Definition of "liberalism" []

• The state or quality of being liberal. (noun)
• A political theory founded on the natural goodness of humans and the autonomy of the individual and favoring civil and political liberties, government by law with the consent of the governed, and protection from arbitrary authority. (noun)
• The tenets or policies of a Liberal party. (noun)
• An economic theory in favor of laissez-faire, the free market, and the gold standard. (noun)
• A 19th-century Protestant movement that favored free intellectual inquiry, stressed the ethical and humanitarian content of Christianity, and de-emphasized dogmatic theology. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The danger of decay in liberalism is greatest when the response of the liberal to the issues of the day is so automatic that it is predictable."
• "There was this pretense to liberalism, I mean even in '38 when the people went to the Southern Conference they were able to draw a crowd of fifteen hundred people there and use the term liberalism in a fairly non-threatening way."
• "In general the term liberalism has been debated and critiqued hundreds of times, but generally from the left."