In this article you will learn about the Negative and Positive Liberty in Political Science.
Negative and Positive Liberty
Liberty means freedom from restraints and the freedom to enjoy one’s right as he likes. It is as important to humans as the soul is important to the body. And there can be no real life without Liberty. But in a civil society, Liberty is taken as negative and also harmful. If there are no restraints people will do whatever they like as in a jungle freedom from restraints is available to animals. So reasonable restrictions are made not as limitations of liberty but as some necessary conditions for the equal enjoyment of liberty for all.
Liberty is defined in two ways - Negative Liberty and Positive Liberty.
- Negative Liberty - In its negative sense Liberty means to act in any way without any restrictions. And if there is no restriction people will do whatever they like which will result in disorders and chaos and lead to violence, war, disputes, fights and destruction. Such Liberty cannot be accepted in a civil society. Concept of Negative liberty is rejected in contemporary times.
- Positive Liberty - In its positive sense Liberty means freedom under certain rational and logical restrictions. Positive Liberty means liberty under the necessary and rational restraints imposed by law. These restraints are essential for the equal enjoyment of rights and freedoms of the people. Only the positive liberty is available to the people in a civilised society.
The two important things about Positive Liberty is :
- (i) It means absence of only illogical and irrational restraints and not all restraints.
- (ii) It means equal and adequate opportunities for everyone to enjoy their rights and freedoms.
Therefore, the positive liberty stands fully and universally recognised and accepted as the real productive view of Liberty. Every civil society has to create conditions for the enjoyment of rights by its members and in the absence of these conditions, it is not accepted as a real civilised society.
Why Liberty need restraints?
Some reasonable restraints are natural for freedom because it is necessary for preventing harm to others and also for the preservation of public security, health, order and morality. Constraints are essential for preserving the territorial, social, economical, political and cultural security and integrity of the state. It is also necessary for ensuring everyone the freedom of expression and choice and make people accept and respect their views and ideologies. It eliminates the socio-economic inequalities, discriminations and exploitations and ensures a peaceful social life.
This article on Negative and Positive Liberty in Political Science is contributed by Dipshikha Anand. If you like LawStudyPoint.com do follow us on our Twitter handle.