Atlas / Organisations / Social Liberalism
Social Liberalism
Rawlsian liberalism · 1971– · Global North · Social Liberal · Doctrine / school · coding confidence high
Each axis runs from −10 to +10, with zero a genuine mixed or balanced position rather than an absence of opinion. A score describes a stated position and a governing record; it is not a judgement of merit. What each score means →
Core principles
Equal basic liberties first, then fair equality of opportunity, then inequalities only where they benefit the worst off.
Economic model
Market economy with substantial redistribution, public education and health, and a property-owning base.
Organisation of powers
Constitutional democracy with entrenched rights and judicial review.
Reading note
The default normative framework of most Western public institutions since the 1970s, and therefore the position most often mistaken for neutrality.
Check a claim about Social Liberalism. The interactive atlas measures the distance between any two organisations across all six axes and shows which ones carry the disagreement.
Open in the atlasThe evidence for every score
All six cells are sourced. A rationale explains what the score is measuring and each artefact is something a third party can check without taking anyone's word for it.
EC · Economic organisation · scored +01
Coded +1: market economy with substantial redistribution.
- Programme textA Theory of Justice (1971) permits inequality only where it benefits the least advantaged.
CU · Social and cultural order · scored −06
Coded −6: equal basic liberties as lexically prior to everything else.
- Programme textThe first principle of justice takes priority over the distributive one in Rawls's ordering.
AU · Organisation of power · scored −06
Coded −6: entrenched rights and judicial review.
- Programme textThe framework places basic liberties beyond ordinary majority revision.
SC · Scale of decision · scored +02
Coded +2: a national scheme of cooperation, extended internationally with difficulty.
- ScholarshipThe Law of Peoples applies a weaker principle across borders than within them, a much-criticised move.
ID · Rule of membership · scored −07
Coded −7: the original position excludes knowledge of one's own social position by construction.
- Programme textThe veil of ignorance removes nationality, class and talent from the deliberation.
CH · Method and tempo · scored −07
Coded −7: reform through constitutional and legislative means.
- Programme textThe theory is addressed to the design of institutions rather than to their overthrow.
Where it came from, and what came after
- gave doctrine toUS Democratic Party
The postwar American liberal settlement is the Rawlsian position in governing form.
Nearest organisations by measured distance
Straight-line separation across all six axes, out of a maximum of 49.0. Proximity means similarity of stated position, not endorsement and not resemblance in outcome.
- Liberal Democrats3.2
- Social Democratic Party of Germany4.9
- New Zealand Labour4.9
- Semilla5.0
- Third Way5.6
- UK Labour Party5.7
Cite this page
Scores are revised on evidence, so a citation should carry the version it refers to. Version 4.3.1 is current; the revision log records every change.
Free to quote and reproduce with attribution. This is a synthesis rather than a peer-reviewed dataset — where an authoritative figure is needed, cite the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the Manifesto Project or V-Dem.