laissez-faire

Examples of laissez-faire in the following topics:

• Laissez-Faire and the Supreme Court

  • During the Lochner Era, the Supreme Court advocated a laissez-faire economic policy.
  • This was a reference to a book in which Spencer advocated a strict laissez-faire economic philosophy.
  • The term "laissez-faire" refers to an economic environment in which transactions between private parties are free from government interference such as regulations, privileges, tariffs, and subsidies.
  • Smith saw laissez-faire as a moral program, and the market its instrument to ensure men the rights of natural law.
  • Thus, this era could be characterized as laissez-faire.

• Jackson's Democratic Agenda

  • Andrew Jackson expanded suffrage, encouraged settlement of the West, and encouraged the economy through laissez-faire policies.
  • Jacksonian democracy was built on the general principles of expanded suffrage, manifest destiny, patronage, strict constructionism, Laissez-Faire capitalism, and opposition to the Second Bank of the United States.

• Hoover and the Limits of Individualism

  • Hoover emphasized that rugged individualism was not laissez-faire, and that it in fact denounced laissez-faire economics.

• Reform Darwinism

  • Fascist and National Socialist ideology subscribed to a different form of social Darwinism than the laissez-faire version because they were not advocates for an individualist order of society; rather, they advocated racial and national struggle, where the state planned and controlled human breeding through science and eugenics—a program that no proponent of laissez-faire could consistently endorse.

• Social Darwinism in America

  • Many such views stress competition between individuals in laissez-faire capitalism, while others frequently linked evolution, Charles Darwin and social Darwinism with racialism, nationalism, imperialism and eugenics, contending that social Darwinism became one of the pillars of fascism and Nazi ideology, and that the consequences of the application of policies of "survival of the fittest" by Nazi Germany eventually created a very strong backlash against the theory.
  • For example, The Bourbon Democrats supported a free-market policy, with low tariffs, low taxes, less spending and, in general, a laissez-faire (hands-off) government.

• Liberty of Contract

  • Writing in dissent, Oliver Wendell Holmes accused the majority of basing its decision on laissez-faire ideology.

• The Populist Party and the Election of 1896

  • As a minority member of the resolutions committee, Bryan was able to push the Democratic Party from its laissez-faire and small-government roots towards its modern, liberal character.

• Classical Liberalism

  • Later in 19th-century political theory, this would encourage "laissez-faire" public policy that would not heavily interfere in commerce or industry.

• The Jackson Presidency

  • Jacksonian democracy was built on the principles of expanded suffrage, Manifest Destiny, patronage, strict constructionism, and laissez-faire economics.

• Budget Cuts

  • Reagan implemented policies based on supply-side economics and advocated a classical liberal and laissez-faire philosophy, seeking to stimulate the economy with large, across-the-board tax cuts.
  • His policy of "peace through strength" (also described as "firm but fair") resulted in a record peacetime defense buildup including a 40% real increase in defense spending between 1981 and 1985.