"Neoconservatism has actually been based on the following ideological premises. First is the assumption that political democracy is the best of all possible institutions... Second is the assumption that a market economy, with almost unregulated capitalism, is the best possible economic system... While the praise of political democracy and the free market has been an essential part of American political tradition, this was not the case with imperial expansion, the major shibboleth of neoconservative faith. This latter has made neoconservatism absolutely different from all previous brands of American conservatism."