fees exceed your financial capability? Are you free to study? Only basic education and financial security can enable some freedom of choice. 2 Apart from the legal framework and the preconditions, the limits of freedom are of great importance. Imagine this situation: you want to have a big party with loud music. This is your right as a free person, but your neighbor complains because he/she wants to make use of his right to have a quiet night and sleep. So whose freedom is more important? Many countries answer this question by having a law against'disturbing the peace', which regulates the level of allowed noise within certain times of the day. This is an example of how the state restricts and regulates the freedom of its citizens. Total freedom for everyone within a society is impossible because the interests of individuals often contradict each other. Several philosophers have recognized this important point. Charles de Montesquieu(1689-1755) said:“Liberty is a right of doing whatever the laws permit; and, if a citizen could do what they forbid, he would be no longer possessed of liberty, because all his fellow-citizens would have the same power.” 3 According to the philosopher and economist John Stuart Mills(1806-1873), freedom finds its limits where another person is done harm. In the case of the loud music, J.S. Mills therefore would justify the law against disturbing the peace. But what if the neighbor in the example does not complain because of loud music during nighttime, but because of the smoke of a barbecue during daytime? Not every conflict between individual interests justifies a new law. In this second example, most courts would judge that a smoky barbecue does not strongly enough restrict the neighbor's right to live a smoke-free life. And what if the neighbor complaints because of a new, noisy train station next to his house? In this case the benefits to society would be recognized as more important than the suffering of the individual. For the German philosopher Immanuel Kant(1724-1804) the limits of freedom are not defined through laws. It is the other way round: the limits of freedom are moral in nature and result in laws:“Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law!” 4 Social democrats in every society should actively promote freedom. Freedom must be legally ensured and effectively guaranteed. Similarly important is that every person is given the opportunity to exercise these freedoms. This requires social institutions that make it possible. Besides institutions, individual behavior is equally important to ensure freedom. Education is therefore an important key. In summary, it can be said that freedom in a society requires the possibility that everyone has the opportunity to realize his or her goals. Equality and Justice In addition to the famous motto of the French Revolution(1789),'freedom, 2 Chapter'Thomas Meyer's Theory of Social Democracy' provides detailled information on negative and positive freedom. 3 Montesquieu, Charles de Secondat(1989), The Spirit of the Laws, edited and translated by Anne M. Cohler, Basia Carolyn Miller and Harold Samuel Stone, Cambridge University Press: 212f. 4 Kant, Immanuel(1963), Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten, in: Kants Werke in sechs Bänden, edited by W. Weischedel, Vol. IV, Darmstadt: 51. Core Values “Liberty is a right of doing whatever the laws permit; and, if a citizen could do what they forbid, he would be no longer possessed of liberty, because all his fellow-citizens would have the same power.” 9