Recent Articles



































Liberal parties



         


This text is part of
the Liberalism series (III)

Liberalism
Liberalism in countries
Liberal parties
Category: Liberal parties
Liberal International
Liberal leaders
Timeline of liberal parties
Liberal thinkers
Liberal leaders
Liberal bibliography


This is a list of liberal parties around the world.

[Top]

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:

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.
Note 2: In some cases the liberal current has developed into a populist 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). 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. Membership of the Socialist International or the International Democratic Union is a contra-indication. Three members of the Socialist International are included both because of historical reasons and because they still are parties close to liberalism.

[Top]

International organizations of parties

[Top]

The parties

Defunct parties can be found at the Timeline of liberal parties around the world

Though one could dispute if all parties below are liberal parties, the choice has been made to include all parties affiliated to the international liberal organizations.

[Top]

Parliamentary parties and other parties with substantial support

This list includes also parties which were represented in the last previous legislature and still exists as well as some banned or exiles parties (Burma, Cuba)
[Top]

Non-parliamentary parties





  View Live Article   This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License