New Liberalism embraced state management as a positive duty, not a necessary evil

Evidence

Britain’s New Liberalism came into being when British Liberal Party elites essentially sided with Mill over Ricardo. They sought to develop the role of the state as both the defender of capitalism and as a tool for social reform in an era of class conflict and incipient mass democracy. In short, if the primacy of private initiative and of liberal market institutions were to be maintained, then the poverty and inequality Ricardo regarded as natural and inevitable could no longer be tolerated. Moreover, the British New Liberals did not see this embrace of the state as a necessary evil, as a papering over the cracks to avoid revolution. Rather, the New Liberalism acknowledged the state’s responsibility for the ongoing management and reform of capitalist institutions. — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 313

Categorization

• XREF: The state-as-capitalism’s-defender framing connects to the reader’s broader austerity literature and to Mattei’s treatment of economic governance. — connects to: Modern liberal governance works through managed statecraft, not individual self-discipline. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular:…, 24; New Liberalism directly produced Britain’s pensions, insurance, and welfare state — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 314

Broader Connections

• New Liberalism directly produced Britain’s pensions, insurance, and welfare state #expands (0.85) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 314
• Modern liberal governance works through managed statecraft, not individual self-discipline. #corroborates (0.80) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 24