The Future of European Liberalism

FEATURE THE FUTURE OF EUROPEAN LIBERALISM Multi-party European parliaments provide a place for distinctively liberal parties, writes Charles Richardson he most fundamental feature of ways: our parties support the electoral system that Australian politics is the two-party supports them. system. Almost a hundred years ago, But Australia is relatively unusual in these in the Fusion of 1909, our different respects. In most European democracies, with non-Labor parties merged to create different histories and different electoral systems, Ta single party, of which today’s Liberal Party is the liberal parties survived through the twentieth direct descendant. It and the Labor Party have century, and many of them are now enjoying contended for power ever since. something of a resurgence. Before Fusion, the party system was more A brief digression here might clarify what I fl exible and different varieties of liberals had some mean by ‘liberal’. Philosophically, a liberal is one scope to develop separate identities. At the federal who believes in the tenets of the Enlightenment, level, there were Free Trade and Protectionist a follower of Montesquieu, Smith and von parties; in most of the states, there were Liberal and Humboldt. Applying the word to political parties Conservative parties. Sometimes rival liberal groups I am not using it as a philosophical term of art, were allied with each other or with conservatives, but as a practical thing: the typical liberal parties but sometimes they joined with Labor: George are those that have a historical connection with Reid, the Free Trade premier of New South Wales, the original liberal movements of the nineteenth for example, governed with Labor support for most century, with their programme of representative of the 1890s. Queensland had a Labor-Liberal government, abolition of feudal privilege, freedom coalition government as late as 1907. of speech and of religion, free trade and national As the Labor Party became more powerful, self-determination. however, this flexibility disappeared. Labor Since 1947 they have been organised as a group leaders wanted power in their own right, and were called Liberal International (LI), which currently increasingly able to get it; middle-class parties, has member parties in 47 countries. As the LI concerned about the growing threat from ‘socialism’, website puts it, the ‘common principles which banded together. So for a century liberals have been unite all liberal parties’ include ‘human rights, stuck with conservatives, and for most of that time free and fair elections and multiparty-democracy, they have been marginalised accordingly. social justice, tolerance, social market economy, free With a two-party system, Australia also trade, environmental sustainability and a strong developed an electoral system that strongly favours sense of international solidarity.’ (See www.liberal- its continuation and discriminates against minor parties, particularly those that are geographically Charles Richardson is a former editor of dispersed. The National Party (formerly Country Policy. This article is based on a talk given Party) is the only third party of modern times to the Melbourne Adam Smith Club on 11 that has been able to win seats in the House of October 2006. Representatives. The causal chain clearly runs both POLICY • Vol. 23 No. 1 • Autumn 2007 37 AAutumn_Policy_07-1.inddutumn_Policy_07-1.indd 3737 99/03/2007/03/2007 11:08:2011:08:20 AMAM EUROPEAN LIBERAL PARTIES international.org/editorial.asp?ia_id=508.) It is ministries in the Gyurcsany government. Last year’s the counterpart to the Socialist International on crisis, instead of prising the liberals away from the the left and the International Democrat Union for socialists, has demonstrated that economic reform centre-right parties. (Australia’s Liberal Party is the is the key national issue, and they are on the same only one with ‘Liberal’ in its name to have joined side: pro-reform and pro-European integration, the latter rather than LI.) while the conservative opposition fl irts with more So European countries typically developed multi- populist nationalism. party systems, with most parties readily classifi able Italy, like Hungary, seems to be groping its way under the headings right (conservative or fascist), towards a two-party system. The largest centrist socialist (communist or social-democratic), and liberal party in Italy derives mostly from the left of the old or centrist. The last century has not been a good Christian Democrats: called La Margherita (not time for liberalism, and for most of the time liberal a pizza, but Italian for ‘the daisy’)—Democracy parties were much smaller than their rivals to left or is Liberty, it now forms part of l’Ulivo (‘the Olive right. However, because they were seen as being in Tree’), the core of Romano Prodi’s centre-left coalition the ‘centre’, with some elements appealing to each of government. (The other main party in l’Ulivo is the the other forces (social policies to the left, economic Democrats of the Left, formerly the reformist wing policies to the right), they often held the balance of of the Communists.) L’Ulivo scored a combined vote power between them. In Germany, for example, the of 31.6% in last year’s Italian election; in the Senate, liberals (called the Free Democrats), although rarely where the parties ran separately, La Margherita won winning more than about 10% of the vote, contrived 10.5% and 39 seats. to be in government as junior partner to either left or Italy has a number of smaller liberal parties, with right for most of the 50 years to 1998. such names as European Republican Movement, Rose in the Fist and Liberal Reformers. The Europe today majority are in Prodi’s coalition, but some belong To give some idea of how liberal parties are placed to the opposition centre-right grouping ‘House in Europe today, I have picked out as examples four of Liberties’. There they represent a small but countries that I’ve spent some time in. Any selection important element of a coalition that also includes involves some simplifi cation, but I think they are two neo-fascist parties. fairly representative of the rather mixed picture in As both coalitions reach out to the centre, liberals Europe as a whole, and they raise some interesting seem assured of a continued place, and are driving questions about the role liberal parties will play in Italy towards much-needed economic and political the continent’s future. reforms. It is almost the opposite of Australia’s Fusion Hungary is the smallest of the four, but got some experience: just as the union of diverse elements on the attention in the Australian media last year due to right boosted conservatism, the corresponding process the (sometimes violent) demonstrations against the on the left boosts liberalism. government of Ferenc Gyurcsany. After the fall of Whereas Italy is moving towards a two-party communism, Hungary, like several other central system, the United Kingdom appears to be moving and eastern European countries, developed a three- away. Its liberal party, the Liberal Democrats, has the party system: socialists (ex-communists), liberals oldest continuous history of all, dating back to the and conservatives, with shifting alliances between Whigs of the early 1680s. In terms of votes it is one them. But support for the liberal party, the Alliance of the most successful liberal parties in the world, but of Free Democrats (SzDSz), has declined from a the UK, like Australia and unlike most of continental peak of 23.8% to just 6.5% at last year’s elections, Europe, has only single-member electorates. Britain with 18 of the 386 seats. as a result has been regarded as the very model of a Its vote now seems to have stabilised, and two-party system: in 2001, for example, Labour and SzDSz retained the prestigious post of mayor of the Conservatives won 72.4% of the vote between Budapest at the recent local government elections. them, and 87.8% of the seats. It also seems to have become fi xed in place as a But support for the Liberal Democrats has been junior partner to the Socialist Party, with three growing, and at the last election, in May 2005, they 38 Vol. 23 No. 1 • Autumn 2007 • POLICY AAutumn_Policy_07-1.inddutumn_Policy_07-1.indd 3838 99/03/2007/03/2007 11:08:2011:08:20 AMAM EUROPEAN LIBERAL PARTIES won 62 of the 646 seats in the House of Commons. economy is in need of serious reform. Both major That’s still a poor return for their 22.1% of the vote, parties have nominated candidates for this year’s but in a close election it could easily be enough to presidential election who are seen as pro-reform, win them the balance of power, with the leverage and the UDF may yet play a crucial role in ensuring to secure a change in the electoral system. the adoption of more liberal policies. The Liberal Democrats have been shifting position as well as growing; after a period when they Conclusion were generally seen as closer to the Labour Party Where does all this leave us? It seems to me there (including a brief spell of formal cooperation in the are two possibilities. late 1970s), they seem to be reaching out more to Maybe, as European observers mostly think, the Conservatives, helped by the more progressive there are just naturally these days three mainstream tone of the latter set by new leader David Cameron. political tendencies, and the ever-shifting balance Thanks to the reforms of Margaret Thatcher’s among them is a normal and healthy state of government in the 1980s, Britain does not share affairs. If so, then Australia one day should return the same economic problems as much of the rest to that sort of system, either by our existing parties of Europe, and economic issues are less a point splitting and rearranging themselves, or some new of distinction.

Load more