are in place to limit freedom. John Locke advocated this when he attacked the government saying no government allows absolute liberty. This is true because if no laws were in place then absolute liberty would soon be replaced by anarchy. Liberalism not only influenced equality but it was the basic idea behind the United States of America constitution. This was easy for the American governments to adopt because unlike other countries, it did not have to contend with aristocratic traditions and institutions. Its New Plan policy was perhaps the first step in which America moved away from liberal principles. This was to protect Americans from overpowering economic groups and from problems that have occurred through no fault of their own (e.g. old age and unemployment). The Supreme Court in America at first fought against this proposed plan because it was thought that a policy of this kind would be going against the constitution because it was proposing state intervention. Britain adopted this political theory as much as it could. However some people find it difficult to distinguish between socialist policies and liberal policies. Laissez-faire was the most notable liberal policy associated with Britain. This was a classic liberal negative economic approach leaning towards non-intervention of the state in economic problems. This was unpopular in the 19th century when industrial capitalism was in its development. It was believed that the lack of state intervention was to protect the interests of powerful economic groups. This policy led to the development of positive liberalism. This attitude is one for positive intervention of state to eliminate economic monopoly, unemployment and poverty. It was believed that without state help these problems could not be eliminated. Liberal theories also influenced the British governments reluctance to intervene in the time of the 1930s depression. This split the liberals into two sides, ...
