Liberal Conservatism
Liberal conservatism combines a liberal economy, with free enterprise, open trade and the rule of law, with a conservative respect for established institutions and gradual change. It is the mainstream position of many centre-right parties.
- Free markets and private enterprise are the basis of prosperity.
- Established institutions embody accumulated wisdom and should be reformed cautiously.
- Personal freedom is valued, within a stable social order.
Edmund Burke combined a defence of tradition with support for free trade in the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century Robert Peel and later Conservative leaders in Britain combined free trade with institutional continuity. Most post-war European centre-right parties, from the British Conservatives to the Scandinavian moderate parties, belong to this tradition.
Traditionalists see it as conceding too much to markets and social change. The left argues that its caution protects existing inequalities.
Countries and historical regimes whose 12-axis profile is closer to Liberal Conservatism than to any other ideology in the test.
Countries today
- Argentina86%
Liberal Conservatism is also the second-closest ideology for: Denmark.
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.