Liberal Ideology and Its Claim of Final Form of Human Government: Explaining the Challenges Facing the Liberal Ideology

Abstract

This article interrogates liberal ideology and its claim of final form of human government. The political corollary of liberal ideology is hinged on the premise of democratic ethos and notably multiparty, constitutionalism, transparency and accountability, free, fair and periodic elections and above all upholding the rule of law. Using the qualitative method approach, liberal ideology can satisfy humanity's deepest desires and has no fundamental contradictions. Its triumph has signaled the end of the protracted historical conflict that had previously prevented its growth. Because it fit the current way of thinking, liberalism received extensive prominence in the western press and academic community. Liberal ideas have been internally split and sidetracked by both important and trivial concerns for the past few years. This study explained that while liberalism and democracy usually go together, they can be separated in theory. A country can be liberal without being democratic. Britain experienced it in the eighteenth – century. A country can also be democratic without being liberal, that is without protecting the rights of individual citizens and minority citizens of the country. The study notes that the economic strand of liberalism focuses on trade. The argument of the liberal is that, trade is important, not because it prevents states from going to war, but because it may lead states to define their interests in a way that makes war less important to them. This paper, however, argues that despite the challenges of liberal ideology,    Liberalism recognizes the right of free economic activity and economic exchange based on private property and markets. Since the term capitalism has acquired so many pejorative connotations over the years, it has recently become a fashion to speak of “free market economies” instead; both are acceptable alternative terms for economic liberalism.