That school of capitalist philosophy which attempts to correct the injustices of capitalism by adding new laws to existing laws. Each time conservatives pass a law creating privilege, liberals pass another law modifying privilege, leading conservatives to pass a more subtle law recreating privilege, etc., until "everything not forbidden is compulsory" and "everything not compulsory is forbidden."
[celine]
Left-Liberals prefer self-government in personal matters and central decision-making on economics. They want government to serve the disadvantaged in the name of fairness. Leftists tolerate social diversity, but work for economic equality.
World's Smallest Political Quiz
[quiz]
[Contrast with CLASSICAl LIBERALISM.] [Compare to FABIAN SOCIALISM.]
[bk]
To lay a ghost at the outset and to dismiss semantics, a liberal is here defined as one who believes in utilizing the full force of government for the advancement of social, political, and economic justice at the municipal, state, national, and international levels.... A liberal believes government is a proper tool to use in the development of a society which attempts to carry Christian principles of conduct into practical effect.
Former US Senator Joseph S. Clark, Jr., when he was Mayor of Philadelphia, Atlantic, July 1953
[clark]
Most on the left think of themselves, and probably sincerely, as "democratic socialists," as believers in a blend of socialism. with democracy and freedom of speech and opinion. Libertarians hold that vision to be self-contradictory, and democracy, freedom of speech, and socialism to be ultimately incompatible.
Murray Rothbard, "Where the Left Goes Wrong on Foreign Policy"
[rothbard]
This is perhaps the most ambiguous word in the political vocabulary.
[...]
American liberals are not hostile to the market and individualism; it is rather that they demand constant corrections of its apparently random processes by a benevolent state if the traditional value of freedom can be realized.
[...]
European liberalism is perhaps better known as classical liberalism.
[...]
The basic tenets of liberalism were formulated in this period [in eighteenth-century Europe]. They may be summarized as follows. The individual is the source of his own moral values; the process of trade and exchange between individuals has both efficiency and freedom-enhancing properties; the market is a spontaneous order for the allocation of resources; exchange between nations will not only maximize wealth through the international division of labour, but also tends to reduce war and political tension; and public policy should be limited to the few common concerns of individuals.
[krauth]
As the word liberty is ambiguous, however, so is the word liberal. A liberal may believe that freedom is a matter for the individual alone and that the role of the state should be minimal, or he may believe that freedom is a matter for the state and that the state can and should be used as an instrument to promote it. The former view in its extreme tends toward anarchism, while the latter in its extreme tends toward socialism, called social, or welfare, liberalism. In between are myriad gradations. Rarely has a liberal movement been unaffected by this ambiguity; some have even collapsed because of it.
The Greek Catalog - History Directory
[omhros]
One of the effective tactics of creeping socialism, especially in America, has been the annexation of words with favorable connotations. The best example is the word 'liberal'. In the nineteenth century, a liberal supported laissez-faire economic policy, free trade, broadly based democracy, and civil liberties. The word had strong positive connotations; even today, while 'conservative' is sometimes used favorably, 'illiberal' is always pejorative. The socialists opposed liberal economic policies. The more successful socialists, instead of saything that liberalism was bad and socialism good, called themselves liberals (or progressives, another "good" word) and their opponents conservatives.
David Friedman, The Machinery of Freedom
[friedman]
The Old Left, flourishing in the United States in the 1930's and 40's, may best be summed up as Social Democracy... Essentially what this means is an accommodation to and admiration for the State, and a willingness to settle down in cozy alliance with Big Business and other power groups to parcel out perquisites and privileges in the mixed economy of welfare-warfare State Monopoly Capitalism.
Murray Rothbard, "Liberty and the New Left" (PDF)
[rothbard]