INDIVIDUALISM

political and social philosophy that places high value on the freedom of the individual and generally stresses the self-directed, self-contained, and comparatively unrestrained individual or ego. The French political commentator Alexis de Tocqueville, who coined the word, described it in terms of a kind of moderate selfishness, disposing human beings to be concerned only with their own small circle of family and friends. As a philosophy, individualism involves a value system, a theory of human nature, a general attitude or temper, and belief in certain political, economic, social, and religious arrangements. The value system may be described in terms of three propositions: all values are man-centredthat is, they are experienced (but not necessarily created) by human beings; the individual is an end in himself and is of supreme value, society being only a means to individual ends; and all individuals are in some sense morally equal, this equality being best expressed by the proposition that no one should ever be treated solely as a means to the well-being of another person. The individualistic theory of human nature holds that the interests of the normal adult are best served by allowing him maximum freedom and responsibility for choosing his objectives and the means for obtaining them, and acting accordingly. This belief follows from the conviction that each person is the best judge of his own interests and, granted educational opportunities, can discover how to advance them. It is also based upon the assumption that the act of making these choices contributes to the development of the individual and to the welfare of societythe latter because individualism is thought to provide the most effective incentive to productive endeavour. Society, from this point of view, is seen as only a collection of individuals, each of which is a self-contained and ideally almost self-sufficient entity. As a general attitude, then, individualism embraces a high valuation on self-reliance, on privacy, and on respect for other individuals. Negatively, it embodies opposition to authority and to all manner of controls over the individual, especially when they are exercised by the state. It also anticipates and values progress and, as a means to this end, subscribes to the right of the individual to be different from, to compete with, and to get ahead of (or fall behind) others. The institutional embodiment of individualism follows from these principles. Only the most extreme individualists believe in anarchy, but all believe that government should keep its interference with human lives at a minimum and that it should confine itself largely to maintaining law and order, preventing individuals from interfering with others, and enforcing agreements (contracts) voluntarily arrived at. The state tends to be viewed as a necessary evil, and the slogan That government that governs least governs best is applauded. Individualism also implies a property system according to which each person (or family) enjoys the maximum of opportunity to acquire property and to manage and dispose of it as he sees fit. Freedom of association extends to the right to join (or to refuse to join) any organization. Although instances of individualism have occurred throughout history in many cultures and times, full-fledged individualism, as it is usually conceived to be, seems to have emerged first in England, especially after the publication of the ideas of Adam Smith and Jeremy Bentham and their followers in economic and political theory. Smith's doctrine of laissez-faire, based upon a profound belief in the natural harmony of individual wills and Bentham's utilitarianism, with the basic rule of each to count for one and none for more than one, set the stage for these developments. On the economic side, Smith's obvious and simple system of natural liberty pictured exchange of goods and services in free and competitive markets as the ideal system of cooperation for mutual advantage. Such an organization should maximize efficiency as well as freedom, secure for each participant the largest yield from his resources to be had without injury to others, and achieve a just distribution, meaning a sharing of the social product in proportion to individual contributions. Although economic individualism and political individualism in the form of democracy advanced together for a while, eventually they proved incompatible as newly enfranchised voters increasingly came to demand, in the course of the 19th century, governmental intervention in the economic process. In point of fact the reasons for the growing demand for intervention were inherent in the attempt to adhere rigorously to an economic theory based almost solely on individualistic assumptions. In economics as in all other phases of life, these assumptions are inadequate. Man is a social animal. His nature, his wants, and his capacities are to a great extent the product of society and its institutions. His most effective behaviour is often through groups and organizations, running the gamut from the family through all manner of voluntary social and economically motivated associations to the state and international organizations. These units in varying ways interfere with the individualistic ideals of perfectly free association and of atomistic competition. Problems of monopoly and of technology, seasonal and cyclical unemployment, frequently associated in the public mind with individualistic economic theory, caused widespread dissatisfaction. The prestige of individualistic ideas declined during the latter part of the 19th century and the first part of the 20th with the rise of large-scale social organization. One consequence of this was the emergence of theories calling for the organization of society on principles diametrically opposed to those of individualism (see collectivism). In liberal democracies, however, the notion of the importance of the individual has survived, providing a check on the tendency toward depersonalization that, some say, is a consequence of collectivist trends.