Depends on what country you're talking about
A Deathwatch Guard Send a noteboard - 26/02/2011 05:18:12 AM
Liberalism in an American context is left-wing, and liberals believe in government intervention in the economy to provide more support for the population and to increase equality in the distribution of wealth.
Historically, however, liberalism has meant the ideas of figures like Adam Smith and others, who believed in free markets and free trade, and minimum government intervention. This is where the belief that market forces will lead the economy to the most efficient configuration. So actual liberalism would be considered conservative inside the US.
But that is just looking at the economic side of it. There is also a distinction between being socially liberal and conservative. Social liberals believe in more personal freedom, and things like abortion rights, gay marriage, etc. Social conservatives believe in more (shockingly!
) conservative things, and oppose abortion rights, gay marriage, etc.
So together these two scales make four categories: liberal, conservative, populist, and libertarian... But undoubtedly even that is just an oversimplification of the abundant differences of opinion that exist. Hope it helps though!
Historically, however, liberalism has meant the ideas of figures like Adam Smith and others, who believed in free markets and free trade, and minimum government intervention. This is where the belief that market forces will lead the economy to the most efficient configuration. So actual liberalism would be considered conservative inside the US.
But that is just looking at the economic side of it. There is also a distinction between being socially liberal and conservative. Social liberals believe in more personal freedom, and things like abortion rights, gay marriage, etc. Social conservatives believe in more (shockingly!
) conservative things, and oppose abortion rights, gay marriage, etc. So together these two scales make four categories: liberal, conservative, populist, and libertarian... But undoubtedly even that is just an oversimplification of the abundant differences of opinion that exist. Hope it helps though!
Clarification for an nonpolitical person.
- 25/02/2011 09:52:03 AM
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The political movement Liberal
- 25/02/2011 05:11:19 PM
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Bad way to leave it hanging. You give a completely opposite perspective on contemporary positions
- 26/02/2011 12:25:41 AM
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Re: Clarification for an nonpolitical person.
- 25/02/2011 05:31:31 PM
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Liberals is a worthless term unless you specify what partical things you want free...
- 25/02/2011 08:20:21 PM
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this shows one of the reasons this is such a hard question to answer quickly
- 25/02/2011 11:42:51 PM
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Yeah. In the US, what jh refers to as "economically liberal" is called "classically liberal."
- 26/02/2011 09:11:05 AM
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Depends on what country you're talking about
- 26/02/2011 05:18:12 AM
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