Liberalism :
News
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Critical Choices: Energy Security for Malaysia and Germany
Malaysia and Germany face a more volatile energy environment. A new IDEAS report, released alongside its Liberalism Conference 2026, sets out how both countries can build resilience and cooperate more closely.
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The Case for Liberal Pragmatism
The Philippines stands at a crucial crossroads. History will soon reveal whether the political turmoil triggered by the recent corruption scandal will give birth to a new kind of politics, or merely result in more of the same—new faces advancing the same rent-seeking, inward-looking, and protectionist policies that benefit entrenched local elites.
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Defending Freedom Across Generations: Liberalism in an Aging Philippines
In just five years, the Philippines will officially be an aging society. That should surprise—and worry us. After all, this is still a country where half the population is under 25. Yet in 2020, there were already 9.24 million senior citizens (60 years and above), or 8.5% of the population. By 2066, one in five Filipinos will be elderly.
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From Salons to Shelves: Reclaiming the Library as a Liberal Space
Democracy will not survive when 9 out of 10 Filipino children can’t read properly. In the Philippines, this is not just a rhetorical statement. A 2022 World Bank report found that 91% of 10-year-olds in the country cannot read and understand a simple story.
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The party of progress must represent progress
In the late twentieth century, German philosopher Jürgen Habermas began diagnosing what later scholars would call “liberal pathologies”—internal contradictions within modern liberal democracies. These refer to the social, cultural, political, and economic dynamics that, though rooted in liberal ideals, evolve in ways that undermine liberalism’s original promise of freedom, prosperity, and equality within democratic institutions.
