Liberal came into use as early as the 14th century to designate "a class of free men" and to characterize their conduct as "worthy of a free man."

The horizontal axis, capitalism/democracy, puts the individual at play. Toward the capitalist end, the individual is driven to compete for the purpose of acquisition. Toward the democracy end of this axis, liberalism virtually turns the ancient Greek view on its head. The public is a derivative of free, private association. Acquisitiveness of wealth is on one end, of power on the other.

In the upper right quadrant, the essence of liberalism is determined by law, and the ultimate public place where collective decisions for the entire community are made is deemed to be the legislature -- indicating a rule-of-law system, where the process of aggregation of individual demands is made through representatives of citizens. The individual is a "citizen" as a "matter of law," where citizenship can be regulated and limited, with various specified rights and obligations. In the LRQ citizenship is defined in more absolute terms, in the sense that the rights of citizens are deemed to come from something much more fundamental than mere laws and governmental institutions, from something absolute, immutable: natural law. In sum, the upper right quadrant could be called "liberal democracy" while the lower right quadrant could be called "democratic liberalism". The lower left quadrant is the closest in history and logic to the very fount of liberalism. Liberty is the most radical variant of rights because liberty resides in the one right that precedes all others: the property right. This is the true and unadulterated liberalism -- the liberty of individuals to use their labor and to enjoy the fruits thereof. This quadrant is the pure, virtually anarchic, most radical "laissez faire liberism," or, more recently, "libertarianism." The "partnership" arrangements between private firms and the state in ULQ have been analyzed and criticized as "corporate liberalism.", where national and international private corporations agree to serve the state in return for monopoly power. Which may as well be defined as "the end of liberalism."