What is the Difference betweenLiberals and Conservatives?

Here is Richard Posner's characterization of the differences between liberals and conservatives:

[L]iberals think that the average person is good but dumb, conservatives that he or she is "bad" (in the sense of self-interested) but smart. Liberals trust the intellectual elite (because they are good) to guide the masses (because they cannot guide themselves); conservatives distrust the elite (because the elite are bad and therefore dangerous) and think the masses can guide themselves.

So in the social security debate, liberals oppose private accounts because they do not think the average person competent to manage money for retirement but think government can be trusted to manage it; conservatives support private accounts because they give the opposite of the liberals' answers to the goodness and competence questions.

This description of the differences between liberals and conservatives is very illuminating. One might argue that it also captures the differences between typical

• economists and social workers
• Chicago professors and Harvard professors

The entire posting is very informative.