The Struggle for a Decent Politics: On "Liberal" as an Adjective

A testament to what it means to be liberal by one of the most prominent political philosophers of our era

There was a time when liberalism was an ism like any other, but that time, writes Michael Walzer, is gone. “Liberal” now conveys not a specific ideology but a moral stance, so the word is best conceived not as a noun but as an adjective-one is a “liberal democrat” or a “liberal nationalist.” Walzer itemizes the characteristics described by “liberal” in an inventory of his own deepest pol...