During the Industrial Revolution, the world was banging with new political theories about life, freedom, and government. The three largest political theories during the industrial revolution were liberalism, utilitarianism, and socialism.
Liberalism influenced Europe in the 1800s and liberals believed in individual liberty and accepted ideas of the Enlightenment and reforms of the French Revolution. They believed in freedom of conscience, freedom of thought and speech, freedom to pursue your own economic interests through free trade and competition. Liberalism is the belief of a representative, constitutional government but did not support democracy. Liberals believed that only men with property should be allowed to participate in politics. The Laissez-Faire is economic theories of Adam Smith, which teaches people to follow their own self-interests. Liberals also believed in equal treatment, despite wealth or social position.
After liberalism, people began to accept utilitarianism, where institutions and laws should be judged by usefulness. This theory was started by Philosopher Jeremy Bentham who also believed that majority rules and that the government should have people vote against or for laws and whatever laws failed to have the majority of people agree with should be abandoned for the good of the people. People who believed in utilitarianism also believed that the government should stay out of people’s lives as much as possible, but to promote education. They also believed in full democracy and equality for both men and women. Utilitarianism considered the possible tyranny of the people but said that the government should have limited powers.
The Essay on Government Censorship Freedom Of Speech
Does the government have the right to restrict public speech and expression This seems to be a controversial question, when it actually shouldn t be. The government wasn t formed to parent the youth of America by setting the guidelines of what is appropriate for them to hear, but to guarantee the rights provided by the Constitution of the United States. Americans don t pay taxes to keep people ...
Socialism was then adopted after utilitarianism. Utopian socialism was started by Charles Fourier who believed that people should try to work and live together in harmony. Robert Owen was one of the first utopian socialists and tried to make a Utopian society in New Harmony. However, it fell apart because of financial problems and many bickerings between the people. The ideas of socialism said that the interests of the people should give way to the interests of society and that a country should have both political and economical equality. Socialists also said that a capitalist economic system would cause human suffering and that the struggle for profits would lead to misery. Socialists said that the state should take charge of the “means of production,” or the capital and equipment needed to make and exchange goods, for the good of the people instead of having the workers own, manage, and control the production. They believed that competition caused problems and people should choose cooperation over competition.
The Industrial Revolution led people to believe in many different theories about life, freedom, and government that they believed would make the world a better place.