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The contents of the Small-l liberal page were merged into Liberalism on February 10, 2010. For the contribution history and old versions of the merged article please see its history.

I doubt this page will be deleted (it would be interesting to see which of the reasons for deletion on the Wikipedia:Deletion policy this is supposed to come under!) but it would be good to improve the text. Obvious improvements would be to note first and canonical uses of the term. Does anyone have any ideas on these? Pete/Pcb21 (talk) 12:24, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I've added some depth and history, but it needs a lot more work still - AJ

I added a "UK" section, but the term isn't that common here, I don't think. It is usually used in the context of talking about "small c conservative", which is fairly common. Pete/Pcb21 (talk) 14:33, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Article listed on Wikipedia:Votes for deletion Apr 28 to May 4 2004, consensus was to keep. Discussion:

• Doesn't need its own article. Silly title. Exploding Boy 10:47, Apr 28, 2004 (UTC)
• Keep (or maybe rd to liberal), but it does need some work/clarification/expansion. The term small-l liberal is used in Australia. Dysprosia 10:49, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)
• Keep, the term is reasonably common in Australia. Australia's major right wing party is, ironically, named the Liberal Party of Australia. It gets its name from the fact that it is a party of classical liberalism, with strong libertarian figures - like Jeff Kennett - and neo-liberals, as well as conservatives like John Howard. In other words, they are a right wing political party.

When most people, however, say liberal, they either mean left wing, or moderate right wing. And so it's fairly common for Australians to distinguish (in speech) between Liberal (as in the propper noun, "big L" name of the political party), and the "small l" liberal, as in the moderate liberals and left wing type of liberalism.

Such a distinction, for most of the western world, is irrelevant (for example, the main right wing American party is the Republicans), however it is made in Australia because Australian politics is backwards enough to name its main right wing party "Liberal". And, I agree, to somone unfamiliar with Australian politics it all probably does sound quite absurd. But, as wikipedia grows and some of the "small l" liberal politicians get pages, the term is bound to come up again. It's better to have a page ready to explain it when it does come up. AmishThrasher

• Keep. I was originally planning to say "delete," but on reading the article itself and this discussion I think it's completely legitimate. It's just Australian, that's all. And if I saw a reference to it somewhere and didn't understand it, it would be completely reasonable to try looking it up in Wikipedia. Dpbsmith 12:27, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)
• Withdraw vote to delete. But is this the best name? The best place for this article? I turn this over to those who actually know something about it. Exploding Boy 12:31, Apr 28, 2004 (UTC)
• Keep. I always knew you Australians were upside-down ;-) Isomorphic 18:07, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)
• Keep. Good topic and good article IMO, and also of help to us Aussies... I remember being quite baffled years ago when I saw Mad Magazine's guide to political types describe liberals as people who "try to see the other guy's point of view while being mugged". Growing up in Aust, I had always thought liberal meant something akin to what Americans would identify with the Republican party (except our unions tend to the left). OK, we are a bit different down here. Andrewa 19:39, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)
• Keep. Important to Australian politics, and well written. --Stormie 06:25, Apr 29, 2004 (UTC)
• Keep. I see this expressed all over the place, esp. by classical liberals in the U.S. who want to distinguish themselves from Democratic Party or Green Party "big L" Liberals. I think this can be expanded beyond Australia easily. Stevietheman 17:51, 29 Apr 2004 (UTC)
• Keep. A term in frequent actual use. Wiwaxia 17:50, 30 Apr 2004 (UTC)
• Keep. A widely used term which makes an important distinction. In Canada, for example, the terms small-l liberal and small-c conservative are extremely useful in political discussion. Trontonian 15:22, 1 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]
• Keep; relevant beyond Australia as well, as the above comment points out. Bearcat 07:27, 2 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]

End discussion

• I modified and replaced to content on Australia to Liberalism in Australia, so the article is now more about small-l liberal in general. --Gangulf 20:20, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

A small point, I know, but Democratic Reform BC is just not worth mentioning. They have no public profile and got less 1% of the vote in the last election.

I note that this was changed to "BC" a few edits ago [1] but I think it needs to be spelt out in full on first mention, since some people won't know what the abbreviation "BC" means. I know it looks a bit odd having "British Columbia" written out in full twice in the space of five words, but I think it's necessary, just as I'd also write in some circumstances: "In the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom Independence Party..." Loganberry (Talk) 03:59, 28 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I was born in Australia & have lived here most of my life & always heard the term on US political tv shows & thought it was a US thing. So I was really surprised to find it here labelled Australian.--Tyranny Sue (talk) 00:55, 5 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]