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Let’s look at an example. Jack’s living in New York. He’d like go to California to visit family. Under a negative conception of liberty, Jack is free to go to California if nobody is actively preventing him from doing so. Thus his negative freedom would be violated if his neighbor locked Jack in the basement, or if someone stole his car.
But what if Jack’s so poor that he can’t afford a car or a plane ticket? What if Jack is sick and so not physically up to the trip? In these instances, no person prevents Jack from going to California, so Jack’s negative liberty remains intact. Yet he lacks the capacity to fulfill his desire and so, from a positive liberty standpoint, he is unfree.
All that said, and getting back to the Catholic vs Protestant thing, it is probably true that Protestantism (or some denominations of it at least) is closer to libertarianism than Catholicism is.
1) Catholicism philosophically views the primary purpose of law not to punish but rather to promote good morality among the members of its population. Therefore, mercy has a role to be played in the judicial process and judicial decisions, in the Catholic view.
The normal secular American view of law is merely drawing lines as to how close your foot can get to a line before breaking the law or crossing the line. You could consider that libertarian to an extent given it is absent of a motivation to promote self realization, and heavy on the emphasis of punishment for defying the state.
2) In economic theory Catholicism promotes a concept it calls "distributism" which is not total free market capitalism unrestrained nor socialism purely.
One central theme to distributism is that decisions for local problems ought be addressed at the local level first, solved by those nearest the problem, and then if they can not handle it then it goes further out into a larger circle power (say like the state government), and then still further if that circle can not resolve it (say the Federal Government.)
So, in distributism issues of poverty in say a city would work kind of like this: First, local private charity groups in the community effected would step into address and remedy the problem. If they can't them the city government steps in. If they can't the state government. If they can't then the Federal Government.
Both Islam and Catholicism are probably--in terms of economic views--more on the left wing, though not so far left to be communist, side of political philosophy.
In a description of positive liberty from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,
Quote:
Put in the simplest terms, one might say that a democratic society is a free society because it is a self-determined society, and that a member of that society is free to the extent that he or she participates in its democratic process. But there are also individualist applications of the concept of positive freedom. For example, it is sometimes said that a government should aim actively to create the conditions necessary for individuals to be self-sufficient or to achieve self-realization.[3]
Because people don't have to hold 100% polarizing views?
That said, Libertarianism believes that THE role of government is to protect the rights of every citizen. If the Republic comes to the conclusion that a certain protectionist decision accomplishes that goal, then it is not out of line with libertarian philosophy.
You do not have a right to a job. You certainly should have a right to freedom of association which includes the right to trade freely.
IMHO Most Libertarians are just as deluded as most Marxists. Neither system make any sense.
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