What is Liberalism?

And how is it different from Socialism or Conservatism?

Ideology > Ideas > Policies > Laws

Liberalism, Socialism and Conservatism are three political ideologies. Roughly speaking, an ideology is a way of looking at the world.

The principal purpose of Liberalism is reform. Liberals see the world through the prism of the individual and say that everyone is unique yet equal under the eyes of the law. Liberals believe that true liberty is the freedom to define who you are as a person. Placing the individual at the centre of things isn’t an endorsement of mindless individualism - citizens have responsibilities to themselves as well as to others. Liberalism says that overly concentrated power is unhealthy, which is why Liberals call for the decentralisation of politics through devolution, citizen assemblies and strengthening local government. In summary, the key components of Liberalism are reason; pluralism; the rule of law and international cooperation.

Socialism sees the world through the prism of class. It’s derived from Karl Marx’s theory of class struggle: the battle between the owners of capital (19th century landowners) and ordinary workers. Marx categorised anyone was earning a salary for a living as “working class”, a definition that is totally meaningless in today’s world because it categorises professional footballers alongside supermarket workers. Socialists say that they wish to reform the perceived injustice of capital v workers but their solution is to transfer power from one group of people to another. Rather than dispersing power broadly they would flip the power vertical and put the oppressed in charge of the oppressors, which inevitably leads to tension, violence and an over-bearing, overly intrusive state. Socialism is an attack on individual freedom: it labels people against their will, but not everyone wants to be labelled as working class, let alone want the same thing as every other “working class” person, so socialism fails because it depends on, but does not get, class consciousness.

The principal purpose of Conservatism is to block reform and consolidate power. This explains why whenever the Conservative party comes to power it attacks other power structures: Trade Unions, Local Government, the European Union, the Constitution, other political parties…Conservatism is a defensive political ideology that wishes to defend tradition, precedent and the established order.

The Lib Dems are reformers, the descendants of the old Liberal party: Britain’s dominant political party of the 19th century. Reform is what Liberals have always done and what we will always do:

Liberals don’t work for any particular section of society or block of voters, Liberals confront injustice wherever they see it:

In the 19th century, the Liberals introduced the secret ballot, expanded the suffrage so that (almost) all men could vote, abolished tariffs, introduced compulsory primary education and separated the church from the state.

In the 20th century, the Liberals introduced the first welfare reforms, including setting up the first state pension and passed the legislation for women’s suffrage. Even though the Liberal party fell apart after World War One and never formed a government again, Liberal thinkers like Keynes, Beveridge and Roy Jenkins (as a Labour Home Secretary) helped to introduce some of the most progressive reforms of the century; designing the NHS, abolishing the death penalty and decriminalising homosexuality.

In the 21st century, the Lib Dems returned to government for the first time in nearly a century. During the coalition, the Lib Dems introduced shared parental leave, the right to same sex marriage, the first green investment bank, the plastic bag tax, auto enrolment for pensions, set up an industrial strategy to restore prosperity to the regions and lifted 3 million people out of paying income tax by increasing the earnings threshold for income tax payments.

While there is still injustice in British society there will always be a need for the Liberal Democrats.

Which injustice do you want us to address next?

A political system that doesn’t deliver on the premise of every person having an equal say in how the country is run?

An education system that entrenches social inequality and contributes to us having the lowest level of social mobility in the OECD?

A healthcare system that can mean your postcode is the determines whether or not you will access treatment that can be the difference between life or death?

Liberals reform things. It’s just what we do.