ABSTRACT
The term “classical liberalism” is here used broadly to refer to an ideal type of liberalism that originates in the 17th and 18th centuries and develops to full fruition in the 19th and early-20th centuries – with Locke and Kant being major philosophical advocates within the social contract tradition, and Hume, Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham, and John Stuart Mill in his earlier economic works being major advocates within utilitarianism. Classical liberalism involves the following theoretical essentials (rarely realized in practice): (1) basic rights and liberties that include freedom of religion, association, thought and expression, personal freedoms of tastes and pursuits, and basic economic freedoms of contract and transfer combined with robust rights of private ownership of property, including productive resources; (2) freedom of occupation and choice of workplace with formal (legal) equality of opportunity and “careers open to talents”; (3) competitive economic markets with minimal regulation of contracts and exchanges; (4) government's role in providing a narrow range of public goods, including national defense, public security, public health measures, highways, ports, and other means necessary for free commerce, and publicly funded basic education; (5) a social safety net that provide means of subsistence for those unable to work or otherwise provide for themselves; and finally (6) recognition of the public nature of political power, which is impartially exercised for the public good.
