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The Liberal Democrats, often shortened to Lib Dems, are a liberal political party in the United Kingdom formed in 1988 by the merger of the Liberal Party and the short-lived Social Democratic Party; the two parties had already been in an alliance for some years prior to this.
Generally promoting social liberalism, the Liberal Democrats as a principle seek to minimise state intervention in personal affairs in the United Kingdom and throughout the world, with many Lib Dem MPs criticising such intervention as symptomatic of a "nanny state", but unlike some other liberal parties, the Liberal Democrats were not founded on an explicit doctrine of economic liberalism instead favouring combining a commitment to social justice and the welfare state with a belief in economic freedom and competitive markets wherever possible. The party's Presidential Book of Office, passed between outgoing and incoming Presidents, is John Stuart Mill's On Liberty. The party is traditionally supportive of a multilateral foreign policy, and opposed British participation in the War in Iraq and now support a swift withdrawal of troops in Iraq by October 2007. They are considered the most pro-European party in British politics. Recently the party has adopted a strong sense of environmentalist values - favouring taxing high polluters more so than at the moment. Since the 2006 Liberal Democrat Party Conference the party has switched to favour cutting the basic rate of income tax by 'two pence in the pound' while proposing raising tax rates on annual earnings above £100,000, a significant alteration of their policy towards fiscal neutrality and away from increasing tax revenue for purposes of redistribution that had previously been considered an "Old Labour" position.
History of the Liberal DemocratsFounding
In 1987, following disappointing results in that year's general election, Steel proposed a merger of the two parties. Although opposed by David Owen, it was supported by a majority of members of each and the two parties formally merged in 1988, with David Steel and Robert Maclennan (who had become SDP leader in August 1987) as interim joint leaders. At the time of the merger, in 1988, the party took the name Social and Liberal Democrats (SLD). After briefly shortening its name to The Democrats, it changed to the current name of Liberal Democrats in October 1989, which is now frequently shortened to "Lib Dems". The minority of the SDP who rejected the merger remained under David Owen's leadership. Some Liberals disliked the direction the party was going in after Paddy Ashdown's election as leader and created a new party which revived the name "Liberal Party". Post-1988 historyAshdown (1988-99)The former Liberal MP Paddy Ashdown became leader of the new party, and under his leadership the party's support grew steadily. Although the Lib Dems did not immediately manage to repeat the 20%+ shares of national vote which the SDP/Liberal alliance had achieved in the 1980s, they did manage to more than double their representation in Parliament at the 1997 General Election, and become a major force in local government throughout the decade. Following the election of Tony Blair as leader of the Labour Party in 1994, Ashdown controversially pursued a policy of cooperation between the two parties (with the two leaders even allegedly agreeing to form a coalition government). However this Lib-Lab pact failed to materialise when it became apparent to the Liberal Democrats that Labour would not introduce proportional representation and other key Liberal Democrat demands. Labour's massive majority after the 1997 general election also meant that Blair lost interest in pursuing the issue, and some senior Labour politicians (e.g., John Prescott) were strongly opposed to a coalition. Kennedy (1999-2006)Ashdown retired as leader in 1999 and Charles Kennedy was elected as his replacement. Kennedy was originally the only SDP MP who fully supported the merger. The party improved on their 1997 results at the 2001 general election, winning more seats and increasing their share of the vote. During Labour's second term, the Liberal Democrats won support due to their opposition to the war on Iraq, and Charles Kennedy expressed his goal of replacing the Conservatives as the main opposition. The party won seats from Labour in by-elections in Brent East in 2003 and Leicester South in 2004, and narrowly missed taking others in Birmingham Hodge Hill and Hartlepool. Generally the party's increased support in the early 2000s came from both former Labour and former Conservative voters, due to the Lib Dems' positions on issues that unite the Labour left with liberal Conservatives: civil liberties, electoral reform, the War in Iraq and matters of trust and open government. However, whilst these two groups of potential supporters might agree with the party on these 'Lib Dem issues' (and disagree with the perceived authoritarianism of the government and main opposition), matters of economic policy presented an obvious gap between the two groups that the party are still debating how and whether to bridge. At the 2005 general election, the Liberal Democrats gained their highest share of the vote since the days of the SDP-Liberal Alliance, receiving 62 seats. However, many had anticipated that this election would prove to be the Lib Dem's great breakthrough at Westminster, with some party activists even hoping to reach 100 MPs. From this perspective, 2005 could be considered a wasted opportunity for the Liberal Democrats, although many commentators point to the unfairness of the first-past-the-post electoral system that sees the party get about one-quarter of the total votes but only one-tenth of the parliamentary seats. One of the more interesting trends observed at the election was the Lib Dems replacing the Conservatives as Labour's main opponents in several urban areas. Many of the party's gains came in previously Labour-held urban constituencies (e.g. Manchester Withington, Cardiff Central, Birmingham Yardley), and the party also notably achieved over 100 second-place finishes behind Labour candidates. The long-term implications of this trend in British politics could be profound, since the current British electoral system, if it is not reformed, makes it nearly impossible for the Conservatives to return a government without winning some city seats (such as the now Lib Dem Bristol West constituency, where the Conservatives placed third in 2005 after holding the seat until 1997). This phenomenon could eventually lead to the Conservatives receiving the largest number of votes but still not winning an MP parliamentary majority. Campbell (2006-)However, the Conservative's choice of David Cameron as leader in late 2005, along with continued speculation about Gordon Brown's imminent transition to the Labour leadership, led some senior Lib Dems to question whether Charles Kennedy was capable of dealing with the future challenges facing the party. In a personal statement on 5 January 2006, Charles Kennedy admitted to a long personal battle with alcoholism, and announced a leadership election. Despite initially planning to stand as a candidate, Kennedy soon decided to withdraw from the election and Sir Menzies Campbell took over as acting leader. Despite a barrage of negative press attention over Kennedy's departure, the leaderless party pulled off a spectacular electoral shock by winning the Dunfermline and West Fife seat from Labour in a by-election in February 2006. This was viewed as a particular blow for Gordon Brown, who lives in the constituency, represents the adjacent seat, and was featured prominently in the campaign. Sir Menzies subsequently won the leadership contest, defeating rivals Chris Huhne and Simon Hughes. In June 2006, starting from third place, the Lib Dems also nearly snatched one of the Conservative's safest seats in the bitterly fought Bromley and Chislehurst by-election. Some polls have also shown that the Lib Dems under Campbell have gained support at Labour's expense[1]. Electoral resultsIn United Kingdom general elections from 1992 on the Liberal Democrats have succeeded the Liberal-SDP Alliance and Liberal Party as the third most popular grouping or party behind Labour and the Conservatives. While the party initially declined slightly from successes achieved by the Alliance, it has now steadily risen in seat count for a decade to its current peak of 63 seats despite never quite achieving the popular vote success of the Alliance; this has been largely credited to improved skill at targeting vulnerable seats. While the Alliance vote percentage in 1987 and the Liberal Democrat percentage in 2005 were comparable, the Liberal Democrats won 62 seats to their predecessor's 22.
The British first past the post electoral system is not suited to parties whose vote is evenly divided across the nation where their vote is less than a third of the vote resulting in them achieving a lower proportion of seats in the House of Commons than their proportion of the popular vote, and the Liberal Democrats and their forerunners have suffered in particular.[1] This was especially true in 1983 and 1987 when their popular electoral support was greatest; their increase in the number of seats in 1997 and 2001 is sometimes attributed to the weakness of the Conservative Party. The Liberal Democrats have generally performed better in local elections, and are a more significant force in local government, with 27 councils under Liberal Democrat majority control, and Lib Dems in joint control of many others. They have generally performed more poorly in elections to the European Parliament: for example in local elections on 10 June 2004, the LibDem national share of the vote was 29% (giving them second place, ahead of Labour) but only 15% in the simultaneous European elections (putting them in fourth place behind the United Kingdom Independence Party). They have been coalition partners with Labour in the Scottish Parliament since its establishment in 1999, and were also in coalition with Labour in the National Assembly for Wales from 2001 to 2003. In the 2006 local elections across England, the Lib Dems beat Labour into second place on the national share of the vote gained when they won 27% of the vote. However, this only resulted in a net gain of two Councillors. The Liberal Democrats continued to make gains from Labour in many northern cities. IdeologyThe Liberal Democrats describe their ideology as giving "power to the people". They state they are against the undemocratic concentration of power in unaccountable bodies. They propose decentralisation of power out of Westminster. They would also create a system of tiered government structures to make decisions at what they see as the right level, including regional assemblies, the European Union, and international organisations. In keeping with the principle of decentralisation of power, the Liberal Democrats are keen protectors of civil liberties and oppose intervention of the state in personal affairs. For this reason, they have been popular amongst campaigners for the decriminalisation of recreational drugs. Left wing or right wing?Since the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major the Liberal Democrats and their precursor Liberal party have been seen as the centrist party of British politics, although Tony Blair did reposition the Labour Party firmly to the centre in the 1990s. With a few exceptions (most notably Paddy Ashdown [2]), Lib Dems opposed the 2003 Invasion of Iraq although with some division over whether troops should be withdrawn immediately or not once the war had begun [3], although they were the strongest advocates of the Kosovo War and before that, intervention in Bosnia. They have favoured higher taxes, but have also advocated 'pro-market' policies such as post office privatisation and the abolition of some government departments. Some claim that attempting to place the Liberal Democrats within the 'left wing'-'right wing' model does not accurately represent their ideology and that the Liberal Democrats represent the Libertarian end of the Libertarian-Authoritarian axis, a political dimension that is orthogonal to the better-known Left-Right axis. For example some Lib Dems oppose the power of the trade unions while others oppose the power of the corporations. In fact their actual 'position' in both instances is an opposition to unaccountable power - whether it be left wing or right wing. Others argue that this is consistent with both twentieth and twenty first century British politics, which is in turn an example of the traditional left-right spectrum of political analysis. According to this view, liberalism or political centrism is consistent with a left-right analysis of politics. Thus when the Lib Dems oppose the trade unions, they do so from the centre of the political spectrum with the trade unions being to the left of them. When the Lib Dems oppose the power of the large corporations, they still do this from the centre of the political spectrum with the difference being that the corporations are to the right of them. Using a two-dimensional scale, Political Compass has labeled the Liberal Democrats as central on economic issues but liberal on social issues. Left of Labour?The shift in the political direction of Labour was initiated in the 1980s but accelerated in response to the party's fourth consecutive election defeat in 1992. Since the election of Tony Blair, the New Labour hierarchy have deliberately courted Conservative voters and even Conservative politicians on the basis that if they take the centre ground from the other parties, they gain power. In part they are able to do this because their own voters have nowhere to turn to the left of New Labour. Thus in recent years the Lib Dems have tried to a degree to accommodate these people, by adopting or at least making public, more social liberal policies. This approach has been successful to some degree. For example, the Marxist Tariq Ali implored Londoners to vote Lib Dem before the 2005 general election over the Iraq war. In September 2005, however, there was a discussion at the Lib Dems conference as to whether the social liberal ideals have taken them as far as they can go, and whether they should now move back to the right in order to court Conservative voters. This could involve abolishing support for policies such as a proposed 50% tax rate for those who earn over £100,000. This policy proposal in particular has been used by the Conservative press to paint the party as 'left wing' and as such, this policy risks losing borderline and better off Lib Dem/Conservative voters. Proponents of a move to the right argue that left-wing policies could see the Lib Dems losing marginal seats to the Conservatives, seats which are vital if the Lib Dems wish to become the new 'official' opposition to any future Labour government. Opponents argue that the Lib Dems can unite the anti-Conservative vote in such marginal constituencies, and moving to the right risks losing other marginals in urban areas to the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru. They claim also that any move to the right could harm the Lib Dems in local elections, especially with the recent notable successes of the Greens. They also argue that a move to the right could lead not just to a loss of Lib Dem vote share, but also to a depressing total turnout in general. PoliciesThe Liberal Democrats' constitution speaks of "a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no-one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity. We champion the freedom, dignity and well-being of individuals". To this end:
The most well-known Liberal Democrat policy for most of the 1990s was to increase the basic rate of income tax by one percent to fund public services (especially education). This proposal was abandoned after Tony Blair's Labour government increased national insurance contributions by the same amount, a policy with much the same effect. Other previous fiscal policy included increasing the top rate of income tax by 10 percent to 50% for those earning over £100,000 to fund their increased public spending plans, but this was abandoned in 2006 after the party conference approved new tax policies which left the top rate at 40%. They also propose to replace Council Tax with local income taxes. In 2003 the Liberal Democrats started to make their long-held pledge to abolish Council Tax a centrepiece of their campaign. The Liberal Democrats opposed UK participation in the 2003 Iraq war prior to the conflict, but stated that they would support UK forces that had been ordered to fight while it was taking place. After the initial military action was completed, they renewed their political opposition. The period after 2001 saw an internal discussion about the right policies for the party on economics and public spending, with some party members advocating that the party position itself as a defender of the traditional welfare state in order to gain support from those who had previously voted Labour. Others, most notably David Laws, advocated a policy of smaller government and free-market liberalism (the "Orange Book" published in 2004 was an example of this wing of the Liberal discussion). The party announced its policy of abolishing the Department for Trade and Industry in 2004. Current party policies can be found on the party website:
The Liberal Democrats are a member party of the Liberal International and the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party and their 12 MEPs form part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) group in the European Parliament. Proportional representationUnlike the other main political parties in the United Kingdom, the Lib Dems have always strongly advocated Proportional representation. This has always been a cornerstone of the Party's policies, and on many occasions has been cited as a key requirement of any Lib Dem involvement in a coalition government. Several deals have been struck with Labour and Conservative leaders in the past, promising Liberal and Lib Dem support in return for a commitment to consider the introduction of PR, but the two major parties have always found it more advantageous to stick with first-past-the-post. Both the Liberal Democrats and its Liberal and SDP predecessors have suffered under the current first past the post voting system. They have maintained a substantial part of the popular vote while being unable to focus that support in specific constituencies. This has been less of a problem in the 2001 and 2005 general elections, with the party focusing its resources on key winnable constituencies. Many credit this to the party's chief election strategist Lord Rennard. There is currently a debate within the party as to whether this should remain such a high-profile issue. Indeed it is not certain that proportional representation would benefit the Lib Dems, who have performed less well than expected in elections using such a system (e.g. elections to the European Parliament). The party has usually advocated the adoption of the single transferable vote with multi-member constituencies. A common debate in the party revolves around whether or not to give support to other forms of proportional representation that the party regards as flawed, such as the closed party lists for the European Parliament, since it may make it harder to achieve the single transferable vote. Internal factionsBroadly speaking, Liberal Democrats can be classified into two main political factions: Social liberals have dominated the party since its formation in 1988. Drawing inspiration from the likes of David Lloyd George, William Beveridge and John Maynard Keynes, individuals from this wing of the party are keen advocates of the welfare state, higher taxation, and of government regulation to protect consumers, employees and the environment. Support for civil liberties and human rights is key to the social liberal outlook. Examples of social liberals within the modern parliamentary party include Paul Holmes, Norman Baker and Simon Hughes. The free-market liberal or Libertarian wing of the party shares with social liberals a belief in basic civil and political freedoms (negative freedoms). However, whereas social liberals further argue that the state should provide additional social and economic rights to its citizens (positive freedoms), market liberals take a non-interventionist approach and are critical of government's ability to increase freedom. This often manifests itself as support for greater economic freedom, causing some tension between the two wings of the party. Many MPs from this wing contributed to the Orange Book (2004), a collection of essays intended to spark debate on a greater role for free-market liberalism in party policy, which led some commentators to question whether the party was undergoing a shift to the right. Some party donors, elements of the media and many non-urban elected party officials are known to back this wing of the party.[citation needed] Leading market liberals within the parliamentary party include Vincent Cable, David Laws and Chris Huhne. It would be easy, but misleading, to presume to characterise these two wings of the party as consisting of former SDP members and former Liberal Party members respectively. However, many prominent social liberals (including Paddy Ashdown) were former Liberal MPs, whereas some prominent market liberals (such as Vincent Cable) came to the Liberal Democrats from the SDP. Content of personnel in these two wings are almost totally unrelated to such former party affiliation, whereas some ideological features of these wings can be said to have been stronger represented in former element parties. StructureThe Liberal Democrats are a federal party comprising the state parties of Wales, Scotland and England, with around 72,000 members in total. Scotland and England are further split into regional parties. There are a number of Specified Associated Organisations (SAOs), representing particular groupings such as Ethnic Minorities (EMLD), Women (WLD), LGBT people (Delga), Youth & Student (LDYS), Trade Unionists (ALDTU), Engineers & Scientists (ALDES), Parliamentary Candidates (PCA) and Local Councillors (ALDC) which formally review and input to party policy. Other groups can become Associated Organisations (AOs) as pressure groups within the party.One group notable by their omission are the Liberal Clubs(NULC). The Parliamentary Parties - in the House of Commons, in the House of Lords and in the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly - form semi-autonomous units within the party. The leaders in the House of Commons and the Scottish Parliament are the leaders of the federal party and of the Scottish Party; the leaders in the other two chambers and the other officers of all the parliamentary parties are elected by those parties from amongst their own number. With the great expansion of the Parliamentary Parties and the increase in the finance available to those organisations, such as Short money in recent years, the Parliamentary parties have become a challenge to the power of the official party institutions. The power battle between federal officers and Parliamentary officers is ongoing. The Liberal Democrats, like the Conservatives, organise in Northern Ireland. However, unlike the Conservatives, the Lib Dems have chosen not to contest elections in the province. Instead, they have opted to work with the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, with the de facto agreement that the Liberal Democrats will support the Alliance Party in elections. Indeed, many individuals, including several notable parliamentarians and Alliance Party leader David Ford, hold membership of both parties. Alliance members of the House of Lords take the Liberal Democrat whip on non-Northern Ireland issues, and the Alliance Party always maintains a stall set out at the Liberal Democrat Party Conference. See also
Leaders of the Liberal Democrats
Deputy Leaders of the Parliamentary Party of the Liberal Democrats
Leaders of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party in the European Parliament
The Liberal Democrats did not have representation in the European Parliament prior to 1994. Liberal Democrat Frontbench Team
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