John Stuart Mill‘s Liberal Reformism and the New Concept of Freedom, Property and Government

The article is devoted to a key moment in the history of British liberalism when, under the influence of the Industrial Revolution, the need arose for a revision of classical liberal teaching. On the border between classical and social liberalism stands the figure of the British philosopher and economist John Stuart Mill who attempted to update the basic tenets of liberal ideology. Taking into account the socio-economic reality of his time, he set out to revise the foundations of liberal ideology, rethinking in modern times the problems of freedom, property and governance by expanding their perimeter in favour of the masses. This article also details Stuart Mill’s concept of individualism and collectivism in the context of freedom and the right to self-determination.

Parent Contributions to the Development of Political Attitudes in Adoptive and Biological Families

Where do our political attitudes originate? Although early research attributed the formation of such beliefs to parent and peer socialization, genetically sensitive designs later clarified the substantial role of genes in the development of sociopolitical attitudes. However, it has remained unclear whether parental influence on offspring attitudes persists beyond adolescence. In a unique sample of 394 adoptive and biological families with offspring more than 30 years old, biometric modeling revealed significant evidence for genetic and nongenetic transmission from both parents for the majority of seven political-attitude phenotypes. We found the largest genetic effects for religiousness and social liberalism, whereas the largest influence of parental environment was seen for political orientation and egalitarianism. Together, these findings indicate that genes, environment, and the gene–environment correlation all contribute significantly to sociopolitical attitudes held in adulthood, and the etiology and development of those attitudes may be more important than ever in today’s rapidly changing sociopolitical landscape.

The left-liberal skew of Western media

We gathered survey data on journalists’ political views in 17 Western countries. We then matched these data to outcomes from national elections, and constructed metrics of journalists’ relative preference for different political parties. Compared to the general population of voters, journalists prefer parties that have more left-wing positions overall (r’s -.47 to -.53, depending on the metric used), and that are associated with certain ideologies, namely environmentalism, feminism, social liberalism, socialism, and support for the European Union. We used Bayesian model averaging to assess the validity of the predictors in multivariate models. We found that, of the ideology tags in our dataset, ‘conservative’ (negative), ‘nationalist’ (negative) and ‘green’ (positive) were the most consistent predictors with nontrivial effect sizes. We also computed estimates of the skew of journalists' political views in different countries. Overall, our results indicate that the Western media has a left-liberal skew.

Cracking the City

This chapter investigates the history of squatting in the Netherlands in order to understand how it evolved from a pragmatic solution for a shortage of housing to an organized social movement. It begins with a discussion of how the counterculture movement in the Netherlands—Provo—established a tradition of activism and ludic protest that promoted social liberalism, anarchy, progressive welfare programs, and public housing. These values were inherited by the next generation of activists in the squatters’ movement of the late ’70s and ’80s, who developed and molded them to conform to the less optimistic atmosphere and circumstances of their time.

The concept of social liberalism of Frederick August von Hayek

According to some criteria, social liberalism is considered to be one of the types of liberalism. These studies are a reflection on Frederick August von Hayek’s concept of social liberalism, who is a supporter of political and economic freedom, but above all, individual freedom. This analysis aims to present the leading ideas of his social philosophy in the area of the function of the state, democracy, freedom, spontaneous order of individualism and equality.

From Tory Boy to #sadmanonatrain: Great British Railway Journeys and the hard and soft masculinities of Michael Portillo

Before 2005, Michael Portillo was a reviled populist, right-wing British Conservative politician. Seemingly, he is a now a mellowed national treasure due largely to his approachable, friendly, prolific series of travelogues, Great British Railway Journeys (2010–present). This multi-series documentary has been a remarkable BBC success: delivering upbeat music, dynamic camera work, a repetitive format, rosy-tinted Victoriana and celebratory subject matter, the programme makers ensure that the programme is feel-good, cosy, nostalgic and soothing. But Portillo’s political inclinations are apparent: Portillo, sometimes quite subtly, expresses consistently his passion for free enterprise, for the supposed benefits of historical colonialism, for the monarchy, for the military and for social liberalism. A believer in an enterprise-encouraging small state and in personal liberty and social mobility, Portillo’s politics chime in directly with the current thinking of the Conservative Party leadership. In short, the apparently benign travelogue series promotes Portillo’s mainstream post-Thatcherite British Conservatism: an analysis of the ubiquitous programme’s understated but clear Conservatism counters right-wing accusations about the BBC’s alleged leftist bias.

Austerity and the Big Society

This chapter will examine welfare and penal policy under the Coalition Government. The politics of austerity will be explored arguing that the Coalition used the cover of the financial crisis to undertake a fundamental retrenchment of the welfare state. This chapter will argue that Cameron’s notion of the Big Society should not be dismissed as a political gimmick or rhetoric. It reflects an aspiration for a recasting of the relationship between citizens and the social state. This recasting is presented as a fiscal necessity but is actually driven by a politics that is underpinned by the othering of the poor. Cameron and the Coalition’s claims to social liberalism followed a series of policies that shredded the social state.

Whatever Happened to the Social in American Social Thought? Part Two

The liberal social thought of the long 1950s is best seen as an attempt to combat the threat that the United States, as a modern mass society, could succumb to totalitarianism. Widely discussed texts like Escape from Freedom, The Vital Center, The Lonely Crowd, and The Origins of Totalitarianism announced the threat. Academic and theoretical studies worked to provide social supports for now weakened individuals or to find behavioral evidence that Americans still functioned as liberal democrats, but they did so by subordinating individual autonomy and mutual social responsibility to social systems, the market, and elites. Although social liberalism revived during the 1960s, the Great Society fused social liberalism to the Cold War state; the movements for civil rights and social inclusion, fueled by the desire for authenticity, veered into individualistic, identitarian channels; and radical calls for participatory democracy magnified both desires for authenticity and fears of American totalitarianism. Until the end of the century the totalitarian frame of liberal social thought continued to encourage visions of the future as a monolithic totality, to steer liberal social thinkers into individualistic channels, to hobble mutualistic conceptions of the social, and to weaken the ability of social liberals to respond to the conservative backlash that grew through the century and beyond.

Neuroeconomic Perspectives for Economics

Neoliberalism is based on the economic rationality of economic agents, but both cognitive shortcomings and emotional biases in economics decision-making are well documented. A neuroeconomic model (NeM) comprising seven different nodes in a client-server-integrator system (cybernetics of the second order) presents a new approach to behavioral economics focusing risk-preference. The way that individual characteristics influence economic decisions depends on personality. Some people are principally pragmatic with little preference for risk, some are more rational with a moderate approach to risk and some enjoy risk. These people are identified respectively as Pragmatics, Rationalists and Explorers. The rapid rise of explorative behavior is the core of the creative class. Three macroeconomic focus points are outlined: 1) Equality by Universal Basic Income, 2) Environmental protection by Carbon Emission Tax, and 3) Individualized stress-management. In-all, neuroeconomics calls for center-based macroeconomic alternatives to the ruling Neoliberalism e. g. social liberalism or social democracy.