Classical Liberal Theory Research Articles

Influence of Social Factors on Teenage Pregnancy in Secondary Schools in Turkana Central Sub County Kenya

The purpose of the study was to establish the relationship between social factors and teenage pregnancy in public secondary schools in Turkana Central Sub County, Kenya. The study was guided by classical liberal theory of equal opportunities and social Darwinism. The study adopted a cross-sectional descriptive survey research design. The target population of the study were school principals, teachers and female students who were drawn from mixed and single girls’ public secondary schools in Turkana Central Sub County. Stratified simple random sampling technique was used to select the study sample. Data was collected using Document analysis guide and Questionnaire. Validity of research instrument results was determined by consulting experts. Reliability was determined by use of test re-test technique. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages and means) and inferential statistics (ANOVA and t-test) to test hypotheses. Data was presented using tables. Findings of the study revealed that teenage pregnancy was high in mixed secondary schools and low in single girls’ secondary schools. The researchers concluded that social factors such as social media, peer pressure, home environment and drug and substance abuse influenced teenage pregnancy.

Functional Representation and Interest Group Theory: Some Notes on British Practice

This article seeks to develop a number of themes regarding the manner and the scope of interest group involvement with economic ministries in contemporary industrial societies, with special reference to Great Britain. It has two main premises: (1) that the phenomenon of functional is analytically inseparable from the assumption by government of general responsibilities for economic steering and welfare in the postwar period; and (2) that distinctive characteristics of a nation's political culture are the primary determinants of the exact form that this relationship takes in a specific societal context. A survey of the existing literature on interest to search out theoretical propositions or concepts that might be useful in pursuing this mode of analysis reveals little in the way of applicable theory. Those writings which are not simply empirical case studies tend to be insufficiently rigorous in defining their subject and to lack precision in differentiating among the various types of interest activity. The most venerable tradition in the field, that which sees pressure groups as intruding upon the rightful domain of official decision-makers, clearly is inappropriate for a critical analysis of this dimension of industrial politics.l Taking seriously, if not literally, the classical liberal theory of elected representation and impersonal governance, writers in this

The façade of equality in liberal democratic theory

Liberal democratic theory is the ideological expression of capitalism. Its paramount function is to justify the distribution of property and power which permits a minority of men to exploit and dominate the lives of the majority. A crucial device for carrying out this task is the elaboration of a theory of political equality which maintains the economic foundation of capitalism. But as capitalism is itself an evolving system, so the theory which protects its interests passes through important stages. A fundamental change occurs in the transition from classical liberal theory to its contemporary articulation as political science. For Locke and Mill an egalitarian directive is first abstractly posited and then, through specific modification, withdrawn. For Schumpeter, however, what the classical doctrine would have regarded as the perversion of democracy, is itself made integral to the redefinition of the democratic process. The result of the behavioral restatement is the destruction of the tension which separates ideal imperatives from distorted reality and obfuscates the need and possibility of radical political change.

The Logic of Liberty.

Political liberalism has increasingly come under fire from both the right and the left, in politics as well as in philosophy. In this new study, G.B. Madison offers a systematic rebuttal to these contemporary critics, attempting to demonstrate that the basic principles of classical liberal philosophy are not only internally valid and coherent but also directly relevant to the problems faced by society in the post-industrial age. Building on the theory of Frank H. Knight and other liberal tinkers, Madison outlines the postmodern theory of reason that is presupposed within classical liberal theory and makes the case that as a political philosophy liberalism can be justified entirely within its own terms, without reference to arbitrary or absolute values.