ABSTRACT
In chapter 1, we outlined the essential elements of the liberal perspective and presented a classical liberal, or libertarian, variant of this perspective. We also indicated some of the key differences between the classical and contemporary approaches to liberalism. Two sets of considerations move contemporary liberals (social democrats) away from the classical liberal position toward one advocating additional roles for government and, therefore, public planning. The first is a substantive concern for autonomy and equality of condition; the second is to provide an institutional framework or structure-political, legal, or economic-that satisfies a procedural concern for full, free, uncoerced, undistorted communication in democratic public decision making.
