2.0.1 Overview: The Foundations of Liberalism



King John granting the Magna Carta. Painting by Ernest Normand, Photo © Csemerick, Public Domain.

Do you ever think about the society you live in?  Do you think about the rights and freedoms you enjoy?

Today, many Canadians take their fundamental rights and freedoms for granted. But Western society has not always valued the contributions of all people. People were not always allowed to make their own choices. In fact, it was believed that people were not able to make decisions for themselves; those decisions were made by the Church or a local nobleman. Men and women have not always been considered equal, nor was the the right to vote allowed for both rich and poor. Children did not have rights, nor did people of religious and ethnic backgrounds different from the majority.

In fact, in many societies in the past, many believed that certain people had the god-given right to rule. It was believed that only some people had the intelligence or authority to make many of the decisions we make today, such as who should have power or how a nation's money should be spent.

  • How did peoples' values and beliefs shift?
  • How did European society move from a class structure ruled by those with inherited power or the biggest army to one that values equality and democracy?
  • How did the Church lose its power?
  • How has our world developed the political and economic systems it has today?



In this unit, you will begin a journey into the past. The English word history is derived from the ancient Greek word historia, which means to find out or to learn by asking questions and finding the answers. To improve your understanding of liberalism, you need to "find out" about its early history. This unit will help you do that.

You will learn about the ideas, people, and societies that pioneered many of the principles of liberalism. Then, you will familiarize yourself with the concept of liberalism that developed in Western Europe and America during the 18th and 19 th centuries, and you will discover how these theories were put into practice.

You will evaluate the impact of 18th and 19th century liberalism. You will identify the successes and failures that resulted from the practical applications of liberal ideology.

As you become more aware of the positive and negative societal impacts that can occur when theories and ideas become policies and practices, you will be closer to deciding to what extent we should embrace an ideology-whether it be a liberal ideology or some other ideology.

  • How did individualist ideas ideas emerge as liberalism? Where did they originate?


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This unit has two sections:

  1. What are the origins of liberalism?  (Before Liberalism, Fundamental Ideas about Human Nature, Classical Liberal Thinkers, Political and Economic Ideas)
  2. What was the impact of classical liberalism?  (Industrial Revolution, Revolutionary Change, Limited Government, Changes to the Class System)

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