ABSTRACT
The development of liberalism has its own complex history and evolution, made all the more complicated by the fact that the ideas change as the institutions do. The origins of liberalism can be discerned throughout Western Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Many within the libertarian wing of liberalism take John Stuart Mill's argument to mean that individual liberty requires that persons be "left alone," free to make their own way to the best of their abilities, with neither help nor interference from government. These libertarian positions remain key faiths of liberalism, but they have often conflicted with the arguments that the government and social groups have responsibilities to others that go beyond leaving them alone. Liberalism is neither a coherent ideology nor a systematic doctrine. Rather, it best resembles a constellation of ideals and values, not always consistent and often conflicting, anchored in a commitment to the protection of individuality and equality for all.
