# Liberalism Liberalism is the political-philosophical-and-political-cultural-tradition substantially-articulated across approximately four centuries of European-and-American political-philosophical-development, designating a substantially-broad-and-internally-diverse analytical-political framework organized around several substantively-foundational analytical-political claims: (1) **individual-rights primacy** — political-philosophical priority of individual-rights protection over collective-or-state-political-objectives; (2) **government-by-consent** — political-philosophical priority of legitimate-government-rooted-in-popular-consent over alternative legitimacy-rooting frameworks (divine right, dynastic inheritance, conquest, traditional-authority); (3) **constitutional-political-process** — political-philosophical priority of constitutionally-constrained-government-political-power over substantively-unconstrained-government-political-power; (4) **rule-of-law** — political-philosophical priority of substantively-equal-application-of-law-to-all-persons over arbitrary-or-personalist political-power; (5) **substantial-economic-and-civil-freedoms** — substantial-economic-freedom-of-contract-and-private-property analytical-framework; substantial-civil-freedom-of-conscience-speech-press-assembly-religion analytical-framework. The framework operates across substantially-broad-and-internally-diverse analytical-political range — from **classical liberalism** (substantial Locke-and-Mill-and-Smith analytical-tradition substantially-emphasizing limited-government and substantial-economic-and-civil-freedoms) through **social liberalism** (substantial Mill-late-period and Dewey and Rawls analytical-tradition substantially-emphasizing welfare-state political-economic infrastructure within liberal-democratic political-framework) through **neoliberalism** (substantial Hayek-Friedman-Reagan-Thatcher analytical-tradition substantially-emphasizing market-mechanism and substantial-economic-deregulation political-economic-framework) through adjacent substantively-distinct sub-traditions. The framework matters for the KB substantially across multiple analytical-political-registers: 1. **Foundational political-philosophical tradition for American constitutional-political-system.** The framework substantially-underpins the American constitutional-political-system foundational-political-philosophical infrastructure. The Founding-period American political-philosophical-development substantially-operated within liberal political-philosophical-tradition; the contemporary American constitutional-political-system substantially-operates within liberal political-philosophical-tradition. 2. **Principal contemporary right-coded post-liberal political-target.** The framework is the principal contemporary right-coded post-liberal political-target. The contemporary [[Catholic Post-Liberalism]] / [[Integralism]] / [[National Conservatism]] / Patrick-Deneen-and-adjacent post-liberal political-philosophical-traditions substantially-target the liberal political-philosophical-tradition as substantively-failed-and-substantively-replacement-warranting. 3. **Principal contemporary left-coded post-liberal political-target.** Some contemporary left-coded political-philosophical-traditions substantially-target the liberal political-philosophical-tradition as substantively-inadequate for political-economic-transformation. The post-liberal left-coded political-philosophical-traditions substantially-distinct from the post-liberal right-coded political-philosophical-traditions; both substantially-target the broader liberal political-philosophical-tradition. ## Historical Development **Pre-Enlightenment antecedents (pre-1689).** Substantial pre-Enlightenment antecedents include: substantial Reformation-era political-philosophical-development around individual-conscience-and-religious-freedom analytical-frameworks; substantial post-1648 Westphalian-system political-development around state-sovereignty-and-religious-toleration analytical-frameworks; substantial 17th-century English [[American Civil War]] political-development around political-power-limitation-and-popular-consent analytical-frameworks. **Classical Liberalism (1689-mid-19th-century).** Substantial 1689-mid-19th-century classical-liberal political-philosophical-development. Foundational figures: [[John Locke]] (1632-1704; *Two Treatises of Government*, 1689; substantial foundational-articulation of liberal political-philosophical-framework around natural-rights, government-by-consent, and substantial-individual-freedoms analytical-frameworks); [[Adam Smith]] (1723-1790; *[[The Wealth of Nations]]*, 1776; substantial foundational-articulation of liberal-economic political-philosophical-framework); [[Immanuel Kant]] (1724-1804; substantial foundational-articulation of liberal political-philosophical-framework around autonomous-rational-agency analytical-framework); [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]] (1712-1778; *The Social Contract*, 1762; substantial articulation of substantially-different but substantially-adjacent political-philosophical-framework); [[Thomas Paine]] (1737-1809; *[[Common Sense]]*, 1776; substantial popular-articulation of liberal political-philosophical-framework); Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859; *Democracy in America*, 1835/1840; substantial empirical-and-analytical articulation of liberal-democratic political-philosophical-framework). **Mill and the Mid-19th-Century Transition (1859+).** [[John Stuart Mill]] (1806-1873; *On Liberty*, 1859; substantial foundational-articulation of liberal political-philosophical-framework around individual-freedom-and-harm-principle analytical-framework; *Principles of Political Economy*, 1848; substantial articulation of liberal-economic political-philosophical-framework with substantial late-period revisions toward social-liberal political-philosophical-framework). Mill substantially-bridged classical-liberal and social-liberal political-philosophical-traditions. **Social Liberalism / Progressive Liberalism (1880s-1960s).** Substantial late-19th-century-through-mid-20th-century social-liberal political-philosophical-development. Foundational figures: T.H. Green (1836-1882; substantial foundational-articulation of social-liberal political-philosophical-framework around positive-liberty analytical-framework); L.T. Hobhouse (1864-1929; substantial foundational-articulation of social-liberal political-philosophical-framework around individual-self-realization-within-society analytical-framework); [[John Dewey]] (1859-1952; substantial foundational-articulation of social-liberal political-philosophical-framework around democratic-deliberation-and-social-reform analytical-framework); [[John Rawls]] (1921-2002; *A Theory of Justice*, 1971; substantial mid-late-20th-century articulation of liberal-egalitarian political-philosophical-framework around original-position-and-difference-principle analytical-frameworks). Substantial New-Deal-era political-implementation; substantial Great-Society-era political-implementation. **Neoliberalism (1970s-2020s).** Substantial late-20th-century neoliberal political-economic-development. Foundational figures: Friedrich Hayek (1899-1992; *[[The Road to Serfdom]]*, 1944; substantial foundational-articulation of post-classical-liberal political-philosophical-framework against state-economic-planning analytical-framework); [[Milton Friedman]] (1912-2006; *[[Capitalism and Freedom]]*, 1962; substantial articulation of neoliberal political-economic-framework around market-mechanism-and-substantial-deregulation analytical-framework). Substantial Thatcher-Reagan-era political-implementation; substantial post-1990 global-deployment. **Post-Liberal-Contestation Period (2010s-present).** Substantial post-2010 contemporary post-liberal political-philosophical-contestation environment. Right-coded post-liberal political-philosophical-traditions: [[Patrick Deneen]]'s *Why Liberalism Failed* (2018) substantially-articulates contemporary right-coded post-liberal analytical-framework; [[Catholic Post-Liberalism]] / [[Integralism]] / [[National Conservatism]] political-philosophical-traditions substantially-target the broader liberal political-philosophical-tradition. Left-coded post-liberal political-philosophical-traditions substantially-distinct but substantially-target the broader liberal political-philosophical-tradition similarly. ## Contemporary American Political Context **Foundational tradition for American constitutional-political-system.** The American constitutional-political-system substantially-operates within liberal political-philosophical-tradition. The Founding-period American political-philosophical-development substantially-operated within Lockean-liberal political-philosophical-tradition; the *Federalist Papers* substantially-articulated American liberal-constitutional political-philosophical-framework; the U.S. Constitution and [[Bill of Rights]] substantially-codified liberal political-philosophical-framework into American constitutional-political infrastructure. **Liberal-vs-conservative contemporary American political-rhetorical-vocabulary.** Contemporary American political-rhetorical-vocabulary substantially-deploys "liberal" / "liberalism" as American-left-coded political-rhetorical-category and "conservative" / "conservatism" as American-right-coded political-rhetorical-category. The deployment substantially-distinct from the broader political-philosophical-tradition use of "liberalism" — the American political-rhetorical deployment treats contemporary mainstream-Democratic political-coalition as "liberal" and contemporary mainstream-Republican political-coalition as "conservative," even though both contemporary major American political-coalitions substantially-operate within the broader liberal political-philosophical-tradition. **Post-liberal political-philosophical-contestation contemporary environment.** Contemporary American political-philosophical-environment substantially-features post-liberal political-philosophical-contestation across multiple substantively-distinct political-philosophical-traditions. Right-coded post-liberal political-philosophical-traditions: [[Catholic Post-Liberalism]] (Patrick Deneen, [[Adrian Vermeule]], [[Sohrab Ahmari]], and adjacent figures); [[Integralism]] (Adrian Vermeule, Edmund Waldstein, and adjacent figures); [[National Conservatism]] ([[Yoram Hazony]], Christopher DeMuth, and adjacent figures); substantial-portion-broader Trump-era populist-conservative political-philosophical-tradition. Left-coded post-liberal political-philosophical-traditions substantially-academic and substantially-marginal relative to right-coded post-liberal political-philosophical-traditions. ## Why It Matters for the KB **Foundational political-philosophical-tradition for American constitutional-political-system.** Liberalism is the foundational political-philosophical-tradition for the American constitutional-political-system. Tracking the tradition is essential to engaging with broader American constitutional-political analytical-literature. **Principal contemporary post-liberal political-philosophical-target documentary anchor.** Liberalism is the principal contemporary right-coded post-liberal political-philosophical-target. Tracking the tradition is essential to engaging with the broader contemporary post-liberal political-philosophical-contestation environment. **American political-rhetorical-vocabulary analytical-distinction resource.** The substantial distinction between the broader political-philosophical-tradition use of "liberalism" and the American political-rhetorical use of "liberal" as American-left-coded political-rhetorical-category provides one of the principal analytical-distinction resources for engaging with contemporary American political-rhetorical-vocabulary. **Foundational tradition for substantial portion of broader analytical-political analytical-literature.** Substantial portion of broader contemporary analytical-political analytical-literature operates within or substantially-engages-with the liberal political-philosophical-tradition. Tracking the tradition is essential to engaging with broader contemporary analytical-political analytical-literature. ## See Also - [[Natural Rights]] — adjacent foundational political-philosophical-Concept - [[Social Contract Theory]] — adjacent foundational political-philosophical-Concept - [[The Harm Principle]] — adjacent foundational political-philosophical-Concept (Mill) - [[Consent of the Governed]] — adjacent foundational political-philosophical-Concept - [[Civil Society]] — adjacent foundational political-philosophical-Concept - [[On Liberty]] — the principal foundational classical-liberal source (Mill) - [[Two Treatises of Government]] — the principal foundational classical-liberal source (Locke) - [[A Theory of Justice]] — the principal foundational social-liberal source (Rawls) - [[Why Liberalism Failed]] — the principal contemporary right-coded post-liberal critique (Deneen) - [[Catholic Post-Liberalism]] — the principal contemporary right-coded post-liberal political-philosophical-tradition - [[Integralism]] — adjacent contemporary right-coded post-liberal political-philosophical-tradition - [[National Conservatism]] — adjacent contemporary right-coded post-liberal political-philosophical-tradition