The concept of the state comprises of the core of the political thought in political science. The liberal theory, one of the earliest vies on state, postulated a mechanistic view of the state, post the Organic theory. Social Contract tradition proposed by exponents like Hobbes, Locke, etc formed the basis of liberal theory of state.
Liberal theory of State
• It developed in two main directions
a) individualism and b) utilitarianism.
• John Locke and Adam Smith are the early exponents of individualism. On the other hand, utilitarianism stands for ‘the greatest happiness of the greatest number’ where the interest of the few may be sacrificed in the interest of majority, as proposed by Bentham and Mill.
• As per Rousseau, a liberal state is an instrument for the protection of liberty.
• Locke considers that a liberal state will bring peace and goodwill in the society under the social contract.
However, in the era of contemporary politics, the notion of liberal theory of state has started taking newer forms:
• In the past few decades, the theory of laissez-faire liberalism has been revived with the idea of neoliberal state based on the notion of night-watchman state. It sought new grounds of keeping the state away from interference in the market forces.
• Previously it tended to accommodate some tenets of socialist and idealist thought based on works of TH Green, Harold Laski, etc, which was responsible for the emergence of the theory of 'welfare state'.
• Later that concept got blurred due to the inherent weakness in the modern liberal socialist welfare state, as seen from the emergence of Thatcherism, Reaganism, Washington Consensus of 1989, etc which pushed for more market reforms and increased private space based on context of less presence of government in all affairs of the state.
• However, post 2001, with the 9/11 incident and majorly post 2008 Global Financial Crisis, the contemporary politics made the nature of minimalist nightwatchman state to change its stance to accommodate more modern liberal principles like Equality of Opportunity, Feminist critique, etc.
• The event of BREXIT, COVID-19, etc has again put the question on liberal theory of state to bring in more socialist measures and change the position of negative liberty to positive liberty.
• Even the George Floyd Protests, the Yellow Vests Movement in Europe, the Capitol Hill Riots in US, has shown us the limitations of liberal theory of state in the present era of contemporary politics.
• As per the Marxist perspective, there has been rising sense of inequality in the most liberal democracies of state – as seen from the works of Thomas Piketty, Immanuel Wallerstein, etc.
For eg. the nature of Third World countries tells about the state of apathy in these developing countries that are living at the brunt of poor socio-economic conditions due to unequal modes of production and their distribution.
For eg, the present traumatic condition in Afghanistan with the rise of Taliban, the politico-economic crisis in Sri Lanka, etc shows the failure of liberal theory of state in modern times.
• According to the Marxist scholars, the liberal theory of state in present times is nothing but a poor way of distribution of wealth, leading to high increase in inequality in the society, rising poverty, etc.
• Also, the phase of globalization has done more harm to the poorer countries under the market free access notion of liberal state than to other states. This can be justified under the work of Immanuel Wallerstein’s World Systems Theory.
• The idea of state interventionism is again getting called on towards the concept of Welfare theory of liberal state – especially post COVID 19 liberal world order. The changes made by UK state during COVID-19 times is an example that present liberal states do need corrections.
• The breach of sovereignty and rights has also been seen as a fallout of liberal state theory where there are rising wars and extremist conditions as seen in the Middle East region.
• The climate change crisis also needs to be included here where neoliberal states have disrupted the ecological balance of the Earth thereby doing more harm to the basic environmental rights of the public. (Eco-Feminist view)
Despite contemporary critique to liberal view of state, there still remains significance of such school of thought when we call upon topics like rights, liberty, democracy, etc.