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LIBERALISM AND GROUP IDENTITIES

Stephen Macedo

in Citizenship and Education in Liberal-Democratic Societies: Teaching for Cosmopolitan Values and Collective Identities

The essays in Part III of the book, on liberal constraints and traditionalist education, argue for a more regulatory conception of liberal education and emphasize the need for some controls over ... More

The essays in Part III of the book, on liberal constraints and traditionalist education, argue for a more regulatory conception of liberal education and emphasize the need for some controls over cultural and religious educational authority. In the last chapter, on liberalism and group rights, according to Stephen Macedo, while the commitment of liberalism to individual freedom and equality is far more easily reconciled with group-based remedies for group-based inequalities than the critics of liberalism allow, the liberal commitment to freedom of association imposes limits on group recognition by insisting on intragroup openness and diversity. The chapter has two main parts. Section 15.1, Liberalism, Education, and Group Identities, rebuts the charge that a liberal public philosophy embraces a narrow individualism that is incompatible with tackling group-based forms of inequality, and surveys some of the myriad liberal reforms of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s that promoted more equal respect for differing group identities, especially in schools. Section 15.2, Special Exemptions and the Rights of Traditional Communities, focuses on the difficulties raised by “traditionalistic” groups that seek special accommodations in part because they reject liberal values of equal freedom for all, and makes the point that a liberal regime should not seek to be equally hospitable or accommodating to groups that accept and those that reject educational policies designed to promote the equal freedom of all persons; various examples are presented and discussed.Less

‘Una República de Curas’: Church and Politics

Patricia Londoño-Vega

in Religion, Society, and Culture in Colombia: Medellín and Antioquia, 1850-1930

This chapter begins by considering local reactions to the return of the Jesuits in 1844, an event that defined some of the interests and positions that would emerge recurrently during the third ... More

This chapter begins by considering local reactions to the return of the Jesuits in 1844, an event that defined some of the interests and positions that would emerge recurrently during the third quarter of the 19th century. It then examines the effect on the Antiqueño Church of two rounds of Liberal reforms introduced on a national scale. It comments on the local suspension of discord between Church and state achieved in Antioquia by Pedro Justo Berrio’s Conservative administration, ended by the national civil war of 1876-7. It explains that with the occupation of Antioquia by Liberal forces, the region’s clergy experienced another difficult period. It discusses the ideological ascendancy of the Church with the compliance of civil authorities, and the questioning to its authority posed by the new realities of the early 20th century.Less

Liberal Constitutionalism: Preserving and Adapting Egypt’s Liberal Tradition

Bruce K. Rutherford

in Egypt after Mubarak: Liberalism, Islam, and Democracy in the Arab World

This chapter studies the emergence of liberal constitutionalism in Egypt. It examines the historical foundations of Egyptian liberalism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and ... More

This chapter studies the emergence of liberal constitutionalism in Egypt. It examines the historical foundations of Egyptian liberalism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and observes that this conception of governance became tightly integrated into the development of the legal profession. As a consequence, lawyers and judges became the most dedicated advocates of liberal reform. The Bar Association played a leading role in promoting the liberal cause for most of the twentieth century. However, changes in its membership and steady regime repression eventually fragmented the Bar and undermined its effectiveness. The judiciary, in contrast, has retained a strong sense of liberal identity and has developed a robust conception of liberal constitutionalism. In order to understand this approach to law and politics, the chapter studies the decisions of Egypt's major courts (the Supreme Constitutional Court, the administrative courts, and the Court of Cassation). It uses this body of jurisprudence to analyze the judiciary's views with regard to four core elements of constitutionalism: the rule of law, constraints on state power, protection of basic rights, and public participation in governance.Less

Living Standards in Edwardian England and the Liberal Welfare Reforms

George R. Boyer

in The Winding Road to the Welfare State

This chapter argues that the Liberal Welfare Reforms of 1906–11, which created a safety net reducing the economic insecurity associated with industrial capitalism, marked a watershed in the history ... More

This chapter argues that the Liberal Welfare Reforms of 1906–11, which created a safety net reducing the economic insecurity associated with industrial capitalism, marked a watershed in the history of British social welfare policy. Their timing is explained by increased middle-class knowledge of workers' insecurity and by the greater willingness of Parliament to act as a result of growing working-class political influence. The chapter then compares British social welfare policies with social policies elsewhere in Western Europe. Britain's welfare reforms did not take place in isolation—several European nations adopted social welfare policies in the decades leading up to 1914. Indeed, Britain was a bit of a latecomer in the adoption of social programs, although it caught up quickly after 1906 and by the eve of the First World War was a leader in social welfare protection.Less

In Search of a New East Asian Paradigm for Development

Yung Chul Park

in Economic Liberalization and Integration in East Asia: A Post-Crisis Paradigm

Reforming the old system, rather than adopting an Anglo-American model, is essential to make it better suited and more flexible in adjusting to the new realities of the region and the rest of the ... More

Reforming the old system, rather than adopting an Anglo-American model, is essential to make it better suited and more flexible in adjusting to the new realities of the region and the rest of the world. Although the Asian crisis provided a strong impetus for structural transformation, the internal and external developments that have slowed or impeded the reform process are examined.Less

The Postwar Settlement

Daniel Stedman Jones

in Masters of the Universe: Hayek, Friedman, and the Birth of Neoliberal Politics

This chapter describes the contours and limits of the political settlement in Great Britain and the United States in the middle of the twentieth century. It shows how at the heart of both New Deal ... More

This chapter describes the contours and limits of the political settlement in Great Britain and the United States in the middle of the twentieth century. It shows how at the heart of both New Deal liberalism and the British Liberal and Labour reforms was a happy conception of the state so long as its power was in the hands of an enlightened and expert policy elite. The famous Brain Trust around Franklin Roosevelt and the progressive liberal civil service personified by Beveridge and Keynes fit exactly this notion of top-down reform for the benefit of society as a whole. The progressive liberal project was not revolutionary; it was born of a desire to preserve and defend liberal democracy and the capitalist system.Less

Not of a Piece: Developmental States, Industrial Policy, and Evolving Patterns of Capitalism in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan

Karl J. Fields

in East Asian Capitalism: Diversity, Continuity, and Change

Decades of high growth in Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea led a generation of scholars to herald the emergence of an East Asian ‘developmental state’ marked by internally coherent and cross-nationally ... More

Decades of high growth in Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea led a generation of scholars to herald the emergence of an East Asian ‘developmental state’ marked by internally coherent and cross-nationally comparable political economic institutions and policy packages. This chapter shows that scholars clearly overstated their early claims of an isomorphic East Asian developmental state model. More recent contentions of institutional divergence among the three are truer in form than in substance and predictions of the end of the East Asian developmental state are premature. Neither the path-dependent persistence of functional or dysfunctional institutions nor even piecemeal or wholesale evolutions away from these state–business arrangements warrant the conclusion that the outcome of these processes will yield convergence upon a neo-liberal order of capitalism. In seeking to account for these evolutions, the chapter argues that while emerging change coalitions, declining state strength, and a dominant policy discourse of neo-liberalism have attenuated the developmental states in all three national economies and in many cases dramatically shifted the form of industrial policy and state intervention, the substance of developmentalism remains.Less

Bolivia’s new multicultural constitution: The 2009 constitution in historical and comparative perspective

Miguel Centellas

in Latin America's Multicultural Movements: The Struggle Between Communitarianism, Autonomy, and Human Rights

This chapter provides an overview of Bolivia’s 2009 constitution, as it relates to indigenous rights. Using a comparative historical perspective, the chapter discusses how the new constitution fits ... More

This chapter provides an overview of Bolivia’s 2009 constitution, as it relates to indigenous rights. Using a comparative historical perspective, the chapter discusses how the new constitution fits into the broader trajectory of indigenous rights as it evolved in Bolivia’s constitutional and institutional framework across the 20th century. Next, the chapter traces the deliberative process of the constituent assembly that produced the new constitutional text, before evaluating the text’s impact on the relationship between indigenous peoples. The chapter argues that the provisions for indigenous autonomy and cultural recognition are not an entirely radical departure, but rather fit within an ongoing trend in liberal-pluralist reforms dating to the 1990s and are part of a larger package of institutional reforms that also impose limitations and constraints on prospects for indigenous autonomy.Less

Partners for Progress?: Liberals and Radicals in the Long Twentieth Century

Doug Rossinow

in Making Sense of American Liberalism

This chapter argues that from the Popular Front of the 1930s and 1940s through the anti-Vietnam War movement and the “new politics” of the 1960s and 1970s, liberals and leftists worked together to ... More

This chapter argues that from the Popular Front of the 1930s and 1940s through the anti-Vietnam War movement and the “new politics” of the 1960s and 1970s, liberals and leftists worked together to strengthen individual political and social rights. They sought to advance the interests of the industrial working class within the framework of liberal capitalist society, and to oppose war and empire. The chapter also describes the left edge of the liberal political tradition across the broad sweep of industrial U.S. history, revealing both the way in which the radical left provided idealistic, sometimes utopian fuel for liberal reform projects, as well as the broad influence of liberal ideas on the political left in the United States.Less

The Beveridge Report and the Implementation of the Welfare State

George R. Boyer

in The Winding Road to the Welfare State

This chapter explores the story of the 1942 Beveridge Report and the beginnings of the welfare state. The policies proposed by Beveridge and the 1945–48 legislation were logical extensions of ... More

This chapter explores the story of the 1942 Beveridge Report and the beginnings of the welfare state. The policies proposed by Beveridge and the 1945–48 legislation were logical extensions of government's expanding role in social welfare policy beginning with the Liberal Welfare Reforms. This does not mean that the importance of the postwar legislation should be downplayed. Because of the adoption of the National Health Service, universal coverage, and equality of treatment, Britain after 1948 deserves to be called a welfare state, while Edwardian and interwar Britain do not. Unfortunately, despite the enthusiasm with which the public greeted the welfare state, the postwar policies did not eliminate economic insecurity.Less

“the Roar of a Terrible Tempest”: Liberal Reform and the Civil Wars, 1855–1863

in Rebellion Now and Forever: Mayas, Hispanics, and Caste War Violence in Yucatan, 1800-1880

This chapter focuses on the years between 1855 and 1863, which were marked by the unexpected return of Caste War violence and the deaths of the leaders of Yucatán's old order. The Liberal Reform ... More

This chapter focuses on the years between 1855 and 1863, which were marked by the unexpected return of Caste War violence and the deaths of the leaders of Yucatán's old order. The Liberal Reform constituted a critical passage in the history of southeast Mexico, affecting virtually every aspect of the society, from parish life to property to the Caste War itself. The chapter addresses the following questions: What was the Reform in the southeast? Did its strategy really manage to liberate individual energies, foster a sense of citizenship, and stimulate economic vitality? How did Reform-era chaos start, what paths did it trace, and to what unexpected ends did the struggle lead?Less

The Convent of La Purísima Concepción in Post-Reform Mexico

Margaret Chowning

in Rebellious Nuns: The Troubled History of a Mexican Convent, 1752-1863

Even if the civil law allowed the nuns of Mexico who were laid off from the convents to live freely, some of these women made efforts to recreate how they had lived as a community. According to the ... More

Even if the civil law allowed the nuns of Mexico who were laid off from the convents to live freely, some of these women made efforts to recreate how they had lived as a community. According to the ecclesiastical hierarchy that they were accustomed to, these former nuns should individually live by their vows of chastity, obedience, poverty, and enclosure, but the church did not find anything wrong with their attempts to rebuild their communities. This chapter explains what happened to the nuns who were dismissed from the convent during the period of liberal reform, and what happened to the buildings and the church of La Purísima convent.Less

Globalization, Institution-building, and Commodity-export-led Growth, c.1870–1929

Luis Bértola and José Antonio Ocampo

in The Economic Development of Latin America since Independence

Chapter 3 analyzes the character and timing of export-led growth in the last decades of the XIX and first three decades of the XX century. This process was determined by the revolution in ... More

Chapter 3 analyzes the character and timing of export-led growth in the last decades of the XIX and first three decades of the XX century. This process was determined by the revolution in transportation, the expansion of industrialized countries' demand for raw materials and foodstuffs, and the political and institutional changes that had been taking place in most Latin American countries (liberal reforms, increasing domestic labor mobility, development of a genuine land market, new taxation systems, consolidation of power structures and increased institutional stability). Hefty capital inflows and mass immigration to some countries from Europe reinforced these transformations. Increased export activity led to a diversification of production structures in the leading regional economies, including early manufacturing development, a modern transport infrastructure, and rapid urbanization. The gap with the world leaders diminished for these economies, but remained large, particularly in terms of human capital. Inequality increased both between and within countries.Less

France: The Centralized Market Economy and Its Alternatives

Orfeo Fioretos

in Creative Reconstructions: Multilateralism and European Varieties of Capitalism after 1950

This chapter explores the nature of institutional development in key economic domains in France during the early post-war period, the 1970s and 1980s, and in the decade and a half preceding the 2008 ... More

This chapter explores the nature of institutional development in key economic domains in France during the early post-war period, the 1970s and 1980s, and in the decade and a half preceding the 2008 global financial crisis. Unlike Britain where attempts to introduce centralized forms of governance failed in the early post-war period, the French government successfully consolidated such policies in multiple domains. French government is also neither successful in implementing a partial liberal reform agenda, nor in sustaining a comprehensive program of institutional specialization that sought to expand centralized governance. The chapter explains why and when different forms of economic governance across various domains are stable while others are characterized by more change by highlighting the role of historical legacies, shifts in international markets, and the multilateral environment in shaping firm strategy.Less

Economic Cybernetics and Its Limits

Benjamin Peters

in How Not to Network a Nation: The Uneasy History of the Soviet Internet

This chapter examines the emergence of economic cybernetics in the late 1950s and early 1960s as a field closely allied to mathematical economics and econometrics yet peculiar to the Soviet sphere. ... More

This chapter examines the emergence of economic cybernetics in the late 1950s and early 1960s as a field closely allied to mathematical economics and econometrics yet peculiar to the Soviet sphere. It also outlines and describes the basics behind the command economy and the coordination problems that the Soviet state and competing schools of orthodox, liberal, and cybernetic economists alike all agreed needed to be addressed and reformed in the early 1960s. A few sources of the organizational dissonance, including heterarchical networks of institutional interests, blat, vertical bargaining, underlying the Soviet command economy and its state administration are also introducedLess

Introduction

Leonardo Baccini and Johannes Urpelainen

in Cutting the Gordian Knot of Economic Reform: When and How International Institutions Help

This chapter presents the research question of the book, offers a short summary of the argument, lists the contributions and implications of the book, and offers a roadmap for the remaining chapters. ... More

This chapter presents the research question of the book, offers a short summary of the argument, lists the contributions and implications of the book, and offers a roadmap for the remaining chapters. The chapter begins with the puzzle of why so many developing countries have managed to implement a wide variety of liberal microeconomic reforms despite the intense political controversies that surround such reforms. Summarizing the core argument of the book, the chapter explains why international institutions—and North-South trade agreements in particular—can improve the credibility and political feasibility of liberal reforms in developing countries. The chapter also situates the argument in the literature on international political economy, domestic-international linkages, and economic reform.Less

Disputing Property: National Politics and Local Ethnic Conflict in the Formation of a Guatemalan Coffee Zone

in Ladinos with Ladinos, Indians with Indians: Land, Labor, and Regional Ethnic Conflict in the Making of Guatemala

This chapter begins by addressing the paradox raised in the questions presented at the start of the book: why did popular sectors react so differently to the two generations of Liberal reformers, ... More

This chapter begins by addressing the paradox raised in the questions presented at the start of the book: why did popular sectors react so differently to the two generations of Liberal reformers, given the apparent similarity of their reform projects? Why was the first round of reforms crushed by a massive, sustained insurrection, whereas the second round encountered only sporadic armed resistance? The answer lies, at least in part, in the fact that the second, or post-1871, generation of Liberals did not initiate a revolutionary transformation in land tenure. Rather, the body of laws that comprised the Reforma was a de jure recognition of changes that had been legislated by the first generation of Liberal reformers in the 1830s, and implemented largely by Conservative authorities in the decades leading up to 1871. It was precisely the years of Conservative rule—the middle third of the nineteenth century—that experienced the greatest number of rebellions. By the time of the Reforma, popular resistance no longer manifested itself as violent opposition with such frequency. The chapter demonstrates that Conservative authorities, not Liberals, broke the indigenous hold on the fertile lands of Guatemala's western Pacific coast. Such an endeavor requires an understanding of community claims to the coastal region, followed by a detailed examination of how those claims were subverted.Less