Modern Liberalism

The first liberal state was the United States, founded on the principle that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights and that among these rights are life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.

The most used meaning of liberalism in the United States refers to the new liberalism or modern liberalism. Modern liberalism appeared as a form of social liberalism based on progressive principles that supports the state's welfare through individual's welfare and a competitive mixed economy.

Modern liberalism extents classical liberalism by widening the scope of every individual's freedom as an empowerment and transforms the principle of equal liberty into social equality. In Europe, the term 'liberalism' is close to the significance of conservative economic principles of the American economy.

Modern liberalism refuses many theories that have recently dominated governance in the world such as the divine right of the king, the state religion, economic protectionism and hereditary status.

One of the main economic aspects that concern modern liberals is the minimum wage imposed by the government which, in their belief, is a great method for avoiding employment discrimination and increases the state's welfare. Modern liberals come in a time when wages had become the main, if not the only source of subsistence for most people, which was not valid in the seventieth, eightieth and the first half of the nineteenth century. From this perspective, modern liberalism is a development of simple principles of classical liberalism in the new circumstances as the classical liberals are themselves concerned with the welfare of employees and mainly workers.

Besides the classical beliefs and political ideologies of liberalism, modern liberals also support business rules such as decreasing of the monopolistic commerce because they believe that a free market based is much more efficient and will guarantee a high prosperity level. They also sustain the decrease of state's interventions in economy.