In Lovia, the terms liberal and liberalism have ambiguous meanings. This is due to Lovia's socio-political position between the United States and Europe.
In the American sense, liberal refers to progressivism or American modern liberalism. Examples include leaders of the Democratic Party and several intellectuals like Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky. In Lovia, supporters of this liberalism are mostly called progressives. Progressive parties include Labour and the CPL.nm. There is a broad platform of leftists and progressives in Lovia, especially since the re-election of Yuri Medvedev in 2010 Federal Elections.
Within the European framework, liberalism stands for classical economics and political liberalism, relating to individual freedom and the free market. Within the American framework, liberalism stands for modern liberalism or social liberalism, a slightly leftist ideology, though not as far left as socialism or communism. The movement's symbolic color is usually blue and/or yellow/gold. In the late 2000s and early 2010s, this European terminology prevails in Lovia, heavily influenced by eminent Western European or Libertan immigrants. Classical liberalism is therefore known simply as liberalism, while modern liberalism is typically known as progressivism or social liberalism. The most powerful classical liberal parties in Lovia include the Conservative Nationalist Party, Positive Lovia and the Progressive Conservative Party.
Confusion[]
Positive Lovia, perhaps the most powerful of the "liberal" parties in Lovia, takes a stance in the centre-right.
In order to make the difference clear, European-liberal parties are often referred to as classical liberal, whereas American-liberal parties are mostly called modern liberal or social liberal. Both classical and modern liberals typically have support loose regulation on social issues despite their varying views on economic issues. Positive Lovia, for example, represents itself as classical liberal, and supports conservative economic policies. The Social Liberal Party is of an ideology of social justice and economic centrism, and has an ideology of modern, or social, liberalism. Both of these parties, as well as the classical liberal Conservative Nationalist Party, have distinct ideologies from parties further left of the social or modern liberal ideology, such as the Labour Party, and socially conservative parties, such as the Conservative Christian Party of Lovia.
The Liberal Democrats (ceased activity in 2010), as well as the Walden Libertarian Party (prior to their namechange and ideology shift in the summer of 2010), were closely tied to classical liberalism. Its modern liberal members are usually part of the SLP while its classical liberal members are usually part of PL or the CNP.
Further reading[]
- Classical liberalism
- Liberal democracy
- Liberalism worldwide, on the different interpretations of the term across the globe
- Modern liberalism (progressivism) in the United States
See also[]
- Conservatism in Lovia
- Leftism in Lovia