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How do you define "liberal"? Per my understanding, the United States and liberalism are almost synonymous. The US is basically the representative of liberalism
by Connor_Creegan 4y ago
How do you define "liberal"? Per my understanding, the United States and liberalism are almost synonymous. The US is basically the representative of liberalism on the world stage, at least that's how most of the world tends to think of us.
- seba_dos1 4y agoEconomically? Perhaps. Socially? You could only say that if you're cruelly joking.
- Connor_Creegan 4y agoThe two might be conceptually-separable but they tend to go hand in hand in practice. Although maybe you have some different things in mind by "socially liberal" than I do. When I think "liberal" I think the liberal vein of natural rights philosophy - Locke, Hobbes, Rousseau, Jefferson, et cetera - which implies a kind of unique anthropology in which man is no longer axiomatically communal, but first and foremost an individual without a common final end with his fellow man. This is the philosophical basis for both "economic" and "social" liberalism.
- jfengel 4y agoThe US uses "liberal" to mean "progressive". In most of the world, "liberal" means something closer to "libertarian". It generally implies an interest in laissez-faire capitalism.