Economics

Abstract

Liberal approaches focusing on political institutions, as we have seen in the previous chapter, tend to be called ‘democratic’ — democratic peace thesis, democracy transition paradigm — after the most important insti- tution they identify with liberalism. In contrast, theories and policies focusing on the economic dimension of liberalism are usually clearly designated with the term ‘liberal’. Hence, the last few decades have seen a return of classical liberal economic policies broadly consisting of a ‘liberalization’ of markets, a deregulation of trade, and the privatiza- tion of communal property — together making up ‘neoliberal’ economic policies. This terminology suggests that economy does indeed play a crucial — and arguably continuous — role in and for liberalism.