Classical Liberalism
Classical liberalism holds that government exists to protect individual rights, including life, liberty and property. It favours the rule of law, constitutional limits on power, free markets and free trade, and freedom of speech and religion.
- Individuals have rights that precede the state, and the state must be limited to protect them.
- Free markets and free trade generate prosperity through voluntary exchange.
- The rule of law and constitutional checks protect citizens from arbitrary power.
John Locke's Second Treatise of Government (1689) laid its foundations, and Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations (1776) its economics. It shaped the American and French revolutions and the free-trade movement led by Richard Cobden and John Bright. In the twentieth century Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman revived it.
Socialists and social liberals argue that formal freedoms mean little to people without resources. Conservatives argue that it neglects the community, tradition and morality that free societies depend on.
No country or historical regime in our data has Classical Liberalism as its closest ideology.
Classical Liberalism is also the second-closest ideology for: Dutch Republic, Switzerland.
Method: each ideology is placed at a typical position on the 12 axes, scored from 0 to 100 toward the first pole. Ranks compare it with the other 45 ideologies; matches are 100 minus the average distance across all axes. The positions are our own calibration, not taken from any third-party source.