Types of liberalism

I'm getting very confused about the different types or strands of liberalism, and what they are called. I'm going to list all the types of liberalism that are in my notes and various revision guides that I think I need to know for the exam, and can someone please tell me if these are all different types of liberalism, and that I am not confusing names etc.

Classical liberalism
New liberalism
Modern liberalism
Contemporary liberalism
Social liberalism
Old liberalism
Neo-liberalism
Utilitarianism
Social darwinism and libertarianism

I'm revising for AQA Unit 4 btw. Thank you!

Reply 1

bishbash72

stranger101

From my understanding:

Classical liberalism - Limited govt in the economy and social sphere
New liberalism - Synonym for Social liberalism
Modern liberalism - As above
Contemporary liberalism - As above
Social liberalism - Either the application of liberal beliefs to the social sphere OR an ideology that combines this with moderate left-wing policies like taxpayer funded healthcare
Old liberalism - Classical liberalism
Neo-liberalism - Belief in the free market, more prevelant in the 80s and 90s
Utilitarianism - 'The greatest happiness for the greatest number'
Social darwinism and libertarianism - Libertarianism is extreme classical liberalism, arguing for a very limited state, usually just to provide police forces, a legal system and a military. A 'night watchman' state.
Social darwinism - A nazi belief, that stronger races should destroy the weak. Very opposed to liberalism.

Reply 2

Amy***

Classical liberalism = laissez faire in the C19th - the ideas of Adam Smith about the self-regulating market and of Locke about the 'nightwatchman state'.

New Liberalism = the Liberal govt of 1906 - 1915. Brought in welfare reforms in order to alleviate the problems of the poorest in society.

Modern Liberalism = That could mean many things

Contemporarry Liberalism = I take it that means liberalism TODAY

Social liberalism = the ideas of Beveridge and others who have expressed concern for the poor as well as support for welfare, NHS and free education etc. Draws heavily upon social democracy but has an individidualist as opposed to collectivist outlook.

Old liberalism = ?

Neo-liberalism = refers to the rebirth of classical liberal economics in the 1970s onwards. Often even more extreme than the ideas of Adam Smith i.e. belief that public goods can be provided by the market

Utilitarianism = philosophy of classical liberal Jeremy Bentham i.e. his belief that unregulated free market will provide 'the greatest good for the greatest number'.

Social darwinism = Part of classical liberal ideology. Belief that the poor people are only poor because they are lazy.

libertarianism = opposite to authoritarianism. Often used to refer to those who support free-market economics

These should be about accurate. But I do edexcel and took my exam on this in january so its all pretty much gone out of my head!

Reply 3

stranger101

Ok thank you for help!

So if I was writing revision notes, would I class all of these types of liberalism as different, or could I group them together in terms of being fairly similar.
For example:

*Old Liberal ideas:
-Classical liberalism
-Utilitarianism
-Neo-liberalism
-Social Darwinism
-Libertarianism
(Basis/inspiration of Modern Liberalism, no longer in mainstream use)

*Modern Liberal ideas i.e. Social Liberalism
(In mainstream use today by Lib Dems etc.)

Apologies if the questions seem a bit stupid, I'm just finding it difficult to get my head around how I would go about tacking this whole topic in terms of revision. Thanks again!

Reply 4

Amy***

Well the starkest difference is between classical/neo-liberalism and new/modern/social liberalism.

And yes i'd group those things together. Especially as social darwinism and utilitarianism are really only PARTS of classical liberal ideology. But note the timeframes i.e. neoliberalism is similar in ideas to classical liberalism but over 100 years appart.

I think its hard to say that the lib dems are social liberals because they have had to adapt to the neo-liberal revolution...

Types of liberalism

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