Are Liberal Democrats Suspicious of State Power free essay sample

‘Liberal democrats are suspicious of state power, yet support big government in the pursuit of economic management and social reform’. The liberal democrats were formed in 1988 from The Social Democrat party, set up by four ex labour members. Currently the liberal democrats have formed a coalition government with the Conservatives. Classical liberals traditionally believe in negative liberty when it comes to state power (The idea that the state should have as little intervention as possible, socially and economically to enhance the freedom and innovation of the individual, therefore not infringing basic, natural rights). Classical Liberals prefer to keep the state to a minimum however with enough framework to provide basic laws prohibiting other regarding actions and to regulate government power. These views where portrayed by many liberal philosophers such as Adam Smith, in regards to economic management; he believed that free trade and free markets where fundamental to successful economic growth, as individuals, consumers and business would create competition and feel confident within the economy. We will write a custom essay sample on Are Liberal Democrats Suspicious of State Power? or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page However more modern liberals believe in a form of positive liberty (More state intervention for progression by providing individuals with the tools to create a basic standard of living to develop there social and economic lives, with systems such as welfare) TH green believed there was a need to embrace positive liberty as he stated that individual liberty was only achievable under favourable social and economic circumstances (Creating the welfare system). However today’s contemporary liberal democrats have a combined belief of both positive and negative liberty. There is potential to suggest that there is a contradiction within the lib dems with regards to their position on the state. There is evidence to prove the liberal democrats are suspicious of state power and are in favour of not only reducing the power the UK governments but devolving that power back to the people. For example in the 2010 lib dem manifesto a proposal for a proportional representative electoral system would replace the First past the post system as it is argued it would return a more representative constituent MP and that it would increase participation as every vote would count therefore increasing the legitimacy of the government and making them accountable to the people and decreasing tate power. A compromise between the coalition parties determined that a referendum would be held in may 2011 to vote on AV, however it was not a fully proportional system. Decentralisation of power from central government to devolved assemblies has also been a strong belief within the liberal democrats as it reduces the power of the central government and returns it to the local area. The lib dems supported the devolution of the Scottish parliament and also within the recent coalition agreement the Welsh devolved assembly has been giving further powers and allowed to become the Welsh parliament with primary legislative power. Lib dems have opposed to socially authoritarian measures such as; ID cards, the idea that each individual would have to be in possession of an identification card which would go against the liberal belief of natural equal rights. Also the majority opposed to the Iraq war. They do however support the Great repeal bill 2010, which will reduce red tape of old legislation to improve progression, the right to publicly fire your MP which enhances parliaments accountability to the public, and the freedom of information’s act, which states that any public authority has a legal obligation to provide date through an approved publications scheme in response to a request. These bills improve individual liberties and freedoms by reducing state power as it allows individuals the right to information and the right to hold their government to account (If believed their work was not satisfactory). The idea of negative liberty to reduce the power of the government is then contradicted as the Liberal democrats promote more state intervention when it comes to economic management.