Portal:Liberalism

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Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, right to private property, and equality before the law. Different liberals espouse various and sometimes conflicting views depending on their understanding of these principles but generally support liberal democracy, private property, market economies, individual rights (including civil rights and human rights), secularism, rule of law, economic and political freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion. Liberalism is frequently cited as the dominant ideology of modern history.

Liberalism became a distinct movement in the Age of Enlightenment, gaining popularity among Western philosophers and economists. Liberalism sought to replace the norms of hereditary privilege, state religion, absolute monarchy, the divine right of kings and traditional conservatism with representative democracy, rule of law, and equality under the law. Liberals also ended mercantilist policies, royal monopolies, and other trade barriers, instead promoting free trade and marketization. The philosopher John Locke is often credited with founding liberalism as a distinct tradition based on the social contract, arguing that each man has a natural right to life, liberty and property, and governments must not violate these rights. While the British liberal tradition emphasized expanding democracy, French liberalism emphasized rejecting authoritarianism and is linked to nation-building. (Full article...)

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The Awakening: "Votes for Women" in 1915 Puck magazine

The Progressive Era (1890s–1920s) was a period in the United States characterized by multiple social and political reform efforts. Reformers during this era, known as Progressives, sought to address issues they associated with rapid industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and political corruption, as well as the loss of competition in the market due to trusts and monopolies, and the great concentration of wealth and political power among a very few individuals. Reformers expressed concern about slums, poverty, and labor conditions. Multiple overlapping movements pursued social, political, and economic reforms by advocating changes in governance, scientific methods, and professionalism; regulating business; protecting the natural environment; and seeking to improve urban living and working conditions.

Corrupt and undemocratic political machines and their oligarch bosses were a major target of progressive reformers. To revitalize democracy, progressives established direct primary elections, direct election of senators (rather than by state legislatures), initiatives and referendums, and women's suffrage (which was promoted to advance democracy and bring the presumed moral influence of women into politics). For many progressives, prohibition of alcoholic beverages was key to eliminating corruption in politics as well as improving social conditions. (Full article...)

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Norberto Bobbio (Italian: [norˈbɛrto ˈbɔbbjo]; 18 October 1909 – 9 January 2004) was an Italian philosopher of law and political sciences and a historian of political thought. He also wrote regularly for the Turin-based daily La Stampa. Bobbio was a social liberal in the tradition of Piero Gobetti, Carlo Rosselli, Guido Calogero, and Aldo Capitini. He was also strongly influenced by Hans Kelsen and Vilfredo Pareto. He was considered one of the greatest Italian intellectuals of the 20th century. (Full article...)

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General images

The following are images from various liberalism-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Pamphlet calling for a protest of economic policy in 1983 following the economic crisis (from Neoliberalism)
Image 2T. 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 (from Liberalism)
Image 3Execution of José María de Torrijos y Uriarte and his men in 1831 as Spanish King Ferdinand VII took repressive measures against the liberal forces in his country (from Liberalism)
Image 4The European Union–Mercosur free trade agreement, which would form one of the world's largest free trade areas, has been denounced by environmental activists and indigenous rights campaigners. (from Neoliberalism)
Image 5The iconic painting Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix, a tableau of the July Revolution in 1830 (from Liberalism)
Image 6Montesquieu, who argued for the separation of the powers of government (from Liberalism)
Image 7Friedrich Hayek (from Neoliberalism)
Image 8The US federal minimum wage if it had kept pace with productivity compared to the actual wage (from Neoliberalism)
Image 9John Locke was the first to develop a liberal philosophy, including the right to private property and the consent of the governed. (from Liberalism)
Image 10As a liberal nationalist, K. J. Ståhlberg (1865–1952), the President of Finland, anchored the state in liberal democracy, guarded the fragile germ of the rule of law, and embarked on internal reforms. (from Liberalism)
Image 11Franklin D. Roosevelt (from Liberalism)
Image 12Gustave de Molinari (from Liberalism)
Image 13United States incarceration rate per 100,000 population, 1925–2014 (from Neoliberalism)
Image 14Benjamin Constant, a Franco-Swiss political activist and theorist (from Liberalism)
Image 15Member nations of the International Monetary Fund (from Neoliberalism)
Image 16Monument to the liberals of the 19th century in Agra del Orzán neighborhood, La Coruña, Galicia (Spain) (from Liberalism)
Image 17Ronald Reagan (left) and Margaret Thatcher (right) were responsible for the popularisation of Neoliberalism. (from Neoliberalism)
Image 18Raif Badawi, a Saudi Arabian writer and the creator of the website Free Saudi Liberals, who was sentenced to ten years in prison and 1,000 lashes for "insulting Islam" in 2014 (from Liberalism)
Image 19John Stuart Mill, whose On Liberty greatly influenced 19th-century liberalism (from Liberalism)
Image 20Wealth inequality in the United States increased from 1989 to 2013. (from Neoliberalism)
Image 21Julius Faucher (from Liberalism)
Image 22Madame de Staël (from Liberalism)
Image 23GDP per capita in Chile and Latin America 1950–2010 (time under Pinochet highlighted) (from Neoliberalism)
Image 24Per capita income during the Great Depression (from Neoliberalism)
Image 25U.S. President Bush, Canadian PM Mulroney, and Mexican President Salinas participate in the ceremonies to sign the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). (from Neoliberalism)
Image 26Sismondi, who wrote the first critique of the free market from a liberal perspective in 1819 (from Liberalism)
Image 27The 2017–2018 Russian protests were organized by Russia's liberal opposition. (from Liberalism)
Image 28Mary Wollstonecraft, widely regarded as the pioneer of liberal feminism (from Liberalism)
Image 29Chilean (orange) and average Latin American (blue) rates of growth of GDP (1971–2007) (from Neoliberalism)
Image 30Ludwig Erhard (from Neoliberalism)
Image 31John Maynard Keynes, one of the most influential economists of modern times and whose ideas, which are still widely felt, formalized modern liberal economic policy (from Liberalism)
Image 32John Milton's Areopagitica (1644) argued for the importance of freedom of speech. (from Liberalism)
Image 33Builders in West Berlin, 1952 (from Neoliberalism)
Image 34The Great Depression, with its periods of worldwide economic hardship, formed the backdrop against which the Keynesian Revolution took place (the image is Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother depiction of destitute pea-pickers in California, taken in March 1936). (from Liberalism)
Image 35Unemployment in Chile and South America (1980–1990) (from Neoliberalism)

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