Small-l liberal

The term small-l liberal is used, particularly in reference to Australian and Canadian politics, to distinguish between holders of an ideology of liberalism and adherents to either the Liberal Party of Australia or the Liberal Party of Canada (capital L). The term is also used in other countries which have Liberal parties.

Australian background

The term arises in Australia because its main right wing political party - founded as a classical liberal party, largely follows neoliberal, libertarian, and conservative policies. Thus, while the Australian Liberal Party supports economic liberalism, outside its moderate factions, it generally doesn't support socially liberal policies.

Yet liberalism continues to be used in the sense of "social liberalism" in Australia. Thus the label "small l-liberal" is often used to distinguish such uses of the word 'liberal' from its use as a proper noun (ie Liberal).

Such a distinction is not as important in other countries where main right wing party are not labelled "liberal", for example in the United States, the main right wing party is called the Republican Party. It is often used outside Australia, too (see below).

Australian history

The use of the word "liberal" in reference to right wing politics in Australia can, perhaps, be traced back to Australia's first federal parliament. There, the political debate was about whether the fledgling nation should pursue a protectionist or free market trade policy, with the right wing vote divided between these two parties. A third party (the fore-runner to today's Australian Labor Party) represented workers and trade unions.

The modern Liberal Party of Australia follows in the free market tradition of these two early right wing parties.

In the United Kingdom

Although the United Kingdom's Liberal Democrat party and its ancestor The Liberal Party are closer in spirit to traditional liberalism than the Australian Liberal Party, politicians there too have found it useful to distinguish between liberalism as an abstract philosphy and parties with the word "liberal" in the title. Indeed the Liberal Democrat leader himself Charles Kennedy for instance used the term in a speech given in March 2004, where he said:

"For much of the 20th Century, people in this country were characterised as being 'small c conservative'. But in the 21st century, it is the characteristics of the 'small l liberal' that are beginning to dominate, "

In Canada

The term is widely used in Canada to distinguish liberal thinkers in general from supporters of the Liberal Party of Canada and its provincial affiliates. The term small-c conservative is also used to distinguish conservative thinkers from members of the Conservative Party of Canada and of the surviving provincial branches of the Progressive Conservative party. It was previously used to distinguish conservative thinkers from members of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.

See also

• small-c conservative
• small-l libertarianism

References

• A page examining the divergence between the Australian Liberal Party and liberals from ozpolitics.info (http://www.ozpolitics.info/parties/lib.htm)
• [1] (http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/08/21/1029114129494.html), [2] (http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/01/1051382043447.html) Example uses of the phrase from the Sydney Morning Herald.
• Charles Kennedy's speech in full from libdems.org.uk (http://www.libdems.org.uk/index.cfm/page.homepage/section.home/article.6452)

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