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Modern liberalism, often referred to simply as liberalism, is the dominant version of liberalism in the United States. It combines ideas of civil liberty and equality with support for social justice and a mixed economy. Modern liberalism is one of two major political ideologies in the United States, with the other being conservatism.
According to James Reichley, liberalism took on its current meaning in the United States during the 1920s. In the 19th century and the early 20th century, the term had usually described classical liberalism, which emphasizes limited government, religious freedom, and support for the free market.
Classical liberalism, contrary to progressive branches like social liberalism, looks more negatively on social policies, taxation and the state involvement in the lives of individuals, and it advocates deregulation. [2] Until the Great Depression and the rise of social liberalism, classical liberalism was called economic liberalism.
[33] This variety of liberalism is also known as modern liberalism to distinguish it from classical liberalism, which evolved into modern conservatism. In the United States, the two forms of liberalism comprise the two main poles of American politics, in the forms of modern American liberalism and modern American conservatism. [34]
Modern American liberalism includes social liberalism and progressivism, developing during the Progressive Era and the Great Depression. Besides conservatism and liberalism, the United States has a notable libertarian movement, developing during the mid-20th century as a revival of classical liberalism.
Liberalism can mean different things in different contexts, being sometimes on the left (social liberalism) and other times on the right (conservative liberalism or classical liberalism). Those with an intermediate outlook are sometimes classified as centrists.
Later waves of modern liberal thought and struggle were strongly influenced by the need to expand civil rights. [4] Liberals have advocated for gender equality, marriage equality and racial equality and a global social movement for civil rights in the 20th century achieved several objectives towards those goals.
Liberalism in Europe is broadly divided into two groups: "social" (or "left-") and "conservative" (or "right-"). [1] This differs from the American method of dividing liberalism into "modern" (simply liberal) and "classical" (or libertarian, albeit there is some disagreement), although the two groups are very similar to their European counterparts.