When ‘Liberal’ Was Lost
We find ourselves using the term “classical liberal,” to distinguish from what is now understood as “liberal.”
“Classical liberalism” is the term used to designate the ideology advocating private property, an unhampered market economy, the rule of law, constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion and of the press, and international peace based on free trade. Up until around 1900, this ideology was generally known simply as liberalism.
Doesn’t sound too bad. What happened?
The qualifying “classical” is now usually necessary, in English-speaking countries at least (but not, for instance, in France),
With Milner as an ally, Lloyd George set out on the transformation of the term “liberal”:
It was a sweeping, revolutionary change in the way the country was governed. Arthur Balfour, the former Prime Minister who became Foreign Minister in the new government, remarked of Lloyd George at the time: “If he wants to be a dictator, let him be. If he thinks that he can win the war, I’m all for his having a try.”
Lloyd George was the last Prime Minister of the Liberal Party. Thereafter, the office alternated between “Conservative” and “Labour.”
And that’s what happened to the term “liberal.”
Reprinted with permission from Bionic Mosquito.
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