In its classical form, liberalism is usually seen as the dominant ideology of the
Western democracies rooted in Enlightenment thought.  It is “usually identified
with the philosophies of John Locke, David Hume, Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, who emphasize social contract theory, a world where human beings are guided by enlightened self-interest, rationality, and free choice, and argue
for the minimum intervention of the state in the lives of individuals.