Liberal Political Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Liberal Political Theory - Essay Example Liberalism has its roots in the Renaissance and the humanist movement, whilst liberal ideology was inadvertently developed further as a result of the Protestant Reformation, and the rise of capitalism. Prior to the emergence of liberalism it was generally accepted that governments had the power to dictate how their citizens actually behaved. The Protestant Reformation started in Germany but the factors that allowed it to survive effectively prevented the forming of a united German state or the complete success of the Protestant Reformation there. The Reformation though it was primarily about a concern to achieve religious reform had a profound influence upon the emergence of liberal thought and ideology (Chadwick, 1990, pp.63-64). The Reformation was in many respects the unwitting catalyst for both liberalism and capitalism. In the Protestant countries it broke the traditional partnership between the secular governments and the Roman Catholic Church. In the short-term the governments of the Protestant states usually gained increased powers to influence the beliefs as well as the behaviour of their populations. States were not at this point attempting to be neutral, as they wanted to control their people as much as they possibly could. The Medieval and the Early Modern view of the role of government was that the state had the full authority to make its citizens believe or behave in the ways that it wanted them to do (Royale, 2004 p. 5). All people within each country owed complete obedience to their government, which had the theoretical power (if not always the physical presence or military capability) to enforce its norms upon its entire population (Heywood, 2001 p. 29). In England, James I and Charles I found it impossible to maintain the traditionally sound relationships between the monarchy, Parliament, and the gentry class from which the majority of MPs,