Modern Liberalism – Team Assessment Ashlyn, Ashleigh, Hannah, Emma

A) What principles of modern liberalism can reasonably be imposed upon non-liberal societies?

Human rights: A nation would have no logical reason to reject human standards because when you have human rights each person is obligated to equal rights and freedoms. Human rights do not stop discrimination but it does not tolerate it.

Labor standards: A nation would have no logical reason to reject labor standards because when you have labor standards the people are no longer under, what Canada would consider to be, slavery. Labor standards advocate reasonable wage, hours, and working policies.

Unions: If a nation can form unions it allows people with common interests to stand together and fight situations together. A union for the people rather than having each man for himself is like a rope rather than a thread. When there are unions the people do not have to face a fight on their own but rather they do all things together as a team.

Human rights as well as labor standards do not bring any harm towards people, but rather they bring more opportunity for success for all people. Fear of the unknown has a huge impact on the way that people would view these principles of modern liberalism.

B) What principles can only be imposed through domestic support or instigation?

Classical Liberalism

Rule of Law: In a non-liberal society there is an ‘upper class’ of some form which would oppose the

idea of equal treatment in terms of laws.

Individual Rights & Freedoms: Once again people who control a class system would oppose the idea of equality and

rights and freedoms are not truly rights and freedoms if they are being imposed and maintained by another force rather than the individuals to whom they apply to.

Modern Liberalism

Welfare State This principle of liberalism is used to directly or indirectly modify the market forces in

order to ensure economic stability and to ensure the basic standard of living for its citizens. This cannot be forced upon a country because in many countries the citizens would not agree to pay taxes in order to ensure the health and safety of others. If there is very little wealth, the people would not even be able to afford to pay these taxes. The only way that this principle of modern liberalism could work is if the government had

Modern Liberalism – Team Assessment Ashlyn, Ashleigh, Hannah, Emma

some way of charging a small tax that could go towards paying for some sort of health care. This would be a big struggle for a government to gain the support of all of the citizens in order to have these types of organizations.

Suffrage The right and privilege for citizens to vote can not be imposed on a country by force. This

particular aspect of modern liberalism is linked to individual rights and freedoms. If a country does not believe that woman, for example, do not have a voice in society due to religious reasons, than it would have to be instigated by the government in order for it to work. But in order for the government to instigate it, it would have to be in a country where religion plays a little role in the government. And in many of the countries that liberalism is being imposed on them, this is not the case.

C) An example of the failed imposition of the principles of liberalism in the 21st century?

In the 1950's the United States began to send troops to Vietnam. Vietnam had been under foreign rule since the mid-1800’s, and after the North Vietnamese (with the aid of China and Russia) began a massive initiative to take over the whole country, the United States stepped in. Fearing a communist takeover of the entire region, the United States became more heavily involved and aware of the situation in Vietnam, and with their immense opposition to communism, they decided to prevent it from spreading any further across the globe; Soviet rule was quickly expanding into Eastern Europe, Korea and Cuba at the time. Imposing the modern liberalist principle welfare capitalism onto troubled Vietnam was an obvious objective of the United States. The idea of rule of law, private property, and the government taking care of its people in dealing with unemployment and poverty through public programs would have been seen fit by the Americans to impose on the Vietnamese who would have not been entitled to those things at the time. The Vietnamese government was corrupted by leaders and decision makers with extremely low morale, and the imposition of principles of modern liberalism didn’t stand a chance. The United States tried to impose suffrage upon the Vietnamese and create a more stable government in doing so. The idea of people having the power as to who runs their government and country would eliminate corruption and unfit people running the country in the eyes of the Americans. By the end of the Vietnam War, the principles of liberalism which the Americans and their allies tried to impose did not successfully embed in the economic and political systems in Vietnam. Peace did not come to Vietnam in the way which the Americans envisioned. The Vietnam War resulted in 3 to 4 million Vietnamese deaths, two million Laotians and Cambodians, and approximately sixty thousand American soldiers.