Was Liberalism in the 19th century the ideology of vested economic interests? (PDF)

Submitted Assignment from the year 2011 in the subject Politics - International Politics - General and Theories, grade: 90, Liverpool John Moores University, course: Political ideology, language: English, abstract: This report sets out to investigate whether 19th century liberalism was the ideology of vested economic interest. The proposals of early liberals constituted an attack not only on the claims of the feudal aristocracy but also on the economic basis of society. They advocated an industrialized and market economic order, which would by free from government interference and free trade between countries.

The paper concludes, that the laissez faire capitalism arguably was a central doctrine in the 19th century. In many ways it served to promote the interests of the new class of manufacturers. Some have argued that the 19th century liberalism could be hence regarded as the elitist liberalism of the industrial society. However, liberalist original intentions were to promote the equality and freedom from the arbitrary powers, which were based on a positivist view of human nature and a vision of virtuous citizens unified by common values. This serves to demonstrate that liberal proposals were not explicitly elitist.