Individual contributors to classical liberalism and political liberalism are associated with the Enlightenment philosophers. Liberalism as a specifically named ideology begins at the end of the 18th century as a movement towards self-government and away from the aristocracy. It included the ideas of self-determination, the primacy of the individual and the nation, as opposed to the state and religion, as fundamental units of law, politics and economics. Since then, liberalism has expanded to include a wide range of approaches by Americans Ronald Dworkin, Richard Rorty, John Rawls and Francis, as well as the Indind the Peruvian Hernando de Soto. Some of these people moved away from liberalism, while others defended other ideologies before resorting to liberalism. There are many different opinions about what constitutes liberalism, and some liberals would feel that some of the people on this list were not true liberals. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list. Theorists whose ideas were mainly typical of a country should be included in that country's liberalism section. Usually, only thinkers are on the list, politicians only appear on the list when, along with their active political work, they have also made substantial contributions to liberal theory.
Most Mesoamerican and South American cultures practiced human sacrifice as part of their religious rituals, in order to satisfy or appease their gods. ... The Aztecs, on the other hand, practiced human sacrifice on a much larger scale as an offering to Huitzilopochtli to restore the blood lost in his daily war.
The primary obligation that Pericles believed Athenian citizens had to the state was to vote, since Athens was a "direct democracy" in which all eligible citizens could vote directly on legislation.
