06 Liberty and Political Power Free Online FlashCards

What is negative liberty?

Negative liberty is the area in which a person can act without interference or constraint imposed by other people or institutions.

What do freedom of speech, religion, and movement illustrate?

People are negatively free when others, including the state, do not prevent them from exercising these choices.

Does lacking money automatically count as negative unfreedom?

Not necessarily. Some accounts define unfreedom in terms of interference by others; others also consider how social and economic conditions constrain real choices.

How can laws protect negative liberty?

Laws can protect negative liberty by preventing one person from coercing another; freedom requires protection from private as well as state power.

What is positive liberty?

Positive liberty is the capacity to direct one’s life through self-direction, self-government, or pursuit of important purposes.

How can education or healthcare support positive liberty?

Access to education or basic healthcare can increase a person’s capacity to shape their future and pursue important purposes.

How does Rousseau connect freedom with collective self-government?

Citizens may be free when they participate in governing their community. Rousseau connects political freedom with participating in forming laws citizens give themselves.

What kinds of public action can promote positive liberty?

Positive liberty can support public action that creates conditions for agency, such as education, income support, or measures against discrimination.

What danger did Berlin identify in appeals to a “higher” self?

Officials may claim to know a person’s “real” interests better than the person does and compel them supposedly for their own good. Berlin warned that appeals to a higher or collective self can justify coercion.

What liberty trade-off can compulsory education create?

It limits parents’ and children’s immediate choices, but may give children knowledge and skills that expand their future options.

What liberty trade-off can factory pollution regulation create?

It limits the owner’s freedom to operate without restriction while protecting others from harm.

What does Mill’s harm principle allow?

Mill argues that power may be exercised against a person’s will to prevent harm to others, not merely because authorities consider the person’s conduct foolish or immoral.