The Hindu Editorials Notes (31st August 2019) for UPSC/ IAS Exam

GS-1 MAINS

Question – What is liberalism and where does it stand today? Elaborate.

Context – Interview by Russian President Mr. Putin.

What is liberalism?

Liberalism as the word suggests is based on the idea of liberty.
The supporters of liberalism or the liberals focus much on individual rights (i.e. the right of each individual), they believe that the state/ government exists for protecting the rights of the individuals but also believe that at times the state/ government can itself become a threat to liberty.
Keeping this in mind there are three types of liberalism: economic, political, and social.
Economic liberalism means free competition, globalisation and minimum interference by the state in the economy.
Political liberalism stands for political and civil liberties and the belief in progress and the autonomy of the individual.
And social liberalism stands for protection of minority groups, and such issues as LGBTQ rights and multiculturalism.

Why in news?

The Russian President Valdimir Putin, in an interview to the Financial Times stated that liberalism had ‘become obsolete’ i.e. out of date. He further said that the views of the liberals regarding refugees, migrants, LGBT issues etc is now being rejected by an overwhelming majority of the population even in western countries.
He was particularly critical of political and social liberalism.
This also led to a response from the President of the European Council, Mr. Donald Tusk, who opposed the view saying that if someone thinks that liberal democracy is obsolete i.e. outdated, they also think that freedom is outdated and also rule of law and human rights is outdated.
But the view of the Russian President is not something exclusive. We can see an increasing belief that centralised political systems work better for political stability and economic progress than western liberal democracies.

The state of liberalism now-

The view of Liberalism has been the dominant socio-political ideology in the West since the end of the Second World War, where it has been regarded as the norm but even in the west the liberal social-political ideas are fading. As evident by support for Brexit in the United Kingdom.
Globalisation had played an important role in economic liberalism by allowing the market forces to determine everything. But the recession of 2008 changed the view towards economic liberalisation.

Also economic liberalisation with the movement of cheap labour to different countries led to the problem of crisis of identity and culture and also a loss of sense of community among migrants.
And this has not only led to a crisis of identity among the migrants, but it has also created a fear among the native populations in the western world about the maintenance of their majority in the region as the number of migrants continue to grow.
The anti-liberal stance at present has become a synonym of anti-migrant stand among the western world.
A lot of this has been contributed by leaders like Mr. Trump in America who uses the immigration and minority issues, with their racial undertones, to bolster his core support.
In European countries such as Greece, Germany and Italy that have been entry points for the recent wave of asylum seekers, attitudes towards immigrants have hardened since 2014. Poland and Hungary do not favour the admission of refugees even fleeing from violence and war, and nearly all European Union members are convinced that the EU has badly mismanaged the question of admission of refugees, which in turn has led to questioning the very basis of Europe’s integration project.
And if we talk of social liberalism in the context of LGBT rights a lot of people around the world strongly disfavour it.

In Russia, Mr. Putin believes that western style liberalism doesn’t suit Russia because Russia according to him has a unique civilisation where priority is given to social interests even if they violate individual liberty. He says that western style liberalism prioritises individual rights over social rights but it doesn’t suit his style of governance. So if there are protests then the government has the right to suppress it because due to these protests travel and tourism gets affected and hence the interests of the society are compromised.

The same view is shared by China. The desire for liberty is recognised as universal, but the freedom to protest in unauthorised demonstrations is seen as a step by protestors to wilfully shatter the economy and tourism as in Hong Kong. so the government has the right to suppress it in social interest.
So overall Russia and China both believe that unauthorised demonstrations open the way to foreign interference and ‘colour revolutions’.
Till present, no country has found the golden mean between free-range liberalism and statism. (i.e. no country has found any means of balancing liberalism with statism i.e. a system where the state has substantial control over political and economic matters).

Way ahead:

Liberalism needs urgently to justify itself by addressing issues of inequality and the loss of a sense of community.

The Hindu Editorials Notes (31st August 2019) for UPSC IAS Exam