Liberty facts for kids
Liberty means the condition in which an individual has the ability to act following his or her own will and alternatively, achieve their potential, within the context of other words like political freedom. It is a term that has contested meanings.
Communism and socialism claim to have something defined as liberty for them because of their social equality ideals. Libertarians and classical liberals think communism is against Liberty because communism is most of the times against the individual basic rights (life, freedom and property).
Classical liberalism conceptions of liberty conceive mainly of the freedom of the individual from outside compulsion in terms of freedom from restraint and social liberalist perspective, on the other hand, highlights the need for social and economic equality, as in the power and resources to fulfill one's potential. As such, a social liberalist connects liberty (i.e. freedom) to the equal distribution of political power (i.e. democracy) in the sense of positive liberty. They argue that liberty without equality means the domination of the most powerful. Thus, freedom and democracy are seen as connected and ultimately, antagonistic.
John Stuart Mill, in his work, On Liberty, was the first to recognize the difference between liberty as the freedom to act and liberty as not being forced to do something. Mill also sought to define the "nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual” and as such, he describes an inherent and continuous antagonism between liberty and authority and thus, the prevailing question becomes "how to make the fitting adjustment between individual independence and social control".
Types of freedom
There are mainly nine types of Freedom. They are:
- Freedom of association
- Freedom of belief
- Freedom of speech
- Freedom to express oneself
- Freedom of the press
- Freedom to choose one's state in life
- Freedom of religion
- Freedom from bondage and slavery
- However, the civil constitutions of each country have different definitions of the freedoms allowed to the citizens. It has been argued that any law limits freedom, since it sets limits on what people may do.
Related pages
- Human rights
- Justice
- Constitutional economics
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- European Convention on Human Rights
Images for kids
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Liberty Enlightening the World (known as the Statue of Liberty) was donated to the US by France in 1886 as an artistic personification of liberty.
See also
In Spanish: Libertad para niños
