ABSTRACT
The distinctive characteristic of the Liberal-Democratic mind was a remarkably persistent view of the nature of politics and the economy. Drawn from many sources, it came most of all from the works of three eighteenth-century figures: Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, and Thomas Jefferson. Of these men, Adam Smith had the widest influence on the Liberal-Democratic mind. The fundamental problem that Smith dealt with in The Wealth of Nations was the sweeping transformation then taking place in the age-old character of the British economy and in British life. An economy grounded on natural facts, Smith considered, would first take in view the fundamental nature of mankind. A dynamic economy would appear, an economy in which wealth would be created, not just hoarded. Based primarily upon a free market and the progressive division of labor, the economy would steadily progress toward opulence, an opulence which all would equitably share.
