Social Liberalism on the 12 Axes

Social liberalism emerged in late nineteenth-century Britain when thinkers such as T. H. Green, L. T. Hobhouse and J. A. Hobson argued that poverty, ignorance and illness limit freedom as much as government does. The Liberal government of 1906 to 1914 introduced pensions and national insurance, and John Maynard Keynes and William Beveridge later gave the movement its economic and welfare tools. In the United States it shaped the New Deal, and it guides many liberal parties around the world today. Social liberals defend markets, free trade, human rights and the rule of law, while accepting taxation and regulation to widen opportunity. Unlike classical liberalism, it sees an active state as a partner of liberty. Unlike social democracy, it places the individual, not the working class, at the center.

• Liberalism 85%Liberalism is the mainstream tradition of liberal democracy: individual rights, civil liberties and the rule of law first, with a regulated market economy, free trade and open international cooperation.
• Social Democracy 84%Social democracy accepts a market economy and parliamentary democracy but uses taxes, strong unions, regulation and a broad welfare state to reduce inequality and protect workers.
• Progressivism 82%Progressivism is a political outlook that seeks social reform through government action, expanding civil rights, protecting minorities and using science and evidence to improve society.
• Georgism 82%Georgism is an economic philosophy holding that people own what they produce, but land and natural resources belong to everyone, so the main tax should fall on land value.