Home > List of liberal parties
This is a list about liberalism and political parties around the world.
1 Introduction
One can argue what a liberal party is. In this list a liberal party is defined as a political party, that adheres to the basic principles of (political) liberalism. This is a broad political current, that includes both more right of center or free market liberals and more left of center liberals. All liberal parties emphasize individual liberty, but they differ in their opinion on an active role for the state. Liberal parties believe in the growth of a free society based on personal liberty, personal responsibility and social justice.
When liberals have gained power and realized their first reforms, one often sees a divergence within the ranks of liberals:
- Some are satisfied and rest apart with these reforms, developing into liberal conservatives or simply becoming conservatives, mostly still adhering to free market policies. An example is the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan). These parties are not included in the list below .
- The mainstream of liberalism continues on the path of gradual reforms, embraces electoral democracy as a basic liberal position and organizes itself in the form of the traditional liberal parties. These parties are included in the list .
- Part of this mainstream emphasizes classical liberal issues and concentrates on economic liberalism. This is, for example, the origin of libertarianism. By many people this is considered a separate political theory/current. Others argue that these parties are also liberal parties. Therefore they are included.
- Another current wants more and radical reforms. It embraces and emphasizes democratic reforms and often strives after social reforms . These parties sometimes prefer to name themselves radical or progressive liberal and are generally quite positive about the role of the state while continuing to support a market economy. United States liberalism developed out of this tradition. Progressive liberals tend to use words as Radical, Progressive, Free-minded or simply Democratic in stead of Liberal. These left wing liberal parties are included in the list .
- Note 1: It is said that United States liberalism differs from the liberalism in most other countries. It includes progressive liberals mentioned here, but also people that would be considered social democrats in other countries.
- For some this doesn’t go far enough: they joined socialist or social democratic parties.
- Next to these development one sees the rise of new centristIn politics, centrism usually refers to the political ideal of promoting moderate policies which land in the middle ground between different political extremes. Most commonly, this is visualized as part of the one-dimensional political spectrum of Left-Ri or pragmaticPragmatism is a school of philosophy originating in United States in the late 1800s. Pragmatism is characterized by the insistence on consequences, utility and practicality as vital components of truth. Pragmatism objects to the view that human concepts a parties that share liberal values and develop into liberal or similar parties. These parties are included in the list too.
- Finally one sees liberals joining parties with a broader political range. This happens especially in countries where the electoral systemElections An electoral system is the use of particular voting systems to place some group of people in charge of administration of a legal system under pre-existing legal codes, which typically require special measures, e. constitutional change, to modify favors a two-party systemA two-party system is a type of party system where only two political parties have a realistic chance of winning an election. Usually this means that all, or nearly all, elected offices are held only by the candidates of the two parties that get the most. (See below for a list of parties.)
- Note 2: In some cases the liberal current has developed into a populistAt the most basic level, populism is a political ideology that holds that the common person is oppressed by an elite in society, which exists only to serve its own interests, and therefore, the instruments of the State need to be grasped from this self-se direction, like in the case of the Freedom Party (Austria) , in other cases populist parties have adopted the word "liberal" in their names, like in the cases of the Liberal Democratic Party (Russia) and the Liberal Democratic Party (Lithuania)The Liberal Democratic Party ( Lithuanian: Liberalu Demokratu Partija of Lithuania is a populist party led by Valentinas Mazuronis. It was formed in 2002 as a splinter group from the Lithuanian Liberal Union (the remainder of which subsequently merged in. These parties have only a tenuous connection to any tradition that would usually be called "liberal".
Many liberal or similar parties are member of the Liberal International and/or of its regional partners, like the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party and the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats. Mainly due to national contexts or power reasons some of these parties joined either the Socialist International or the conservative International Democratic Union and its regional partners. Generally the membership of the liberal organizations is an indication that a party is a liberal party and all members are listed. This includes also some centre parties of which the liberal character is disputed by some. Membership of the Socialist International or the International Democratic Union is a contra-indication. These contra-indications doesn't exclude a listing.
