ABSTRACT
The terms "conservative" and "liberal" are both problematic. "Liberalism" is especially ambiguous. Modern liberalism stands in opposition to classical liberalism, but it must be further subdivided if we are to do justice to the question of economic ideals. From the time of the Great Keynesian liberalism, like classical liberalism, holds to the main tenets and techniques of neoclassical analysis, though the Keynesians have been freer with supplements. During the 1980s, early post-Keynesian liberalism mutated into "new liberalism." New liberalism insists that to revitalize our economy, to build a world-class economy, we must have a new vision and new policies. Modern liberalism, both the "standard" and "new" versions, will be analyzed in detail later, with John Rawls and Lester Thurow serving respectively as representatives. But the major portion of this work will involve a comparison of a form of socialism – what the author calls "Economic Democracy" – with classical liberalism's laissez-faire ideal.
