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This is a partial list of individual contributions to liberal political theory on a worldwide scale. These individuals are strongly associated philosophers of the Enlightenment. Liberalism as a specifically named ideology begins in the late 18th century as a movement towards self-government and away from aristocracy. It included the ideas of self-determination, the primacy of the individual and the nation, as opposed to the family and the state, as being the fundamental units of law, politics and economy.
Since then liberalism has broadened to include a wide range of approaches from Americans Ronald Dworkin, Richard Rorty, John Rawls and Francis Fukuyama as well as the Indian Amartya Sen and the Peruvian Hernando de Soto. Some of these people moved away from liberalism, while others espoused other ideologies before turning to liberalism. There are many different views of what constitutes liberalism, and some liberals would feel that some of the people on this list were not true liberals. It is intended to be suggestive rather than exhaustive. Theorists whose ideas were mainly typical for one country should be listed in that country's section of liberalism worldwide. Generally only thinkers are listed, politicians are only listed when they, beside their active political work, also made substantial contributions to liberal theory.
The list is divided in three sections:
The following people are included:
Laozi (China, 6th Century BC) is the author of the classic Chinese text, the Tao Te Ching, and the founder of Taoist philosophy. A common theme that runs throughout the Tao Te Ching is that the ruler should not meddle with society; instead, the people should be left to their own devices. For example, speaking of the government in chapter 58 he wrote, "That which is meddling, touching everything, will work but ill, and disappointment bring."1 For Laozi, the happiness of the individual was the primary goal of society. The Taoist concept of wei wu wei, "do without doing", is somewhat similar to the later Western concept of laissez-faire, "let do".citation needed
Aristotle (Athens, 384 BC - 322 BC) is revered among political theorists for his seminal work Politics. Though Aristotle never mentioned rights, and even supported slavery, he made invaluable contributions to liberal theory through his observations on different forms of government.
He begins with the idea that the best government provides an active and "happy" life for its people. Aristotle then considers six forms of government: Monarchy, Aristocracy, and Polity on one side as 'good' forms of government, and Tyranny, Oligarchy, and Democracy as 'bad' forms. Considering each in turn, Aristotle rejects Monarchy as infantilizing of citizens, Oligarchy as too profit-motivated, Tyranny as against the will of the people, Democracy as serving only to the poor, and Aristocracy (known today as Meritocracy) as ideal but ultimately impossible. Aristotle finally concludes that a polity—a combination between democracy and oligarchy, where most can vote but must choose among the rich and virtuous for governors—is the best compromise between idealism and realism.
In addition, Aristotle was a firm supporter of private property. He refuted Plato's argument for a collectivist society in which family and property are held in common: Aristotle makes the argument that when one's own son or land is rightfully one's own, one puts much more effort into cultivating that item, to the ultimate betterment of society. He references barbarian tribes of his time in which property was held in common, and the laziest of the bunch would always take away large amounts of food grown by the most diligent.
Niccolò Machiavelli (Florence, 1469-1527), best known for his Il Principe was the founder of realist political philosophy, advocated republican government, citizen armies, division of power, protection of personal property, and restraint of government expenditure as being necessary to the liberties of a republic. He wrote extensively on the need for individual initiative - virtu - as an essential characteristic of stable government. He argued that liberty was the central good which government should protect, and that "good people" would make good laws, where as people who had lost their virtue could maintain their liberties only with difficulty. His Discourses on Livy outlined realism as the central idea of political study and favored "Republics" over "Principalties".
Anti-statist liberals consider Machiavelli's distrust as his main message, noting his call for a strong state under a strong leader, who should use any means to establish his position, whereas liberalism is an ideology of individual freedom and voluntary choices.
However, many people reductively associate Machiavelli as a proponent of the illiberal idea that "the end justifies the means". This is in reference to his work "The Prince" which was a mockery of the practices of the Court of Rome (Catholic Church) and a well known nobleman. "The Prince" was banned by the Church for many years because of this and the term "Machiavellian" became associated with views with which Machiavelli most likely did not agree.
Desiderius Erasmus (Netherlands, 1466-1536) was an advocate of the doctrine now known as humanism, critic of entrenched interests, irrationality and superstition. Erasmusian societies formed across Europe, to some extent in response to the turbulence of the Reformation. He dealt with the freedom of the will, a crucial point. In his De libero arbitrio diatribe sive collatio (1524), he analyzes with great cleverness and good humour the Lutheran exaggeration of the obvious limitations on human freedom.
Hugo Grotius or Hugo de Groot (Netherlands, 1583-1645), laid the foundations for international law, based on natural law, in his book Mare Liberum (Free Seas) formulated the new principle that the sea was international territory and all nations were free to use it for seafaring trade, and in De jure belli ac pacis libri tres (Three books on laws of war and peace) presented a theory of just war and argued that all nations are bound by the principles of natural law.
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Thomas Hobbes (England, 1588-1679) theorized that government is the result of individual actions and human traits, and that it was motivated primarily by "interest", a term which would become crucial in the development of a liberal theory of government and political economy, since it is the foundation of the idea that individuals can be self-governing and self-regulating. His work Leviathan, did not advocate this viewpoint, but instead that only a strong government could restrain unchecked interest: it did, however, advance a proto-liberal position in arguing for an inalienable "right of nature," the right to defend oneself, even against the statecitation needed. Though it is problematic to classify Hobbes himself as a liberal, his work influenced Locke, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison and many other later liberals, leading Strauss to indentify Hobbes as the "father of liberalism".2
Baruch Spinoza (Netherlands, 1632-1677) is in his Tractatus Theologico-Politicus and Tractatus Politicus a proto-liberal defending the value of separation of church and state as well as forms of democracy. In the first mentioned book, Spinoza expresses an early criticism of religious intolerance and a defense of secular government. Spinoza was a thoroughgoing determinist who held that absolutely everything that happens occurs through the operation of necessity. For him, even human behaviour is fully determined, freedom being our capacity to know we are determined and to understand why we act as we do. So freedom is not the possibility to say "no" to what happens to us but the possibility to say "yes" and fully understand why things should necessarily happen that way.
The notions of John Locke (United Kingdom, 1632-1704) of a "government with the consent of the governed" and man's natural rights—life, liberty, and estate (property) as well on tolerance, as laid down in A letter concerning toleration and Two treatises of government —had an enormous influence on the development of liberalism. Developed a theory of property resting on the actions of individuals, rather than on descent or nobility. One could argue that liberal theory starts with Locke, influenced by the proto-liberal contributions listed above.
John Trenchard (United Kingdom, 1662-1723) was co-author, with Thomas Gordon of Cato's Letters. These newspaper essays condemned tyranny and advanced principles of freedom of conscience and freedom of speech and were a main vehicle for spreading the concepts that had been developed by John Locke.
Charles de Montesquieu (France, 1689-1755)
Thomas Gordon (United Kingdom, 169?-1750) was co-author, with John Trenchard of Cato's Letters. These newspaper essays condemned tyranny and advanced principles of freedom of conscience and freedom of speech and were a main vehicle for spreading the concepts that had been developed by John Locke.
François Quesnay (France, 1694-1774)
Voltaire (France, 1694-1778)
Benjamin Franklin (United States, 1706-1790) was an inventor, scientist, writer, entrepreneur, diplomat and statesman. He called for the end of mercantilism while advocating free trade, industrialization, the abolition of slavery, free public libraries, republican government and national unity. His Autobiography is also a seminal work on the life of a free individual who is self-governing in his pursuit of accomplishment, without need for an over-arching state, allegiance or religion to force adherence to basic moral and ethical principles.
David Hume (United Kingdom, 1711-1776)
Denis Diderot (France, 1713-1784)
Jean le Rond d'Alembert (France, 1717-1783)
Samuel Adams (United States, 1722-1803)
Richard Price (United Kingdom, 1723-1791)
Anders Chydenius (Finland (then a part of the Swedish realm), 1729-1803) His book Den Nationale Winsten (engl. The National Gain) proposed roughly same the ideas as Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, a decade earlier, including foundations of liberalism and capitalism and (roughly) the invisible hand. He demanded complete economic and individual freedom, including the freedom of religion (although he was a priest), worker's rights to freely move and choose their professions and employers, the freedom of speech and trade and abolitions of all privileges and price and wage controls.
He was also a member of the Swedish four-estates parliament, elected three times as representative of the clergy in the northern and western parts of Finland. In his first parliamentary session, 1765-66, he was very successful as a member of the subcommittee that wrote Swedens famous Constitutional Law of the Freedom of Printing, Tryckfrihetsförordningen, of 1766. In this law Chydenius combined freedom of the press, and abolishment of the political censorship, with free access for the citizens to most government documents. Chydenius liberal system, where transparency reinforces press freedom, and the right for everyone to print the public document reinforces transparency, has been a fundamental constitutional principle in Sweden ever since, except for the years of royal autocracy 1772-1809. Chydenius model for press freedom and freedom of information was reestablished and strengthened in the Swedish Constitution 1809. It is now the foundation of the present Tryckfrihetsförordningen of 1949, which is one of the fundamental laws of Sweden.
In diluted form, and without the strong constitutional protection of the Swedish free press model, the principle of free access to public documents that originated in Chydenius law of 1766, has in recent decades been spread from Sweden to the Freedom of Information Acts of many countries. This way, Anders Chydenius, has become one of the older liberal thinkers that has most practical influence on politics and public administration of modern western societies.
An edition of Anders Chydenius Complete Works, in Finnish, Swedish and English, is under preparation by the Chydenius Foundation in Finland.
Adam Smith (United Kingdom, 1723-1790), often considered the founder of modern economics, was a key figure in formulating and advancing economic doctrine of free trade and competition. In his Wealth of Nations Adam Smith outlined the key idea that if the economy is basically left to its own devices, limited and finite resources will be put to ultimately their most efficient use through people acting purely in their self interest. This he called the invisible hand of the market.
Smith also advanced property rights and personal civil liberties, including stopping slavery, which today partly form the basic liberal ideology.
Sir William Blackstone (United Kingdom 1723-1780)
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Immanuel Kant (Germany, 1724-1804)
Anne Robert Jacques Turgot (France, 1727-1781)
Edmund Burke (United Kingdom 1729-1797, Whig politician) contributed to liberal theory by emphasizing the importance of rationality in politics, self-interest as the basis for government and moderation against extremes. He is also considered important for his contributions to Conservatism because of his belief in respect for tradition.
Joseph Priestley (United Kingdom/United States, 1733-1804)
August Ludwig von Schlözer (Germany, 1735-1809)
Patrick Henry (United States, 1736-1799)
Thomas Paine (United Kingdom/United States, 1737-1809)
Thomas Jefferson (United States, 1743-1826) was the third President of the United States and author of the Declaration of Independence. He also wrote Notes on the State of Virginia. He was a champion of inalienable individual rights and the separation of church and state. His ideas were repeated in many other liberal revolutions around the world, including the (early) French Revolution.
Marquis de Condorcet (France, 1743-1794)
Jeremy Bentham (United Kingdom, 1748-1832) An early advocate of utilitarianism, animal welfare and women's rights. He had many students all around the world, including John Stuart Mill and several political leaders. Bentham demanded economic and individual freedom, including the separation of the state and church, freedom of expression, completely equal rights for women, the end of slavery and colonialism, uniform democracy, the abolition of physical punishment, also on children, the right for divorce, free prices, free trade and no restrictions on interest. Bentham was not a libertarian: he supported inheritance tax, restrictions on monopoly power, pensions, health insurance and other social security, but called for prudence and careful consideration in any such governmental intervention.
Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès (France, 1748-1836) played an important role in the opening years of the French Revolution, drafting the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, expanding on the theory of national sovereignty, popular sovereignty, and representation implied in his pamphlet What is the Third Estate?.
James Madison (United States, 1751-1836) was co-Author, with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay of The Federalist Papers, and one of the architects of both the American Constitution of 1787, as well as the Bill of Rights (1789). Later 4th President of the United States (1809-1817).
Destutt de Tracy (1754–1836) He was born in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Anne Louise Germaine de Staël (France, 1766-1817)
Benjamin Constant (France, 1767-1830)
Jean-Baptiste Say (France, 1767-1832)
Wilhelm von Humboldt (Germany, 1767-1835)
David Ricardo (United Kingdom, 1772-1823)
James Mill (United Kingdom, 1773-1836)
José MarÃa Luis Mora (Mexico, 1794-1850)
Frédéric Bastiat (France, 1801-1850)
The Dutch statesman Johan Rudolf Thorbecke (Netherlands, 1798-1872) was the main theorist of Dutch liberalism in the nineteenth century, outlining a more democratic alternative to the absolute monarchy, the constitutional monarchy. The constitution of 1848 was mainly his work. His main theoretical article specifically labeled as 'liberal' was Over het hedendaagsche staatsburgerschap (on modern citizenship) from 1844. He became prime minister in 1849, thus starting numerous fundamental reforms in Dutch politics.
Harriet Martineau (United Kingdom, 1802-1876)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (United States, 1803-1882) was an American philosopher who argued that the basic principles of government were mutable, and that government is required only insofar as people are not self-governing. Proponent of Democracy, and of the idea that a democratic people must have a democratic ethics.
Alexis de Tocqueville (France, 1805-1859)
William Lloyd Garrison (United States, 1805-1879)
Friedrich Schiller (Germany, 1759-1805)
John Stuart Mill (United Kingdom, 1806-1873) is one of the first champions of modern "liberalism." As such, his work on political economy and logic helped lay the foundation for advancements in empirical science and public policy based on verifiable improvements. Strongly influenced by Bentham's utilitarianism, he disagrees with Kant's intuitive notion of right and formulates the "highest normative principle" of morals as: Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.
Some consider Mill as the founder of Social liberalism. Although Mill was mainly for free markets, he accepted interventions in the economy, such as a tax on alcohol, if there were sufficient utilitarian grounds. Mill was also a champion of women's rights.
Abraham Lincoln (United States, 1809-1865) is best known as the President of the United States from 1861-1865. He argued for the theory of political equality and the supremacy of natural law over present political arrangements. Most famous for his debates with Stephen Douglas, Cooper Union speech on Congress's right to ban slavery from US territories, Second Inaugural Address and Gettysburg Address, as well as the Emancipation Proclamation - which converted the American Civil War into a struggle to end slavery.
Juan Bautista Alberdi (Argentina, 1810-1884)
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
Jacob Burckhardt (Switzerland, 1818-1897) State as derived from cultural and economic life
Herbert Spencer (United Kingdom, 1820-1903) was an agitator against the newer forms of liberalism espoused by Mills or Bentham. He wanted a smaller state that was only concerned with the defense of persons and property rights. For Spencer, voluntary cooperation was the way for humans to live peacefully together.
Thomas Hill Green (United Kingdom, 1836-1882)
Auberon Herbert (United Kingdom, 1838–1906)
Carl Menger (Austria, 1840-1921)
William Graham Sumner (United States, 1840-1910)
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (United States, 1841-1935) was a jurist and writer. He wrote the influential book on legal theory The Common Law, which traced the creation of individual rights from familial rights common under Roman and Feudal law, and presented the "objective" theory of judicial interpretation. Specifically that the standard for intent and culpability should be that of the "reasonable man", and that individuals can be said to objectively intend the reasonable consequences of their actions.
Ludwig Joseph Brentano (Germany, 1844-1931)
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (Czechoslovakia, 1850-1937)
Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk (Austria, 1851-1914)
Louis Brandeis (1856-1941)
Thorstein Veblen (1857-1926) is best known as the author of Theory of the Leisure Class. Veblen was influential to a generation of American liberalism searching for a rational basis for the economy beyond corporate consolidation and "cut throat competition". Veblen's central argument was that individuals require sufficient non-economic time to become educated citizens. He caustically attacked pure material consumption for its own sake, and the idea that utility equalled conspicuous consumption.
John Dewey (United States, 1859-1952)
Friedrich Naumann (Germany, 1860-1919)
Max Weber (Germany, 1864-1920) was a theorist of state power and the relationship of culture to economics. Argued that there was a moral component to capitalism rooted in "Protestant" values. Weber was along with Friedrich Naumann active in the National Social Union and later in the German Democratic Party.
Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse (United Kingdom, 1864-1929)
Benedetto Croce (Italy, 1866-1952)
Walther Rathenau (Germany, 1867-1922)
William Beveridge (United Kingdom, 1879-1963)
Ludwig von Mises (Austria/United States, 1881-1973)
José Ortega y Gasset (Spain, 1883-1955)
Salvador de Madariaga (Spain, 1886-1978). One of the principal authors of the Oxford Manifesto in 1947.
Adolf Berle (United States, 1895-1971) was author of The Modern Corporation and Private Property, detailing the importance of differentiating between the management of corporations and the share holders who are the owners. Influential in the theory of New Deal policy.