Don’t be a pottymouth boy. There is no place for such in here. Keep that for your home.
Don’t be a patronising twat, and I’ll be nice to you. Also, since when was “pottymouth” normal vocabulary for a grown man? :lol:
As to the usage of the word “liberal” there are various levels. At the broadest level, we are all (with the possible exception of Erwin) living in what are generally called “Liberal Democratic” states. In this manner, the word “liberal” has a meaning much as you have described above, a society that is largely permissive, democratic, protects basic rights, etc. etc. Compared to other broad types of states such as Authoritarian or Totalitarian, Europe and North America are home to ‘liberal’ states.
Within “liberal democracies” the word liberal is used to describe parts of the political spectrum. In the US this seems to be used to describe those who are more of the opinion that “the state knows best”, agreed?
In Europe, the term ‘liberal’ is generally used to describe a philosphy of “We’ll leave it up to the individual to make up their own mind”. The notable exception to this is the “Liberal Democrat” party in the UK, who are fairly socialist in outlook.
The history of the use of the word liberal in the European context, in British Politics at least, dates back to the formation of our Parliamentary system, when we essentially had two opposing viewpoints, the “Liberal” party was one, which espoused what was known as the “nightwatchman” state; low taxes, and minimal intereference in domestic affairs; The Governments main concerns were judged to be Foreign Policy and Defence. This is the ‘Liberal tradition’ as it has existed here in Britain for several hundred years.
The Liberal Party in Britain merged with, I believe, the Social Democrats or somesuch some decades ago, as neither was in a particularly strong position electorally. This has resulted in the Liberal Democrats party, who are broadly similiar to the Democrats in the US, believing in high taxation and state legislation and decision making on many issues. “The state knows best”. They are, on the other hand, also firm espousers of moral foreign policy and environmentally friendly policies.
This is a corruption of the meaning of the phrase ‘liberal’ in politics for most of the last 200-300 years here, which has always meant precisely the opposite. If you think about the word itself, Liberal, liberate, liberty, etc. using the word liberal to describe a political philosophy would only make sense if the philosphy was one which allowed people maximum freedom and minimal state interference.
As to the US, from an outsiders perspective, it seems that the Republicans are the more “liberal” party, IN THE CLASSICAL SENSE OF THE WORD, as they seem to subscribe to low taxation and minimal Government control of the economy, industry etc. The Democrats seem to be the more socialist (I’m not saying that they are socialist, only more so than the Republicans) party, who espouse greater state intervention, higher taxation, etc.
As to Libertarian, this term is understood here to be a US term for “classicaly liberal”, is this not the case then?