Can liberalism live without alliances? 

Liberalism had the opportunity to govern alone between 1830 and 1835. Its distrust of the state prevented it from continuing the experiment. Since then, to maintain its influence, it has had to form alliances. But with whom? 

Liberalism is the fruit of a long history that began, for our purposes, in the 18th century. By postulating the autonomy of the individual against any form of authority supposedly holding sway over his or her freedom, the Enlightenment drew up the contours of a society removed from all exogenous constraints, seeing it only in its ability to organize itself. Voltaire, d'Alembert, Diderot and Rousseau created a new man, free to realize his aspirations and beliefs, and equal to all others. Master of his own destiny, he was drawn into the vast movement of progress, of which he was both an actor and an object. He