Cutline · one of sixteen

P·L·N·G

The Classical Liberal

private · decentralized · national · gradual

Libertarian capitalism

A small state, secure private property, the nation as the working frame, and change that comes slowly and through law. Suspicious of concentrated power without being in a hurry to dismantle anything.

What the four letters mean

P Ownershipprivatenot collective (C)
L Controldecentralizednot centralized (A)
N Horizonnationalnot internationalist (I)
G Methodgradualnot rupture (R)

Where this has shown up

HistoricallyGladstonian liberalism, Hayek’s political writing, mainstream small-government conservatism.

All sixteen

Columns: collective → private. Within each half, internationalist then national.

CAIRThe Permanent Revolutionary CANRThe Vanguard PAIRThe Shock Therapist PANRThe Strongman CAIGThe World Planner CANGThe Planner PAIGThe Technocrat PANGThe National Conservative CLIRThe Anarchist CLNRThe Syndicalist PLIRThe Exit Capitalist PLNRThe Secessionist CLIGThe Commoner CLNGThe Municipalist PLIGThe Free Trader PLNGThe Classical Liberal

Rows: centralized → decentralized. Within each half, rupture then gradual.

This page is not a diagnosis

The Classical Liberal is a box, and a box is a compression. It keeps the sign of each score and throws away the magnitude — so two people filed here can sit at opposite ends of it, and somebody two points the other side of a cut line has more in common with this type than with their own. The four axes are real. The lines drawn across them are a decision somebody made.

The point

Cutline will tell you the margin it used to hand you each of your four letters — including when one of them was a coin toss. That is the part every other sixteen-type system leaves out.

Take Cutline · 24 statements