To what extent is there disagreement about how effectively the constitution protects freedom? (45 marks)

Positive freedom is where one can act upon one’s free will without internal intervention which is opposed to negative freedom, which is a freedom from interference by others externally. Fiscal and social conservatives agree with negative freedom, with as little intervention, only where necessary. This is in contrast to liberals who believe in positive freedoms. Centrists are the balanced opinions in the middle who believe in effective government, yet with protection from excessive power. To a great extent there is disagreement about how effectively the constitution protects freedom.

Fiscal conservatives view the constitution as ineffective due to the government’s expansion over the last few decades. For example, the expanding annual budget was $3.8 trillion in 2015, yet now Trump’s 2018 budget is $14.1 trillion, yet cuts medical and anti-poverty efforts. Therefore fiscal conservatives agrees with anti-federalists, who criticise constitutional safeguards on government. As they also want a power reduction, such as a Balanced Budget Amendment. As a consequence, there is limited effectiveness at protecting liberty. Fiscal conservatives are mainly concerned with money, focusing on policies to do with tax cuts, feeling that hard work is not benefited from so motivation will slide. So hard work leads to success and individualism. However there is ‘red tape’ regulating and limiting individualism via taxing, however this is counteracted by the rise of Google, which is unregulated. As well as this, there is a distrust of government, and belief that the constitution worked best when its provisions limited government intervention, hence why they believe in negative freedom. Yet they still approve of the 2^nd amendment acting as the ultimate defence against government. However feel the constitution has been used to protect criminals with use of the 5^th amendment. Overall they feel the constitution doesn’t effectively protect freedoms as they don’t trust government.

Social conservatives are very similar to fiscal conservatives however they both have different views on policies, yet agree on minimal interference. They believe government should step in on social issues such as on abortion and gay marriage, via banning the amendments supporting such issues. Fiscal conservatives wouldn’t agree with these ideals as they support intervention, as well as being negative on the economy. In practice it led to the 18^th amendment prohibiting the sale and…