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New Liberalism Essay

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New Liberalism

Old liberalism, otherwise know as classical or Gladstonian liberalism was centred around the fundamental rights of the individual. It was an ideology that the state should have little to no intervention in people’s lives and in the economy. It relied heavily upon the notion of laissez faire, and the Victorian mindset of self-help. Thrift was one of these ideas. It was the theory that any family could support itself if that income was managed wisely, and a pension could be saved for. The key pillars of old liberalism was low taxes and low state intervention. This was because they believed that the people should be able to spend their money as they wised, and not be forced to send it …show more content…

Towards the end of the century this was coming into question. Other European nations were industrialising and eating into Britain’s profits. There was a thought among the British public that as long as the economy was growing, eventually prosperity would filter down to the lower classes. But as the economy began to shrink, according to Lee it “eroded the attractions of industrial growth as a panacea for society’s ills.” Victorian notions were rapidly becoming out of date and viewed as wrong, not only economically, but morally as well. In London and York, studies showed that a third of people lived in poverty as a direct result of simply not having a large enough income to cover their basic needs, while thousands more lived in poverty due to inadequate education to manage there finances. Laissez faire was being proven to be out dated in Birmingham where the conservative mayor Joseph Chamberlain had shown that local government taking control for and organised public amenities and facilities could benefit the community as a whole. Not only did this destroy laissez faire, but also it was an attack by the Tories on Liberal values. In the 1880’s socialism was starting to gain ground as the lower classes saw that their situation was not increases, and at the

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