The Role of Government in a Free Society: The Conception of Lester Frank Ward

G EORGE H. Sabine has asserted that ".later liberalism has tended to disintegrate either in the direction of conservatism or in the direction of socialism, between which it has aspired to steer a middle course."' And after a survey of the development of liberal social thought, he is unable to ". . .avoid the conclusion that it has been a diminishing force in modern political society."2 By way of bringing to focus the historic problem of liberal social thought Francis W. Coker cites the words of Edmund Burke as epitomizing "The most difficult of all the problems confronting social philosophers... ."3 To Burke, the problem involved determining "'what the state ought to take upon itself to direct by public wisdom, and what it ought to leave, with as little interference as possible, to individual freedom.' "4 In other words, the crucial issue in the liberal tradition has emerged historically as involving the status of the individual relative to his society with its institutions. Herbert Spencer, certainly one of the most prominent of the later representatives of classical liberalism, tended to so minimize the role of institutions-particularly the state-as to move William A. Dunning to classify his political theory as anarchistic.5 To Sabine, Spencer's version of liberalism exhibited ". ..the most extreme faith in laissez-faire ever entertained by any thinker. In this respect he went even beyond the early liberals. He opposed not only every form of social legislation and industrial regulation but even public support for education."6 Talcott Parsons characterized Spencer's extreme individualism as ".. .the exaggeration of a deep-rooted belief that.. .we have been blest with an automatic, self-regulating mechanism which operated so that the pursuit by each individual of his own selfinterest and private ends would result in the greatest possible satisfaction of the wants of all."7 But Parsons, agreeing with Crane Brinton, can ask: "'Who now reads Spencer? It is difficult for us to realize how great a stir he made in the world... .We have evolved beyond Spencer.' "8 The direction of this "evolution," which to Sabine was toward "socialism," finds tentative focus in the theories of Thomas Hill Green. It was Green's emphasis that "...a liberal government ought to legislate in any case where the law can remove an obstacle to the highest moral development of its citizens. . ." Therefore, Green could assume that liberal governmental policy would aim ". . .to insure the conditions for at least a minimum of well-being-a standard of living, of education, and of security below which good policy requires that no considerable part of the population shall be allowed to fall."'0 But such a viewpoint 'George H. Sabine, A History of Political Theory (New York: Henry Holland Company, 1937), p. 680. 2lbid., p. 679. 3Francis W. Coker, Recent Political Thought (New York and London: D. Appleton-Century Company, Inc., 1934), p. 35. 41bid. Quoted by Coker. 5William A. Dunning, A History of Political Theorics from Rousseau to Spencer (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1920), p. 398. 6Sabine, History of Political Theory, p. 672. 7Talcott Parsons, The St'ructure of Social Action (New York and London: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1937), p. 4. 8Ibid., p. 3. Quoted by Parsons. 9Sabine, History of Political Theory, p. 676. ?IIbid.