The Liberal Democrats are the heirs to two great reformist traditions in British politics — those of liberalism and of social democracy. Like all political philosophies, ours is based on a view of human nature. The Liberal Democrat view is an optimistic one. We believe in the essential goodness and improvability of humankind — that, given the opportunity, in most circumstances most people will choose to do good rather than harm.
Liberal Democrats trust individuals to make their own decisions about how they live their lives; no one else, whether politicians, clerics or bureaucrats, should have the right to decide for them how they should live. The good society is one in which each individual has the freedom and the capacity to follow their own paths as they judge best.
In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign. It is the love of liberty above any other value that marks the liberal out as a liberal.
We believe in the right of people to pursue their dreams, to make the most of their talents and to live their lives as they wish. Social justice matters to Liberal Democrats; we believe that it is the role of the state to create the conditions in which individuals and their communities can flourish.
So government needs to provide decent public services and an adequate welfare safety net for those in need. In particular, we place a high priority on good-quality education, the enabler above all else in liberating people, developing their talents and capabilities and ensuring that they can live their lives as they wish. Essential though these are, by themselves they are not enough.
Inequality itself undermines the ability of everyone, throughout society, to live a good life. Evidence clearly shows that the more unequal a society is the weaker it is: compared to societies with greater levels of equality, its citizens suffer from poorer health, lower educational attainments, higher crime rates, and lower levels of trust and co-operation.
Government is justified, therefore, in reducing inequalities in income and wealth — as Liberal Democrats in coalition did, for example, through raising the income tax threshold and closing tax loopholes for the rich — and to correct other examples of inequality, for example through our introduction of the pupil premium, extra resources for schools to teach pupils from poorer family backgrounds who lack the educational advantages enjoyed by children from better-off families.
This is one dimension of the Liberal Democrat commitment to equality: that, as far as possible, everyone should have the same opportunities to make what they want of their lives. The other dimension of equality is the right of everyone to be treated equally and with equal respect, whatever their personal characteristics, such as race, gender, nationality, way of life, beliefs or sexuality.
As Liberal Democrats we still pursue this quest for equality today — for example in legislating for same-sex marriage and in trying to close the gender and ethnic minority pay gaps. We believe in the right of people to live their lives as they wish, free to say what they think and to protest against what they dislike, regardless of who disagrees with them, free of a controlling, intrusive state and of a stifling conformity.
A free society that glories in diversity is a stronger society. Societies, governments, bureaucracies and corporations work best when the beliefs and maxims of those at the top can be challenged and disproved by those below. Open societies learn and evolve; closed societies stagnate and fail. Individuals of course do not exist in isolation; we are embedded in social relationships which help to give our lives meaning and fulfilment.
We are all members of different communities, whether defined geographically or through work, tradition, culture, interests or family. To function effectively, communities need to be able to exercise real political and economic power, taking decisions for themselves in the interests of their members. We recognise, however, that communities can sometimes be illiberal and oppressive, restricting individual freedom perhaps in the name of tradition or the pressure to conform.
We believe in a tolerant and open society, in which every individual has a free choice of which communities, if any, to join or to leave and of what identity or identities to express. In general, societies which base their economies on free markets and free trade are themselves freer and fairer: markets are generally better than bureaucracies in matching demand and supply, allocating scarce resources and rewarding innovation and entrepreneurship. Yet there are many ways in which markets can fail.
Large corporations too often abuse their power and are frequently incapable of self-regulation as we saw in the banking crisis. Left to themselves, markets cannot provide public goods such as the protection of the natural environment. In some cases where markets could deliver services, outcomes may be more equitable if they are provided through non-market solutions — such as health care. A liberal society therefore requires an active and interventionist state — to regulate markets, to deliver public goods and to adjust market outcomes to create a more equal society.
Liberal Democrats approach this problem in two ways. First, by placing boundaries on the ability of governments — or corporations, or the media, or other individuals — to interfere in the lives of their citizens, though strong and effective codes of human rights and civil liberties and through upholding the rule of law free of arbitrary political interference. Second, by ensuring that state institutions are responsive to the needs and wishes of individuals.
This also includes situating political power at the lowest level consistent with effective government, since the more local an institution is the more likely it is to be responsive to local needs and circumstances.
This implies decentralising power to local government and to the nations and regions of the UK. This approach is fundamental to a liberal society because for us, democracy is much more than just a mechanism for counting votes. It means a spirit of equality, openness and debate, a coming together to decide our future fairly and freely, without being dominated by entrenched interests or the power of money.
They are in favour of proportional representation for elections to the House of Commons , preferably by the STV system. They are in favour of abolishing the House of Lords and replacing it with an elected chamber. Furthermore they would equip the police with new technology to tackle crime and cut time spent on paperwork. They oppose the British national identity card. They support the use of biometrics in passports only, but the database behind these passports would carry only the information on the passport plus the biometric match.
They would establish a National Border Agency, bringing together officers from immigration, the police and customs, whose responsibilities currently overlap. This agency would deal with cross border crime, illegal immigration, terrorism and fraud. They oppose the "protectionist labour market restrictions" imposed by many European governments on legal migrants from the new EU member states. They would cut down on illegal working by inspecting employers and bringing prosecutions against those who use illegal labour.
The most well-known Liberal Democrat policy for most of the s was to increase the basic rate of income tax by one percent to fund public services especially education. This proposal was recently abandoned after Tony Blair 's Labour government increased national insurance contributions by the same amount, a policy with much the same effect. In 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 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 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 laissez-faire the " Orange Book" published in was an example of this wing of the Liberal discussion. The party announced its policy of abolishing the Department for Trade and Industry in Proportional representation Unlike 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 and 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.
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 factions Broadly speaking, Liberal Democrats can be classified into two main political factions: Social liberals have dominated the party since its formation in 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. 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 , 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. 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.
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. Structure The Liberal Democrats are a federal party comprising the state parties of Wales, Scotland and England, with around 72, members in total. Scotland and England are further split into regional parties. The election debate this year may have been petty and dull; its aftermath will be anything but.
William A. Galston Ezra K. Related Books. Stalemate By Sarah A. Mann , and Trevor Potter. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
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