Sentence:  This is puzzling to an outsider conscious of the classic tradition of liberalism , because it is clear that these Democrats who are left-of-center are at opposite poles from the liberal Jefferson , who held that the best government was the <WSD>least</WSD> government . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  the superlative of `little' that can be used with mass nouns and is usually preceded by `the'; a quantifier meaning smallest in amount or extent or degree