View source for History of political thought

===[[Liberalism]]===
Classical  [[Liberalism]] was the optimistic political expression of a willingness to use reasoned analysis to supplant existing beliefs and practices. The 1789 [[/Addendum#Declaration of the Rights of Man|Declaration of the Rights of Man]] by the French National Assembly can be regarded as an early statement of its principles. Its  essence was expressed  in the phrase ''the freedom to do everything which injures no one else'', and its development in the course of the 19th century was largely concerned with the concrete interpretation of that concept. The outcome was the adoption by various [[political party|political parties]] of policies that supported [[free enterprise]], including [[free trade]], as well as personal freedom of action, and that were opposed to most forms of state [[paternalism]]. In the course of its subsequent evolution it generated variants ranging from Libertarianism, which permits no state activity beyond that necessary for the preservation of order, to those in which the state is required to promote [[welfare (economics)|economic welfare]] and an equitable distribution of [[wealth (economics)|wealth]]; and which sometimes tend to converge with [[communitarianism]] or [[social democracy]]. In the United States, the term is often used to refer to policies typified by  [[Franklin Roosevelt]]'s [[New Deal]].
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| The [[/Bibliography|bibliography subpage]] provides links  to the writings of [[John Stuart Mill]] and L T Hobhouse on the subject of Liberalism
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