Conservatism Vs Classical Liberalism Essay

Classical and Modern Liberals follow the same ideology, yet interpret it in a different way. Both seek to promote liberty in society and the economy. However, since the time of Gladstone (the mid 19th century), it’s clear that modern liberals have used the experiences of their forefathers to adapt their policies to fit modern society. An example of this would be the stances of both classic and modern liberals with regard to ‘Natural Rights’.
Modern and Classic liberals both believe in the basic concept of ‘natural rights’ – the concept being that everyone is born with a set of rights that provide liberty – however, to see where they differ one must examine their views in more depth. Classical liberals support the idealistic idea of everyone being born equal and being able to exert their rights as they see fit. Modern liberals on the other hand take a more realistic view, that not everyone is born into wealth; some are born into severe poverty and therefore cannot exert their rights. They believe that there is a need for equality of opportunity and realise that the significance of circumstance is that it results in a ‘natural selection’ type society, where only the fittest survive. They try to counter this by advocating the welfare state, and ways of increasing personal liberty, a modern example being their campaigning to change the
They agree with the concept of “the greatest good for the greatest number” however, classical liberals think that a laissez – faire approach can lead to the possibility of being able to calculate utility through consumption of goods. Modern liberals totally oppose the thought that utility can be quantified and think that redistribution of wealth and state intervention can be used to obtain true utilitarianism. Contemporary examples of this would be the Lib Dem policy to use progressive taxation to redistribute