"What is Liberalism?"

Taken from http://www.fnf.org.ph/liberallibrary/liberalism.htm
Notes for a presentation by Dr. Ronald Meindardus at the Young Leaders Workshop of the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD) on Septmeber 24th, 2002 in Manila.

1. The Friedrich-Naumann-Foundation. Introduction of the “Foundation for liberal Politics”

• The Foundation’s history beginning 1958. Civic Education as one of the pillars of the West German democracy (“re-education”). Development of international activities in the late sixties. The problem of political interference in foreign political affairs. The principle of political partnership. The foreign policy rationale of Germany foundations’ activities.
  
• The three core areas of the Foundation’s activities:
  • Civic education
  • Political dialogue
  • Political counseling
    
• Organizational aspects : finances, relationship with the government as an NGO internal organization
  
• Programmatic aspects: the content of our activities. The promotion of liberal values and principles. Quote from Foundation’s brochure “Shaping the future”.
  
• The strategy of the Friedrich-Naumann-Foundation

How can we most effectively reach our goal (which is the promotion of liberal values)?

Clear definition of our objective(s) – focus

Clear image of ourselves as the “Foundation for liberal politics”

Clear understanding of our target groups (with core and more peripheral groups, the core group being the leaders and functionaries of liberal parties and organisations).

2. The liberal confusion

Unfortunately life is more intricate and complex than our clear-cut strategy on paper may make belief. There exist much confusion as to the questions: who is liberal, what is a liberal party, even what is liberalism. This confusion has several dimensions – internal (intra-liberal) and external (extra-liberal).

Ø Linguistic diversity: not all languages provide the term “liberal”, in some languages the term has a completely different meaning than in other languages. Whereas in most languages a “liberal” is understood as someone who desires freedom (“libertas” – the Greek word “filelevtheros” literally meaning “the friend of freedom”), in other languages and cultures “liberal” is associated with sexual abnormality, aberration. On a more fundamental base, there is a divergence between US-American usage of the term “liberal” and the continental European tradition. While we in Europe think of liberalism primarily as a program to curb the influence of the state in our personal (and economic affairs), in the U.S. liberal has become a synonym for big government.

Ø Juggling with labels: In German we say, not everything that is labelled as liberal must have a liberal content, meaning, there exist political forces who misuse the attribute, without following liberal principles. Many examples in Eastern Asia: Liberal Party of Synghman Rhee, United Liberal Democrats of Kim, Jong-pil (South Korea), Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). These are all right-wing parties.

Ø Intramural discord: The world of liberalism is a very colourful and pluralistic community. Considering the multitude of different approaches, it is at times problematic to speak of one international liberal family. Main reasons for this intramural discord are – on the international level – the fundamental political, social, and mainly cultural differences in different parts of the world. Furthermore, the different sorts (or even brands) of liberalism. I single out the most prominent:

• Political liberalism

• Economic liberalism

• National liberalism

• Social liberalism (left liberalism)

All these liberalisms may be found in political organizations, not rarely even in one single liberal party. In some countries, there exist more than one liberal party (Netherlands: D66, VVD), with both being members of LI. Considering these differences, may we still speak of one liberal family?

3. The unifying elements

Liberal individuals and their organizations unite for two main motives, one reason being to distinguish themselves from their political opponents (reactive dimension) , the other due to a belief in a joint set of political (even philosophical) values and principles:

Ø Liberals distinguish themselves mainly from the two other major political main-streams, socialism and conservatism. Socialists (of all shades) share the fundamental belief, that it is up to the state to solve all the problems of society. This is the exactly the opposite of the liberal credo. Conservatives (of all shades), on the other hand, share a fundamental belief in the existence of a God-given order, a metaphysically determined status quo, that needs to be protected and “conserved” (conservare”) with all means. For liberals, on the other hand, religion and politics should be separated, the political order being in flux and changing (progressing) according to the wishes of the majority of the citizens.

Ø The labels left, right, centre dominate many discussions. In this traditional political geography the natural place of the liberals is in the centre. There are problems with this location, though, as the big blocks to the left and the right have a tendency of moving to the centre taking away the breathing space of the liberals. This occupancy of political terrain by our ideological opponents often goes hand in hand with the usurpation, yes hijacking of liberal positions. Actually, today in many parties many politicians promote liberal politics. Quite distressing for some members of liberal parties, sometimes there seem to be more attractive advocates of liberal positions outside the own party (than within). And even more distressing, there are often even openly un-liberal elements (termites?!) within the boundaries of the liberal parties! This is a major head-ache to all those, who believe that political parties should rest on a joint set of political values and principles. I know, that in the Philippines ideology is not the most important glue that keeps political parties together. But I acknowledge a growing desire in this country for the parties to become more programmatic and – therefore – politically accountable.

Ø The liberal Foundation together with its partner NIPS sees one of its main objectives in this country to assist the Liberal Party in achieving this goal. I believe, this seminar is an important practical expression of this intention.

4. What is liberalism? Exercise with cards

So far, I have spoken about the confusion regarding liberalism and stressed the importance of the adherence to a common set of liberal values and principles. But what exactly are these liberal values and principles? As I am the Representative of a liberal institution and not a missionary of a religious grouping, I will not impose on you my understanding of liberalism (this in fact would be rather un-liberal), but I invite you to join a little exercise with the aim at reaching a definition in a joint effort. Each participants is asked to fill out three moderation cards, defining with a one catch-word what for him or her constitutes liberalism. After five minutes, I will collect the cards, and we will then discuss the results: (individual) freedom, responsibility, self-determination, market economy, rule of law, distrust of the state, equality of chances, tolerance, reason, Democracy, Openness, and Checks and balances,