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In Reply to: Re: On reading more about neo-liberalism posted by CB on December 15, 2007 at 08:22:52:
Where I live (Switzerland) to be a liberal means you adhere to the right of center Liberal Party that promotes free trade, a market economy with reduced gov't control, plenty of room for small businesses, individual rights, etc. The UK & Australia have Liberal Parties too.
In the U.S. being a liberal is something entirely different. In American right-wing Fox News political discourse "being liberal" is perjorative and the liberal is an ACLU supporter, he advocates things like gun-control, he's a reader of the left wing NYT's, etc...and all kinds of other things that are odious to the conservative right wing.
So I think the conservative vs liberal perspective is a different one depending on which side of the Atlantic you're on.
I'm very much the news junkie, so the academic definitions of liberalism, neo-liberalism, the history of liberalism, I'm sure are very extensive, and my definitions are current event & mainstream media based.
One last non researched and/or Googled thought on this, maybe the European liberal is more like an American "libertarian".(?) I didn't know what libertarianism was until only 2 years ago when I met an African-American (an R&B bass player)libertarian in Zermatt. He explained a bit about it to me, & if I remember right it seems they are not very big on big gov't, they believe in individual rights, etc. Libertarianism is something I should Google or Wiki, among many other things.
