Compare and contrast Liberalism and Marxism, in regard to the theme of Essay

Compare and contrast Liberalism and Marxism, in regard to the theme of Freedom and Equality - Essay Example That means that, the liberals advocated for limited state intervention on matters regarding the economic system of a country. Marxism is an ideology developed by Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx. In this ideology, the two historians claim that every person is entitled to enjoy the fruits of his or her labor, but this does not happen especially in capitalist economic systems thus leading to the formation of classes in the society. With this, the essay gives a comparison and contrast on liberalism and Marxism in regard to the theme of freedom and equality. As stated above, liberalism is a political and economic doctrine, which gives emphases on the freedom of individuals and the need to limit the powers of the state. Liberals in the late 19th and 20th century advocated for limited state intervention on matters regarding the economic system of the state. They also emphasized on creation of free health care and free public education. After World War II, a classical liberal position came in resulting in the creation of free markets especially among conservatives in the United States of America and Britain. The liberalism social reforms focused on expanding individual rights and reducing inequality (Tucker, 2008). Liberalism is founded on ideas of equality and liberty. Liberalism supports different ideas and views such as freedom of trade, freedom of religion, civil rights, ownership of private property and freedom of the press. Liberalism rejected aspects of divine rights of the Kings and absolute monarchy. That means that they rejected the aspect of the state enforcing absolute power to the citizens. A great philosopher John Locke founded the liberalism as a distinct philosophical ideology. According to his ideology John said that, each citizen has a right to life, to own property and to liberty. He further said that, the government should not violate such rights for their citizens, which is according to the social contract. Liberalism advocated for democracy and the rule of the law. Democracy regarding the matters such as freedom of expression that is why they advocated for the freedom of the press. Liberalism aimed at overthrowing the tyrannical rule of the government thus making sure that, democracy is practiced in all the respective states (Sayer, 2009). Although classical conservative ideology opposed liberalism, liberalism found themselves on the winning side most of the time in most of the states. This shows that most people advocated for democracy and disregarded the tyrannical rule. Most of the states adopted John’s ideology. For instance in the United States of America, their declaration of independence stated that, all men were created equally and endowed by their creator with different rights which are pursuit of happiness, life and liberty thus echoing John’s ideology of liberty, life and individual ownership of property. In addition, history records that, with John’s ideology on liberty, the French revolution overthrew the hereditary form of governance and advocated for fraternity, equality and liberty (Friedman, 2008). By doing so and adopting John’s slogan of equality and liberty, they were granted universal male suffrage whereby any man could stand as an election candidate during the elections and the hereditary form of governance was done away with which resulted to dictatorship. In the 19th century, liberalism focused on a world free from government intervention especially in the economic sector. Liberals