L. T. Hobhouse

Liberalism (Dodo Press) L. T. Hobhouse

Professor Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse (1864-1929) was a British liberal politician, one of the theorists of social liberalism. He worked as an academic and a journalist: he was the first professor of sociology appointed in a British university. He distinguished between property held 'for use' and property held 'for power'. He also theorized that property was acquired not only by individual effort but by societal organization, providing theoretical justification for a level of redistribution provided by the new state pensions. It is important to note, however, that Hobhouse disliked Marxist socialism, describing his own position as "liberal socialism". He occupies a particularly important place in the intellectual history of the Liberal Democrats because of this. He rejected classical liberalism, noting the work of other liberals who had pointed out the various forms of coercion already existing in society apart from government. He opposed the Boer war and had reservations about the First World War. He was an Internationalist and disliked the pursuit of British national interests as practised by the governments of the day.