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This article is about the historic Liberal Party. For the party formed by the 1988 merger with the SDP, see Liberal Democrats. For the Liberal Party formed by those opposing the 1988 merger, see Liberal Party (UK, 1989).
Liberal Party
Years active 1859 - 1988
Political Ideology Classical Liberalism
Social Liberalism
Political Position Centre, Centre left
International Affiliation Liberal International
Preceded by Whigs
Radicals
Peelites
Succeeded by Liberal Democrats
Liberal Party
Colours Orange

The Liberal Party was one of the two major British political parties from the early 19th century until the rise of the Labour Party in the 1920s, and a third party of varying strength and importance up to 1988, when it merged with the Social Democratic Party (the SDP) to form a new party which would become known as the Liberal Democrats.

Contents

Ideology

During the 19th century the Liberal Party was broadly in favour of what would today be called classical liberalism: supporting laissez-faire economic policies such as free trade and minimal government interference in the economy (this doctrine was usually termed 'Gladstonian Liberalism' after the Victorian Liberal Prime Minister William Gladstone). The Liberal Party favoured social reform, personal liberty, reducing the powers of the Crown and the Church of England (many of them were Nonconformists) and an extension of the franchise (right to vote). Sir William Harcourt, a prominent Liberal politician in the Victorian era, said this about liberalism in 1873:

Liberty does not consist in making others do what you think right. The difference between a free Government and a Government which is not free is principally this—that a Government which is not free interferes with everything it can, and a free Government interferes with nothing except what it must. A despotic Government tries to make everybody do what it wishes, a Liberal Government tries, so far as the safety of society will permit, to allow everybody to do what he wishes. It has been the function of the Liberal Party consistently to maintain the doctrine of individual liberty. It is because they have done so that England is the country where people can do more what they please than in any country in the world.[1]

The political terms of "modern", "progressive" or "new" Liberalism began to appear in the mid to late 1880s and became increasingly common to denote the recent tendency in the Liberal Party to favour an increased role for the state as more important than the classical liberal stress on self-help and freedom of choice.[2]

By the early 20th century the Liberals stance began to shift towards "New Liberalism", what would today be called social liberalism: a belief in personal liberty with a support for government intervention to provide minimum levels of welfare.[3] This shift was best exemplified by the Liberal government of Herbert Henry Asquith and his Chancellor David Lloyd George, whose Liberal reforms in the 1900s created a basic welfare state.

The Liberal Party was an early adopter of Keynesian economics: David Lloyd George adopted a Keynesian programme at the 1929 general election entitled We Can Conquer Unemployment!. Although by this stage the Liberals had declined to third party status. The Liberals now (as expressed in the Liberal Yellow Book) regarded opposition to state intervention as being a characteristic of right-wing extremists.[4]

After nearly becoming extinct in the 1940s and 50s, the Liberal Party revived its fortunes somewhat under the leadership of Jo Grimond in the 1960s, by positioning itself as a radical centrist non-socialist alternative to the Conservative government of the time.[5]

History

Main article: History of the Liberal Party (UK)

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Harold Cox, Economic Liberty (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1920), p. 170.
  2. ^ W. H. Greenleaf, The British Political Tradition. Volume II: The Ideological Heritage (London: Methuen, 1983), p. 143.
  3. ^ BBC - Education Scotland - Higher Bitesize Revision - History - Liberal - Impact: Revision 1
  4. ^ Liberal Industrial Inquiry, Britain's Industrial Future (London, 1928), p. 453.
  5. ^ 1964 Liberal Party manifesto

References

 This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2007)
  • Chris Cook, A Short History of the Liberal Party, 1900-2001 (6th edition). Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002. ISBN 0-333-91838-X.
  • Jonathan Parry, The Rise and Fall of Liberal Government in Victorian Britain. Yale, 1993.ISBN 0-300-06718-6.
  • David Dutton, A History of the Liberal Party in the 20th Century, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. ISBN 0-333-74656-2.

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