Paleoliberalism
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Paleoliberalism is a somewhat obscure term for extreme liberalism. The (slightly more common) adjectival form, paleoliberal is defined by The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, as "Extremely or stubbornly liberal in political matters." Because liberalism itself has several different meanings, this definition carries some ambiguity.
The term is often used to refer to an extreme or "unreconstructed" exponent of modern American liberalism. For example, Brian Doherty writing in Reason in 1997 used the term to refer to Richard Gephardt in his opposition to Clinton's free trade policies.
In a second usage, according to Michael Lind, in the late 1960s and early 1970s many "anti-Soviet [American] liberals and social democrats in the tradition of Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Humphrey and Henry ("Scoop") Jackson… preferred to call themselves 'paleoliberals'"; according to Lind, roughly this group of people later became known as the neoconservatives.
Yet another usage of the term with some currency on blogs, Internet discussion groups, etc. in the United States is as a term is roughly interchangeable with libertarianism, also called classical liberalism by some of its adherents.
This last may be related to the use of the term by Alexander Rüstow, to describe ardent laissez-faire liberals like Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek. Rüstow himself was a German Ordoliberal (neoliberal).
[edit] Notes
- ^ Doherty, "Swap Meat".
- ^ Gresser, "Trade Myths".
- ^ Sullivan, "Good Choice. Bad Speech", and "Hunger Stalks N.J. Suburbs" (on the site of TimesWatch.org) also use the word in this sense.
- ^ Lind, "A Tragedy of Errors".
- ^ Nash, "A Cold War Paleoliberal".
- ^ A typical example of use in a blog is lowercase liberty: paleoliberalism (posted September 20, 2005, retrieved December 20, 2005) by B.K. Marcus. The article Paleoliberalism on the Libertarian Wiki uses this meaning of the term, but provides no references.
- ^ Oliver Jr., Henry M. (1960). "German Neoliberalism". Quarterly Journal of Economics 74 (1): 117-149.
[edit] References
- —, Hunger Stalks N.J. Suburbs from TimesWatch.org, a project of the Heritage Foundation, March 24, 2004, accessed December 12, 2005.
- Doherty, Brian, Swap Meat: Friends and critics miss the point on NAFTA, Reason, October 1997, accessed December 12, 2005.
- Gresser, Edward, Trade Myths: Book Review, Blueprint Magazine (magazine of the Democratic Leadership Council's Progressive Policy Institute), May 7, 2004. A review of In Defense of Globalization by Jagdish Bhagwati. Accessed December 12, 2005.
- Lind, Michael, A Tragedy of Errors. The Nation, posted February 5, 2004 (February 23, 2004 issue), accessed December 12, 2005.
- Nash, George H. "A Cold War Paleoliberal". New York Times Nov 10, 1991. p. BR26
- Sullivan, Andrew. Good Choice. Bad Speech., TNR online, July 7, 2004. Accessed December 12, 2005.
