Classical Liberals ground their politics in Enlightenment principles: individual rights are natural and pre-political, not grants from government; free markets enable voluntary cooperation and prosperity; government exists only to protect rights and should otherwise leave people alone. This is the liberalism of John Locke, Adam Smith, and the American Founders.
The term distinguishes this tradition from modern American "liberalism," which Classical Liberals see as having abandoned individual liberty for statist progressivism. They identify more with the original meaning: skepticism of concentrated power, faith in individual reason and choice, and protection of natural rights against government overreach.
Classical Liberals occupy interesting political terrain. They share libertarian commitment to individual freedom and limited government but are often more comfortable with gradual reform than radical restructuring. They share conservative appreciation for tradition and institutions but reject social conservatism that restricts individual choice. They're liberal in the original sense—neither contemporary left nor right.
The intellectual tradition includes Locke on natural rights, Smith on markets, Mill on liberty, and modern thinkers like Hayek and Friedman. Classical Liberals see themselves as defending principles that made Western prosperity and freedom possible against threats from both progressive statism and nationalist authoritarianism.
At roughly 3.5% of the population, Classical Liberals are found in libertarian-adjacent spaces, economics departments, some business communities, and intellectual circles focused on defending liberal order. They often feel politically homeless—too free-market for progressives, too socially tolerant for conservatives, too institutionalist for populists.