Social liberalism, a reformulation of 19th century liberalism Liberalism is the belief in the importance of individual freedom. This belief is widely accepted today throughout the world, and was recognized as an important value by many philosophers throughout history. The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote praising "the idea of a polity administered with regard to equal rights and equal freedom of, rests on the view that unrestrained capitalism is a hindrance to true freedom. Instead of the negative freedom The concept of negative liberty refers to freedom from interference by other people. According to Thomas Hobbes, "a free man is he that in those things which by his strength and wit he is able to do is not hindered to do what he hath the will to do." of classical liberalism, social liberals offered positive freedom Positive liberty refers to having the power and resources to act to fulfill one's own potential, as opposed to negative liberty, which refers to freedom from restraint. Inherent to positive liberty is the idea that liberty is the ability of citizens to participate in their government. As Isaiah Berlin noted, positive liberty is interested in that would allow individuals to prosper with public assistance in health, education and welfare.[1] This later included government intervention in the economy to provide full employment and protection of human rights. These policies were widely adopted and implemented in European and Western democracies, particularly following the Second World War World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all of the great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. The war involved the mobilization of over 100 million military personnel, making it the most widespread war in history.[2] Social liberal ideas and parties tend to be considered centrist In politics, centrism usually refers to the political idea of promoting moderate policies which land in the middle between different political extremes. Most commonly, this is visualized as part of the one-dimensional political spectrum of left-right politics, with centrism landing in the middle between left-wing politics and right-wing politics[3][4] or centre-left The centre-left , also known as left of center, is a political term commonly used to describe or denote individuals, political parties or organisations (such as think tanks) whose views stretch from the centre to the left on the left-right spectrum, excluding far left stances.[5][6][7]
A reaction to social liberalism in the late 20th century, often called neoliberalism Neoliberalism is a label for the resurgence or reformulation of classical economic liberalism. The term was coined in 1938 at the Colloque Walter Lippmann by the German sociologist and economist Alexander Rüstow, one of the fathers of Social market economy. The label is referring to a redefinition of classical liberalism, influenced by the, led to monetarist economic policies and a reduction in government provision of services. However this did not mean a return to classical liberalism as governments continued to provide social services and retained control over economic policy.
Social liberalism is also sometimes called new liberalism[nb 1][8] (as it was originally termed), modern liberalism,[9] and left-liberalism.[10]
The Liberal International Liberal International is a political international for liberal parties. Its headquarters are located at 1 Whitehall Place, London, SW1A 2HD within the National Liberal Club. It was founded in Oxford in 1947, and has become the pre-eminent network for liberal parties and for the strengthening of liberalism around the world. The Oxford Manifesto is the main international organisation of liberal parties, which include, among other liberal variants, social liberal parties. It affirms the following principles: human rights Human rights refer to the "basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled." Examples of rights and freedoms which have come to be commonly thought of as human rights include civil and political rights, such as the right to life and liberty, freedom of expression, and equality before the law; and economic, social and cultural, free and fair elections An election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the executive and judiciary, and for regional and local government and multiparty-democracy Unlike a single-party system , it encourages the general constituency to form multiple distinct, officially recognized groups, generally called political parties. Each party competes for votes from the enfranchised constituents (those allowed to vote). A multi-party system is essential for representative democracies, because it prevents the, social justice Social justice is a term that is used euphemistically to describe both a philosophical debate and an important issue in politics, religion and civil society. Most individuals wish to live in a just society, but each political ideology has its own concept of what constitutes a "just society". The term "social justice" is often, tolerance Toleration and tolerance are terms used in social, cultural and religious contexts to describe attitudes which are "tolerant" of practices or group memberships that may be disapproved of by those in the majority. In practice, "tolerance" indicates support for practices that prohibit ethnic and religious discrimination, social market economy The social market economy was the main economic model used in West Germany after World War II. It was based on the political philosophy of Ordoliberalism, a variety of Neoliberalism from the Freiburg School. Ordoliberal ideas were most prominently developed in the academic journal ORDO and implemented in practice by Ludwig Erhard, Minister of, free trade Free trade is a type of trade policy that allows traders to act and transact without interference from government. According to the law of comparative advantage the policy permits trading partners mutual gains from trade of goods and services, environmental sustainability Sustainability, in a broad sense, is the capacity to endure. It can be defined as the ability of an ecosystem to maintain ecological processes, functions, biodiversity and productivity into the future. In ecology, the word describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time. For humans it is the potential for long-term and a strong sense of international solidarity.[11] These ideals are described in further detail in the various manifestos of the LI.
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