What is Classical Liberalism? - Dr Jeremy Shearmur. Since the Second World War the scope and size of government has grown significantly. Politicians, bureaucrats and social interest groups have ensured that legislation and regulation reaches into every area of our public and personal lives. A classical liberal views this as threatening individual conscience and freedom. We go to, say, Coles or Woolworths, and typically find what we want, at competitive prices, and with a high degree of responsiveness to the preferences of ourselves as consumers. By contrast, when we turn to government services… The classical liberal view is that we should only have government doing things, when there are telling arguments that it cannot be done better, privately.