What is the difference between classical and modern liberalism?

I'll start off with an example of an average exam answer (9 or 10/15): Classical and modern liberals both believe that all individuals are of equal moral worth, and therefore everyone deserves equal individual rights. However, they disagree fundamentally about the style of the rights that an individual deserves. For example, classical liberals believe in 'negative freedom' while modern liberals support 'positive freedom'. 'Negative freedom' is the belief that individuals are free when they are free from oppression, whereas 'positive freedom' is the belief that 'negative freedom' is an insufficient measurement of freedom, because individuals are only free when they are enabled to achieve their hopes and goals. A second example that differentiates classical and modern liberals is their belief in equality. Classical liberals believe that all individuals have to be treated equally by the law (because they are all equally morally worthy, despite their wealth/race/sex etc.). On the other hand, modern liberals argue that society is only equal when individuals all have equal opportunity to work and live at a high standard. This is called equality of opportunity. Finally, classical and modern liberals disagree over the role of the State. While they both believe that some form of State needs to exist, classical liberals believe in minimal state intervention. They are generally suspicious of big states, as they believe that they may impose upon individuals' negative freedom. This contrasts to modern liberals, who believe that the state is obligated to intervene in society enough to promote equality of opportunity. But if you want to score top-band marks, you can do even better than this! Just a little tweaking goes a long way. Remember, this is an exam-style question. You want to use as much subject terminology as possible and link your points together. If possible, you also need to name political thinkers associated with the ideas you give, and/or the dates of seminal texts. Small details like concise sentence structure and paragraphing also helps immensely - it makes your writing look more confident to an examiner! For example, look at the same answer now but with more terminology and information:Classical and modern liberals both believe that all individuals are of equal moral worth, and therefore everyone deserves equal individual rights. However, they disagree fundamentally about the style of the rights that an individual deserves. For example, classical liberals believe in 'negative freedom', as expressed in JS Mill's 'Harm Principle', 1859. 'Negative freedom' is the belief that individuals are free when they are simply free from oppression. On the other hand, modern liberals such as TH Green and John Rawls have espoused 'positive freedom'. 'Positive freedom' is the belief that 'negative freedom' is an insufficient measurement of freedom, because individuals are only free when they are enabled to achieve their hopes and goals. However, 'positive freedom' recognises that 'negative freedom' may trap poor, disabled or ill people in an inadequate standard of living that they cannot escape from.This explains why classical and modern liberals have nuanced beliefs on equality. Classical liberals believe that a society is sufficiently equal if all individuals are treated in the same way by the law, because of everyone's equal moral worth (AV Dicey, Rule of Law 1885). On the other hand, modern liberals argue that society could only be equal when individuals all have equal opportunity to work and live at a high standard. This is called equality of opportunity, and was first suggested in Britain by the Beveridge Report in 1942. Finally, classical and modern liberals disagree over the role of the State. While they both believe that some form of State needs to exist, classical liberals only support minimal state intervention. They are generally suspicious of big states, as they believe that they may impose upon individuals' negative freedom. This fear of state power is commonly summarised by Lord Acton's 1956 adage that 'Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely'. However, modern liberals have rejected this view of the state because they believe that the state is obligated to intervene in society in order to enable citizens to achieve equality of opportunity. John Rawls described this when he first coined the term 'enabling state' (A Theory of Justice, 1971).