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Classical Liberalism

“No one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.”1

With these words John Locke (1632–1704) founded the thinking that would instigate revolutions, overthrow monarchs and ultimately bring the greater equality, freedom and opportunity that defines the world we live in. From this starting point, liberalism has had a long struggle to make its way forward. It has fought off fascism and communism, socialism and conservatism. Through this process, liberalism itself has evolved in order to tackle the challenges of the times. Classical liberalism directly defined the role of the state for over a century based upon the two pillars of negative freedom and the social contract.

The first pillar, negative freedom, signifies freedom from harm and is composed of both rights and responsibilities. In the original conception of classical liberalism, John Locke proposed the notion of natural rights. This was born out of the desire to counteract the idea of the Divine Right of Kings by declaring that rights belong to every individual, rights which even the monarchs could not overturn.2 This notion completely altered the structures of power that came before. This vision has evolved into our modern concept of human rights. The original conception of natural rights aligns with the first generation of the three generations of rights theory proposed by Karel Vasak,3 discussed later in this chapter.

Integral to the concept of natural rights is the principle of responsibility, for freedom entails rights and responsibilities both. The responsibility of classical liberals was defined most explicitly by John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) and his harm principle,4 centred on the idea that individuals should be free except where they cause harm to others and the government should confine itself to intervening only in those situations where harm is incurred. The harm principle defined the responsibilities of individuals and the government in how they should function in their respective spheres. In the bookOn Liberty,5 Mill puts forth “That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.”6 This harm principle will be shown to be an important foundation to the argument of timeless freedoms.

Mill stated that all of his books were co-written with his wife Harriet Taylor Mill (1807–1858). He declared that “when two persons have their thoughts and speculations complet