Liberal conservatism

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Liberal Conservatism is a variant of conservatism that combines the classical conservative concern for established tradition, respect for authority and, sometimes, religious values with pragmatic and liberal ideas, especially on economic issues (see economic liberalism, which advocates free market capitalism).

Liberal conservatism usually takes hold among conservatives in countries where liberal economic ideas are considered traditional, and therefore conservative. In the United States, this tradition refers mostly notably to the notion of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, which would currently read as a form of anti-statist liberalism.

In countries with large liberal conservative movements that have entered the political mainstream, the terms "liberal" and "conservative" may become synonymous (as in Australia), or they may be redefined such that liberal conservatives keep one of them and the other is taken up by a different group (as in the United States, where liberal conservatives use the term "conservative," while "liberal" is generally used to refer to American liberalism, a progressive movement).

Liberal conservative political parties exist in a number of countries, and they are usually most entrenched in Anglo-Saxon cultures.

Criticisms of Liberal Conservatism

One of the main criticisms of Liberal Conservatism is that the most commonly perceived political spectrum is liberal vs. conservative. Such a practice of combining diametrically opposed political ideas and philosophies can therefore be judged as invalid; although such terms can be used in a cultural context as compared with their purely rational distinctions.

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