Negative and Positive Liberty

The chapter has already touched on two distinct dimensions of freedom — freedom as the absence of external constraints, and freedom as the expansion of people's opportunities to express themselves and develop their potential. In political theory these are called negative liberty and positive liberty.

'Negative liberty' seeks to define and protect a minimum area in which the individual is inviolable — an area in which he or she is free to 'do, be or become' whatever they wish, and in which no external authority may interfere. This recognises that human dignity needs some space where a person can act unobstructed by others; how large that space should be, and exactly what it should contain (for instance, is one's choice of clothing at school, on the sports field, or at work part of this protected area, or something that legitimate external authority — the state, a religious body, the ICC, or a school — may regulate?) remains a genuine matter of debate. Negative liberty is essentially a response to the question 'over what area am I master?' — it is concerned with explaining 'freedom from'.

By contrast, positive liberty is concerned with explaining 'freedom to'. It responds to the question 'who governs me?', to which its ideal answer is 'I govern myself'. This tradition traces back to thinkers such as Rousseau, Hegel, Marx, Gandhi and Aurobindo. It focuses on the actual conditions of the relationship between the individual and society, and on improving those conditions so that there are fewer obstacles to an individual's own development — much as a flower blossoms only when the soil is fertile, the sun gentle, the water adequate and the care regular. To develop their capability, individuals need material, political and social conditions in their favour: they must not be constrained by poverty or unemployment, must have adequate resources to pursue their needs, must be able to take part in the decisions that shape the laws and rules governing their own lives, and must have access to education and the other opportunities needed to lead a reasonably good life. …