Liberalism: A Very Short Introduction by Michael Freeden

By Michael Freeden

Liberalism is likely one of the so much imperative and pervasive political theories and ideologies, but it truly is topic to various interpretations in addition to misappropriations. Its background consists of a vital history of civilized pondering, of political perform, and of philosophical-ethical creativity. Liberalism: a really brief creation unpacks the idea that of liberalism and its a variety of interpretations via 3 diversified methods. taking a look at its ancient and theoretical improvement, analysing the liberal ideology, and knowing liberalism as a chain of moral and philosophical rules, it presents an intensive exploration of the idea that and perform of liberalism.

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With a lower tax revenue the state has less fiscal capacity to provide the kind of social services that we know are critical for low-income households and for low-income women in particular, and indirect taxes also tend to be generally regressive. And yet while it is politically difficult, it is nevertheless possible to construct overall progressive tax systems that are effective in raising at least moderate levels of revenue to fund state social provisioning, even at comparatively low levels of development, as demonstrated by the example of Jamaica.

661). 20 Shireen Hassim and Shahra Razavi The current jargon – ‘fiscal restraint’ and ‘efficient allocation of resources subject to budget constraints’ – seems to suggest that the problems of targeting are technical. By contrast, Mkandawire (2005) underlines the ideological and political imperatives which determine the choice of instruments used to address poverty, inequality and insecurity. As the literature on social assistance programmes providing unreciprocated aid to the ‘deserving’ poor has repeatedly shown, there is a strong element of control that underpins targeted programmes which goes against current notions of citizenship and empowerment.

The next section examines the interplay between these factors more closely. Reach, capacity and legitimacy of state institutions There are enormous variations in state-society linkages and state capacity between developmental states in Latin America, Asia and Africa. Postcolonial governments in Africa were initially committed to the idea of an active state that would drive development and poverty reduction. As Robert Bates points out, although African governments adopted different developmental paths, ‘they were virtually all activist’ (Bates 1994: 15).

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