Types of liberalism: 

Two main types of liberalism are: 

• Traditional liberalism
• Modern Liberalism.

1. Ancient Negative Liberalism: 

Initial form of liberalism was negative. It regards the state as against the freedom of an individual. Its thought is that because of negative activities of a state, there is a decline in the freedom, equality and rights of an individual, and therefore, negative liberalism takes a state as necessary evil.

The eminent supporters of traditional liberalism are John Locke, Jeremy Bentham, J.S. Mill, Adam Smith, Ricardo, Herbert Spencer. Earlier, this liberalism was confined to the demand of constitutional safety to personal rights, but later on, liberalism emerged with the demand of religious freedom, tolerance, constitutional and political rights.

2. Modern / Positive Liberalism: 

The revised and changed version of traditional liberalism in 19th century is now called modern or positive liberalism. Its main supporters were various scholars, including T.H. Green, John Stuart Mill, Laski, Hob house, Maclver, etc. Positive liberalism considers that a state is a positive and welfare institution for the safety and development of the people. As per its doctrine, a state in not a necessary evil. State and a person are complementary to each other. Modern liberalism accepts that a state should perform a role of controlling and balancing the people’s mutual relations.