What would liberalism look like if we reimagined it from these foundations? Suspicion of inequality and concentrated power, egalitarianism, labor orientation, feminism, social justice, thick conceptions of flourishing, non-ideality, political practice-orientation. These ideas are all there.
Liberalism has always had non-laissez faire elements, egalitarians, thinkers who abjured social contract-like devices in favor of empirical, sociological observation. The social justice orientations of acknowledged liberal forebears Smith & Mill were always there, but submerged by later liberals.
The social justice orientation, strident democratic activism, & radicalism of Frederick Douglass were always there, but liberal theorists neglected him *as* a political theorist, seeing him instead as a *mere*, albeit impressive, orator & abolition activist. This was a huge mistake for liberalism.
With liberalism I see a need to balance freedom and equality. You need both but people will tend to prefer one or the other. The lassez faire group were the result of the freedom branch running away from any notion of equality
Yeah but equality is constitutive of some aspects of freedom. If you think about freedom from oppression or domination, equality is basically part of the definition. It's really only freedom from interference that doesn't involve equality in its nuts and bolts.
Could you explain further? I do believe that liberalism at its best must combine the two but there are substantial instances of people and parties promoting freedom over equality I.e the late 19th century.
Sure, I did a short thread laying out my current taxonomy of freedom a couple weeks ago. Freedom as non-domination, freedom as non-oppression, and democratic freedom all require substantial equality (of power, of recognition, of voting power) to do the work we want "freedom" to do.
It's a libertarian freedom. Freedom from interference is important. It just gets a bad rap because of libertarians for whom it is the only conception of freedom. Other conceptions of freedom: freedom as non-domination, the neo-republican idea warning against arbitrary power of one over others. 1/n
What described is beyond liberalism? And what would you call Douglass instead? He favored constitutional, representative government with universal suffrage, had a generally pro-liberty disposition, and a progressive, melioristic worldview. "It Moves" is a good speech to read for his liberal ideas.
