The IEA has been busy the past two weeks with sixth-formers attending our Future Thought Leaders programmes. The students had the opportunity to learn more about think tanks, economics, and freedom of speech – as well as to hone their presentation and debating skills.
The education team asked me to give both of our Easter holiday groups an introduction to classical liberalism. I was delighted to do it, but also felt a degree of trepidation. I am well used to talking about the policy applications of classical liberalism, but it has been some years since I gave a ‘first principles’ introduction to a group of beginners. How best to get those fundamental ideas across?
I will leave it to others to judge how well I did (we will be processing the students’ feedback next week). But I certainly found it a very useful experience!
Ultimately, I boiled classical liberalism down to three core tenets. First, classical liberals make individual freedom their paramount political value. Of course that’s not to say that freedom is the only value – other things matter too – but it is the one that takes priority. People should be free to live as they wish, so long as they don’t harm others or their property.
Second, classical liberals understand that spontaneous orders – the unintended outcome of countless individual decisions – tend to be superior to planned ones, designed by some benevolent (or not) authority. The emergent, constantly evolving nature of markets is perhaps hard to grasp at first. But once you see it, the way you view the world changes.
Third, classical liberals believe in limited government. Precisely where the boundaries of state power should be drawn is, for most liberals, an open question; exactly how those boundaries should be policed is another. But we all agree that the rule of law is essential – governments should make general rules of universal application, and should be bound by those rules itself.
I also argued that classical liberalism had a characteristic style that set it apart from most other ideologies. It emphasises tolerance of other views and ways of life, shows humility about what it can achieve, and maintains an optimistic outlook about the future. We do not know what should or will happen, but we are confident that free people pursuing their own happiness can create a better world for us all.
One perceptive student asked me what was so different about the real world from the one I was describing. And here I suppose is an irony. Few people call themselves classical liberals, and modern government departs from classical liberal principles in too many ways to count. And yet, in a very meaningful way, we are living in a world that classical liberalism built. That is something we should always be grateful for.
