Abstract

Liberalism is a very broad political family which, if taken in the broadest sense, brings together authors with diverse positions whose only common point is their attachment to freedom. Therefore, to find one’s way around in this political family, it is essential to establish classification criteria. There are many possibilities: Liberals can be classified by nationality, by period, by preferred field of interest (economic liberalism, political liberalism), etc. This article proposes to classify them following two criteria, the conception of freedom on the one hand, and the utilitarian or jusnaturalist basis of the attachment to freedom on the other. These two criteria generate an operational grid of six categories which, without exhausting liberalism, highlights decisive fractures within.