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    Social Liberalism (SocLib) also called Left-Liberalism (LeftLib), Modern Liberalism (ModLib), Welfare Liberalism (WelLib) and New Liberalism (NewLib) is an economically center to center-left, civically liberal, culturally progressive political ideology which combines elements of Lib.png liberal democracy and Regulationism.png economic interventionism in the name of "ensuring economic justice as well as civil liberty". Social Liberals view the common good as harmonious with individual freedom. Much of Social Liberalism's success is because its policies have gained broad support across the political spectrum because of its Left Reformism.png reform-minded policies that address societal problems without overhauling the Cap.png capitalist economic system. As economic circumstances became direr in places, many were more willing to accept social liberalism since it seemed to be less radical and evil than ML.png other forms of a left-wing government. Because of this, Social liberalism has been characterized by cooperation between Cap.png businesses, Regulationism.png government and SyndieSam.png labor unions. Social liberals overlap with Socdem.png social democrats in accepting Regulationism.png economic intervention more than other liberals, although its importance is considered auxiliary compared to Socdem.pngsocial democrats. Addressing economic and social issues such as poverty, welfare, infrastructure, health care, education, and the climate using government intervention while emphasizing Indiv.png individual rights and autonomy are expectations under a social liberal government. Many governments throughout the modern world have successfully adopted social liberal policies, and is now the dominant form of liberalism in North America, where it's often referred to as simply 'liberalism'.

    Variants

    FDRismF.png New Deal Liberalism

    New Deal Liberalism is a form of social liberalism that is CLeft.png economically center-left. This differs from modern social liberalism which is associated with Cright.png center-right third-way neoliberalism, in that it sticks true to its center-left economic policies. This can be seen under FDR's "New Deal" during the great recession. It is also Cultcenter.png culturally ambiguous, as opposed to the Prgess.png culturally left social policies of modern social liberal parties.

    LibSocAuth.png Liberal Social Authoritarianism

    Liberal Social Authoritarianism is a variant of social liberalism that incorporates authoritarian democracy into it. Were the political power of the president or any other important governing figure is significantly increased and political freedoms are weakened as a result for reasons that depend on the situation. This can be seen with FDR during WW2.

    History

    Heavily inspired by his father Radlib.png Radicalism, Soclib.png SocLib began to take his first steps in the late 19th century as Welf.png welfare states around the world started to grow. But it didn't become a more fully developed ideology until the post-war period when numerous Western democracies throughout the world began to implement social liberal policies in the aftermath of World War II.

    Cball-UK.png United Kingdom

    Social Liberalism started in the Cball-UK.png United Kingdom at the end of the 19th century as a trend within the Liberal Party that moved away from Lfree.png laissez-faire economics, accepting certain market regulations, and moved more towards a social welfare system and from the more traditional Clib.png classical liberal deontological view of morality to a more utilitarian view of morality based on the philosophy of Jeremy Bentham.

    The most influential figure behind the move toward this kind of liberalism is the English philosopher Mill.pngJohn Stuart Mill, who believed in certainly free markets along with welfare systems to assure equal opportunities.

    The New Liberals

    In the late 19th century and early 20th century, a group called the New Liberals began to argue against the laissez-faire economic system of Clib.png classical liberalism and argued in favor of Regulationism.png state interventionism in the economy as a way to ensure individual liberty would be secured under favorable social and economic circumstances.

    The Lib.png Liberal Party, one of the two major political parties in the UK during the 19th and early 20th century, established the foundations of the welfare state in the United Kingdom before World War I. These liberal welfare reforms included progressive taxation, pensions for poor elderly people, and the National Insurance Act of 1911 which established health, sickness and unemployment insurance. At this time, Corp.png big business owners, who regularly opposed these reforms, started to leave the Lib.png Liberal Party to join the Con-t.png Conservative Party. The welfare state in the United Kingdom became more robust after World War II, mainly due to the efforts of the UKLab.png Labour Party, and was heavily inspired by the economics of Keynes.png John Maynard Keynes and the welfare system of WelfLib.png William Beveridge.

    In the modern-day United Kingdom, Social Liberalism is most prominently represented by the Demlib.png Liberal Democrats and has had a strong influence on the UKLab.png Labour Party.

    Cball-Germany.png Germany

    In the 1860s, some Leftliberalism-icon.png left-liberal politicians in Cball-Germany.png Germany started to establish trade unions to improve working conditions through cooperation between employees and employers. By the 1870s, some liberal economists were promoting social reform that rejected classical economics and supported an alternative to Clib.png classical liberalism and Soc.png Socialist Revolution.

    In the 19th century, the German Leftliberalism-icon.png left-liberal movement began to fragment into new parties including the Lib.png German Progress Party. The main objectives of these parties were free speech, freedom of assembly, representative government, and protection of private property but they were opposed to the creation of a Welf.png welfare state which they called Statesoc.png state socialism.

    The Protestant pastor Friedrich Naumann founded the National-Social Association Party in 1896 which proposed a mix of Nation.png nationalism, Christsoc.png christian socialism, and social liberalism. He attempted to use this party to draw workers away from Ormarxf.png Marxism but it only lasted for roughly seven years and was unable to win any seats.

    In the Weimar Republic, the Lib.png German Democratic Party was founded in 1918. It had both a social-liberal and Clib.png classical liberal wing. It heavily favored Republicanismpix.png republicanism over Monarch.png monarchism. Its ideas consisted of a socially balanced economy with solidarity, duty and rights among all workers, but it struggled due to the economic sanctions of the Treaty of Versailles.

    In 1932, the economist Orlib.png Alexander Rüstow called his version of social liberalism Neoliberal-icon.png Neoliberalism, although that term now carries a meaning different from the one proposed by Rüstow. His form of liberalism provided an alternative to Soc.png socialism and to the Clib.png classical liberal economics developed in the German Empire. In 1938, Orlib.png Alexander Rüstow attended the Colloque Walter Lippmann conference. There, Rüstow advocated a strong state to enforce free markets and state intervention to correct market failures.

    Following World War II, Rüstow's neoliberalism, now usually called Orlib.png ordoliberalism or the Soccap.png social market economy, was adopted by the West German government under Cdem.png Ludwig Erhard, who was the Minister of Economics and later became Chancellor. Price controls were lifted and free markets were introduced. While these policies are credited with Germany's post-war economic recovery, the welfare state—which had been established under Bism.png Bismarck—became increasingly costly.

    After 1945, the Lib.png Free Democrats included most of the social liberals while others joined the Cdem.png Christian Democratic Union of Germany. Until the 1960s, post-war Orlib.png ordoliberalism was the model for Germany. It had the theoretical influence of social liberalism based on duty and rights. As the Lib.png Free Democrats discarded social liberal ideas in favor of more Conservative.png conservative and Clib.png economical liberal approach in 1982, some members left the party and formed the social liberal Soclib.png Liberal Democrats.

    Cball-US.png United States

    American political discourse resisted this social turn in European Lib.png liberalism. In the United States, the term social liberalism was used to differentiate it from Clib.png classical liberalism or Lfree.png laissez-faire, which dominated political and economic thought for several years until the term branched off from it around the Great Depression and the FDRismF.png New Deal. The New Deal included building infrastructures such as roads, water dams, bridges, and highways, increasing the influence of union organizations, increasing wages, increasing workers' rights by giving them the right to bargain, set a maximum work hour and establishing a federal minimum wage, banning child labor, public work programs, and social insurance such as Medicare and Social Security. The program was able to get the US out of the Great Depression and economically prepared for the World War II against the Axis Power.

    In the 1870s and the 1880s, the American economists Richard Ely, John Bates Clark and Henry Carter Adams—influenced both by Soc.png socialism and the Evangelical Protestant movement—castigated the conditions caused by industrial factories and expressed sympathy towards labor unions. However, none developed a systematic political philosophy and they later abandoned their flirtations with Soc.png socialist thinking. In 1883, Lester Frank Ward published the two-volume Dynamic Sociology and formalized the basic tenets of social liberalism while at the same time attacking the Lfree.png laissez-faire policies advocated by Darwinist.png Herbert Spencer and Clib.png William Graham Sumner. The historian Lib.png Henry Steele Commager ranked Ward alongside William James, John Dewey and Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. and called him the father of the modern Welf.png welfare state. Writing from 1884 until the 1930s, John Dewey—an educator influenced by Lib.png Hobhouse, Green and Ward—advocated Soc.png socialist methods to achieve Lib.png liberal goals. Some social liberal ideas were later incorporated into the FDRismF.png New Deal, which developed as a response to the Great Depression when FDRism-alt.png Franklin D. Roosevelt came into office.

    While the economic policies of the FDRismF.png New Deal appeared Keynes.png Keynesian to pursue full employment and the increase of consumer expenditures, which helped America to get out of the Great Depression. However, there was no revision of Lib.png liberal theory in favor of greater state initiative. Even though the United States lacked an effective Soc.png socialist movement, FDRismF.png New Deal policies often appeared radical and were attacked by the Conserv.png right. The separate development of ModernLib.png modern liberalism in the United States is often attributed to GWB.png American exceptionalism, which kept mainstream American ideology within a narrow range.

    FDR giving a speech to Congress regarding the new deal.

    Lib.png John Rawls' principal work A Theory of Justice (1971) can be considered a flagship exposition of social liberal thinking, advocating the combination of Indiv.png individual freedom and a Equality.png fairer distribution of resources. According to Rawls, every individual should be allowed to choose and pursue his or her own conception of what is desirable in life, while a socially just distribution of goods must be maintained. Rawls argued that differences in material wealth are tolerable if general economic growth and wealth also benefit the poorest. A Theory of Justice countered Utility.png utilitarian thinking in the tradition of Jeremy Bentham, instead of following the NeoEnl.png Kantian concept of a social contract, picturing society as a mutual agreement between rational citizens, producing rights and duties as well as establishing and defining roles and tasks of the state. Rawls put the equal liberty principle in the first place, providing every person with equal access to the same set of fundamental liberties, followed by the fair equality of opportunity and difference principle, thus allowing social and economic inequalities under the precondition that privileged positions are accessible to everyone, that everyone has equal opportunities and that even the least advantaged members of society benefit from this framework. This was later restated in the equation of Justice as Fairness. Rawls proposed these principles not just to adherents of Lib.png liberalism, but as a basis for all Dem.png democratic politics, regardless of ideology. The work advanced social liberal ideas immensely within the 1970s political and philosophic academia. Rawls may therefore be seen as a "patron saint" of social liberalism.

    Barack Obama, social liberal and 44th president of the United States.

    In recent US history, both former democratic President Obamium.png Barrack Obama and current democratic President Bidenism.png Joe Biden have incorporated social liberal principles and policies throughout their presidencies.

    Cball-France.png France

    Historically, Radlib.png Radicalism emerged in an early form with the FrenchRep.png French Revolution and the similar movements it inspired in other countries. It grew prominent during the 1830s in the Cball-UK.png United Kingdom with the Dem.png Chartists and Cball-Belgium.png Belgium with the Revolution of 1830, then across European Federalism.png Europe in the 1840s–1850s during the Revolutions of 1848. In contrast to the Conservative.png social conservatism of existing Lib.png liberal politics, Radlib.png radicalism sought political support for a radical reform of the electoral system to widen suffrage. It was also associated with Republicanismpix.png republicanism, Wikilib.png liberalism, Leftunity.png left-wing politics, Prgess.png modernism, Laicism.png Humanismpix.png secular humanism, Antiimp.png anti-imperialism, Civnat.png civic nationalism, abolition of Monarch.png titles, Rational.png rationalism and the resistance to a Catheo.png single established state religion, Equality.png redistribution of property and Mediastocracy flair.png freedom of the press.

    A photograph of French radical Georges Clemenceau.

    In 19th-century France, radicalism had emerged as a minor political force by the 1840s as the extreme left of the day, in contrast to the Trad.png socially-conservative liberalism of the Libconserv3.png Moderate Republicans and Conmon.png Orléanist monarchists and the anti-parliamentarianism of the Abmon.png Legitimist monarchists and Bonaparte.png Bonapartists. By the 1890s, the French radicals were not organized under a single nationwide structure, but rather they had become a significant political force in parliament. In 1901, they consolidated their efforts by forming the country's first major extra-parliamentary political party, the Republican, Radical and Liberalsoc.png Radical-Socialist Party which became the most important party of government during the second half (1899 to 1940) of the French Third Republic. The success of the French Radicals encouraged radicals elsewhere to organize themselves into formal parties in a range of other countries in the late 19th and early 20th century, with radicals holding significant political office in Cball-Bulgaria.png Bulgaria, Cball-Denmark.png Denmark, Cball-Germany.png Germany, Cball-Greece.png Greece, Cball-Ireland.png Ireland, Cball-Italy.png Italy, Cball-Netherlands.png the Netherlands, Cball-Portugal.png Portugal, Cball-Romania.png Romania, Cball-Russia.png Russia, Cball-Spain.png Spain, Cball-Sweden.png Sweden and Cball-Switzerland.png Switzerland. During the interwar period, European radical parties organized the Radical Entente, their own political international.

    As Socdem.png social democracy emerged as a distinct political force in its own right, the differences that once existed between historical left-wing radicalism and Libconserv3.png Liberal Conservatism diminished. Between 1940 and 1973, radicalism became defunct in most of its European heartlands, with its role and philosophy taken on by Socdem.png social-democratic and Conlib.png Conservative Liberal parties.

    ROT.png Turkey

    Kemal.png Kemalist Economic Model was designed by Ataturk.png Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Republic of Turkey. His economic model can be summarized as a "solidarist liberal economy". Atatürk put the principle of Statist.png "Statism" in his Six Arrows and explained this principle as follows:

    "State can't take the place of Indiv.png individuals, but, it must take into consideration the individuals to make them improve and develop themselves. Etatism includes the work that individuals won't do because they can't make Markets.png profit or the work which are necessary for Nation.png national interests. Just as it is the duty of the Statist.png state to protect the Liberty.png freedom and independence of the country and to regulate internal affairs, the state must take care of the education and health of its citizens. The state must take care of the roads, railways, telegraphs, telephones, animals of the country, all kinds of vehicles and the general wealth of the nation to protect the peace and security of the country. During the administration and protection of the country, the things we just counted are more important than cannons, rifles and all kinds of weapons. (...) Cap.png Private interests are generally the opposite of the Col.png general interests. Also, private interests are based on rivalries. But, you can't create a stable economy only with this. People who think like that are delusional and they will be a failure. (...) And, work of an individual must stay as the main basis of economic growth. Not preventing an individual's work and not obstructing the individual's freedom and enterprise with the state's own activities is the main basis of the principle of Dem.png democracy."

    A photo of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the "Father of the Turks."

    Moreover, Atatürk said this in his opening speech on November 1, 1937: "Unless there is an absolute necessity, the markets can't be intervened; also, no markets can be completely free."

    Also, he said that the principle of statism is a special economic system for Turkey, and said that it's different from Soc-h.png socialism, Commie.png communism and Col.png collectivism.

    As it's understood from his words, Atatürk's statism is a social liberal economic system.

    LibKemSmall.png Liberal Kemalism

    The Free Republican Party (sometimes referred to as the Liberal Republican Party; in Turkish: Serbest Cumhuriyet Fırkası) was a political party founded by Fethi Okyar upon President Kemal Atatürk's request in the early years of the Turkish Republic.

    Mustafa Kemal Atatürk requested that Okyar create it as an opposition party to confront the ruling Republican People's Party to establish the tradition of multi-party democracy in Turkey.

    In addition, this party defended the LibKemSmall.png Liberal Kemalist thought in line with Atatürk's wishes.

    However, the party was quickly embraced by the conservatives who saw it as an opportunity to reverse the reforms of Atatürk, particularly regarding secularism and was personally dissolved in November 1930 by Okyar who himself was an ardent supporter of the reforms.

    Cball-Greece.png Greece

    Venizelos.png Venizelism

    Flag of Venizelism

    Venizelism is a nationalist, culturally centrist and economically center-left ideology, based on the policies of Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos. It believes in larger welfare programmes, land reform and free education. It is also Republicanismpix.png Republican and believes in greater protection of the common people, but it is also very Irridentism.png irredentists and supports the Cball-Greece.png Megali idea, It can be considered also a left-wing variant of Nalib.png national liberalism.

    Beliefs and Ideas

    Consequentialism.png Consequentialism

    Consequentialism, as its name suggests, is simply the view that normative properties depend only on consequences. This historically important and still popular theory embodies the basic intuition that what is best or right is whatever makes the world best in the future, because we cannot change the past, so worrying about the past is no more useful than crying over spilt milk. This general approach can be applied at different levels to different normative properties of different kinds of things, but the most prominent example is probably consequentialism about the moral rightness of acts, which holds that whether an act is morally right depends only on the consequences of that act or of something related to that act, such as the motive behind the act or a general rule requiring acts of the same kind.

    Utility.png Utilitarianism

    Utilitarianism is a version of consequentialism, which states that the consequences of any action are the only standard of right and wrong. Unlike other forms of consequentialism, such as egoism and altruism, utilitarianism considers the interests of all humans equally. Proponents of utilitarianism have disagreed on several points, such as whether actions should be chosen based on their likely results (act utilitarianism), or whether agents should conform to rules that maximize utility (rule utilitarianism). There is also disagreement as to whether total (total utilitarianism), average (average utilitarianism) or minimum utility should be maximized.

    John Stuart Mill, a social liberal philosopher, author and social reformer.

    Mill.png Rule Utilitarianism

    Rule utilitarianism is a form of utilitarianism, created by Mill.png John Stuart Mill, that says an action is right as it conforms to a rule that leads to the greatest good, or that "the rightness or wrongness of a particular action is a function of the correctness of the rule of which it is an instance". Philosophers Richard Brandt and Brad Hooker are major proponents of such an approach.

    For rule utilitarians, the correctness of a rule is determined by the amount of good it brings about when followed. In contrast, act utilitarians judge an act in terms of the consequences of that act alone (such as stopping at a red light), rather than judging whether it faithfully adhered to the rule of which it was an instance (such as, "always stop at red lights"). Rule utilitarians argue that following rules that tend to lead to the greatest good will have better consequences overall than allowing exceptions to be made in individual instances, even if better consequences can be demonstrated in those instances.

    Economics

    SocLib believes in modestly regulated capitalism with a large social safety net in a similar vein to Socdem.png Social Democracy. In the Vein of Keynes.png Keynesianism, Social Liberals generally argue that aggregate demand is volatile and unstable and that, consequently, a market economy often experiences inefficient macroeconomic outcomes – a recession, when demand is low, and inflation, when demand is high. Further, they argue that these economic fluctuations can be mitigated by economic policy responses coordinated between the government and central bank. In particular, fiscal policy actions (taken by the government) and monetary policy actions (taken by the central bank), can help stabilize economic output, inflation, and unemployment over the business cycle. Social liberals advocate a market economy – predominantly private sector, but with an active role in government intervention during recessions and depressions. These ideas were largely developed during and after the Great Depression.

    Constlib2.png A Theory of Justice

    A Theory of Justice is a 1971 work of political philosophy and ethics by the philosopher John Rawls, in which the author attempts to provide a moral theory alternative to utilitarianism and that addresses the problem of distributive justice (the socially just distribution of goods in a society). The theory uses an updated form of Kantian philosophy and a variant form of conventional social contract theory. Rawls's theory of justice is fully a political theory of justice as opposed to other forms of justice discussed in other disciplines and contexts. However, the theory of justice itself applies to other moral systems, ironically including utilitarianism.

    In A Theory of Justice, Rawls argues for a principled reconciliation of liberty and equality that is meant to apply to the basic structure of a well-ordered society. Central to this effort is an account of the circumstances of justice, inspired by David Hume, and a fair choice situation for parties facing such circumstances, similar to some of Immanuel Kant's views. Principles of justice are sought to guide the conduct of the parties. These parties are recognized to face moderate scarcity, and they are neither naturally altruistic nor purely egoistic. They have ends that they seek to advance but prefer to advance through cooperation with others on mutually acceptable terms. Rawls offers a model of a fair choice situation (the original position with its veil of ignorance) within which parties would hypothetically choose mutually acceptable principles of justice. Under such constraints, Rawls believes that parties would find his favoured principles of justice to be especially attractive, winning out over varied alternatives, including utilitarian and 'right wing' libertarian accounts.

    A sketch of political and moral philosopher John Rawls.

    Although A Theory of Justice itself was written to justify Rawl’s particular views, it is viewed as an articulation of social liberal beliefs in general. It can be, and often is, considered a flagship exposition of social liberal thinking, advocating the combination of individual freedom and a fairer distribution of resources.

    Progress.png Prog-u.png Progressivism Prgess.png

    Social Liberalism is in support of social reform based on the idea of progress in which advancements in science, technology, economic development and social organization are vital to the improvement of the human condition. Progressivism became highly significant during the Age of Enlightenment in Europe, out of the belief that Europe was demonstrating that societies could progress in civility from uncivilized conditions to civilization by strengthening the basis of empirical knowledge as the foundation of society. Figures of the Enlightenment believed that progress had universal application to all societies and that these ideas would spread across the world from Europe.

    Civlibert.png Civil Libertarianism

    Most Social Liberals are strong advocates of Civil Libertarianism. Civil libertarianism is a strain of political thought that supports civil liberties, or which emphasizes the supremacy of individual rights and personal freedoms over and against any kind of authority (such as a state, a corporation, social norms imposed through peer pressure and so on).

    One key cause of civil libertarianism is upholding free speech. Specifically, civil libertarians oppose bans on hate speech and obscenity. Although they may or may not personally condone behaviors associated with these issues, civil libertarians hold that the advantages of unfettered public discourse outweigh all disadvantages.

    Other civil libertarian positions include support for at least partial legalization of illicit substances (marijuana and other soft drugs), prostitution, abortion, privacy, assisted dying or euthanasia, the right to bear arms, youth rights, topfree equality, a strong demarcation between religion and politics, and support for same-sex marriage.

    With the advent of personal computers, the Internet, email, cell phones and other information technology advances a subset of civil libertarianism has arisen that focuses on protecting individuals' digital rights and privacy.

    Fem.png Feminism

    Social Liberals have contributed monumentally to feminist theory. Libfem.png Liberal Feminism largely grew out of and was often associated with social liberalism; the modern liberal feminist tradition notably includes both social liberal and Socdem.png social democratic streams, and many often diverging schools of thought such as equality feminism, social feminism, equity feminism, and difference feminism Additionally, the most seminal work of early feminism, The Subjection of Women, written by Mill.png John Stuart Mill, would go on to have a crucial influence of feminist politics.

    Laicism.png Secularism

    In political terms, secularism is a movement towards the separation of religion and government (often termed the separation of church and state). This can refer to reducing ties between a government and a state religion, replacing laws based on scripture (such as Halakha, and Sharia) with civil laws, and eliminating discrimination based on religion. This is said to add to democracy by protecting the rights of religious minorities.

    Within this view, social liberals and liberalism, in general, has a long tradition of secularism. Radlib.png Thomas Paine, an American revolutionary and founding father famously said:

    "I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.

    I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church. All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.

    Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and tortuous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we call it the word of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel."

    A portrait of American revolutionary and founding father, Thomas Paine.

    It can be seen by many of the organizations (NGOs) for secularism that they prefer to define secularism as the common ground for all life stance groups, religious or atheistic, to thrive in a society that honors freedom of speech and conscience. An example of that is the National Secular Society in the UK. This is a common understanding of what secularism stands for among many of its activists throughout the world. However, many scholars of Christianity and conservative politicians seem to interpret secularism more often than not, as an antithesis of religion and an attempt to push religion out of society and replace it with atheism or a void of values, nihilism. This dual aspect (as noted above in "Secular ethics") has created difficulties in political discourse on the subject. It seems that most political theorists in philosophy following the landmark work of John Rawl's Theory of Justice in 1971 and its following book, Political Liberalism (1993), would rather use the conjoined concept of overlapping consensus rather than secularism. In the latter, Rawls holds the idea of an overlapping consensus as one of the three main ideas of political liberalism. He argues that the term secularism cannot apply;

    But what is a secular argument? Some think of any argument that is reflective and critical, publicly intelligible and rational, as a secular argument; [...], Nevertheless, a central feature of political liberalism is that it views all such arguments the same way it views religious ones, and therefore these secular philosophical doctrines do not provide public reasons. Secular concepts and reasoning of this kind belong to first philosophy and moral doctrine and fall outside the domain of the political.

    Still, Rawl's theory is akin to Holyoake's vision of a tolerant democracy that treats all life stance groups alike. Rawl's idea is that it is in everybody's interest to endorse "a reasonable constitutional democracy" with "principles of toleration". His work has been highly influential on scholars in political philosophy and his term, overlapping consensus, seems to have for many parts replaced secularism among them. In textbooks on modern political philosophy, like Colin Farelly's, An Introduction to Contemporary Political Theory, and Will Kymlicka's, Contemporary Political Philosophy, the term secularism is not even indexed and in the former, it can be seen only in one footnote. However, there is no shortage of discussion and coverage of the topic it involves. It is just called overlapping consensus, pluralism, multiculturalism or expressed in some other way. In The Oxford Handbook of Political Theory, there is one chapter called "Political secularism", by Rajeev Bhargava. It covers secularism in a global context, and starts with this sentence: "Secularism is a beleaguered doctrine."

    Separation of church and state is but one possible strategy to be deployed by secular governments. From the democratic to the authoritarian, such governments share a concern to limit the religious side in the relationship. Each state may find its unique policy prescriptions. These may include separation, careful monitoring and regulation of organized religion such as in France, Turkey, and others.

    A major impact on the idea of state religious liberty came from the writings of John Locke who, in his A Letter Concerning Toleration, argued in favor of religious toleration. He argued that government must treat all citizens and all religions equally and that it can restrict actions, but not the religious intent behind them.

    Scientocracy Small.png Technological Progress

    Social liberals tend to emphasize technological progress, more so than other liberals. Social liberals tend to believe that technological, and material progress brings about more prosperity than cultural or Religious.png spiritual progress.

    And much like how Glib.png Green Liberalism outgrew social liberalism into a separate ideology, the same can be said for Neotech.png Technoliberalism.

    Technoliberalism is a political philosophy founded on ideas of liberty, individuality, responsibility, decentralization, and self-awareness. It also highlights the idea that technology should be available to everyone with minimal controls. Its core beliefs fit under five main interests that include the Construction of the Government, Economics, Civil Liberties, Education and Science, and the Environment. Technoliberals support such ideas as the balance of powers in the government, decentralization, affordable education, the protection of our planet, Fine Arts, and the freedom of speech and communication technologies.

    In his book titled Technoliberalism, Adam Fish describes technoliberalism as a belief that networked technologies ameliorate the contradictions of a society that cherishes both the free market of economic liberalism and the social welfare of social liberalism. In this manner, technoliberalism has some links to neo-liberalism, yet with some core differences; "While Adam Smith conceived of a market that was in a way a natural and ineradicable part of the landscape (based on the human propensity 'to truck, barter and exchange'), and neoliberal thought continues to see the market in this way, technoliberalism holds up the idea that such complex systems can be contrived in their entirety" At the centre of the philosophy of Technoliberalism as a belief and a movement is "an overriding faith in technology, a suspicion of conventional modernist (top-down) institutions and a conviction that the aggregate effects of individual engagement of technology will generate social goods" Technoliberalism is about the combining of decentralism, individualism, responsibility and self-awareness, nothing in excess, sustainability, and engineering style regulation and governance. Its core beliefs fit under five main interests; Construction of the Government, Education and Science, Economics, the Environment, and Civil Liberties. They include:

    • The protection of the individuals' freedom, whilst maintaining that of others.
    • Free markets with strongly enforced rules.
    • Fair taxation, especially of big companies.
    • The protection of our planet through strong regulation on damage to the environment.
    • The power of small and medium-sized businesses.
    • The freedom of speech and communication technologies.
    • The emphasis on technological advancements instead of the status quo.

    Personality

    Social Liberalism either acts like a stereotypical Cball-US.png western urban/suburban middle-class millennial, or a worn-out, sleepy old Cball-England.png English man, similar to Clib.png Classical Liberalism. If he's the former he's very modern and loves to read Analytic.png analytic philosophers such as World Federalism2.png Bertrand Russell, Red Tory.png Ludwig Wittgenstein, Popper.png Karl Popper, as well as some earlier philosophers like Mill.png John Stuart Mill. He's also a massive DGGer.

    If he's the latter he'll still read those Analytic.png analytic philosophers, although he'll usually take a much more pessimistic and Pragmat.png pragmatic approach to politics. He'll also talk about "the glory days" like FDRism-alt.png FDR's presidency and the Fem.png women's suffrage movement.

    How to Draw

    Flag of Social Liberalism

    The Social Liberal design is the Social Democratic Rose in the Liberal colours of Blue and Gold.

    1. Draw a ball,
    2. Fill it with a similar shade of blue as Liberalism (#005C94),
    3. Draw a rose in gold (#EEE8AA),
    4. Draw the eyes, and you're done!
    Color Name HEX RGB
    Blue #005C94 0, 92, 148
    Gold #EEE8AA 238, 232, 170


    Relationships

    Friends

    • Monkeyzz-Enlightenment.png Enlightenment Enlightnenment.png - The greatest movement ever. Without you, I would be nothing.
    • Radlib.png Radicalism - My father, and greatest influence.
    • Clib.png Classical Liberalism - My grandfather, and second greatest influence.
    • Civnat.png Civic Nationalism - The only acceptable nationalist.
    • Lib.png Liberalism - Liberal Gang! Thanks for creating such a great system!
    • Keynes.png Keynesianism - He has some very good ideas but I don't like his opinion on military matters.
    • NuKeynesPix.png Neo-Keynesianism - Not very different from his father, although his spending habits are weird.
    • Soccap.png Social Capitalism - Believes in having a moderate welfare state but wants freer markets.
    • Socdem.png Social Democracy - A slightly more regulatory version of myself. We often form coalitions.
    • Neoliberal-icon.png Neoliberalism - A slightly less regulatory version of myself. If Socdem.png SocDem is one step to the left of me, then Neolib is one step to the right. I like you a lot, but please stop doing austerity. Although I do admit I have begun to warm up to you more recently.
    • Socliber.png Social Libertarianism - My more extreme descendant, but his heart is definitely in the right place.
    • LibSocDemIcon.png Libertarian Social Democracy - An even more extreme version of me. You’re a bit misguided but you’re certainly an ally.
    • Orlib.png Ordo-Liberalism - We share the principle of moderately regulated markets with a welfare state.
    • Nordmodel.png Nordic Model - Same as Ordo-liberalism.
    • NatProg.png Bull Moose Progressivism - My cool older cousin. Hope you don't mind if I borrowed some of your notes for the New Deal cuz.
    • Progress.png Progressivism - Fellow liberal who fights for progress goes a bit too far sometimes but still good
    • Regulationism.png Regulationism - Taught me that sometimes markets need rules and regulations.
    • Neotech.png Technoliberalism - Fellow liberal, and a man of science. You have some interesting takes, not gonna lie.
    • Libfem.png Liberal Feminism - My best friend!
    • Glib.png Green Liberalism - My other best friend!
    • Civlibert.png Civil Libertarianism - A good friend who defends the rights of all people.
    • Reform.png Reformism - Change is good, murdering dissenters is bad.
    • MilkTeaAlliance.png Milk-Tea Alliance - We work together against Rienthong.png fascists, absolutists and Dengf.png commies.
    • 3way.png Third Way Third Way - alt.png - The synthesis between me and Neoliberal-icon.png Neoliberalism. He shares my positions on safety nets and social programs.
    • Antijap.png Anti-Japaneseism - The time has come. Execute Order 9066.
    • Georgist.png Georgism - I think I am starting to warm up to the idea of implementing a Land Value Tax again. Plus you're love for environmentalism and global trade is based.
    • Socgeo.png Social Georgism - A bit better than his dad, but still maybe a little too out there; although I have to admit, Nordmodel.png Denmark is pretty cool.

    Frenemies

    • Lpop.png Left-Wing Populism - Sometimes helpful for me, but he's still too radical.
    • Socauth.png Social Authoritarianism - Your economic ideas are ok, but you scare me.
    • Ecocap.png Eco-Capitalism - Look, in principle you have good intentions to stop big corporations from damaging the environment, but trying to greenwash the companies by saying that they're using "green" technology without market regulations, is not the answer!
    • Laicism.png Laicism - Religious freedom is the bedrock of a liberal society, but I don't know, isn't freedom of speech important too?
    • Liberalsoc.png Liberal Socialism - You're kinda like me, and we share credit for a lot of important theorists, but I am the Social Democrat to your Socialism so maybe you can understand why I would want to distance myself from, ahem, such radicals.
    • Liberaltarianism.png Liberaltarianism - Better than the last guy, but still too libertarian.
    • Nalib.png National Liberalism - Well, if it isn't Mr. "I'm too cool for Altr.png Alt-Right" himself. Although, I'll admit that working with you isn't always so bad.
    • 3princ.png Tridemism 3princ-col.png - That healthcare system and land reforms are nice, but you need to face up to what you did. Also, stop calling me Green Taliban!!!
    • Dsa.png Democratic Socialism - You have good cultural takes, but you're still way too far left.
    • Long.png Longism - If I borrow some of your "Sharing the Wealth" ideas, will you stop bugging me for not going far enough? And stop working with the mob!
    • Necon.png Neoconservatism - Some of my followers support interventionist foreign policy while others don't.
    • Cdem.png Christian Democracy - One of my main opponents in elections, although your economic views aren't bad.
    • Patcon.png Paternalistic Conservatism - Stop making conspiracy theories and lying about me, Tucker! I am not an Islamic Marxist! Wait why do you call my book about economics one of the best?
    • Whitesup.png White Nationalism - I worked with you a lot in the USA, but you really need to stop being so racist and culturally far right.And Trudeau did blackface once.
    • Antifa.png Anti-Fascism - Look, in principle you're fine, but can you PLEASE stop making us look bad?
    • Progconf.png Progressive Conservatism - Uhhh...based?
    • Ford.png Fordism - As far as dystopian hellscapes go, you're not bad...
    • Kemal.png Kemalism - You did the right thing to destroy the outdated Ottoman Empire and abolish the Caliphate, but you are too statist and nationalistic for my taste. At least you're much better than Ottoman.png Ittihad.png them and the best leader Turkey ever had. It’s a shame that Erdogan is tarnishing your legacies and reversing your westernization and secularization policies.
    • TrudeauLib.png Justin Trudeau Thought - You did great at embracing my policies in Canada and making it an even better place but your later actions and your steps to freeze bank accounts of The Trucker Protestors and Keeping The Unvaccinated at home remind me of Darwinist.png Someone.
    • Stalin.png Stalinism - You are a horrible totalitarian genocidal commie twat. But we did work together in WW2 to defeat Nazi.png him, so……
    • Ultraprogressivism.png Revolutionary Progressivism - You really need to calm down, kid. Progress is great and all, but you go way too far. Also, not a fan of your socialist ideas.

    Enemies

    Further Information

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