How to Be a Liberal: The Story of Freedom and the Fight for its Survival

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Ross, Michael Lewin (2001). "Does Oil Hinder Democracy?". World Politics. 53 (3): 325–61. doi: 10.1353/wp.2001.0011. S2CID 18404. Liberalism in Britain was based on core concepts such as classical economics, free trade, laissez-faire government with minimal intervention and taxation and a balanced budget. Classical liberals were committed to individualism, liberty and equal rights. Writers such as John Bright and Richard Cobden opposed aristocratic privilege and property, which they saw as an impediment to developing a class of yeoman farmers. [85] T. H. Green, an influential liberal philosopher who established in Prolegomena to Ethics (1884) the first major foundations for what later became known as positive liberty and in a few years, his ideas became the official policy of the Liberal Party in Britain, precipitating the rise of social liberalism and the modern welfare state Populism is a particular threat to the liberal democracy because it exploits the weaknesses of the liberal democratic system. A key weakness of liberal democracies highlighted in 'How Democracies Die', [108] is the conundrum that suppressing populist movements or parties can be seen to be illiberal. Another reason that populism is a threat to liberal democracy is because it exploits the inherent differences between 'Democracy' and 'Liberalism'. [109] For liberal democracy to be effective, a degree of compromise is required [110] as protecting the rights of the individual take precedence if they are threatened by the will of the majority, more commonly known as a tyranny of the majority. Majoritarianism is so ingrained in populism that this core value of a liberal democracy is under threat. This therefore brings into question how effectively liberal democracy can defend itself from populism. Levitsky, Steven (2019). How democracies die. Ziblatt, Daniel. London. ISBN 978-0241381359. OCLC 1084729957. {{ cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher ( link) Yellow is the political colour most commonly associated with liberalism. [33] [34] [35] In Europe and Latin America, liberalism means a moderate form of classical liberalism and includes both conservative liberalism ( centre-right liberalism) and social liberalism ( centre-left liberalism). [36] In North America, liberalism almost exclusively refers to social liberalism. The dominant Canadian party is the Liberal Party, and the Democratic Party is usually considered liberal in the United States. [37] [38] [39] In the United States, conservative liberals are usually called conservatives in a broad sense. [40] [41] Philosophy

Harvard Gazette: Freedom squelches terrorist violence". News.harvard.edu. Archived from the original on 19 September 2015 . Retrieved 28 October 2008.Citizenship 1625–1789". The National Archives. Archived from the original on 11 January 2016 . Retrieved 22 January 2016 ; "Rise of Parliament". The National Archives. Archived from the original on 17 August 2018 . Retrieved 22 January 2016. A presidential system is a system of government of a republic in which the executive branch is elected separately from the legislative. A parliamentary system is distinguished by the executive branch of government being dependent on the direct or indirect support of the parliament, often expressed through a vote of confidence. Dan, Reiter; Stam, Allan C. (2002). Democracies at War. Princeton University Press. pp. 64–70. ISBN 0691089485. You think Chris Kyle was a monster for killing so many enemies of America while Bowe Bergdahl deserves to be treated with respect and compassion after deserting his unit. Doucouliagos, H., Ulubasoglu, M (2006). "Democracy and Economic Growth: A meta-analysis". School of Accounting, Economics and Finance Deakin University Australia. {{ cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list ( link)

Vladimir Lenin once argued that liberal democracy had simply been used to give an illusion of democracy whilst maintaining the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, giving as an example the United States's representative democracy which he said consisted of "spectacular and meaningless duels between two bourgeois parties" led by "multimillionaires". [94] Socialist and communist criticism [ edit ] Freedom in the World 2020" (PDF). Freedom House. 4 March 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 March 2020 . Retrieved 4 March 2020. Democracy correlates with a higher score on the Human Development Index and a lower score on the human poverty index. Welzel, Christian (2020). "A cultural theory of regimes". Nature Human Behaviour. 4 (3): 231–232. doi: 10.1038/s41562-019-0790-4. PMID 31792403. S2CID 256707649.Luoma, Jukka. "Helsingin Sanomat – International Edition". Archived from the original on 20 November 2007 . Retrieved 26 November 2007. Economist Steven Levitt says in his book Freakonomics that campaign spending is no guarantee of electoral success. He compared electoral success of the same pair of candidates running against one another repeatedly for the same job, as often happens in United States congressional elections, where spending levels varied. He concludes: For countries without a strong tradition of democratic majority rule, the introduction of free elections alone has rarely been sufficient to achieve a transition from dictatorship to democracy; a wider shift in the political culture and gradual formation of the institutions of democratic government are needed. There are various examples—for instance, in Latin America—of countries that were able to sustain democracy only temporarily or in a limited fashion until wider cultural changes established the conditions under which democracy could flourish. [ citation needed]

Liberal democracy traces its origins—and its name—to 18th-century Europe, during the Age of Enlightenment. At the time, the vast majority of European states were monarchies, with political power held either by the monarch or the aristocracy. The possibility of democracy had not been a seriously considered political theory since classical antiquity and the widely held belief was that democracies would be inherently unstable and chaotic in their policies due to the changing whims of the people. It was further believed that democracy was contrary to human nature, as human beings were seen to be inherently evil, violent and in need of a strong leader to restrain their destructive impulses. Many European monarchs held that their power had been ordained by God and that questioning their right to rule was tantamount to blasphemy. Authoritarianism is perceived by many to be a direct threat to the liberalised democracy practised in many countries. According to American political sociologist and authors Larry Diamond, Marc F. Plattner and Christopher Walker, undemocratic regimes are becoming more assertive. [98] They suggest that liberal democracies introduce more authoritarian measures to counter authoritarianism itself and cite monitoring elections and more control on media in an effort to stop the agenda of undemocratic views. Diamond, Plattner and Walker uses an example of China using aggressive foreign policy against western countries to suggest that a country's society can force another country to behave in a more authoritarian manner. In their book 'Authoritarianism Goes Global: The Challenge to Democracy' they claim that Beijing confronts the United States by building its navy and missile force and promotes the creation of global institutions designed to exclude American and European influence; as such authoritarian states pose a threat to liberal democracy as they seek to remake the world in their own image. [99] Mudde, Cas (2013). "Are Populists Friends or Foes of Constitutionalism?". The Social and Political Foundations of Constitutions. Archived from the original on 6 April 2023 . Retrieved 7 January 2020– via ORA. You simultaneously believe the police are violent trigger-happy racists who shoot people for no good reason and that we should disarm the populace so that only the government has guns. You went to a talk given on your campus by a conservative just so you could scream at him for “invading your safe space.”

Derived forms of liberal

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( August 2012) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Rudolph Rummel's Power Kills says that liberal democracy, among all types of regimes, minimizes political violence and is a method of nonviolence. Rummel attributes this firstly to democracy instilling an attitude of tolerance of differences, an acceptance of losing and a positive outlook towards conciliation and compromise. [74] A 2006 meta-analysis found that democracy has no direct effect on economic growth. However, it has strong and significant indirect effects which contribute to growth. Democracy is associated with higher human capital accumulation, lower inflation, lower political instability and higher economic freedom. There is also some evidence that it is associated with larger governments and more restrictions on international trade. [64] Schmitter P.C. and Karl T.L. (1991) "What Democracy Is...and Is Not", Journal of Democracy, 2(3), pp. 75-88. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.1991.0033. Schmitt, Carl (1985). The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy. Cambridge: MIT Press. pp.2, 8 (chapter 1). ISBN 978-0262192408.