Faced with the return of protectionism, it's important to remember that there can be no prosperity without trade, competition and work. For liberals, the challenge is not to withdraw, but to forge new alliances with the world of tomorrow.
Consecrating a heritage whose core is individual liberty, liberal-conservatism can form a coherent synthesis rather than a fragile compromise. Here is an outline, drawing on Burke, Scruton and Kolnai as well as Smith, Tocqueville and Hayek.
In Paris, where we met him at length in his childhood neighborhood, Romanticism specialist and literary historian Alain Vaillant reads two centuries of Western culture as the rise and fall of a civilization centered on the individual.
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?
In «Anti-civilization», Etienne-Alexandre Beauregard argues for a conservatism of the common good. Nation, shared culture and the «ordinary man» are, according to the 25-year-old Quebec essayist, the forgotten conditions of liberal democracy.
The Alpine Republic likes to think of itself as a model of liberalism. Yet, between the complaint against a French satirist and the government's silence in the face of European sanctions against Jacques Baud, the country is failing the test of defending freedom.
In her column, American economist Deirdre McCloskey criticizes the illusion of the protective state and shows how the promise of security can undermine individual freedom.
In her column, American economist Deirdre McCloskey explains why, in her view, modern wealth derives less from capital than from the freedom of individuals and the power of ideas.
For many, liberalism remains a vague concept. In his new book, «On Liberalism», Cass Sunstein seeks to define it, while expressing his admiration for some of its most influential figures.
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