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Social liberalism



 
 
Social liberalism is a political position that supports heavier regulation of the economy and more welfare
Welfare

Welfare may refer to:* Well being, quality of lifestyle** Animal welfare, the quality of life of animals, and concerns thereabout* Welfare, a film directed by Frederick Wiseman...
 than other types of liberalism
Liberalism

Liberalism is a broad class of political philosophy that considers individualism liberty and equality to be the most important political goals....
, particularly classical liberalism
Classical liberalism

Classical liberalism is a doctrine stressing individual freedom, free markets, and limited government. This includes the importance of human rationality, individual property rights, natural rights, the protection of civil liberties, individual freedom from restraint, equality under the law, constitutional limitation of government, free marke...
. Moreover, social liberals consider the accumulation of wealth and power by a small group as a threat to liberty.

Social liberalism replaced classical liberalism as the dominant ideology in much of the world, from the late nineteenth century onwards, although there was a resurgence of classical liberal ideology in the late 20th century.






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Social liberalism is a political position that supports heavier regulation of the economy and more welfare
Welfare

Welfare may refer to:* Well being, quality of lifestyle** Animal welfare, the quality of life of animals, and concerns thereabout* Welfare, a film directed by Frederick Wiseman...
 than other types of liberalism
Liberalism

Liberalism is a broad class of political philosophy that considers individualism liberty and equality to be the most important political goals....
, particularly classical liberalism
Classical liberalism

Classical liberalism is a doctrine stressing individual freedom, free markets, and limited government. This includes the importance of human rationality, individual property rights, natural rights, the protection of civil liberties, individual freedom from restraint, equality under the law, constitutional limitation of government, free marke...
. Moreover, social liberals consider the accumulation of wealth and power by a small group as a threat to liberty.

Social liberalism replaced classical liberalism as the dominant ideology in much of the world, from the late nineteenth century onwards, although there was a resurgence of classical liberal ideology in the late 20th century. Social liberal parties in Europe tend to be centre-left
Centre-left

The centre-left is a politics term commonly used to describe or denote individuals, political party or organisations whose views stretch from the centrism to the left-wing on the Left-Right politics, excluding far left stances....
. However, there are social liberal parties across the political spectrum, such as the centre-right British Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative and Unionist Party, more commonly known as the Conservative Party, is a conservative political party in the United Kingdom....
.

Social liberalism is also called new liberalism (as it was originally termed), contemporary liberalism, welfare liberalism, high liberalism, radical liberalism, modern liberalism,revisionist liberalism, left-liberalism, or simply liberalism.

Origins

In Britain, in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, a group of thinkers known as the New Liberals made a case against laissez-faire classical liberalism and in favor of state intervention in social, economic, and cultural life. The New Liberals, who included John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill , United Kingdom philosopher, political economy, civil servant and Parliament of the United Kingdom, was an influential liberalism thinker of the 19th century....
 (who combined elements of the old liberalism and the new), T.H. Green
Thomas Hill Green

Thomas Hill Green was an England philosopher, political Radicalism and Temperance movement reformer, and a member of the British idealism movement....
, L.T. Hobhouse
Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse

Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse was a United Kingdom liberalism 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....
, and John A. Hobson
John A. Hobson

John Atkinson Hobson , commonly known as John A. Hobson or J. A. Hobson, was an English economist and imperial critic, widely popular as a lecturer and writer....
, saw individual liberty as something achievable only under favorable social and economic circumstances.

In their view, the poverty, squalor, and ignorance in which many people lived made it impossible for freedom and individuality to flourish. New Liberals believed that these conditions could be ameliorated only through collective action coordinated by a strong welfare-oriented interventionist state.

It was the Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major British political parties from the early 19th century until the rise of the Labour Party in the 1920s, and a third party of varying strength and importance up to 1988, when it merged with the Social Democratic Party to form a new party which would become known as the Liberal Democrats....
 governments of Henry Campbell-Bannerman
Henry Campbell-Bannerman

Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Order of the Bath was a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The Liberal Party statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 5 December 1905 until resigning due to ill health on 3 April 1908....
 and then H.H. Asquith in the 1900s that laid the foundations of the welfare state in the UK before the First World War (see Liberal reforms
Liberal reforms

The Liberal welfare reforms collectively describes social legislation passed by the United Kingdom Liberal Party after the United Kingdom general election, 1906....
). The comprehensive welfare state built in the UK after the Second World War, although work of the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century, it has been since the 1920s the principal party of the Left-wing politics in England, Scotland and Wales, but not Northern Ireland, where it has only recently organised again....
, was largely designed by two liberals, John Maynard Keynes, who laid the economic foundations, and William Beveridge
William Beveridge

William Henry Beveridge, 1st Baron Beveridge was a British economist and social reformer. He is perhaps best known for his 1942 report Social Insurance and Allied Services which served as the basis for the post-World War II Labour government's Welfare State, especially the National Health Service....
, who designed the welfare system.

Social liberalism versus classical liberalism

Classical liberalism
Classical liberalism

Classical liberalism is a doctrine stressing individual freedom, free markets, and limited government. This includes the importance of human rationality, individual property rights, natural rights, the protection of civil liberties, individual freedom from restraint, equality under the law, constitutional limitation of government, free marke...
 believes that the provision of negative freedom
Negative and positive rights

Some philosophy and political science make a distinction between negative and positive rights . According to this view, positive rights are those rights which permit or oblige action, whereas negative rights are those which permit or oblige inaction....
 constitutes liberty and is therefore a strictly laissez-faire
Laissez-faire

Laissez-faire is a term used to describe a policy of allowing events to take their own course. The term is a French language phrase literally meaning "let do"....
 philosophy. Social liberalism, however, sees a role for the State in providing positive liberty
Positive liberty

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....
 for individuals. They believe that lack of positive rights, such as economic opportunity, education, health-care, and so on can be considered to be threats to liberty.

Classical liberals such as Robert Nozick
Robert Nozick

Robert Nozick was an United States philosopher and Joseph Pellegrino University Professor at Harvard University. He was educated at Columbia University , where he studied with Sydney Morgenbesser, at Princeton University , and Oxford University as a Fulbright Scholar....
, Ludwig von Mises
Ludwig von Mises

Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises was an Austrian economics, philosopher, and liberalism who had a major influence on the modern libertarianism movement....
, Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich Hayek

Friedrich August von Hayek Order of the Companions of Honour was an Austrian economist and philosopher known throughout the world for his defense of classical liberalism and free market capitalism against socialism and collectivism thought....
 and others reject social liberalism as a true liberalism. For these authors, government has no duty to intervene in society to aid the disadvantaged as this means taking wealth from others (as taxes). They also consider that interfering in the market is destroying freedom and doing this to make people free is self-contradictory.

Social liberalism versus conservative liberalism

Both share the concern with the freedom of the individual, but while social liberalism is appropriate for describing some liberal parties that are left-of-center on economic issues and support a broad interpretation of democratic rights, conservative liberalism
Conservative liberalism

Conservative liberalism is a variant of liberalism, combining liberal values and policies with Conservatism stances, or, more simply, representing the right-wing of the liberal movement....
 emphasizes economic freedom
Economic freedom

Economic freedom is a controversy term used in economic research and policy debates. As with Freedom generally, there are various definitions, but no universally accepted concept of economic freedom....
 and tends to be right of center. For example, conservative liberal parties, such as the Dutch People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
People's Party for Freedom and Democracy

The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy is a Politics of the Netherlands Liberalism political party. The VVD is the most vocal supporter of private enterprise in the Netherlands although supportive of the welfare state and is often perceived as a more free market party in contrast to the social liberalism D'66....
 and the German Free Democratic Party
Free Democratic Party (Germany)

The Free Democratic Party is a centre-right Liberalism political party in Germany. The party's ideology combines beliefs in individual liberty, in a state or government "that is as limited as possible and as extensive as necessary" ....
 adopt an economically conservative agenda, advocating a minimal role for the state in the economy. Some authors, like Merquior, also claim that conservative liberalism is based on the concept of negative liberty - ("where there is no law there is no transgression"), moral pluralism, progress, individualism, and accountable government, while social liberalism focuses both on the illegitimacy of a tyrannical government that uses prerogative power and on the social conditions that make such tyrannical government possible.

Social liberalism versus neoliberalism

Social liberalism is very different from the ambiguous term neoliberalism
Neoliberalism

Neoliberalism is a political philosophy, actually a continuance and redefinition of classical liberalism, influenced by the neoclassical economics....
, a name given to various proponents of the free market
Free market

A free market is a market that is free of government intervention and regulation, besides the minimal function of maintaining the legal system and protecting property rights, and is also free of private force and fraud....
s and also to some conservative
Conservatism

Conservatism is a political and social term whose meaning has changed in different countries and time periods, but which usually indicates support for the status quo or the status quo ante....
 opponents of free markets, such as mercantilistic conservatives, in the late 20th century's global economy. Neoliberalism has been used to describe the liberal economic
Economic liberalism

Economic liberalism is the economic component of classical liberalism.Theories in support of economic liberalism were developed in the Age of Enlightenment, and believed to be first fully formulated by Adam Smith which advocates...
 policies of Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States and the 33rd Governor of California . Born in Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s, where he was an actor, president of the Screen Actors Guild , and a spokesman for General Electric ....
 and Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher Order of the Garter, Order of Merit, Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, Fellow of the Royal Society was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990....
. As a body of thought, neoliberalism advocates positions contrary to many of those taken by social liberals, especially with regard to the former's commitments to free trade and dismantling of government social programs.

Social liberalism versus social democracy

The basic ideological difference between social liberalism and social democracy
Social democracy

Social democracy is a political philosophy of the left-wing politics or centre-left that emerged in the late 19th century from the socialism movement and continues to exert influence worldwide....
 lies in the role of the State in relation to the individual. Social liberals value liberty, rights, freedoms, and private property as fundamental to individual happiness, and regard democracy as an instrument to maintain a society where each individual enjoys the greatest amount of liberty possible (subject to the Harm Principle
Harm principle

The harm principle is articulated most clearly in John Stuart Mill'sOn Liberty, though it is also articulated in John Locke's Second Treatise of Government and in the work of Wilhelm von Humboldt, to whom Mill is obliged and discusses at length....
). Hence, democracy and parliamentarianism are mere political systems which legitimize themselves only through the amount of liberty they promote, and are not valued per se. While the state does have an important role in ensuring positive liberty, social liberals tend to trust that individuals are usually capable in deciding their own affairs, and generally do not need deliberate steering towards happiness.

Social democracy, on the other hand, has its roots in socialism
Socialism

Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating public or state ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods, and a society characterized by equality for all individuals, with a fair or Egalitarianism method of compensation....
 (especially in democratic socialism
Democratic socialism

Democratic socialism is a description used by various socialism movements, tendencies, and organizations, to emphasize the democratic character of their political orientation....
), and typically favours a more community-based view. While social democrats also value individual liberty, they do not believe that real liberty can be achieved for the majority without transforming the nature of the state itself. Having rejected the revolutionary approach of Marxism
Marxism

Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxism holds at its core a Marxist analysis of Critique of capitalism and a theory of social change....
, and choosing to further their goals through the democratic process, social democrats nevertheless retain a strong skepticism for capitalism
Capitalism

Capitalism is an economic system in which wealth, and the means of producing wealth, are private property and controlled rather than commonly, publicly, or state-owned and controlled....
, which they believe needs to be regulated or managed for the greater good. This focus on the greater good may, potentially, make social democrats more ready to step in and steer society in a direction that is deemed to be more equitable.

In practice, however, the differences between the two may be harder to perceive. This is especially the case nowadays, as many social democratic parties have shifted towards the center and adopted Third Way
Third way (centrism)

The Third Way is a term that has been used to describe a variety of political philosophies of governance that embrace a mix of free market and Economic interventionism philosophies....
 politics.

Europe

While liberalism spread through Britain and America through the nineteenth century, this didn’t happen in mainland Europe for the most part of the century, where ideas, from left and right, dominated most countries and eliminated liberal forms of government in continental Europe. Liberalism, however, eventually triumphed later in Western Europe
Western Europe

Western Europe refers to the countries in the western most half of Europe. This concept has had different meanings, political and cultural as well as geographical issues have influenced the area....
, with the rest of the continent following later. Most post-war governments of Western Europe pursued social liberal economic policies. However, the governments implementing these social liberal policies were not constituted by Liberal parties, despite liberal thinkers playing a major role devising them.

Through most of the nineteenth century in European democracies like Britain, the main political divide was between two big groups: the Conservative
Conservatism

Conservatism is a political and social term whose meaning has changed in different countries and time periods, but which usually indicates support for the status quo or the status quo ante....
 parties represented the aristocracy and landed interest and Liberal parties represented the commercial middle classes. However, towards the end of the century, working classes gained greater representation and there was a realignment. Politics started to be polarized on those with property and those without property. Liberals tried to appeal to both groups, while Conservatives and Socialists concentrated on a specific group, absorbing liberal ideas and adopting them from time to time. In countries like Britain and Sweden it was social democratic
Social democracy

Social democracy is a political philosophy of the left-wing politics or centre-left that emerged in the late 19th century from the socialism movement and continues to exert influence worldwide....
 governments that were responsible for implementing social liberal policies, while in West Germany and Italy it was center-right parties (generally Christian Democrats
Christian Democracy

Christian democracy is a political ideology that seeks to apply Christian principles to public policy. It emerged in nineteenth-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social teaching, and it continues to be influential in Europe and Latin America, though in a number of countries its Christian ethos has been diluted by secular...
).

Today in Europe, social liberal parties tend to be small to medium size centre parties. Examples of relatively successful European social liberal parties, which have been through the years part of government coalitions at the national or regional level are the Liberal Democrats
Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats, often shortened to Lib Dems or just Lib Dem, are a Liberalism political party in the United Kingdom, formed in 1988 by merging the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party ; the two parties had been SDP-Liberal Alliance for seven years, from shortly after the formation of the SDP....
 in the U.K., the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (Luxembourg)

The Democratic Party , abbreviated to DP, is a liberalism political party in Luxembourg.Since its formation in 1955, the party has been one of the three major parties in Luxembourg, along with the Christian Social People's Party and the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party ....
 in Luxemburg, the D66
Democrats 66

Democrats 66 is a Politics of the Netherlands progressivism, Social liberalism and Radicalism #Continental Europe and Latin America democracy political party....
 in the Netherlands and the Danish Social Liberal Party
Det Radikale Venstre

Det Radikale Venstre is a centrist party in Denmark. It is officially translated by the party as Danish Social Liberal Party. A more traditional English-language name is the Radical Liberal Party....
. At the European level, social liberal parties generally are integrated in the ELDR Party
European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party

The European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party is a liberal parties, mainly active in the European Union, composed of 55 national parties from across Europe....
, which is the 3rd biggest group at the European Parliament, and aggregates liberal parties (both social liberal parties and conservative liberal parties
Conservative liberalism

Conservative liberalism is a variant of liberalism, combining liberal values and policies with Conservatism stances, or, more simply, representing the right-wing of the liberal movement....
) from all over Europe.

"Social Liberal" has been used as a label by parties in order to differentiate themselves from conservative liberal
Conservative liberalism

Conservative liberalism is a variant of liberalism, combining liberal values and policies with Conservatism stances, or, more simply, representing the right-wing of the liberal movement....
 and classical liberal parties, especially when there are two or more liberal parties in a country.

United States

In the United States, the party system wasn't developed based on strong ideological differences, for example, the Democrats
Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major party contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party . It is the oldest political party in continuous operation in the United States and it is one of the oldest parties in the world....
 of the South have traditionally been right wing, while northern Democrats are traditionally left wing, although particularly since the 1970s the Democrats in general have tended more to the left and Republicans
Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major party contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party . It is often called the Grand Old Party or the GOP....
 to the right. Ideologically, all major US parties are Liberal
Liberalism

Liberalism is a broad class of political philosophy that considers individualism liberty and equality to be the most important political goals....
 and always have been. Essentially they follow classic liberalism, merging constitutionalism
Constitutionalism

Constitutionalism has a variety of meanings. Most generally, it is "a complex of ideas, attitudes, and patterns of behavior elaborating the principle that the authority of government derives from and is limited by a body of fundamental law." These ideas, attitudes and patterns of behavior, according to one analyst, form "a dynamic politic...
 with free market
Free market

A free market is a market that is free of government intervention and regulation, besides the minimal function of maintaining the legal system and protecting property rights, and is also free of private force and fraud....
s and centering the differences on the influences of social liberalism.

Social liberalism may also refer, as it usually does in North American media, simply to support for educational reform, civil rights
Civil rights

Civil and political rights are a class of rights ensuring things such as the protection of peoples' physical integrity; procedural fairness in law; protection from discrimination based on sexism, religious intolerance, Racism, Homophobia, etc; individual freedom of freedom of belief, freedom of speech, freedom of association, and freedom...
, human rights
Human rights

Human rights refer to the "basic rights and freedom 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 speech, and equality before the law; and social, cultural and economic rights, i...
, and civil liberties
Civil liberties

Civil liberties are Freedom that protect the individual from the government. Civil liberties set limits for government so that it cannot abuse its Political power and interfere with the lives of its citizens....
. In this sense, one could be socially liberal and economically conservative (often referred to as economic liberalism
Economic liberalism

Economic liberalism is the economic component of classical liberalism.Theories in support of economic liberalism were developed in the Age of Enlightenment, and believed to be first fully formulated by Adam Smith which advocates...
), as is the case with those called variously classical liberals
Classical liberalism

Classical liberalism is a doctrine stressing individual freedom, free markets, and limited government. This includes the importance of human rationality, individual property rights, natural rights, the protection of civil liberties, individual freedom from restraint, equality under the law, constitutional limitation of government, free marke...
, neoliberals
Neoliberalism

Neoliberalism is a political philosophy, actually a continuance and redefinition of classical liberalism, influenced by the neoclassical economics....
, libertarians, and conservative liberals
Conservative liberalism

Conservative liberalism is a variant of liberalism, combining liberal values and policies with Conservatism stances, or, more simply, representing the right-wing of the liberal movement....
/liberal conservatives
Liberal conservatism

Historically In the 18th and 19th centuries, conservatism comprised a set of principles based on concern for established tradition, respect for authority and religious values....
.

Presently, the agendas of European social liberals and modern American liberals tend to be very similar, with both taking a distinctly left-of-center stance on social issues, whilst taking a more centrist stance on economic issues. Since the ideological center of the United States lies further to the right than that of Western Europe, policies considered centrist, or even right-wing, in Europe may be considered left-of-center in the U.S. Universal single-payer health care, for example, is considered a largely centrist policy in Europe but distinctly center-left in the U.S. Social democrats and socialists may also be labeled as "liberal" in the U.S. but constitute only a small minority of the American left. Liberals in the U.S. constitute roughly 19% to 26% of the population and form circa 46% of the Democratic base
Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major party contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party . It is the oldest political party in continuous operation in the United States and it is one of the oldest parties in the world....
.

Like European social liberals, most modern American liberals advocate cultural pluralism
Cultural pluralism

Cultural pluralism is a term used when small groups within a larger society maintain their unique cultural identities. One of the most notable cultural pluralisms is the caste system, which is related to Hinduism and also the example of Lebanon where 18 different religious communities co-exist on a land of 10,452 km?....
, diplomacy over military action, stem-cell research, the legalization of same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriage and gay marriage are terms for a Law or socially recognized marriage between two people of the same sex. While state-sanctioned same-sex marriage is a relatively new phenomenon in the modern world, same-sex unions have been documented throughout human history....
, secular government, environmental protection laws and access to abortion
Abortion in the United States

Abortion in the United States is a highly-charged issue involving significant abortion debate. In medical terms, the word abortion refers to any pregnancy that does not end in a live birth, and therefore can refer to a miscarriage or a premature birth that does not result in a live infant....
.

However, there are also some relevant differences. For example, American liberals tend to be rather divided on free trade agreements
List of free trade agreements

File:Free Trade Areas.PNGThis is list of free trade agreements between three or more countries and/or trade blocs. Every customs union, trade common market and economic and monetary union has also a free trade area....
 and organizations such as the North American Free Trade Agreement
North American Free Trade Agreement

The North American Free Trade Agreement is a trilateral trade bloc in North America created by the governments of the United States, Canada, and Mexico....
 (NAFTA). Also, while most liberals oppose increased military standing and the display of the Ten Commandments in public buildings, the Democratic party still has references to religion and God on its party documents, something that goes against the clearly anti-clerical stance of social liberal parties worldwide. Differences can also be found regarding immigration and cultural diversity, which while deemed positive by social liberals worldwide, is handled in a different way by the American liberals with the so called positive discrimination, which would be considered anti-liberal by social-liberal parties, as they would consider it to be an effective form of discrimination.

Social liberal parties

  • Argentina: Radical Civic Union
    Radical Civic Union

    The Radical Civic Union is a political party in Argentina. The party's positions on issues range from liberalism to social democracy. The UCR is a member of the Socialist International....
  • Australia: Australian Democrats
    Australian Democrats

    The Australian Democrats is an Australian political party espousing a centrism or social liberal ideology. It was formed in 1977, by a merger of the Australia Party and the New LM, after principals of those minor parties secured the commitment of former minister Don Chipp, as a high profile leader....
    , Australian Greens
    Australian Greens

    The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, is a Worldwide green parties List of political parties in Australia.The party has its eastern Australian origins in the Franklin Dam campaign in Tasmania in the 1980s, and in Western Australia arising from concerns about nuclear disarmament....
  • Austria: Social Liberals, Liberal Forum
    Liberal Forum

    The Liberal Forum is a small Liberalism party in Austria. It is currently led by Werner Becher, and is a member of the Liberal International organisation and the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party....
  • Belgium: Social Liberal Party
  • Brazil: Social Liberal Party
    Social Liberal Party (Brazil)

    The Social Liberal Party is a liberal parties in Brazil. At the last legislative elections in Brazil, 6 october 2002, the party won 1 out of 513 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and no seats in the Senate....
  • Canada: Liberal Party of Canada
    Liberal Party of Canada

    The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is a major political party in Canada. The party is positioned in the centre-left of the Politics of Canada....
    , especially the liberal factions
  • Chile: Social Democrat Radical Party
    Social Democrat Radical Party

    The Social Democratic Radical Party is a social democratic party in Chile.The party is a member of Socialist International.The party was founded in August 18, 1994, out of a union between the Radical Party and the Social Democratic Party of Chile, both of which had received poor results in the parliamentary elections....
  • Colombia: Colombian Liberal Party
    Colombian Liberal Party

    The Colombian Liberal Party is a social liberalism-social democracy party in Colombia.The Party was founded in 1848 and, together with the Colombian Conservative Party, subsequently became one of the two main political forces in the country for over a century....
  • Croatia: Croatian People's Party
  • Denmark: Danish Social Liberal Party
    Det Radikale Venstre

    Det Radikale Venstre is a centrist party in Denmark. It is officially translated by the party as Danish Social Liberal Party. A more traditional English-language name is the Radical Liberal Party....
  • Estonia: Estonian Centre Party
    Estonian Centre Party

    The Centre Party of Estonia is a centrist, social liberal party in Estonia. Keskerakond is a member of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party....
  • Finland: Swedish People's Party
    Swedish People's Party (Finland)

    The Swedish Peoples' Party is a Swedish-speaking minority party and mainly liberal parties party in Finland. The party is a member of Liberal International and the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party....
  • France: Left Radical Party
    Left Radical Party

    The Radical Party of the Left is a minor Social liberalism and social democracy list of political parties in France.The PRG retains some support among middle-class voters and in traditional Radical areas in the South-West, but it only gains parliamentary representation by courtesy of the Socialist Party , with which it has been in close al...
    , MoDem
    Modem

    Modem is a peripheral device that modulation an analog carrier wave Signal to encode digital information, and also demodulation such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information....
  • Italy: Action Party
    Action Party

    Action Party may refer to:*Canadian Action Party, Canada*Citizens' Action Party, Costa Rica*Guyana Action Party, Guyana*Sardian Action Party, Italy...
    , Radicals of the Left
    Radicals of the Left

    Radicals of the Left is a minor Green politics and social liberalism list of political parties in Italy in Italy.It was founded on 25 April 2004 by former Radical Party and Italian Communist Party, and is led by Fabrizio Cianci....
    , New Italian Socialist Party
  • Japan: Democratic Party of Japan
    Democratic Party of Japan

    The is a Social liberalism political party in Japan founded in 1998 by the merger of several smaller parties. It is the second-largest party in the House of Representatives of Japan and the largest party in the House of Councillors, and it constitutes the primary opposition to the long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party ....
  • Latvia: Society for Political Change (Sabiedriba Citai Politikai)
  • Lithuania: New Union (Social Liberals)
  • Luxembourg: Democratic Party
    Democratic Party (Luxembourg)

    The Democratic Party , abbreviated to DP, is a liberalism political party in Luxembourg.Since its formation in 1955, the party has been one of the three major parties in Luxembourg, along with the Christian Social People's Party and the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party ....
  • Maldives: Social Liberal Party
    Social Liberal Party

    Social Liberal Party is the name of a political party in Maldives. It usually designates a party that is ideologically social liberal or centre-left. For more information on liberal parties, see liberal parties....
  • Mexico: Party of the Democratic Revolution
    Party of the Democratic Revolution

    The Party of the Democratic Revolution is one of the three List_of_political_parties_in_Mexico....
  • Moldova: Social Liberal Party
    Social Liberal Party (Moldova)

    The Social Liberal Party was a liberalism political party in Moldova, led by Oleg Serebrian.At the last legislative elections in Moldova, 6 March 2005, the party was part of the Electoral Bloc Democratic Moldova , that won 28.4 % of the popular vote and 34 out of 101 seats....
  • Mozambique: Social Liberal and Democratic Party
    Social Liberal and Democratic Party

    The Social Liberal and Democratic Party is a liberal parties in Mozambique....
  • Netherlands: Democrats 66
    Democrats 66

    Democrats 66 is a Politics of the Netherlands progressivism, Social liberalism and Radicalism #Continental Europe and Latin America democracy political party....
  • Norway: Liberal Party of Norway
  • Philippines: Liberal Party
    Liberal Party (Philippines)

    The Liberal Party of the Philippines is a liberal parties in the Philippines, founded on November 24, 1945 by a breakaway from the Nacionalista Party ....
  • Poland: Democratic Party
    Partia Demokratyczna - demokraci.pl

    The Democratic Party is a Social liberalism in Poland, publicly announced on February 28 and formally established on May 9, 2005 as an "enlargement" of the Freedom Union , which it legally succeeds....
  • Portugal: Movimento Liberal Social
  • Russia: Russian Democratic Party "Yabloko"
    Yabloko

    The Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko The party dates back to early 1990s. The immediate predecessor of the Yabloko party was the electoral cartel Yavlinsky-Boldyrev-Lukin, formed for the Russian legislative election, 1993....
  • Serbia: Democratic Party
    Democratic Party (Serbia)

    The Democratic Party is the main center-left political party in Serbia. It claims continuity of the Democratic Party .It is the largest political party in Serbia in terms of sitting National Assembly of Serbia, and in what respects the international arena, the Democratic Party is a member of the Socialist International and Party of Europea...
  • Slovenia: Liberal Democracy of Slovenia
    Liberal Democracy of Slovenia

    Liberal Democracy of Slovenia or LDS is a liberalism political party in Slovenia. It is led by Katarina Kresal and is a member of the Liberal International and the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party....
  • South Korea: United Democratic Party, Renewal of Korea Party
    Renewal of Korea Party

    The Renewal of Korea Party is a political party of South Korea. It was formed out of the Uri Party and its resulting civil splinter groups, with their leader Moon Kook-hyun, a well-known former business leader who recently started his political career....
  • Spain: Union, Progress and Democracy
    Union, Progress and Democracy

    Union, Progress and Democracy is a Spain list of political parties in Spain founded in September 2007. In the Spanish general election, 2008 held on 9 March, UPyD received 303,246 votes, or 1.2% of the national total....
    , Citizens-Party of the Citizenry
  • Sudan: Sudan Liberal Party
    Sudan Liberal Party

    Sudan Liberal Party was a social Liberal Party in Sudan, founded in 2003 by young Sudanese activists. It has merged with other three liberal and democratic organisations in September to form 2008 the United Democratic Liberal Party of Sudan...
    , United Democratic Liberal Party
    United Democratic Liberal Party

    The United Democratic Liberal Party is a political party in Sudan. The party was formed through the merger of four parties, Sudan Liberal Party, Sudanese Democratic Movement, Movement of New Democratic Forces - United Leadership and the Sudanese Democratic Party....
  • Sweden: Centre Party
    Centre Party (Sweden)

    The Centre Party is a Nordic Agrarian parties political party in Sweden. The party maintains close ties to rural Sweden and describes itself as "a green social liberal party"....
    , Liberal People's Party
    Liberal People's Party (Sweden)

    The Liberal People's Party is a List of political parties in Sweden in Sweden. The party advocates social liberalism and is part of the governing centre-right bloc Alliance for Sweden, which achieved a majority in the Swedish general election, 2006 of 17 September 2006....
  • Tunisia: Social Liberal Party
    Social Liberal Party (Tunisia)

    The Social-Liberal Party is an opposition liberalism political party in Tunisia. At the last legislative elections in Tunisia, 24 October 2004, the party won 0.6 % of the popular vote and 2 out of 189 seats....
  • United Kingdom: Liberal Democrats
    Liberal Democrats

    The Liberal Democrats, often shortened to Lib Dems or just Lib Dem, are a Liberalism political party in the United Kingdom, formed in 1988 by merging the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party ; the two parties had been SDP-Liberal Alliance for seven years, from shortly after the formation of the SDP....
  • United States: Democratic Party
    Democratic Party (United States)

    The Democratic Party is one of two major party contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party . It is the oldest political party in continuous operation in the United States and it is one of the oldest parties in the world....
     (especially the Liberal factions
    Factions in the Democratic Party (United States)

    The Democratic Party of the United States is composed of various different factions, with some overlap and enough agreement between them to coexist with each other within the party....
    )


Notable social liberal thinkers

Chronological list

  • Jeremy Bentham
    Jeremy Bentham

    Jeremy Bentham was an England jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. He was the brother of Samuel Bentham. He was a political radical, and a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law....
     (1748–1832)
  • William Beveridge
    William Beveridge

    William Henry Beveridge, 1st Baron Beveridge was a British economist and social reformer. He is perhaps best known for his 1942 report Social Insurance and Allied Services which served as the basis for the post-World War II Labour government's Welfare State, especially the National Health Service....
     (1879–1963)
  • Lujo Brentano
    Lujo Brentano

    Lujo Brentano was an eminent Germany economics and social reformer.Lujo Brentano, born in Aschaffenburg into one of the most distinguished German-Catholic intellectual families , attended school in Augsburg and Aschaffenburg....
     (1844–1931)
  • Bernard Bosanquet
    Bernard Bosanquet (philosopher)

    Bernard Bosanquet was an England philosopher and political theorist, and an influential figure on matters of political and social policy in late 19th and early 20th century Britain....
     (1848–1923)
  • Pieter Cort van der Linden
    Pieter Cort van der Linden

    Pieter Wilhelm Adriaan Cort van der Linden was a Netherlands political figure. He served as list of Prime Ministers of the Netherlands between 1913 and 1918....
     (1846–1935)
  • John Dewey
    John Dewey

    John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist, and school reform whose thoughts and ideas have been highly influential in the United States and around the world....
     (1859–1952)
  • Emile Durkheim
    Ιmile Durkheim

    ?mile Durkheim was a France sociologist whose contributions were instrumental in the formation of sociology and anthropology. His work and editorship of the first journal of sociology, L'Ann?e Sociologique, helped establish sociology within academia as an accepted Social sciences....
     (1858–1917)
  • Thomas Hill Green
    Thomas Hill Green

    Thomas Hill Green was an England philosopher, political Radicalism and Temperance movement reformer, and a member of the British idealism movement....
     (1836–1882)
  • John Atkinson Hobson (1858–1940)
  • John Stuart Mill
    John Stuart Mill

    John Stuart Mill , United Kingdom philosopher, political economy, civil servant and Parliament of the United Kingdom, was an influential liberalism thinker of the 19th century....
     (1806–1873)
  • Friedrich Naumann
    Friedrich Naumann

    Friedrich Naumann was a Germany politician and Protestant parish priest. In 1894 he founded the weekly magazine Die Hilfe to address the social question from a non-marxist middle class point of view....
     (1860–1919)
  • Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse
    Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse

    Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse was a United Kingdom liberalism 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....
     (1864–1929)
  • Gerhart von Schulze-Gavernitz (1864–1943)
  • Hans Kelsen
    Hans Kelsen

    Hans Kelsen was an Austrian-United States jurist....
     (1881–1973)
  • Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945)
  • John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946)
  • Eleanor Roosevelt
    Eleanor Roosevelt

    Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, President Franklin D....
     (1884-1962)
  • Carlo Rosselli
    Carlo Rosselli

    Carlo Rosselli was an Italy political leader, journalist, historian and anti-fascist activist, first in Italy then abroad. He developed a theory of reformist, non-Marxist Socialism inspired by the British Labour movement, that he described as "liberal Socialism"....
     (1899-1937)
  • Bertil Ohlin
    Bertil Ohlin

    Bertil Gotthard Ohlin was a Sweden economist and politician. He was a professor of economics at the Stockholm School of Economics from 1929 to 1965....
     (1899–1979)
  • John Hicks
    John Hicks

    Sir John Richard Hicks was one of the most important and influential economists of the twentieth century. The most familiar of his many contributions in the field of economics were his statement of consumer theory in microeconomics, and the IS/LM model, which summarised a Keynesian view of macroeconomics....
     (1904–1989)
  • Isaiah Berlin
    Isaiah Berlin

    Sir Isaiah Berlin, Order of Merit was a philosopher and historian of ideas, regarded as one of the leading liberal thinkers of the twentieth century....
     (1909–1997)
  • Norberto Bobbio
    Norberto Bobbio

    Norberto Bobbio FBA was an Italy philosopher of law and political sciences and a historian of political thought. He also wrote regularly for the Turin-based daily La Stampa....
     (1909–2004)
  • Miguel Reale
    Miguel Reale

    Miguel Reale was a Brazilian jurist, philosopher, academic and politician.Miguel Reale taught philosophy of law at University of S?o Paulo, the institution from which he later received the title of Professor emeritus....
     (1910–2005)
  • John F. Kennedy
    John F. Kennedy

    John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States, serving from 1961 until John F....
     (1917-1963)
  • Pierre Elliot Trudeau (1919–2000)
  • John Rawls
    John Rawls

    John Rawls was an United States philosopher and a leading figure in moral and political philosophy.Rawls received the Schock Prize for Logic and Philosophy and the National Humanities Medal in 1999, the latter presented by U.S....
     (1921–2002)
  • Don Chipp
    Don Chipp

    Donald Leslie Chipp, Order of Australia was an Australian politician, and the inaugural leader of the Australian Democrats....
     (1925–2006)
  • Robert F. Kennedy
    Robert F. Kennedy

    Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also called RFK, was an United States politician. He was United States Attorney General from 1961 to 1964 and a United States Senator from New York from 1965 until his Robert F....
     (1925–1968)
  • Karl-Hermann Flach
    Karl-Hermann Flach

    Karl-Hermann Flach was a well known Germany journalist of the Frankfurter Rundschau. He became an active member of the Freie Demokratische Partei ....
     (1929–1973)
  • Martin Luther King, Jr.
    Martin Luther King, Jr.

    Martin Luther King, Jr. was an United States pastor, activist and prominent leader in the African-American African-American Civil Rights Movement ....
     (1929–1968)
  • Richard Rorty
    Richard Rorty

    Richard McKay Rorty was an American philosopher. He had a long and diverse career in Philosophy, Humanities, and Literature departments. His complex intellectual background gave him a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the analytic philosophy tradition in philosophy he would later famously reject....
     (1931–2007)
  • Conrad Russell (1937–2004)
  • Ronald Dworkin
    Ronald Dworkin

    Ronald Dworkin, Queens Counsel, British Academy is an United States legal philosopher, currently professor of Jurisprudence at University College London and the New York University School of Law, and former professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Oxford....
     (* 1931)
  • Amartya Sen
    Amartya Sen

    Amartya Kumar Sen Order of the Companions of Honour , is a Bengali people Indian economist, philosopher, and a winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1998, "for his contributions to welfare economics" for his work on famine, human development theory, welfare economics, the underlying mechanisms of poverty, and political C...
     (* 1933)
  • Josι G. Merquior (1941–1991)
  • Bruce Ackerman
    Bruce Ackerman

    Bruce Arnold Ackerman is an United States constitutional law scholar. He is a Sterling Professor at Yale Law School and one of the most frequently cited legal academics in the country....
     (* 1943)
  • Martha Nussbaum
    Martha Nussbaum

    Martha Nussbaum is an United States philosophy with a particular interest in Greek philosophy and Roman philosophy, political philosophy and ethics....
     (* 1947)
  • Fernando Savater
    Fernando Savater

    Fernando Fern?ndez-Savater Mart?n is one of Spain's most popular living philosophers, as well as an essayist and celebrated author.He was an Ethics professor at the University of the Basque Country for over a decade....
     (* 1947)
  • Dirk Verhofstadt
    Dirk Verhofstadt

    Dirk Verhofstadt is a Belgium social liberalism theorist and brother of former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt. He has a keen interest in political philosophy, and his philosophical outlook is influenced by Karl Popper, John Stuart Mill, Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum....
     (* 1955)
  • Barack Obama
    Barack Obama

    Barack Hussein Obama II is the List of Presidents of the United States and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office....
     (1961-*)


Further reading


See also

  • Social liberalism (United States)
  • Classical liberalism
    Classical liberalism

    Classical liberalism is a doctrine stressing individual freedom, free markets, and limited government. This includes the importance of human rationality, individual property rights, natural rights, the protection of civil liberties, individual freedom from restraint, equality under the law, constitutional limitation of government, free marke...