ABSTRACT
The description of values as ‘liberal’ means many different things. In academic writing, ‘liberal’ thought is principally associated with an individualist, laissez-faire approach. A ‘liberal’ education is one that promotes independence and opportunity. The ‘liberal professions’ are professions that are independent – motivated by moral codes and responsibility rather than financial incentives. ‘Liberal democracy’ is based in the rights of individual citizens, and the protection of minorities. ‘Liberal’ provision is open and generous: in the United States, ‘liberal’ politics is left wing, and associated with a commitment to extensive social responsibility. The different uses of the term are linked through a family resemblance – a constellation of
inter-connected ideas. Liberal individualism developed as a critique of traditional views of status and duty, usually characterised in terms of ‘feudalism’. Politically, individualism was used to emphasise political and civil rights, the equality of persons and the case for social mobility – the ‘career open to the talents’. Economically, liberalism was associated with individual choice, property rights, and the economics of the market. Those values were initially a challenge to the established order, but they have also come over time to represent a conservative defence of property interests. In the process, liberalism has come to represent not a uniform doctrine, but a complex and sometimes contradictory cluster of concepts.
