Adam Smith (1723 to 1790):
Adam Smith is referred to as the as the Father of Economics. In his famous creation, “Wealth of Nations” (1776), he supports Individualism and policy of non – interference and he writes that every individual has a simple nature of business which compels him to earn more profit. A laborious person encourages selfishness but also promotes general interests, because of which, the government, businessmen and masters get benefited. And as a result of this, wealth of the nation increases.
dam Smith terms industrial and business freedom as natural freedom and underlines its importance for national growth. With regard to industry and business, the government should adopt the policy of Laissez Faire. In this situation, a government has only three duties left – safety of a state from foreign attack, enforcement of justice and works of public construction.
Bentham (1748 to 1832):
Bentham was an utilitarian thinker, who presented a logic that the theories like absolute rights, absolute sovereignty and absolute justice do not match with reality on the ground. There is only one criteria applied in relation to human being. Hence, public policy should be based on a single point criterion and that is “maximum benefit for the maximum persons”. According to Bentham, nature has put an individual under two powers, happiness and sorrow.
The works which increase happiness and decrease sorrow to an individual are useful deeds; and the works which decrease happiness and increase sorrow are useless deeds. The duty of a government is also to accomplish this objective, because every individual is the best decider of his interests. Hence, the government should formulate some policies in order to ward off independent hindrances coming in the way of the activities.
It is also the duty of the government to impose proper restriction on the people and punish the guilty criminals, but the government should not interfere in the working of those people who obey the rules. In this way, Bentham supports both individualism and interference.
Herbert Spencer (1820 – 1903):
Spencer was a thinker from England, who pushed the principal of minimal administration to the peak. He imagined a society in the form of a living creature. He says that the if any organ of the living creature stops functioning, then it decimation is beneficial to the society.
Those who are capable people of the society do not have the duty to keep on inflicting loss to the society by giving shelter to the incapable. Spencer has made Charles Darwin’s theory as the base that in the struggle of life, that there is the “Survival of the fittest”.
According to Spencer, it is a hindrance for the state to help the poor and downtrodden of the society in context social development. Hence, such efforts are condemn able. In the sense of progress, Spencer says that all the individuals should be left free for their own progress and obviously the capable will steer forward and the incapable will lag behind in the race of progress.
If a state starts helping the weak and incapable people in the name of public welfare, them this very task shall deem to be an interference to the natural system. A state should execute only those works by which the freedom of an individual is sustained.
