The False Binary Between Freedom and Equality (Part I)

“It is not hard to infer that Locke may have been concerned that universal suffrage would result in concerted efforts to establish a more egalitarian society.”

Introduction

Several weeks ago Ben Burgis and I released an article at Quillette entitled, “Why Everyone Cares About Freedom.” Our argument was that the distinction between the political right and the political left was often wrongly framed as one about whether to focus on the enhancement of freedom or equality. We contended that a close look at both political traditions revealed (appropriately enough) that everyone actually cares about freedom. The actual distinction between Left and Right is better framed as over how best to realize freedom under contemporary social conditions. The article concluded with a brief discussion of republican freedom and its myriad virtues.

In this two part series of articles, I want to expand on this position to discuss why enhancing republican—or as I will now call it civic freedom—should be at the center of left-wing efforts. I will begin by analyzing the classical liberal emphasis on freedom and government, before analyzing what civic freedom brings to the table. The series will conclude with an argument for why emphasizing civic freedom is so important in an age dominated by populist post-modern conservatives. Recapturing the democratic ethos is integral to rejuvenating the efforts of progressive movements.

The Liberal Freedoms

“The friend of popular governments never finds himself so much alarmed for their character and fate, as when he contemplates their propensity to this dangerous vice. He will not fail, therefore, to set a due value on any plan which, without violating the principles to which he is attached, provides a proper cure for it. The instability, injustice, and confusion introduced into the public councils, have, in truth, been the mortal diseases under which popular governments have everywhere perished; as they continue to be the favorite and fruitful topics from which the adversaries to liberty derive their most specious declamations…Complaints are everywhere heard from our most considerate and virtuous citizens, equally the friends of public and private faith, and of public and personal liberty, that our governments are too unstable, that the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties, and that measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority. However anxiously we may wish that these complaints had no foundation, the evidence, of known facts will not permit us to deny that they are in some degree true.”