How should liberty-loving Germans vote in next month's election? This a hard question, whether your liberalism is of the economic kind, based on minimal state intervention, or of the social variety, reflecting an unconventional lifestyle. Four parties have a claim on liberals' sympathies. None of them-not even the self-professed liberals of the Free Democrats (FDP)—can make a very convincing case. That is partly because Germany as a country is not particularly favourable to liberal ideas. There is an irony here. Germany's unification in the 19th century reflected the ideals of free trade and the state as the guarantor of civil rights. But these days, the fashion is for security over freedom. Ralf Dahrendorf, a former liberal politician and academic who became a British lord, says his adopted country is "institutionally liberal", whereas Germany is "institutionally social-democrat". Oswald Spengler, an authoritarian philosopher, put it more strongly: "There are principles in Germany that are detested and disreputable; but on German soil it is only liberalism that is contemptible."
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