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The liberal disorder

You stressed one aspect of liberalism’s attitude to power and neglected the other two (“The year of living dangerously”, December 24th). Liberals believe in protection from undue power, whether the coercive power of the state, the economic power of concentrated wealth or the unfiltered power of popular majorities. By focusing too long on undue state power, free-market liberalism contributed to the political difficulties liberal democracy now faces with the second and third aspects of undue power: an over-concentration of wealth and unanchored popular distrust.

To take only Britain, the liberal founders—Mill, Gladstone, Hobhouse—grasped that what was needed was not less government but better government; not less politics, but better politics. The great liberal achievements of state schools, public works, health and welfare and a world trading order all came about thanks to ambitious thinkers, ambitious politicians and ambitious states.