List of liberal thinkers and leaders

This is a list of self or otherwise proclaimed liberals. Some of these people moved away from liberalism, while others espoused other ideologies before turning to liberalism. There are many different views of what constitute liberalism, and some liberals would feel that some of the people on this list were not true liberals. The people on this list have been nominated because they claimed to be liberals, or were very widely perceived to be by others. First the liberal thinkers are listed, followed by liberal leaders per country.

Liberal thinkers (chronological)

• Jesus
• Baruch de Spinoza
• John Locke
• David Hume
• Adam Smith
• Denis Diderot
• Voltaire
• Charles de Montesquieu
• Immanuel Kant
• Thomas Paine
• Benjamin Franklin
• Thomas Jefferson
• Marquis de Condorcet
• Alexis de Tocqueville
• Frédéric Bastiat
• James Mill
• Jeremy Bentham
• John Stuart Mill
• Herbert Spencer
• T. H. Green
• Wilhelm von Humboldt
• Friedrich Naumann
• Émile Durkheim
• Max Weber
• Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse
• Ludwig Joseph Brentano
• John Maynard Keynes
• William Beveridge
• Wilhelm Röpke
• José Ortega y Gasset
• Benedetto Croce
• Salvador de Madariaga y Riojo
• Friedrich August von Hayek
• Raymond Aron
• Isaiah Berlin
• John Kenneth Galbraith
• Karl Raimund Popper
• Ralf Dahrendorf
• John Rawls
• Richard Rorty

Liberal leaders (per country)

Albania

• Interbellum: Stylian Fan Noli

Argentina

• Unión Civica Radical: Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear - Hipólito Irigoyen - Arturo Umberto Illia - Raúl Alfonsín

Australia

• Alfred Deakin
• Australian Democrats: Natasha Stott Despoja - Andrew Bartlett

Austria

• Anton von Schmerling

Belgium

• Parti Libèral: Charles Rogier - Hubert Frère-Orban - Paul Janson - Paul Hymans - Paul-Emile Janson
• Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten: Guy Verhofstadt

Bolivia

• Hernán Siles Zuazo

Brazil

• Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro: Tancredo Neves

Bulgaria

• Pre-communist period: Ljuben Karavelov - Petko Karavelov - Alexander Malinov
• Zhelyu Zhelev

Canada

• Louis Joseph Papineau
• Liberal Party of Canada: Alexander Mackenzie - Wilfrid Laurier - William Lyon Mackenzie King - Louis St. Laurent - Lester Bowles Pearson - Pierre Elliott Trudeau - John Napier Turner - Jean Chrétien - Paul Martin

Chile

• Partido Liberal: Arturo Alessandri Palma

Colombia

• Partido Liberal: Jorge Eliécer Gaitan - Alfonso Lopez Michelsen

Czechoslovakia (former)

• National Social Party: Tomáš Masaryk - Edvard Beneš
• non-partisan: Václav Havel

Czech Republic

• non-partisan: Václav Havel
• Free Democrats: Jiri Dienstbier

Denmark

• Radikale Venstre: Carl Theodor Zahle - Hilmar Baunsgaard
• Venstre: Poul Hartling

Ecuador

• Eloy Alfaro

Egypt

• Wafd: Said Zaghlul Pasha - Mustafa el-Nahas Pasha

Estonia

• Jaan Tõnisson

Finland

• Kansallinen Edistyspuolue: Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg

Finland

• Keskustapuolue: Esko Aho

France

• 19th century: Marie-Joseph Marquis de Lafayette - Benjamin Constant de Rebecque - François Guizot - Adolphe Thiers - Jules Grévy
• Parti Radical: Léon Gambetta - Georges Clemenceau - Edouard Daladier - Edouard Herriot - Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber
• Simone Veil

Germany

• Liberals before 1918: Rudolf von Bennigsen -
• Freisinn: Theodor Barth - Friedrich Naumann - Max Weber
• Deutsche Demokratische Partei: Walther Rathenau - Theodor Heuss
• Deutsche Volkspartei]: Gustav Stresemann
• LDPD (East-Germany): Wilhelm Külz
• Freie Demokratische Partei: Ralf Dahrendorf - Karl-Hermann Flach - Hans-Dietrich Genscher - Walter Scheel

Greece

• Enosis Kentrou: Georgious Papandreou
• Komma Fileleftheron: Eleftherios Venizelos

Honduras

• Partido Liberal: Roberto Suazo Córdova - José Azcona del Hoyo- Carlos Roberto Reina

Hungary

• 19th century: Lajos Kossuth - Ferenc Deák
• Alliance of Free Democrats: Árpád Göncz

India

• Surendranath Banerjea

Iran

• Netzat Azadi: Medhi Bazargan

Italia

• 19th century: Count Camillo Benso di Cavour - Giuseppe Mazzini- Francesco Crispi - Agostini Depretis - Giovanni Giolitti - Carlo Rosselli
• Unione Nazionale: Giovanni Amendola
• Partito Liberale Italiano: Benedetto Croce - Luigi Einaudi
• Partito Repubblicano Italiano: Ugo la Malfa - Giovanni Spadolini

Japan

• Itagaki Taisuke - Hamaguchi Osachi

Latvia

• Demokratiskais Centrs: Jānis Čakste

Lithuania

• Lithuanian Peasants Union: Kazys Grinius

Luxembourg

• Demokratesch Partei: Gaston Thorn

Mexico

• Pre-revolution: Benito Juárez - Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada - Francisco I. Madero

Netherlands

• Liberals in the nineteenth century: Johan Rudolf Thorbecke - Samuel van Houten
• Joannes Kappeyne van de Coppello - Johannes Pieter Roetert Tak van Poortvliet - Hendrik Goeman Borgesius
• Vrijzinnig-Democratische Bond: Dirk Bos - Aletta Jacobs - Pieter Jacobus Oud
• Liberale Staatspartij: Benjamin Marius Telders
• Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie: Pieter Jacobus Oud - Hans Wiegel - Frits Bolkestein
• Democraten 66: Hans van Mierlo - Jan Terlouw - Thom de Graaf - Boris Dittrich

Norway

• Venstre: Johan Sverdrup - Johannes Steen - Lars Sponheim

New Zealand

• Richard John Seddon

Nicaragua

• Augusto César Sandino

Norway

• Venstre: Gunnar Knudsen

Philippines

• Partido Liberal: Manuel Roxas - Diosdado Macapagal - Benigno Aquino

Poland

• Hanna Suchocka

Romania

• Partidul National Liberal: Ion Brătianu - Ionel C.C. Brătianu

Russia

• pre-revolution: Pavel Milyukov - Prince Georgy Yevgenyevich Lvov
• Dissidence during communism: Andrei Sakharov
• Yabloko: Grigorii Yavlinskii

Senegal

• Parti Démocratique du Sénégal: Abdoulaye Wade

Serbia

• Vladimir Jovanovic

Slovenia

• Liberalna Demokracija Slovenije: Janez Drnovsek

South Africa

• United Party: Jan Smuts
• South African Liberal Party: Alan Paton
• Progressive Federal Party: Helen Suzman
• Democratic Alliance: Colin Eglin - Tony Leon

Spain

• Liberals before 1912: Emilio Castelar u Ripoll - José Canalejas y Mendez
• Izquierda Republicana: Manuel Azaña
• Centro Democratico y Social: Adolfo Suárez

Sweden

• Folkpartiet Liberalerna: Bertil Ohlin - Gunnar Helén - Per Ahlmark - Ola Ullsten - Bengt Westerberg - Maria Leissner - Lars Leijonborg

Switzerland

• Freisinn: Ludwig Snell - Johann Escher

Taiwan

• Democratic Progressive Party: Chen Shui-bian

Thailand

• Democratic Party: Chuan Leekpai

Ukraine

• Serhij Jefremov

United Kingdom

• Whigs: Charles James Fox - Charles Earl Grey
• The Liberal Party: Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston - William Ewart Gladstone - Henry Campbell-Bannerman - Herbert Henry Asquith - David Lloyd George - Herbert Samuel - Archibald Sinclair- John Maynard Keynes - Clement Davies - Jo Grimond - Jeremy Thorpe
• Liberal Democrats: David Steel - Paddy Ashdown - Ralf Dahrendorf - Charles Kennedy

United States

Note: the interpretation of liberal here is not equal to the standard U.S. interpretation.

• 18th/19th century: Benjamin Franklin - Thomas Jefferson - James Madison
• Democratic Party: Franklin Delano Roosevelt- Hubert H. Humphrey - Nelson Rockefeller - John F. Kennedy - Robert Kennedy - Edward Kennedy - Allard K. Lowenstein - Eugene McCarthy - George McGovern - Jimmy Carter - Walter Mondale - Bill Clinton - Paul Wellstone

Uruguay

• Partido Colorado: José Batlle y Ordoñez - Julio Maria Sanguinetti