against which classical liberalism fought. In the very act of
turning the clock back to seventeenth-century mercantilism, he
is fond of castigating true liberals as reactionary!

The change in the meaning attached to the term liberalism is
more striking in economic matters than in political. The twen-
tieth-century liberal, like the nineteenth-century liberal, favors
parliamentary institutions, representative government, civil
rights, and so on. Yet even in political matters, there is a notable
difference. Jealous of liberty, and hence fearful of centralized
power, whether in governmental or private hands, the nine-
teenth-century liberal favored political decentralization. Com-
mitted to action and confident of the beneficence of power so
long as it is in the hands of a government ostensibly controlled
by the electorate, the twentieth-century liberal favors centralized
government. He will resolve any doubt about where power
should be located in favor of the state instead of the city, of the
federal government instead of the state, and of a world organiza-
tion instead of a national government.

Because of the corruption of the term liberalism, the views
that formerly went under that name are now often labeled con-
servatism. But this is not a satisfactory alternative. The nine-
teenth-century liberal was a radical, both in the etymological
sense of going to the root of the matter, and in the political sense
of favoring major changes in social institutions. So too must be
his modern heir. We do not wish to conserve the state interven-
tions that have interfered so greatly with our freedom, though,
of course, we do wish to conserve those that have promoted it,
Moreover, in practice, the term conservatism has come to cover
so wide a range of views, and views so incompatible with one
another, that we shall no doubt see the growth of hyphenated
designations, such as libertarian-conservative and aristocratic-
conservative.

Partly because of my reluctance to surrender the term to pro-
ponents of measures that would destroy liberty, partly because
I cannot find a better alternative, I shall resolve these difficulties
by using the word liberalism in its original sense -- as the doc-
trines pertaining to a free man.

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