2009-09-09 FNF PAK - Liberalism AU

Liberalism
Air University, Islamabad 10. Sept. 2009
Olaf Kellerhoff
Resident Representative Pakistan

Olaf Kellerhoff Liberalism 10.09.2009

Overview
1. Friedrich Naumann Foundation
working for Freedom in Pakistan since 1986
2. Liberalism
– a history of thoughts
political philosophy based on equality
3. Liberalism
– freedom and equality
Are you strong enough to be free?

Friedrich Naumann (1860–1919)


Resident Representative Pakistan Olaf Kellerhoff
Islamic History + International
Relations (MA) at Hamburg Univ.
Missions & Experiences abroad
Somalia
Marocco
Turkey
Kosovo (3x)
Afghanistan (3x)
Lebanon
Apprenticeship as photographer


1. FNF


Founding a foundation: President Heuss
First president of the Federal
Republic of Germany,
Theodor Heuss (1884–1963),
founded the endowment
1958
Heuss named the foundation
after his mentor Friedrich
Naumann

Theodor Heuss – lifelong liberal: founding
member of the Free Democratic Party (FDP)
and its first chairperson
1. FNF 2. Thoughts 3. Concept


Changing this world
Naumann = protestant priest
confronted with social question in
Hamburg at an orphanage
Getting active
– liberalism as solution:
published a magazine
founded a party
became MP
parliamentarian, politician, Friedrich Naumann (1860–1919),
philosopher – mastermind seen by Max Liebermann


Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit
Founded 1958: civic
education for Germans
regional offices in the
provinces
Liberal Institute (LI)
think tank
Scholarship department
International Academy for
Leadership (IAF)
Headquarters in Potsdam (Germany), Jan. 2009 since 1963 abroad


Worldwide: in over 60 countries

Regional
approach



Sharing the
fate with
FNF in Pakistan
Pakistan…
working for Freedom in
Pakistan since 1986
objectives:
liberal democracy
civic education
human rights
free market economy
peaceful conflict resolution
… and consequently working for betterment



Small team – big outcome
Syed Hussain Shah Muhammad Nisar
handyman handyman
outside the office inside the office

Muhammad Anwar
Chief-Administrator Munazza Batool
Program Coordinator



Sustainable work through partners
Crucial Element is the self-responsible programme work of
our partners. FNF trains, consults, interlinks and funds.



LFP-Elections in Larkana Meeting in Mithi

Seminars, workshops, meetings

Lahore

(FGP), Karachi,
Management
Conflict

Jul. 09
Children’s parliament (SPARC), Isl. 09


Millenium Development Goals
Pursuing MDGs… UN initiative in 2001
– achieved by 2015
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower
women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
…with German tax payers’ money: 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other
Minister for Economic Cooperation and diseases
Development, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, 7. Ensure environmental sustainability
and German Ambassador, Michael Koch, in
discussion with the German foundations. 8. Develop a global partnership for
development
Serena Hotel, Islamabad, Apr. 2009


Political Foundations
Instrument to implement
constitution:
The political parties contribute to the
formation of the political will of the
people. [German Basic Law, Art. 21]

Weimar Republic (1918–
1933): Democracy without
democrats
=>civic education
Pluralism: democracy taught
with different views
learning respect for each other



Same view
– different duties
party:
develops political objectives and raises
political will to achieve those goals
Courtesy of © Harald Kirschner

faction:
turns party will into parliamentary
work
foundation:
research and formulation of policies
capacitates political actors
Delegation of the foundation at raises political interest
the party’s parliamentary group hall


2. Liberalism
- a history of thoughts


Liberal: Misuse and Misunderstanding
Liberal: from latin: liber – free
Liberalism – concerning Freedom
Libertarian: a person who upholds
the principles of absolute and
unrestricted liberty esp. of
thought and action
Libertine: a person who is
unrestrained by convention or
morality, one leading a dissolute
life



Liberalism
political philosophy
economical ideology
worldwide movement
hardly an undisputed
definition
– Liberals avoid Dogmas
=>approach by seven
selected thinkers
Hambach Festival, 1848 (Germany)



You belong to yourself
John Locke (1632–1704),
English philosopher
social treaty theory incl.
protection of individual rights
and property
Self = continuity of
consciousness
religious tolerance
Locke –
Initiator of Enlightenment


Self-interest as driving force
Adam Smith (1723–1790),
Scottish moral philosopher,
father of modern economics
in Theory of Social Sentiments:
value of sympathy
in The Wealth of Nations:
human is striving for benefit

Adam Smith,
seen by Etching 1787


The mainspring is competition
Frédéric Bastiat (1801–1850),
French political economist and
member of National Assembly
in Harmonies économicques:
self-interest + competition
in La Loie: through development a
just system of laws + demonstrates
by these laws a free society

The state is the great fictitious entity by which every-
one seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.


Act like you want without harming others
John Stuart Mill (1806–1873).
English philosopher + political
economist, MP
On Liberty: The harm principle +
self-government
Tyranny of majority
=>limits on the ruler’s power,
constitutional checks
How can great minds be produced in a country
where the test of a great mind is agreeing in
the opinions of small minds?


Constant Change and Reform
Edmund Burke (1729–1797),
Irish statesman, political theorist
rejects the idea that societies
can be planned => against any
ideological revolution
condemning imperial practices in
British India

A state without the means of some change
is wihtout the means of its own
preservations.


Limited role of the state
Friedrich August von Hayek (1899–
1992), Austian-British Economist +
philosopher, Nobel laureate
in Road to Serfdom: against all
totalitarian regimes
Welfare state undermines basis of
free society

I am certain that nothing has done so much to destroy
the juridical safeguards of individual freedom as the
striving after this mirage of social justice.



All life is problem solving
Karl Popper (1902– 1994),
Austrian-British philosopher
Critical rationalism:
no ultimate truth
The open society – undermining
most forms of authoritarianism +
totalitarianism

Will the sun rise tomorrow?


Liberty leading the people
before Socrates
Locke: Two treatise on
Government, 1690
American Revolution, 1776
French Revolution, 1789
Hambach Festival, 1848
19th century economic
La liberté guidant le peuple
take-off
Eugène Delacroix, 1830


Wir sind das Volk
Protestant Prussia
Totalitarianism:
National Socialism
Communism
Peace & freedom after
1945
Renaissance since 1989

Berlin Wall open: 12. Nov. 1989



Neoliberalism
Answer of world economic
crisis 1929
Classical liberalism too much
stress on economic issues
and too much laisser-faire
The new (gr. neo) liberalism:
state as supervisor of
framework in which forces
Social Misery described by Charles
may act and interact freely
Dickens – State has to supervise.



3. Liberalism
- Freedom and Equality


Freedom / Liberty own
Freedom of responsibility
Freedom from social
Freedom to responsibility


Olaf Kellerhoff
youtube.com/user/LiberalFriendsofPAK Liberalism 10.09.2009

The philosophy of liberty



Conservatism
lat. conservare =
conserve, keep
political and social
philosophies
supporting
Poster of the con- tradition and
servative Party, 1909. status quo
Interestingly, the
conservatives accom- No utopian
modated mostly the programme
socialist (compare F.A.
Hayek’s Road to serfdom)



Socialism
:= equal access to
resources for all
with an egalitarian
method of
compensation
= denies nature of
human beings
= unfair: equal
compensation for
different efforts



Comparison of Values
Socialism Liberalism Conservatism
Social justice Freedom Order
Material equality Rule of law Duty
Redistribution Choice Tradition
The common goals Tolerance Hierarchy
Classless society Entrepreneurship Authority
Solidarity Competition Discipline
Public ownership Property Endowment
Social responsib. Responsibility Charity



Liberal positions
Individual freedom + equal chances
Liberal democracy & pluralism
Rule of Law & Good Governance
Free Market Economy

The prosperity that liberalism had created reduced
considerably infant mortality, which had been the
pitiless scourge of earlier ages, and, as a result of
the improvement in living conditions, lengthened
the average span of life. Nor did this prosperity
flow only to a select class of privileged persons.” Ludwig von Mises (1883–1973)



Liberal World
Minimal state
Free market
Peace
Liberalism is that principle of political rights,
according to which the public authority, in spite
of being all-powerful, limits itself and attempts,
even at its own expense, to leave room in the
state over which it rules for those to live who
neither think nor feel as it does, that is to say as
do stronger, the majority.
José Ortega y Gasset (1883–1955)


Follow us:
twitter.com/FNF_Pakistan
Keep in touch!
See us:
flickr.com/photos/liberal_friends_of_pakistan
Watch us:
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Read with us:
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Become a fan:
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Also in Urdu www.southasia.fnst.org

2009-09-09 FNF PAK - Liberalism AU

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2009-09-09 FNF PAK - Liberalism AU