liberalism

Circa 1819, from French libéralisme circa 1818. Equivalent to liberal +‎ -ism.

liberalism (countable and uncountable, plural liberalisms)

1. The quality of being liberal.
2. (politics) Any political movement founded on the autonomy and personal freedom of the individual, progress and reform, and government by law with the consent of the governed.
   • 2009 January 25, Timothy Garton Ash, “A Liberal Translation”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     Whether some distant cousin really belongs to the extended family of liberalisms is a matter of healthy dispute.

   • 2022 May 2, Zachary Goldberg, “Explaining Shifts in White Racial Liberalism: The Role of Collective Moral Emotions and Media Effects”, in Georgia State University‎^[2], archived from the original on 25 January 2025, page 142:

     This poses obvious problems for statistical inference in that what may appear as ‘declines’ in non-white racial liberalism may actually be due to increases in representation of non-black racial/ethnic minorities whose racial attitudes are more conservative.

3. (economics) An economic ideology in favour of laissez faire and the free market (related to economic liberalism).
   • 2018, Yuval Noah Harari, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century:

     But liberalism has no obvious answers to the biggest problems we face: ecological collapse and technological disruption.

• free market

• Mirabellis

Borrowed from French libéralisme. Equivalent to liberal +‎ -ism.

liberalism n (uncountable)

1. liberalism

• liberal

By surface analysis, liberal +‎ -ism

liberalism c

1. liberalism; quality of being liberal; political movement based on personal freedom

• liberal

• liberalism in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• liberalism in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• liberalism in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)