Efforts on the part of political analysts to neatly categorize individuals as either liberal or conservative with respect to their political postures are often frustrated by the fact that many people are not consistent in their views on disparate issues. James Q. Wilson and John J. DiIulio (2004), in their discussion of political ideology, state that when the label of "liberal" or "conservative" is used, the implication is that an individual possesses and acts upon a patterned set of beliefs about how government and other institutions operate and in particular about the kinds of policies they ought to pursue. While these and other terms that denote a particular political ideology (e.g., radical, socialist, libertarian, or communist) are used with great regularity, Wilson and DiIulio (2004) make the point that many individuals hold radically different views which can be liberal, conservative, or representative of another ideology when different issues are at work.
In this brief essay, I will present answers to three questions which help to identify my own political attitudes. The first question requires me to identify myself as a liberal, conservative, or something in between.
From my own personal perspective, I would define myself as a libertarian. On social issues, I tend to be liberal, whereas on economic issues I tend to be conservative. Wilson and DiIulio (2004) generally define a liberal as an individual who tends to favor a welfare state, free markets, reduced militarism, and government involvement in all sectors of society and the economy. Liberals also are regarded as preferring government activism that advances the interests of certain groups in society, including those who are disadvantaged. In contrast, Wilson and DiIulio (2004) define conservatives as those who call for a free market rather than a regulated one, states' rights over national supremacy, and a greater reliance on individual choice in econom...