Dum la 20a jarcento, liberalaj ideoj disvastiĝis eĉ plu, ĉar liberalaj demokratioj trovis sin sur la venka flanko en ambaŭ mondmilitoj. Liberalismo survivis ankaŭ al ĉefaj ideologiaj defioj el novaj opoziciantoj, kiaj faŝismo kaj komunismo. En Eŭropo kaj Nordameriko, ekzistis ankaŭ la pliiĝo de sociala liberalismo[9][10], kiu estas rilata kun socialdemokratio en Eŭropo. La signifo de la vorto "liberalismo" komencis diverĝi en diversaj mondopartoj, do pli for el la okcidenta mondo.
↑"All mankind...being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions", John Locke, Second Treatise of Government
↑ (1996) The Economist, Volume 341, Issues 7995-7997. The Economist. “For all three share a belief in the liberal society as defined above: a society that provides constitutional government (rule by laws, not by men) and freedom of religion, thought, expression and economic interaction; a society in which ...”.
↑Sehldon S. Wolin. (2004) Politics and Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691119779. “While liberalism practically disappeared as a publicly professed ideology, it retained a virtual monopoly in the ... The most frequently cited rights included freedom of speech, press, assembly, religion, property, and procedural rights”.
↑Edwin Brown Firmage, Bernard G. Weiss, John Woodland Welch. (1990) Religion and Law: Biblical-Judaic and Islamic Perspectives. Eisenbrauns. ISBN 9780931464393. “There is no need to expound here the foundations and principles of modern liberalism, which emphasises the values of freedom of conscience and freedom of religion”.
↑John Joseph Lalor. (1883) Cyclopædia of Political Science, Political Economy, and of the Political History of the United States. Nabu Press. “Democracy attaches itself to a form of government: liberalism, to liberty and guarantees of liberty. The two may agree; they are not contradictory, but they are neither identical, nor necessarily connected. In the moral order, liberalism is the liberty to think, recognised and practiced. This is primordial liberalism, as the liberty to think is itself the first and noblest of liberties. Man would not be free in any degree or in any sphere of action, if he were not a thinking being endowed with consciousness. The freedom of worship, the freedom of education, and the freedom of the press are derived the most directly from the freedom to think.”.