Template:Social liberalism

Social liberalism

Social liberalism is a political ideology that believes individual liberty requires a level of social justice. Like classical liberalism, social liberalism endorses a market economy and the expansion of civil and political rights and liberties, but differs in that it believes the legitimate role of the government includes addressing economic and social issues such as poverty, health care, and education which allows for the expansion of duties and therefore the power of government.

Social liberalism accepts the idea that the individual requires a level of social justice and gives the power to government to resolve problems in society like the needs of the elderly, the poor, individual health care, and education at all levels through wealth distribution. This not only opens a Pandora's box of power and financial control but as Polybius warns it will degenerate the people into savages and make them vulnerable to despots.

It should be opposed by almost all religions or religious people because it includes covetous practices through the power of government under the pseudo morality of the greater good or social justice.

Social liberalism is a socialist political philosophy that includes liberal principles within it. Liberal socialism does not have the goal of abolishing capitalism with a socialist economy; instead, it supports a mixed economy that includes both public and private property in capital goods but is a political instrument that provides a direction for democracy will allow society to follow to socialism and communism.

• Karl Marx, who was an advocate of communism, claimed, “Democracy is the road to socialism.”

By the end of the nineteenth century, the principles of classical liberalism were being increasingly challenged by downturns in economic growth, a growing perception of the evils of poverty, unemployment and relative deprivation present within modern industrial cities, and the agitation of organised labour. The ideal of the self-made individual, who through hard work and talent could make his or her place in the world, seemed increasingly implausible. A major political reaction against the changes introduced by industrialisation and laissez-faire capitalism came from conservatives concerned about social balance, although socialism later became a more important force for change and reform. Some Victorian writers – including Charles Dickens, Thomas Carlyle, and Matthew Arnold – became early influential critics of social injustice.