Liberalism Limited Government, Individualism Equality, Freedom, and Fair Competition

Political science Essay: Liberalism as a political ideology
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Political ideologies are a set of ideas, doctrines and principles that explain how the society ought to function. Liberalism has been associated with the democratic societies, with liberalists supporting property rights and individual freedom. There are advantages but also challenges to the ideology. The ideology mostly focuses on the political culture and economic system, as the two are related. Liberalism is the most promising ideology for a society, but the other ideologies have their merits that show the contradictions of liberalism. This paper will highlight the basic tenets of liberalism limited government, individualism equality, freedom of speech, as well as free and fair competition in a global world.
Conservatives argue that to maintain the social fabric everyone has their own role that they play (Maher, 2015 a). Conservatism holds that not everyone is a natural leader and this argument is made to support aristocracy and maintain a class order in a society. Additionally, equality is seen to be overrated since it focuses on bringing the top down so that they are at the same level with the bottom. Through maintaining the classes, societies are able to maintain their traditions and this ensures peace and stability since there is certainty. The anarchists hold similar views with the liberalism on the need to have a free society, but they also argue that all institutions are unnecessary as the perpetuate hierarchy. In anarchism, institutions are seen as exploitative and everyone participates in a society without institutions where everybody develops their personalities and creativities (Maher 2015 b). Anarchists also state that people need to work together in a classless society where the power is decentralized. Liberalism advocates for equality of personhood, whereby everyone is to be treated equality in law as they have equal rights (Maher, 2015 c). The principle of equality is supported by liberalists so long as they actions of a person are legal and do not harm anyone else. The principle of equality emanates from the belief that people are created equal and should be treated as so at all times.
The communitarian view also supports this view on the need for limited government intervention. There are differences between the two ideologies since communitarians also support the view that people live in communities where people are equally recognized in a self-governing community where there is a need to achieve common good (Maher, 2015 c). Communitarians further argue that the self- governing communities to eliminate the selfish interests if necessary, where decisions are guided by conscience. Liberals support limited government and individualism, whereby governments intervene when it is n...