Professional Documents
Culture Documents
This article covers aspects of the Liberal Party in two sections: History and Policy and
structure. Resources for further study are recommended in the Bibliography.
History
In 1886 the party was weakened by the defection of the Liberal Unionists, who disliked
Gladstone’s plan for Home Rule of Ireland and eventually joined the Conservatives. By the
early 20th century the Liberal Party seemed moribund, but a Conservative split helped the
Liberals to victory. The period 1906–15, during which the foundations of the British welfare
state were laid, was the last during which the Liberals held power alone.
The Liberal Party’s 20th-century nadir came in the 1950s, when it polled as little as 2.5
percent of the popular vote and when serious consideration was given to merging with the
Conservatives. Leader Clement Davies rejected Winston Churchill’s overtures in 1951,
however, and the Liberals survived as a small rump in the House of Commons for the
remainder of the decade. The seeds of political rebirth were sown under the leadership of Jo
Grimond (1956–67), when the party generated a revived reputation as an intellectually
credible left-of-centre group. Liberals demonstrated a willingness to adopt radical and often
innovative approaches to reform, which often brought them close to the ideological space
occupied by the Labour Party, though their social and political analysis was not rooted in
class loyalty. From the early 1960s on, the party enjoyed spectacular by-election successes;
fueled by these performances, an increasing number of Liberal candidates was fielded.
Under Jeremy Thorpe the party made substantial progress in the 1974 general election,
returning almost 20 percent of the popular vote. The charismatic Thorpe himself fell victim to
a scandal in which money was alleged to have been paid to secure the silence of his former
homosexual lover, but under Thorpe’s successor as party leader, David Steel (1976–88), the
Liberals retained their position as a significant national force in British politics. In return for
supporting the minority Labour government of James Callaghan, Steel was able to extract a
number of concessions, including an agreement to consult the Liberals on legislation prior to
its presentation in Parliament. This “Lib-Lab” pact foundered in 1978, and the Liberals fared
poorly in the general election of 1979, but their strategic importance was enhanced by the
emergence of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1981. An Alliance (as their cooperation
became known) was forged between the two parties in time for the 1983 general election, in
which they won 25 percent of the popular vote.
Between 1983 and the formal merger with the larger part of the SDP in 1988, there were a
number of tensions between the two parties at all levels over policy, strategy, and electoral
arrangements. Notable parliamentary figures such as Cyril Smith and Michael Meadowcroft
expressed their doubts about the Alliance, and the Association of Liberal Councillors argued
that its own tradition of locally based “community politics” was more truly “mold-breaking”
than the comparatively elitist SDP. Yet it became clear that the Liberals fared rather the better
under the Alliance. They, rather than the SDP, retained the right to field Alliance candidates
in a majority of the most winnable parliamentary seats, while their historic ties to certain
areas of the country remained strong. The Liberal Party provided the major part of the
organizational infrastructure and resources on which the new party, known initially as the
Social and Liberal Democrats and later simply as the Liberal Democrats, was based.
During its period as a major political party, the Liberal Party was characterized by
certain attitudes rather than a precise ideology. Central to Liberal attitudes was a trust in
rationality, faith in the idea of progress, attachment to individualism, emphasis on human
rights, and an eagerness to emancipate underprivileged groups. But Liberals’ distrust of the
enlargement of the functions of the state eventually came into conflict with the egalitarian
political aspirations of the party, leaving it unprepared to adopt the role subsequently taken
up by the emergent Labour Party. On the one hand, the Liberal Party championed
individualism, free trade, and private enterprise, opposing what it saw as the centralizing and
stultifying power of the state; on the other, it pursued policies of active social reorganization
to prevent abuses of private power, to promote social justice, and to extend the role of the
state in fields such as education, social welfare, and industrial relations. The Liberal Party
always sought reform of the system of government, and Liberal reforms molded most
of Britain’s political institutions. In overseas policy, Liberal attitudes were pacific and
internationalist. The party was wary of imperial expansion in the 19th century and supported
the independence of colonial peoples in the 20th century. It constantly promoted international
cooperation.
The Liberal Party’s most significant organizational feature was its decentralized structure.
Owing to the paucity of its parliamentary representation throughout most of the 20th century,
its parliamentarians and national head office were less able to dominate the national
organization than was the case in the major British parties. The local parties controlled the
process of candidate selection and also afforded their individual members a direct vote in the
election of the party leader. Financial resources were also retained at the local level to a
degree that was not typical of either of the major parties. The Liberal Party’s annual assembly
held a consultative rather than a formally sovereign position within the party constitution,
while a National Executive Committee directed its day-to-day business.