I.- ¿Que es el liberalismo?.
II.- La ética como fundamento de la acción política.
II.1.- La ética del liberalismo.
II.1/1.- Principio smithiano de tendencia de los poderes públicos a la rapacidad y la injusticia.
“For in every country of the world, I believe, the avarice and injustice of princes and sovereign states, abusing the confidence of their subjects, have by degrees diminished the real quantity of metal, which had been originally contained in their coins. The Roman As, in the latter ages of the Republic, was reduced to the twenty-fourth part of its original value, and, instead of weighing a pound, came to weigh only half an ounce. The English pound and penny contain at present about a third only; the Scots pound and penny about a thirty-sixth; and the French pound and penny about a sixty-sixth part of their original value. By means of those operations the princes and sovereign states which performed them were enabled, in appearance, to pay their debts and to fulfil their engagements with a smaller quantity of silver than would otherwise have been requisite. It was indeed in appearance only; for their creditors were really defrauded of a part of what was due to them. All other debtors in the state were allowed the same privilege, and might pay with the same nominal sum of the new and debased coin whatever they had borrowed in the old. Such operations, therefore, have always proved favourable to the debtor, and ruinous to the créditor, and have sometimes produced a greater and more universal revolution in the fortunes of private persons, that could have been occasioned by a very great public calamity”. (The Wealth Of Nations, Vol. I, pág. 24. Londres 1991.)
II.1/2.- Principio smithiano de la oposición de intereses entre el público y los gestores económicos.
“The interest of the dealers, however, in any particular branch of trade or manufactures, is always in some respects different from, and even opposite to, that of the public. To widen the market and to narrow the competition, is always the interest of the dealers. To widen the market may frequently be agreeable enough to the interest of the public; but to narrow the competition must always be against it, and can serve only to enable the dealers by raising their profits above what they naturally would be, to levy, for their own benefit, an absurd tax upon the rest of their fellow citizens. The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce, which comes from this order ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and to oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it”.
“The violence and injustice of the rulers of mankind is an ancient evil, for which. I am afraid, the nature of human affairs can scarcely admit of a remedy. But the mean rapacity, the monopolising spirit of merchants and manufacturers, who neither are, nor ought to be the rulers of mankind, though it cannot perhaps be corrected, may very easily be prevented from disturbing the tranquillity of anybody but themselves”. (The Wealth Of Nations, Vol. I, págs. 232 y 436. Londres 1991)
II.1/3.- Principio smithiano, sobre las funciones propias del Estado:
“According to the system of natural liberty, the sovereign has only three duties to attend to; three duties of great importance, indeed, but plain and intelligible to common understandings: first, the duty of protecting the society from the violence and invasion of other independent societies; secondly, the duty of protecting, as far as possible, every member of the society from the injustice or oppression of every other member of it, or the duty of establishing an exact administration of justice; and, thirdly, the duty of erecting and maintaining certain public works and certain public institutions which it can never be for the interest of any individual, or small number of individuals, to erect and maintain; because the profit could never repay the expense to any individual or small number of individuals, though it may frequently do much more than repay it to a great society” (The Wealth Of Nations, Vol. II, pág. 180. Londres 1991)
II.1/4.- Principio smithiano de ineficacia económica del Estado:
“Every man, as long as he does not violate the laws of justice, is left perfectly free to pursue his own interest his own way, and to bring both his industry and capital into competition with those of any other man, or order of men. The sovereign is completely discharged from a duty, in the attempting to perform which he must always be exposed to innumerable delusions, and for the proper performance of which no human wisdom or knowledge could ever be sufficient; the duty of superintending the industry of private people, and of directing it towards the employment most suitable to the interest of the society”. (The Wealth Of Nations, Vol. II, pág. 180 Londres 1991)
II.1/5.- “Fijaos, ahora, en los hombres de esta clase política: unos han pasado de la mendicidad a la riqueza y los otros de la oscuridad a la gloria; algunos se han hecho construir residencias privadas mas suntuosas que los edificios públicos; y en la misma forma que la situación de la ciudad se empeora, la suya prospera.
¿Y que hacen y dicen esos políticos?:
La política exterior va mal; en el interior, sin embargo, la situación hoy es mejor. ¿Y qué se alega en apoyo de esa opinión?, ¿las murallas que enfoscamos?, ¿las calles que empedramos?, ¿las fuentes y otras menudencias?… el colmo de la falta de hombría es que les estáis agradecidos por daros lo que es vuestro”. (Demóstenes, XXIX, 31).
II.1/6.- Principio smithiano de libre comercio internacional:
“A trade which is forced by means of bounties and monopolies may be and commonly is disadvantageous to the country in whose favour it is meant to be established, as I shall endeavour to show hereafter. But that trade which, without force or constraint, is naturally and regularly carried on between any two places is advantageous, though not always equally so, to both”.
“In every country it always is and must be the interest of the great body of the people to buy whatever they want of those who sell it cheapest. (The Wealth Of Nations, Vol. I, págs. 431 y 436. Londres 1991)
II.1/7.- Principio smithiano de mínima imposición.
“The increase of its manufactures and agriculture have arisen from… the establishment of a government which afforded to industry the only encouragement which it requires, some tolerable security that it shall enjoy the fruits of its own labour.” (The Wealth Of Nations, Vol. I, pág. 220. Londres 1991)
II.1/8.- “El hombre que se tiraba desde un acantilado muy alto, con un aeroplano que batía las alas, el pobre loco al que le daba el viento en la cara y creía que estaba volando, pero en realidad iba en caída libre, solo que no lo sabia, porque el suelo estaba muy lejos; pero por supuesto estaba condenado a estrellarse. Así es como veo yo a nuestra civilización, el gran acantilado representa los recursos prácticamente ilimitados que parece que tenemos cuando comenzamos este viaje.
El aparato no vuela, porque no está construido conforme a las leyes de la aerodinámica, y está sujeto a la ley de la gravedad. Nuestra civilización no vuela, porque no está construida de acuerdo a unas leyes de la aerodinámica, que permitan volar a las civilizaciones y, por supuesto, el suelo está muy lejos, pero hay quienes ya han visto que nos estamos acercando a el, antes que el resto de nosotros.
No hay ni una sola revista científica que no esté avisándonos de que todos los sistemas vivos de la tierra están en decadencia, todos los sistemas que mantienen la vida en la tierra están en decadencia, y estos sistemas, que componen la biosfera, mantienen y alimentan toda la vida, no solo la nuestra, sino quizás la de 30 millones de especies más, que comparten el planeta con nosotros. A este legado terrible de veneno y destrucción para las generaciones que aún no han nacido, algunas personas le llaman tiranía intergeneracional, una forma de impuesto sin contrapartida que impondremos a las generaciones venideras. Es una gran equivocación.”
(Ray Anderson, en Corporacion I de Mark Achbar y otros).
II.2.- La Constitución liberal.
III.- Las corrientes liberales.
IV.- El Estado liberal en la historia.
V.- Las funciones del Estado liberal.
V.I.- La función de expresar la voluntad del Estado.
V.II.- La prevención de las agresiones exteriores. Defensa.
V.III.- La prevención de las agresiones interiores.
V.III.I.1.- El ordenamiento que previene los comportamientos defraudatorios y apropiatorios de los gobiernos. La financiación del Estado.
V.III.I.2.- El ordenamiento civil.
V.III.I.3.- El ordenamiento penal.
V.III.I.4.- El ordenamiento mercantil e industrial.
V.III.I.5.- El ordenamiento administrativo
V.III.II.1.- Los órganos de vigilancia. La policía.
V.III.II.2.- Los órganos de jurisdicción. La Admi- nistración de Justicia.
V.IV.- Obras y servicios de utilidad común.
V.IV.I.- De la educación.
V.IV.II.- De las obras publicas.
V.IV.III.- De los servicios de salud y sanidad.
V.IV.IV.- De la asistencia social.
