Source: Isonomia Quarterly
by Deirdre Nansen McCloskey
“What is this ‘liberalism’ enunciated by the forefathers and foremothers — Tom Paine and Mary Wollstonecraft, Frédéric Bastiat and Alexis de Tocqueville, Ramon Aron and Rose Wilder Lane? Briefly, it is equality of permission. Parts of such an equality are human dignity, in cosmopolitan fashion ,and equality of standing to speak, in pluralistic fashion. But more generally it is an equality for all responsible adults to endeavor. It is not the equalities of outcome or of opportunity, which of course are properly accorded to children in a loving family. Outcome and opportunity as political ideals, to be contrasted with an adult and responsible permission, became popular — though never achieved — in the middle of the 19th century.” (06/12/25)
https://isonomiaquarterly.com/archive/volume-3-issue-1/equality-of-permission/