‘Liberalism’ needs to be unpacked as ‘liberalisms’, as plural and diverse configuration of political ideas and arguments. It is neither the universal ideological victor nor the about-to-be-absent failure. It has always had to struggle against competing ideologies and various detractors to make its case. Its origins lay in defining the limits of government and introducing the rule of law. Later, inspired by J.S. Mill, it promoted human emancipation through the free development of individuality. Its ensuing trajectory then exhibited three key features: a sharp divide between the private and the public spheres; a dynamic of change under the impact of evolutionary theory; and a growing sensitivity to the as well as to the universal attributes of human beings in society. A growing social conscience about the plight of the poor and the marginalized encouraged a communitarian outlook that initiated social welfare policies to promote equality of opportunity. In particular, the state was enlisted as an enabler, not a paternalist intervenor, a fact that undermines the abstract insistence of some liberal philosophers on neutrality.

More recently, liberals have struggled with newer concerns. How to incorporate group rights into their arguments? How to endorse liberal democracy when democratic procedures produce illiberal outcomes? How to protect liberalism against neoliberal usurpers who use liberty to crowd out other liberal values? And how does the measured reflectiveness of liberals’ fare against emotional demands for quick results? It remains to be seen whether liberalism’s trusted resilience will continue to rise to those challenges. 

Michael Freeden is an Emeritus Professor of Politics, University of Oxford. His books include The New Liberalism (1978), Ideologies and Political Theory (1996), The Political Theory of Political Thinking (2013), Liberalism: A Very Short Introduction (2015) (all Oxford University Press), and In Search of European Liberalisms (co-edited with J. Fernández-Sebastián and J. Leonhard, Berghahn, 2019). He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and the founder of the Journal of Political Ideologies. He has been awarded the Sir Isaiah Berlin Prize for Lifetime Contribution to Political Studies by the UK Political Studies Association, and the Medal for Science, Institute of Advanced Studies, Bologna University.

Rochana Bajpai is Reader in Politics. Her research interests are in comparative political thought and political ideologies, liberalism and multiculturalism, and modern Indian politics. Rochana received a B.A. in Political Science from the M.S. University of Baroda, India; an M.A. in Political Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; an M.Phil (St. Catherine’s) in Politics and a D.Phil (Nuffield College) from the University of Oxford. She joined SOAS in 2006. Prior to joining SOAS, Rochana was a Junior Research Fellow in Politics at Balliol College, Oxford and the Centre for Political Ideologies.

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