Everything about Social Liberal totally explained
Social liberalism, also called
new liberalism (as it was originally termed),
radical liberalism,
modern liberalism, or in North America and the United Kingdom simply
liberalism, is a branch of
liberalism which contends that society must protect
liberty and opportunity for all citizens and that the state may have a role on this. For social liberals the lack of education, health or employment are seen as a big threat to freedom, as state compulsion and coercion. Like other liberals, social liberals support free markets, private entrepreneurship and a small state. Social liberals also support
civil rights,
human rights and
civil liberties, particularly in opposition to traditional values and beliefs.
Social liberals, therefore, support a mixed economy of mainly private enterprise with some state provided, guaranteed or regulated public services. For example, some social liberals defend obligatory universal health insurance, with the state paying a basic health insurance to the most poor of the society. Like all liberals, social liberals believe in individual freedom as a central concept. In the process, they expect legitimate governments to provide a basic level of welfare or workfare, health and education, supported by taxation, intending to secure economic opportunities for all, enable the best use of the talents of the population, prevent revolution, or simply for the perceived public good and accept some restrictions in economic affairs, such as
anti-trust laws to combat economic monopolies and regulatory bodies or minimum wage laws. Moreover, the accumulation of wealth by a small group is seen as the consolidation of power within a small faction of society and, therefore, seen as a threat to liberty.
Social liberalism versus classical liberalism
Classical liberalism believes that the provision of
negative freedom constitutes liberty and is therefore a strictly
laissez-faire philosophy. Social liberalism however sees a role for the State in providing
positive liberty for individuals. They believe that lack of positive rights, such as economic opportunity, education, health-care, and so on can be considered to be threats to liberty.
Social liberalism versus conservative liberalism
Both share the concern with the freedom of the individual, but while social liberalism is appropriate for describing some liberal parties that are left-of-centre on economic issues and support a broad interpretation of democratic rights,
Conservative liberalism emphasizes
economic freedom and tends to be right of centre. For example, Conservative liberal parties, such as the Dutch
People's Party for Freedom and Democracy and the German
Free Democratic Party adopt an economically conservative agenda, advocating a minimal role for the state in the economy.
Social liberalism versus neo-liberalism
Social liberalism (also known as New Liberalism) is very different from the ambiguous term
neoliberalism, a name given to various proponents of the
free markets and also to some
conservative opponents of free markets, such as mercantilistic conservatives, in the late 20th century's global economy. Neoliberalism has been used to describe the
liberal economic policies of
Ronald Reagan and
Margaret Thatcher. As a body of thought, neoliberalism advocates positions contrary to many of those taken by social liberals, especially with regard to the former's commitments to free trade and dismantling of government "social" programs.
Social liberalism versus social democracy
The basic ideological difference between social liberalism and
social democracy lies in the role of the State in relation to the individual.
Social liberals value liberty, rights and freedoms, and private property as fundamental to individual happiness, and regard democracy as an instrument to maintain a society where each individual enjoys the greatest amount of liberty possible (subject to the
Harm Principle). Hence, democracy and parliamentarianism are mere political systems which legitimize themselves only through the amount of liberty they promote, and are not valued
per se. While the State does have an important role in ensuring positive liberty, social liberals tend to trust that individuals are usually capable in deciding their own affairs, and generally don't need deliberate steering towards happiness.
Social democracy, on the other hand, has its roots in
socialism, and (especially in democratic socialist forms) typically favours a more community-based view. While social democrats also value individual liberty, they don't believe that real liberty can be achieved for the majority without transforming the nature of the State itself. Having rejected the revolutionary approach of
Marxism, and choosing to further their goals through the democratic process instead, social democrats nevertheless retain a strong skepticism for
capitalism, which they believe needs to be regulated (or at least "managed") for the greater good. This focus on the greater good may, potentially, make social democrats more ready to step in and steer society in a direction that's deemed to be more equitable.
In practice, however, the differences between the two may be harder to perceive. This is especially the case nowadays as many social democratic parties have shifted towards the centre and adopted one version of
Third Way politics or another.
United States
Modern liberalism in the United States is highly similar to the European definition of social liberalism. The agendas of European social liberals and modern American liberals tend to be almost identical, with both taking a distinctly left-of-center stance on social issues, whilst taking a more centrist stance on economic issues. Since the ideological center of the United States lies further to the right than that of Western Europe, policies considered centrist, or even right-wing, in Europe may be considered left-of-center in the U.S. Universal single-payer health care, for example, is considered a largely centrist policy in Europe but distinctly center-left in the U.S. Social democrats and socialists may also be labeled as "liberal" in the U.S. but constitute only a small minority of the American left. Liberals in the U.S. constitute roughly 19% to 26% of the population and form circa 46% of the
Democratic base.
Like European social liberals, most modern American liberals advocate
cultural pluralism, diplomacy over military action,
stem-cell research, the legalization of
same-sex marriage, secular government, stricter
gun control and environmental protection laws as well as the preservation of
abortion rights.
However, there are also some relevant differences. For example, American liberals tend to be rather divided on
free trade agreements and organizations such as
NAFTA., while the international social liberals are very strong supporters of
free trade . Also, while most liberals oppose increased military standing and the display of the Ten Commandments in public buildings, the Democratic party still has references to religion and God on its party documents, something that goes against the clearly anti-clerical stance of social liberal parties worldwide. We can also find differences regarding immigration and cultural diversity, which while deemed positive by social liberals worldwide, is handled in a different way by the American liberals with the so called positive discrimination, which would be considered anti-liberal by other social-liberal parties, as they'd consider it to be an effective form of discrimination.
Social liberalism in the U.S. is most commonly embraced by college-educated professionals who have shifted the focus of the Democratic Party. American liberals are the most highly educated and among the most affluent ideological demographics. They differ greatly from the traditional working class wing of party.
The key distinction between social liberalism in a European and American sense is mostly semantic. European social liberalism in the U.S. is simply referred to as liberalism. Social Democracy and Socialism, however, may also be referred to as liberalism since Americans commonly label all ideologies of the center-left and beyond as "liberal." The term "social liberalism" is used as a synonym for
social progressivism, an ideology that's often combined with social liberalism to form modern American liberalism.
Social liberal parties
Some parties which are arguably social liberal may include:
Views of social liberals today
In general, contemporary social liberals support:
An economy consisting mainly of private enterprise, but with government owned or subsidized programs of education, healthcare, child care etc for all citizens.
Regulatory bodies over private enterprise in the interests of workers, consumers and fair competition.
Free trade.Further reading on social liberalism
Further Information
Get more info on 'Social Liberal'.
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