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The political spectrum contains more philosophies and viewpoints than simply left and right.

Within each side are various political leanings and beliefs.

On the left side, you have everything from left-moderate to liberal to leftist.

All of these terms may seem confusing to someone who considers themselves either left or right.

You may be leftist without even realizing it.

You could be liberal and not a leftist.

Heres what you need to know about liberal vs. leftist and what the differences are between them.

While both liberals and leftists are on the left side of the political spectrum, there is a key difference between them.

The key difference is that liberals believe in more conservative practices when it comes to the economy.

Leftists believe the government needs to play more of a role in the economy.

For example, liberals believe that there should be more tax breaks for the wealthy and less government oversight overall.

Leftists believe that the wealthy should pay higher taxes to fund other social programs designed to help those not benefiting from capitalism.

To understand the difference between liberalism and leftism more easily, its a good idea to understand the history of each of these ideologies.

Liberalism can trace its roots back several centuries, but in terms of modern-day politics, the key point of time to examine is 19th-century England.

In England, there were two major political parties.

The Tories primarily expressed the interests of the Crown and those in the countryside.

The Whigs expressed the interests of the merchants and aristocracy.

In the mid-1800s, concepts like left and right didnt exist.

Neither of those parties would exactly fall into either of those categories today.

When the 1840s rolled around, however, the Tories and Whigs no longer did an accurate job of representing the people.

Thats because Britain was industrializing.

It needed new thinkers to contend with the new problems that society was facing.

These new thinkers proposed ideas that gave them the label new liberals.

Liberals wanted to know if capitalism worked for workers as well as those who owned factories.

They believed in the idea of the Invisible Hand introduced by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations.

This Invisible Hand would steer the market in the workers favor.

The idea was that a factory would open and hire new workers.

The worker would then be able to buy more goods with their wages.

To accommodate those needs, a new factory starts production, and more workers start working.

The cycle continues harmoniously.

The belief that was if they got this idea working fast enough through low taxes and free trade rules, the system would increase the value of the worker while keeping the price of goods low.

The problem is that the society that existed in the 1800s isnt the same as a modern society.

In the 1800s, taxes were only raised when wars started.

Because of that, wars were generally avoided whenever possible.

Thats a stark difference from today in which ongoing wars create extraordinary wealth for certain members of society.

The Whigs fell out of power and this new party, called the Liberal Party, took center stage.

The role of the Liberal Party was to keep the cycle of the economy going with very little involvement.

This practice continued for over 70 years until World War 1.

That all changed in the early 20th century when a new party emerged.

Called the Labour Party, this political group called into question whether the liberals were doing enough for society.

Thus began the concept of leftism.

Leftism began with roots in the Labour Party in England.

They saw the poverty that had grown worse over the years due to the liberal system of capitalism.

They believed that Adam Smiths Invisible Hand tended to profit industrialists more than the workers.

This wasnt what the country had in mind when it adopted the concept.

It ended up leaving the poor behind and struggling to survive while the state did nothing to help them.

The Labour Party would go on to replace the Liberal Party.

They introduced policies that many consider leftist today.

Some of those policies include disability insurance, the National Health Service, and old-age pensions.

They also expanded income taxes.

These ideas made their way across the ocean to the United States.

Amid the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was looking for ideas to help save the country from poverty.

Part of the reason he won his office was a leftist idea called The New Deal.

His main opponent at the time was Republican Herbert Hoover.

FDR championed liberal ideas about the market and the governments role in society.

The New Deal promised a stimulus package for everyone in the country.

It was the first time that the countrys residents would receive direct financial aid from the government they paid their taxes to.

Roosevelt would also go on to create several other social welfare programs designed to help and protect the working class.

These programs would continue to be a part of the political sphere into the second World War.

Even 40 years later, Presidents would take certain parts of leftism and use them as part of their political platform.

President Dwight Eisenhower, for example, expanded Social Security and helped low-income families with financial support.

Although he ultimately failed to get it through Congress, President Richard Nixon also tried to expand federal support for child welfare.

It was during the 1970s when leftism fell out of popularity.

Certain economists in the 1970s called for a return to a liberal market.

This was also trumpeted by then-presidential candidate Ronald Reagan.

He wanted to remove all the restrictions that the government had placed on the market.

In so doing, he believed the market would be able to release its magic and benefit everyone.

He strongly believed in Adam Smiths idea of the Invisible Hand steering the market and society as a result.

He wasnt the only political figure wanting to return to a liberal economy either.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was also voicing her opinions on the matter.

Between the two of them, they fought against the formations of unions, and unions in general, and also reduced taxes for the wealthy.

They also cut the budgeting of several social programs if not eliminating them entirely.

Utilities and various industries that were once run by the government were also privatized and run by corporations instead.

Thus began an age called neoliberalism.

Although these tactics started with the Republican side of the spectrum, they were also used by the left side of the political spectrum.

President Bill Clinton saw the popularity that neoliberalism had and promised to reduce further welfare programs.

He also finished the North American Free Trade Agreement that George H. W. Bush started in his presidency.

Clinton brought together a new form of democrats that he called the New Democrats.

Tony Blair, also left-leaning, wanted to continue Thatchers work in terms of freeing up the market.

He wanted to modernize the welfare system by reducing it and keeping government involvement out of the economy as much as possible.

All of these changes led to the current economic state as it is today.

That brings both concepts to the present time.

You can see elements of liberalism in certain political figures and leftism in other political figures.

Joe Biden, a Democrat, is also a liberal.

He supported NAFTA as a bill and also pushed for the Affordable Care Act.

The ACA is market-based rather than true universal healthcare.

Excerpt from:
Liberal Vs. Leftist (Whats The Difference?) - The Cold Wire