My blogger colleague 2020 recently expressed some frustration concerning the confusion between the customary American and German meanings for the word Liberal. Nowhere is that confusion more apparent than in the blogosphere. American liberal blogs such as DailyKos and TPM Cafe advance progressive, democratic causes, while German liberal blogs such as Statler & Waldorf and DIe Achse des Guten are neo-conservative in their outlook. What is Liberal? German liberals worship the unfettered markets and strongly oppose government interference in any social sphere; American liberals support government efforts to ameliorate social inequities. American liberals are Keynesians while German liberals are disciples of Friedrich Hayek. But German liberalism has now veered into xenophobia which puts them in the same camp as the American neocons, while American liberals embrace diversity and multiculturalism. (Multi-Kulti has become an insult in Germany).
Both German and American liberalism have a common foundation in enlightenment thinking. The German sociologist Sir Ralf Dahrendorf, formerly a member of the German liberal party (FDP) and now in the House of Lords, has defined as liberal any political current that supports expanding the individual’s freedom of opportunity, regardless of background, world view or gender. I think both American and German liberals could agree on this. I believe that it was the advent of Thatcherism that redefined liberalism in Europe narrowly as "economic liberalism" or "neo-liberalism", which has more in common with the Reagan-inspired conservative movement in the US.
Will American and German liberals find common ground again? Yes: there is broad consensus in areas such as climate change, energy security and green technologies. The erosion of civil liberties in Germany and the US as a result of the global "war on terror" is another concern shared by both American and German liberals.
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+++ For a liberal, tolerance should be in the first place, then come civil rights, then come a big manure heap and then come the economy.
+++ I’d like to underscore that Statler & Waldorf, unlike Die Achse des Guten, have clearly objected islamophobia and xenophobia, so in context the example you gave is somehow misleading.
+++ Let’s hope the German liberals will never discover that they have more in common with Russian liberals like Anatolij Chubais, chairman of United Energy System (RAO UES), Russia’s energy monopoly:”Russia’s ideology in the 21st century should be liberal capitalism with the aim of creating a liberal empire… Russian culture must be promoted along with the culture of its neighbouring countries, Russian business must be allowed to expand and the basic elements of freedom and democracy in Russia and the CIS must be protected.” Official name of the strategy: Possessions in Exchange for Debt (with CIS member states, like Armenia and Georgia)
My apologies to Statler&Waldorf for any misunderstanding. I know they came out forcefully against the hate blog “Politically Incorrect” – and good for them.
I think that there are a lot of different positions im German liberalism as well as in the US version. Just look at our blog – all of us writing there consider ourselves to be liberals, but we often have different opinions of what exactly is the best way to achieve more freedom.
On the other hand, the US Democrats contain a good amount of people who have more of a social democratic view, where freedom isn’t the most important issue, but social change is.
Karsten,
Thanks. We still miss your old blog: Die liberale Stimme