ABSTRACT
Europe today represents a triumph for the ideology known as classical liberalism, which is a blend of ideas from the British parliamentary tradition, the Enlightenment, the American and French Revolutions, and free-market economics, a.k.a. capitalism. Liberals have battled for centuries in Europe to create political systems and societies based on representative government, free speech, freedom of religion, and private enterprise. Europe today is arguably more united, prosperous, and peaceful than it has ever been in its history, and there is widespread agreement in all European countries that every citizen is entitled to enjoy political, economic, and religious freedom. Since the end of the Cold War in 1989, these ideas have become as much a part of life in Eastern Europe as they are in the West. Given the utter devastation that covered Europe in 1945, and the oppression that shrouded Eastern Europe for 40 additional years, these achievements are more than remarkable—they are nearly miraculous.
