Among classical liberals, some cleave to an idealistic understanding of human nature, while others—realists—believe that social forces help shape human nature.
Samuel Gregg has penned an impressive, historically-informed defense of classical liberalism. I strongly agree that liberty in Western societies needs to be defended from contemporary threats from both left and right. Procedural liberalism, as embedded in the American constitution, is the only reasonable political-legal model for us today.
Where Gregg is a classical-liberal idealist who holds that limiting government will produce a virtuous social order, however, I am a classical-liberal realist who believes that proactive executive government is a vital check on the increasingly corrupt mediating institutions shaping individuals in society.
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Eric Kaufmann is professor of politics at Birkbeck College, University of London and an adjunct fellow of the Manhattan Institute.
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