The root word in liberal is liber, the Latin adjective denoting a free person, as opposed to a slave. Liberalism is not a precise philosophy, it is an attitude. All liberals share a belief in individual human agency. They trust in the capacity of human beings to decide things for themselves. This belief has radical implications. It implies the right to make their own plans, to express their own opinions and to participate in public life.
Liberalism is not a utopian project but a work in perpetual progress. It is an approach to living together that begins from the primacy of human agency. But that is only the start. Making that approach work requires constant adaptation and adjustment.
Martin Wolf
Majicman Notes 
Leave a comment