well I meant economically liberal in the "correct" sense, meaning pro free market.
yes, indeed, and that's what "liberal" means pretty much everywhere else in the world except in the U.S.. Liberal and conservative do not contradict each other in economics, as far as I'm concerned.
I don't agree with that. In France, Madelin and his crazy friends usurp the monopoly of this adjective to defend the most radically conservative economic views.
Originally, liberalism is an european political movement in the XIXth century who were in favor of the guarantee of civil liberties ( I mean basic liberties, as freedom of expression ) and a more democratic system. Sure, they were mostly free-marketists, but the reason was that before Marx there was no strong socialist movement and economics were mostly non-issues.
Now, the difference between Europe and USA is that, whereas in Europe the emergency of a strong socialist movement pushed liberals ( and their french equivalent, radicals ) more and more toward the right-wing, in the USA absolute free market remained an unquestioned dogma until 1929. So, in Europe, since democratic liberties began to be definitely vested, "liberal" began more and more to qualify a man who opposed socialism. In the USA, however, it kept his original sense of "progressive", "leftist".
So, what is the better sense ? Neither American's nor European's.
It's not european's because, during the 30's years, a new movement emerged in Europe who rapidly took the name of "Social-democracy". Social democracy, that became a strong ideology after WW2, had very few in common with real socialism, because it clearly accepted market economy, just saying that the State could help making him work better and being fairer. Rapidly, social democracy began the ideology of main european left parties, replacing socialism. Many government experiences proved that those parties definitely renounced to socialism ( even the more hypocritical as the french PS did ). And, whatever we can say about it, social democracy is a liberal ideology in every sense of the world. So, when some PS idiots criticize "liberalism", they just prove they know nothing about the sense of a word.
Thogh the american sense appears more correct to me, it sounds paradoxal when we speak about economic issues. If it's true that the most anti-liberal law in the last 40 years was the
Patriot act, when we speek about economy, every american party from the Green until the Constitution are liberal.
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