2.1.1 Early Origins of Liberalism



Ambrogio Lorenzetti's painting Allegory of the Good Government, Public Domain.
Humans have always struggled with the concepts of freedom and power. In early times when people fought for survival and banded together for security, the kind of freedom most Canadians experience today was not even an idea. As civilization developed, communities moved from simple subsistence to develop systems of government to manage community affairs.

Ambrogio Lorenzetti's fresco Allegories of the Good and Bad Government, painted in the 14th century, was designed to remind the government of his Italian city-state what the role of government should be.

Good Government is dominated by an enthroned figure representing the commune, which is flanked by the Virtues. Bad Government is ruled by Fear and a scroll that reads "Because he looks for his own good in the world, he places justice beneath tyranny. So nobody walks this road without Fear: Robbery thrives inside and outside the city gates."

In the next few pages, you will learn about how the ideas behind classical liberalism changed the Western world. These ideas were in part a reaction to the political and economic systems of the day, systems that many people felt were outdated and based on faulty premises. What was the world like before liberalism?

Prior to the development of liberal democracies in Europe, most nations were ruled by royalty, nobility, and the Roman Catholic Church. Monarchs ruled according to what was called the "divine right of kings" —the idea that a man became a king because he, his ancestors, and his descendents were granted that right by God. The divine right of kings was supported and promoted by the Catholic Church, which was a powerful influence in the lives of the common people. Based on the Church's teachings at the time, criticizing the monarch or his or her right to rule could be construed as questioning the judgement of God.

In reality, royalty and nobility earned their power through warfare, economic power, and strategic alliances with other powerful rulers and countries. The average person who lived in Europe had little or no say in the decisions that affected his or her daily life. Men and especially women and children were not guaranteed any fundamental rights and freedoms we experience today. Governments had a great deal of power over people's lives.

One of the earliest documents in the development of the rule of law and the establishment of individual rights and freedoms was the Magna Carta. Signed in Great Britain in 1215, it limited the powers of the king and established fundamental rights for citizens.

"Erechtheum Acropolis Athens", photo by Jebulon, Wikimedia Commons

Democracy in Ancient Greece had many similar aspects to our modern democracy. Athens is often thought of as the first democracy. The word democracy is derived from the ancient Greek word demos kratia, which means "the people rule". But how democratic was it?

Twelve percent of the people of Athens had the right to participate in the democratic decision-making process. Only male "citizens" were eligible to attend assembly meetings. Women, the foreign-born, slaves, and others were excluded from the process. Athenians were allowed to keep slaves, and the rights of Athenian women were restricted.


Athens' short-lived direct democracy required 40 or more meetings of the governing assembly per year, so not all eligible citizens could attend regularly. On average, only one-sixth of those eligible to vote showed up at a given meeting.

Although citizens had the right to vote on public policy, they did not vote to decide who would implement those policies. Instead, political officers were selected by drawing lots. This government-by-luck-of-the-draw approach was not particularly democratic.
Mercantilism was the dominant economic system in Europe from approximately the 15th century to the 18th century. During this time, the sole aim of many of Europe's monarchs was to make their nation as wealthy as possible, even if this meant exploiting other, smaller nations.

Under mercantilism, monarchs granted certain merchants, friends, relatives, or companies licences to operate their businesses and to trade abroad. Granting privileges to certain businesses created monopolies. These monopolies limited the availability of goods and drove up prices. Competition was almost non-existent. Monarchs filled their treasuries by selling licences and by taxing the merchants and companies that profited under this system. Monarchs also accumulated wealth in the form of gold bullion by restricting the flow of money out of the country and by taxing goods being imported.

This meant that many individuals did not have the freedom to make a profit from hard work, new ideas, or taking risks.

In this unit, you will be answering these questions:
  • How did liberalism emerge as an ideology?