the fittest’ and pleaded that the state should have minimum role in the
socio-economic sphere.
6. Laissez faire Capitalist Economy- The liberal perspective of the state had its roots in
the laissez faire capitalist economy. The theory was derived from Adam Smith’s
Wealth of Nations and was supplemented by the works of David Ricardo, Malthus,
Bentham, James Mill and others. It held private property as the scared right of
individual- to freely own or dispose of, buy or sell, hire and fire, and make profits. In
short, in the economic sphere, the liberal-individualistic perspective gave a theory of
free-market capitalism and unlimited rights to property. Thus, it served as an ideology
of the rising bourgeoisie.
The liberal-individualistic of laissez faire state came under heavy attack from 1850s onwards.
The policy of non-interference of the state has led to concentration of capital in the few rising
class who control a complete monopoly over trade and commerce thereby exploiting the
working class. It came under severe attack from humanistic and Utopian writers on the
negative perspective of state and especially by Karl Marx.
By the end of 19th and beginning of 20th century, liberalism tended to accommodate some
tenets of socialist and idealist thought, which was responsible for the emergence of the theory
of ‘welfare state’. Various thinkers - Mill, Freeman, Hobhouse, Lindsay, Keynes, Tawney,
Cole, Barker, Laski and MacIver - gave the philosophy of the positive functions of the state.
It re-examined on the nature and functions of the state, the relation between state and
economy and relation between liberty and authority. Here, the state is not regarded merely as
a necessary evil, but it is assumed that the state can perform various functions of social
welfare, can bring equilibrium and can satisfy socio-economic demands of the masses.
Unlike the minimal state, which was the original form of the liberal sate, the welfare state
was called upon to make public welfare one of its principal concerns. Secondly, unlike the
laissez faire, the positive liberals believe that unrestricted operation of the market has proved
dangerous both for the individual and the economy and rectify the evils of capitalist system
through ‘manage economy’ or ‘mixed economy’. Thirdly, all restraints on the freedom of
individual are not evil rather they are its guarantee. Lastly, state must be a democratic and
responsible state and should possess democratic institutions such as written constitution,
representative government, universal adult franchise, guarantee of civil and political liberties
etc.
Liberalism in the later 20th century, a new movement emerged by the name Libertarianism.
The prominent among them were F.A Hayek, Karl Popper, Milton Friedman, I. Berlin and
Robert Nozic. The goal was ‘roll back the frontiers of the state’; in the belief that unregulated
market capitalism will deliver efficiency, growth and widespread prosperity. It is the most
radical form of individualism and advocates pure capitalist economy as the surest expression
and defence of individuality. The wave of liberalisation and privatisation of the economy and
withdrawal of the state from welfare measures are the off shoots of the liberation perspective
of the state.