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In a very broad sense, you are correct. Classical Liberalism was very much defined by adherence to free markets, democracy, and civil liberties. This was in contrast to the conservatives of their day, who were monarchists, and who favored a controlled Mercantilist economy.

However, modern conservatives and modern liberals can now be described as centre-right and centre-left. Classical Liberals would have been (by our standards) considered far-right economically and far-left socially. So while it is generally true that conservatism (at least in rhetoric) is pro-business (which leads most people to label it pro-free market), a classical liberal is as every bit a relative of modern liberals in the sense that classical liberals called for the separation of church and state and the reduction of government interference in social matters.

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RE:

Classical liberalism vs Conservatism?

Sorry if i sound ignorant, i am only 16.

the way i feel about it is that classical liberalism is more of a conservative-libertarian philosophy. Am I right by that?

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Classical liberalism in my mind is more focused on keeping the government off our backs and out of our wallets. A classical liberal would not want the government saying who could marry or who could not - or interfering with what substances we could ingest. A CL would encourage freedom of movement for immigrants an open door policy more or less. BUT they would strenuously oppose government paying for the support of immigrants. In fact - they'd do away with public education if they could and give the saved tax dollars back to the earners and let them choose how and where to educate the kids. Conservatives also anti-tax and anti-big government. (Clearly Bush has not been a good conservative.) But conservatives want a ban constitutional ban on gay marriage, want to restrict a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy etc etc. So they are willing to use government to coerce their social agenda. A classical liberal would just want the individual to choose. I can see from the other posts the a majority of people don't know the difference between the term "Classical Liberal" and "Liberal". Haha. No wonder we can not move the political debate to anything more high brow than Rush Limbaugh.

Classical liberalism is a political ideology that values the freedom of individuals — including the freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and markets — as well as limited government.

Conservatism as a political and social philosophy promotes retaining traditional social institutions in the context of the culture and civilization.

Well.... Classical liberalism has centered on two principles: personal liberty/autonomy and representative government. Unfortunately, the term has been hijacked by corporatists in the Chicago School of Economics who only believe in liberty and representation for corporations and wealthy individuals.

Read up on your Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire, Locke, and Rousseau. Then read the dreck that Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek come out with. The anti-tyranny rhetoric is the same, but these later authors put a LOT more emphasis on keeping one's own money.

To Hayek's credit, he pointed out that "conservative" and "libertarian" are contradictory terms. The whole essence of conservatism is the continuing enforcement of social norms regardless of their effects on liberty. See: Religious Right, segregation, prohibition, "temperance"...

Yes, classical liberalism is very similar to Goldwater Conservatism, which has a strong libertarian bent to it.

In general, Goldwater Conservatism = Libertarianism = Classical Liberalism.

Of course there might be some nuances and different proponents of this particular brand of political thought may not always agree, but in general, they have much more in common than they don't.

Yeah if you want to look at it that way. Labels can be deceiving, especially these days. Classic liberalism was the philosophy of Jefferson and many of the founders that embraced personal freedoms and individual rights, while the conservatives at that time opposed revolution and the breaking from England. I guess you'd call that libertarian or whatever. Left wing-right wing views have become rooted in cliches at present, and things really can't be generalized.

Yes, Classical Liberalism was far more about personal liberty than modern Liberalism. See section 2 of the parts one and two from this Stanford Encyclopedia.

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yes you are.

Classical liberalism stresses individual freedom, free markets, and limited government. It is essentially the fusion of the economic and political liberalism of the late 1700's-early 1800's. It's also a way for me to make modern liberals who think their form of liberalism is the end-all-be-all scratch their heads in bewilderment.

I'd like to correct a comment made by dik-- Liberalism is NOT The Robin Hood syndrome. Robin Hood did not simply steal money from he rich and redistribute it to the poor-- as Liberals would like to do. Robin Hood took BACK unjust taxes and returned them to the people they were exstroted from. He was the ultimate Conservative!