Modern European Meaning
In modern European discourse, "liberal conservatism" usually encompass right-of-centre political outlooks that reject some of the traditionalism associated with Christian democratic or tory politics. This position is sometimes associated with support for moderate forms of social safety net and of environmentalism. "Liberal conservatism" in this sense is for instance represented by Michael Portillo or the Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt of the Moderate Party, the Conservative Party of Norway, and the Finnish National Coalition Party. In an interview with journalist Andrew Marr, for BBC Television shortly after taking office as Prime Minister, David Cameron said that he had always described himself as a liberal conservative. In his first speech to the Conservative Party conference in 2006 he defined this as believing in individual freedom and human rights, but being sceptical of "grand schemes to remake the world".
Read more about this topic: Liberal Conservatism
Famous quotes containing the words modern, european and/or meaning:
“A modern democracy is a tyranny whose borders are undefined; one discovers how far one can go only by traveling in a straight line until one is stopped.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“Of course, in the reality of history, the Machiavellian view which glorifies the principle of violence has been able to dominate. Not the compromising conciliatory politics of humaneness, not the Erasmian, but rather the politics of vested power which firmly exploits every opportunity, politics in the sense of the “Principe,” has determined the development of European history ever since.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)