SOME MODERN PROBLEMS
Since these revolutions, the principal problem with respect to national liberty has arisen in connection with the struggles of small states and colonial areas to be free from foreign political or economic control and to achieve full sovereignty. Closely related to this problem has been that arising from the efforts of national or racial minorities, such as the French residents of Québec, Canada, to win political and cultural autonomy within a country.
With respect to individual liberty in the modern era, the problem has been one of preserving and extending civil rights, such as freedom of speech and freedom of the press (see Civil Rights and Civil Liberties; Press, Freedom of the; Speech, Freedom of). As nations grew in size and social complexity, governments claimed greater powers to restrain individuals and groups, extending these powers over wider spheres. Those who criticize this development believe that it has gone so far as to threaten the very existence of individual liberty. Others believe that only if government is granted such powers can the complex problems of an increasingly automated, mobile, and populous world be solved. Most important, governments must be more concerned with individuals and groups that are actively demanding full exercise of the rights that constitute liberty in the 20th century.
A challenge to traditional concepts of liberty was offered by the Russian Revolution of 1917. The Soviet state that resulted held, in accordance with Marxist theory on which it was based, that all previous codes of liberty were ideologies of the ruling classes or of classes aspiring to power, and did not benefit the vast majority of the population. True liberty was possible only by the elimination of class exploitation. The success of the revolution raised hopes for a new era of human freedom. But the subsequent evolution of a terrorist dictatorship under Joseph Stalin led many people to assume that socialism, which is based on collective ownership of the means of production, leads inevitably to dictatorship.
Other menaces to liberty arose in the first half of the 20th century in the form of the totalitarian governments of Italy, Germany, and Spain. In these countries civil liberties were destroyed, the rights of the individual were completely subordinated to the requirements of the government, and those who did not agree with these policies were terrorized into submission. Freedom was restored in Italy and to West Germany (now part of the united Federal Republic of Germany) at the end of World War II, and to Spain in 1975, after the death of the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco.
With respect to individual liberty in the modern era, the problem has been one of preserving and extending civil rights, such as freedom of speech and freedom of the press (see Civil Rights and Civil Liberties; Press, Freedom of the; Speech, Freedom of). As nations grew in size and social complexity, governments claimed greater powers to restrain individuals and groups, extending these powers over wider spheres. Those who criticize this development believe that it has gone so far as to threaten the very existence of individual liberty. Others believe that only if government is granted such powers can the complex problems of an increasingly automated, mobile, and populous world be solved. Most important, governments must be more concerned with individuals and groups that are actively demanding full exercise of the rights that constitute liberty in the 20th century.
A challenge to traditional concepts of liberty was offered by the Russian Revolution of 1917. The Soviet state that resulted held, in accordance with Marxist theory on which it was based, that all previous codes of liberty were ideologies of the ruling classes or of classes aspiring to power, and did not benefit the vast majority of the population. True liberty was possible only by the elimination of class exploitation. The success of the revolution raised hopes for a new era of human freedom. But the subsequent evolution of a terrorist dictatorship under Joseph Stalin led many people to assume that socialism, which is based on collective ownership of the means of production, leads inevitably to dictatorship.
Other menaces to liberty arose in the first half of the 20th century in the form of the totalitarian governments of Italy, Germany, and Spain. In these countries civil liberties were destroyed, the rights of the individual were completely subordinated to the requirements of the government, and those who did not agree with these policies were terrorized into submission. Freedom was restored in Italy and to West Germany (now part of the united Federal Republic of Germany) at the end of World War II, and to Spain in 1975, after the death of the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco.
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