Thanks to Cory Morgan and the team at The Western Standard for having me on. Cory, who will be speaking at the Capitalism & Morality Calgary Seminar, had me on his show to talk about Classical Liberalism and whether or not it still exists.
Well…what does exist is an undeserved romantic nostalgia for the early years of confederation and the idea that Canada was some beacon of self-ownership and private property rights and the implementation of those liberal ideas into a functioning society. Yet liberalism has been in decline for at least as long as Canada has existed. Today it seems that classical liberalism and modern liberalism (socialism) are two completely different sets of ideas and although this is true in some ways, the relationship is more cause and effect than a rejection of liberalism.
It's doubtful that the signatories to the British North America act in 1867 ever wanted to create a truly free society or had any intentions beyond imperialism. Canada has no great history of classical liberalism in thought or practice and certainly nothing compared to events like the U.S. declaration of independence.
Historically, liberalism was a moral doctrine. It applied to every man, regardless of his position or status in life, the rights and principles of self-ownership, autonomy, and freedom and the naturally corresponding rights of property and self-defense, under the condition that these rights are respected and reciprocated to his fellow men. But then the question arises of how to ensure that condition is met. The need to maintain social order in a liberal society is undeniable. There is a need for members of a society to impose pressure on others when their rights are violated. And here classical liberalism takes a moral premise and turns it into a political mistake, by assigning the maintenance of social order to the state, in this case the Canadian and Provincial governments.
Canada and the Provinces derive their justification from individuals and property owners who look to them to protect their rights as such. Classical liberal thinkers agreed with Thomas Jefferson: “…governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” In this way, self-ownership and private property precede the existence of the state. The state is granted a monopoly on the use of force by individuals so that it can protect the rights of individuals.
Having been granted this monopoly on the use of force, the state has the authority to 1) to tax - to confiscate property, and 2) to regulate - to set laws and rules on how individuals can use their property, 3) to redistribute the funds necessary to protect the individuals’ rights and maintain social order, i.e. police, judges, etc. It is the paradoxical conclusion of classical liberalism that while in theory it sets out to preserve private property and self-ownership, in execution it forces the surrender of private property and self-ownership to the state through taxation and regulation.
Although classical liberal thinkers would even today argue that the intention should be to limit the size and scope of the Canadian and Provincial governments, this is impossible in practice, and these governments have grown to impact every aspect of life in Canada. Once the political means of monopoly, taxation, regulation, and of centralized power are accepted, liberalism, in the true, moral sense no longer exists. What you are left with is the reaction to liberalism.
Consistent liberal thought, libertarianism, where the primacy of the individual and their rights to property are respected, rejects this monopoly on the use of force. Classical liberalism is inconsistent in this regard. Liberalism - to the extent it was implemented - did create an economic environment that allowed for huge advances in technology and economic prosperity which we still see today when countries abandon their totalitarian policies and embrace individual rights, freedom of association, liberalized trade, etc. The reaction to that which liberalism has endowed is split broadly into two camps – modern liberalism (socialism) and conservatism.
Modern liberalism, such as Trudeau’s Liberal Party of Canada, represents an egalitarian response to true liberalism, which is socialism. They view the economic prosperity of a free market as providing an unfair advantage to some and therefore justify the seizure and redistribution of property and wealth, which has already been accepted as necessary to the maintenance of a liberal social order.
Conservatives represent a reactionary response to liberalism, but only to whatever type of liberalism is directly in front of them. It was them who originally defended feudalism at the onset of classical liberalism. Today the Conservative Party of Canada refers to themselves overwhelmingly as classically liberal, meaning they are willing to promote the ideas of self-ownership and property but not at the expense of the authority of the state. They want to preserve the status quo or at best to roll back the state 20 years or so.
Because of this fundamental error – the inconsistency of complete state control with basic liberal principles – classical liberalism sewed the seeds of its own destruction 400 years ago and contributed to the destruction of everything it set out to protect.
You can watch the full video HERE.
Don’t forget, when you register for the Capitalism and Morality Calgary Seminar, use promo code DARCY and receive 20% off.
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