Positive liberty
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Positive liberty is an idea that was first expressed and analyzed as a separate conception of liberty by John Stuart Mill but most notably described by Isaiah Berlin. It refers to the opportunity and ability to act to fulfill one's own potential, as opposed to negative liberty, which refers to freedom from coercion.
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[edit] Overview
Positive liberty is often described as freedom to achieve certain ends, while negative liberty is described as from external coercion. The idea of positive liberty is often emphasized by those on the left-wing of the political spectrum, whereas negative liberty is most important for those who lean towards libertarianism. However, not all on either the left or right would accept the positive/negative liberty distinction as genuine or significant. For example, Gerald MacCallum believes Berlin is in error and that, "Whenever the freedom of some agent or agents is in question, it is always freedom from some constraint or restriction on, interference with, or barrier to doing, not doing, becoming, or not becoming something" and that what Berlin is referring to as freedom is not freedom at all.
Among the right-wing, some conservatives also embrace some forms of positive liberty. For example, Puritans such as Cotton Mather often referred to liberty in their writings, but focused on the liberty from sin (e.g. sexual urges) even at the expense of liberty from the government. Many anarchists, and others considered to be on the left-wing, see the two concepts of positive and negative liberty as interdependent and thus inseparable; contrarily, those in the libertarian camp assert that the provision of positive liberty to one requires the abridgement of the negative liberty of another.
[edit] Criticism of Positive Liberty
While he described the concept of positive liberty, Isaiah Berlin was deeply suspicious of it. He argued that the pursuit of positive liberty could lead to a situation where the state forced upon people a certain way of life, because the state judged that it was the most rational course of action, and therefore, was what a person should desire, whether or not people actually did desire it.
David E. Kelly notes that positive liberty requires that persons be guaranteed positive outcomes which often requires the coercion of others to provide it. Meaning, positive rights "impose on others positive obligations to which they did not consent and which cannot be traced to any voluntary act" [1] Kelly notes that positive liberty evolved out of economic and natural risks such as poverty and old age. [2] Rising living standards contributed to a visible difference between those improving their life and those left behind. Economic progress increased population size and allowed many to live who otherwise would have died, including many who could now live into old age.[3]
Kelly, among other critics of positive liberty, argues that positive liberty's concept of coercion is also misapplied. Positive liberty attempts to correct ills from economic and natural risks, but Kelly argues that these do not constitute coercion. Kelly states, "Advocates of positive freedom have exploited [concepts of coercion and freedom], insisting that lack of a certain opportunity deprives a person of the freedom to choose that opportunity." [4] Kelly notes that a persons inability to run a 5 minute mile does not remove the persons freedom to do so, it is simply a fact of nature, nor is one's freedom restricted by a more limited menu at a dinner, or a woman's refusal to accept a marriage proposal a limitation of the man's freedom to marry her.[5]. Advocates of positive freedom also insist that threats to health require the provision of positive freedom, but critics assert that disease and old age are inevitable features of human life, not a restriction of freedom.[6] Kelly notes that this concept of positive freedom is "a notion that makes sense only if we assume that individuals in some new sense "ought" to be able to choose their fates in complete disregard of the facts."[7]
Economically, positive freedom attempts to defy economics by providing for individuals without the need to produce. [8] Production is a natural requirement for consumption and a lack of production, for reasons of inadequacy or unemployment are not coercion and they do not leave you worse off. [9] Kelly concludes that, "the concept of positive freedom arises from an invalid attempt to ignore the distinctions...by insisting that the presence of certain options among one's alternatives is equivalent to freedom of choice among one's alternatives and that the absence of an option is equivalent to coercive interference with one's freedom" and that "the price of positive freedom is the sacrifice of genuine liberty.[10]
Defenders of positive liberty say that there is no need for it to have such totalitarian undertones, and that there is a great difference between a government providing positive liberty to its citizens and a government presuming to make their decisions for them. For example, they argue that any democratic government upholding positive liberty would not suffer from the problems Berlin described, because such a government would not be in a position to ignore the wishes of people or societies. Also, many on the left see positive liberty as guaranteeing equal rights to certain things like education and employment, and an important defense against discrimination — here, positive liberty could be the right of (for example) a woman to be considered on equal terms with a man in a job interview.
[edit] Bibliography
- Isaiah Berlin: Four Essays on Liberty (especially Two Concepts of Liberty)
- Charles Taylor: What's Wrong With Negative Liberty
