“Power Tends to Corrupt and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely” Why Do Liberals Agree to This View and What are the Implications?

Liberalism's core ideals are focused on individualism, rationalism, freedom, justice and toleration. Liberals argue that humans are naturally self-interested, rational creatures who have a generally morally good demeanour. As such they value freedoms of the individual to allow individuals to fulfil their potential and to create a workable society. This is because they see each individual born with equal moral worth, but with differing levels of intellectual capacity. As such Liberals believe that as the individuals are free they can find their most suitable place among the meritocracy. However Liberals believe in Government as they understand that freedom needs limits to prevent the occurrence of license. License is an idea that an individuals are given so much freedom that it means their choices can affect the liberties of another individual. As such Liberals believe that people could use their power of freedom to hurt others welfare, Liberals disagree with this as they believe in the harm principle, where ones freedom should be limited if they hurt somebody else. This is where a government is required to prevent the use of license. However Liberals fear that just as in a social and economic context where people could abuse the power of freedom to the point of license people could abuse the power of political authority to dominate other peoples freedoms. So Liberals especially classic Liberals emphasise the need for a limited to government. Overall Liberals fear that power tends to corrupt because they fear power can lead to license and can harm other individuals and effect the working of a true meritocracy. They particularly disagree with the idea of an individual or group having absolute power as that goes against the workings of the best system of society, where a system of collaborative individuals combine their intellect for the benefit of the group.

So due to Liberals agreeing with statement that “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” Liberals also value, checks and balances within government, empowering individuals through education, internationalism, justice and democracy. All Liberals agree that their need to be checks and balances throughout government so Liberals emphasise the importance of constitutions as it sets clear boundaries and limits on government power. Additionally Liberal supports the idea of the separation of power, this is where the three key sections of power and authority, the executive, legislature and judiciary are kept separate to ensure a balance of power and prevent the formation of government with absolute power. Also Liberals believe other sources of power should be heavily scrutinised such as individuals in control of the military and police. These aren't the only way Liberals aim to ensure scrutiny and control of government they state that as the state is mechanistic the government is only there as a tool for the individual and therefore should only have authority if there is consent from the people ensuring that power isn't abused against the individual. Liberals believe that individual freedoms to be politically active are also vital as it creates other checks such as pressure groups, protests marches, new political parties and a vibrant media section.

This leads on to Liberals, especially Modern Liberals to value the benefits of educating the population. This empowers the individual to be able to use their freedoms and so provide those vital checks and balance on government, social and economic license. The idea of empowering people to be able to use their freedoms such as through education is based on the idea that freedoms are positive where people should have the freedom to do something, instead of negative freedoms where the idea is people should be free from something. Modern Liberals emphasise positive freedoms, whilst classic liberals are more focused on negative freedoms. Educating also brings the additional benefit of allow better rational thought, improving scientific progress and ensuring the meritocratic mechanism works effectively. Liberals belief in Internationalism is another balanced used to try and stop the abuse of power. Internationalism is a form of liberal nationalism, it is where Liberals believe the world should be split into numerous individual states with clear defined borders, that are all self ruling and equal to basic freedoms of being free from intervention. This they believe will restrict the ability of individual states to have excessive power over other countries inhibiting their freedoms. This combined with international body's should provide checks and balances on power for countries and governments on an international scale. Liberals justify a judiciary and the restrictions it places on freedoms as it says that when corruption or license occurs there needs to be justice to restore the balance and ensure that license and corruption is discouraged. Finally Liberals generally praise democracy as it means decision making power is shared among the people and it ensures that the government main priority should be to the individual voters, ensuring focus on the individual. Additionally it means that government constantly switch and don't become cemented in power restricting the spread of corruption. Combined with education means that the individuals rational nature will allow the best party with the best policies to run the country and so creates a meritocracy.

Overall Liberals see that individuals with freedom as vital to create an effective working society. However they accept that individuals who acquire excess power or authority than what they have proven to deserve will create and imbalance and cause corruption and reduce the overall freedom of all individuals. As such Liberal beliefs after the focus on individuals, freedom and the formation of a meritocracy are all focused on creating checks and balances throughout the entire system to maximise freedom and welfare for all.