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VIEWPOINT - We live in an era when many, if not the majority, seems to castigate those espousing liberal ideology. Far right voices hurls labels such as “woke” or “leftist” as if such titles identify an invective character. We bear witness to Trump’s assault on liberal values by dehumanizing immigrants, undermining the rule of law and disregard of basic principles of humanity. We see Israel’s continued disdain for the sanctity of life through its genocide of indigenous Christians and Muslims. Indeed, liberal values are under attack in many areas of the world, including Russia, Hungry, Turkey, India, Myanmar and elsewhere. Yet, to villainize liberals is to ignore the tremendous debt of gratitude that each of us owes to the advancements made possible through liberal thought.
The proposition that most major human advancements emerged from liberal thought is neither accidental nor merely ideological; it is historical, structural, and empirical. From the rise of constitutional democracy and the notion of individual rights to the scientific revolution, market innovation, and the global recognition of human dignity, the ideas associated with liberalism—and especially classical liberalism—laid the intellectual foundation for the modern world. Liberalism did not develop in isolation, nor did it alone deliver every social reform. Rather, it created a framework of freedom, consent, and open discourse that allowed competing philosophies to challenge, refine, and improve the human condition. Liberalism’s greatest achievement may not be the specific policies it produced, but its creation of a society in which ideas can evolve peacefully, institutions can be criticized without being destroyed, and authority is accountable to those it governs.
To understand the contribution of liberal thought, one must consider the world before its ascent. For most of human history, political power was concentrated in hereditary monarchies, empires, or theocracies. Rights were not possessed by individuals but granted—or revoked—by rulers. Economic activity was constrained by guild monopolies, feudal obligations, and mercantilist controls. Knowledge advanced slowly because inquiry was subordinate to orthodoxy. In that historical context, the rise of liberalism during the Enlightenment represented a dramatic break. Thinkers such as John Locke, Adam Smith, Montesquieu, and later John Stuart Mill articulated principles that would become the DNA of modern civilization: government by consent; rights inherent to individuals rather than bestowed by rulers; freedom of speech and conscience; separation of powers; and freer markets that allowed ordinary people—not only aristocracies—to participate in wealth creation.
Democracy as practiced today is fundamentally a liberal invention. While ancient Athens pioneered direct democracy, it denied political rights to women, slaves, and foreigners, and it lacked constitutional safeguards against majority tyranny. Modern constitutional democracies are built on representative institutions, judicial restraint, and elections. These governments derive directly from liberal philosophers who insisted that sovereign power must be constrained. The U.S. Constitution, and the separation of powers that define it, is the most influential practical embodiment of liberal thought. European parliamentary systems similarly reflect the erosion of absolute monarchy and the rise of accountable governance.
Equally transformative has been the liberal concept of individual rights. The idea that each person possesses innate dignity and autonomy, regardless of birth, is historically radical. It provided philosophical ammunition for the abolition of slavery, the expansion of suffrage, and civil liberties that protect minorities from the whims of majorities. While abolitionism also drew strength from religious convictions, the argument that every human being is entitled to liberty and due process rests squarely on liberal reasoning about personhood and consent. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted after the devastation of World War II, codified principles that emerged from liberal thought: equality before the law, freedom from arbitrary detention, freedom of expression, and the right to participate in government.
Economic advancements owe at least as much to liberalism as political ones. Adam Smith’s critique of mercantilism and his defense of free exchange reoriented economies toward competition and innovation. Liberal market structures have repeatedly demonstrated their ability to raise living standards, mobilize investment, and reward problem-solvers. While capitalism is not synonymous with liberalism, liberalism made capitalism tolerable and sustainable by insisting on rule of law, contract enforcement, voluntary exchange, and property rights accessible to non-elite citizens. It is no coincidence that industrial and technological revolutions took root in societies with the greatest degree of economic liberalization and the strongest protections for individual initiative.
Critics correctly note that liberalism has blind spots. Markets left entirely unregulated can produce monopoly, exploitation, and inequality; speech unrestricted by norms can yield misinformation and polarization; and individualism elevated above all else may weaken family, community, and social cohesion. Here, however, liberalism’s most important attribute reasserts itself: it created societies capable of self-correction without violence or authoritarian coercion. The labor movement, universal public education, healthcare systems, environmental protections, and social safety nets often emerged from ideologies perceived as critiques of classical liberalism. Yet they succeeded precisely because they were debated, legislated, and contested within liberal frameworks that allowed reform without revolution.
In this respect, liberalism’s contribution is not reducible to the Enlightenment’s canonical thinkers or to laissez-faire economics. Its subtler and more profound legacy lies in how it reconfigured the relationship between individuals, institutions, and ideas. Under liberal thought, power is not eliminated; it is distributed. Truth is not ordained; it is discovered, challenged, and revised. Knowledge is not guarded by priests or kings; it is shared, tested, and democratized. The scientific method is itself a liberal structure—skeptical, empirical, decentralized, and resistant to authority. The most productive universities, research institutions, and innovation hubs flourish where inquiry is free, error is permissible, and minority views can question orthodoxy without fear of imprisonment.
Moreover, liberalism globalized human flourishing. The principle of national self-determination, first articulated as a liberal argument against imperial rule, laid the groundwork for decolonization movements across the world. The wave of democratic transitions after 1989 was fueled by citizens demanding rights long denied by authoritarian states. Even countries that reject Western political models frequently adopt liberal economic practices when seeking prosperity: protection of investment, enforceable contracts, and participation in global markets. Liberal norms now structure international institutions—from trade agreements to human rights courts—in ways unimaginable in 1600 or even 1800.
Liberalism provided the conditions under which progress could occur: freedom of thought, protection of dissent, diffusion of power, and respect for the individual. It dismantled the political and economic structures that constrained talent to birthright and obedience. It empowered ordinary people to contribute, to question, to migrate, to invent, and to aspire. Its most remarkable achievement is not democracy, or human rights, or markets—though those are transformative—but the meta-achievement that human beings can revise the world without destroying it.
The ultimate testament to liberalism’s power is not that it always wins, but that it can afford to lose—temporarily—without collapsing. Liberal societies absorb criticism; authoritarian ones fear it. Liberalism assumes humans err; absolutism assumes rulers do not. Liberalism builds institutions that survive leaders; despots build monuments that outlast citizens. And liberalism insists that human dignity is not a privilege allocated by power but a birthright that power must respect. If the modern era is defined by the expansion of human possibility, then liberal thought is not merely a contributor—it is the architecture within which possibility became progress.
(J. George Mansour was born and raised in Missouri and has long been a student of political science and international relations. Mr. Mansour is now based in Austin Texas, where he remains an active investor in a variety of businesses.)
