individual to express his or her own moral values through free
speech, choice of occupation and way of life. John Stuart Mill’s Essay
on Liberty(1859) makes a memorable case against interference by
the state or society in the private lives of individuals and for freedom
of expression. Freedom of expression may be thought of as the classic
liberal value and is encapsulated in the quotation often attributed to
Voltaire: ‘I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death
your right to say it.’
A third phase in the development of liberalism was marked in
philosophical terms by the writings of the English idealists (Milne,
1962) including F. H. Bradley [1846–1924], Bernard Bosanquet
[1848–1923], Josiah Royce [1855–1916] (an American writer with
some similar ideas), and most notably T. H. Green [1836–1882] and
Leonard Hobhouse [1864–1929]. Much of this idealist writing was a
development of the theme evident in the writings of John Stuart Mill:
the state exists so as to guarantee a system of rights that will enable
individuals to pursue their moral development. As Green puts it: ‘The
state presupposes rights and rights of individuals.’ ‘It is a form which
society takes to maintain them’ (Green, 1941: 144). ‘Only through
the possession of rights can the power of the individual freely to make
a common good of his own have reality given to it’ (Green, 1941: 45).
These rights include the right to private property but these must be
exercised in such a way as not to prevent others exercising these
rights too. The state may thus intervene to regulate property and
other rights in the interests of the development of a common sense of
citizenship by all. The state cannot directly promote ‘habits of true
citizenship’ but it should actively concern itself with ‘the removal of
obstacles’ (Green, 1941: 208, 209). He explicitly endorses state
intervention to enable the mass of the population to enjoy reasonable
standards of health, housing, and access to property rights (Green,
1941: 209).
Hobhouse (1964, originally published in 1911) has a more explicit
statement of political liberalism. He identifies liberalism with civil,
fiscal, personal, social, economic, domestic, local, racial, national and
international and political liberty (Ch. II). He then goes on to make
the clear assertion that ‘full liberty implies full equality’ and to assert
the correctness of distinguishing in terms of taxation between earned
and unearned income and between acquired and inherited wealth
(Ch. VIII).
IDEOLOGIES 91