Liberalism is a Contested word. So contested, in fact, that I can't even qualify it with some catch-all phrase, like 'as it is commonly understood'.  In fact, it is not understood at all: It's often a term of abuse in India, where it's seen as a form of retardation (hence, the coinage, in the great Indian English tradition of joined-up words, 'Libtard') while in the West, it's a lost ideal