liberal

Liberal is a political philosophy and label for diverse movements that emphasize liberty and equality before the law, individual rights, and a framework of government accountable to citizens. Core ideas include civil liberties, the rule of law, and a market economy regulated to prevent coercion and protect the vulnerable, with differing emphases on the scope of the state and social policy. Classical liberalism, emerging in the 17th and 18th centuries, advocated limited government, free markets, and constitutional rights, drawing on thinkers such as John Locke, Montesquieu, and Adam Smith. Social liberalism developed in the 19th and 20th centuries, arguing that true liberty requires social justice, public education, and a safety net, and that the state has a constructive role in reducing poverty and inequality. In the late 20th century, neoliberalism highlighted deregulation and privatization as routes to growth, influencing policy in many countries.

Geographically, the term liberal has different connotations. In the United States, liberal commonly refers to center-left positions supportive of civil liberties, social equality, and government intervention in the economy to achieve social aims. In many European countries, liberal parties span from classical liberal, market-oriented platforms to social liberal parties that emphasize social rights within a liberal-democratic framework. The term liberal also carries broader meanings of openness, tolerance, and willingness to adopt new ideas, sometimes independent of party affiliation.