Chapter 4
This chapter is divided into shorter sections covering the people, events and ideas that shaped early liberalism.
Read them in order to follow the complete argument, or choose a subject below and explore it at your own pace.
THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION
EXPLORE
Chapter 1 returns to the Glorious Revolution, the Bill of Rights and John Locke’s Social Contract. It explores how ideas such as life, liberty, property, representative democracy and the rule of law challenged absolute monarchy and hereditary privilege.
It also introduces the ideal of the “self-made man” and asks who truly benefited as markets, private property and individual wealth became increasingly powerful.
THE BIG IDEAS BEHIND THE STORY
Four straightforward explainers introduce the concepts that appear throughout the chapters and help make the wider story easier to understand.
Neoliberalism Files explores more than political history. It looks at the ideas that influence who owns resources, who makes decisions and who pays when the system causes harm.
The project introduces four important concepts: externalities, the commons, requisite variety and viable systems. Together, they help explain why markets do not always work as promised and how different forms of organisation could offer another way forward.
FOUR IDEAS THAT HELP EXPLAIN THE SYSTEM
Externalities
Costs created by businesses but paid for by everyone else.
The Commons
Resources that should belong to us all.
Requisite Variety
Complex systems require equally capable ways of controlling them.
Viable Systems
A bottom-up approach to organisation and decision-making.
