From National Liberals Toward Their Heirs: Developmental Patterns in Central European Liberal Party Traditions, 1867–1918

Giving a broad overview of the developments in Central European liberal party traditions between 1867 and 1918, the second chapter discusses the studied parties’ predecessors. Some of the crucial breaks away from liberal heritage took place already in the late nineteenth century. While in the studied context liberalism and nationalism had throughout the nineteenth century acted as closely intertwined, often even indiscernible from each other, the national liberal parties by the end of the century mostly took a markedly illiberal turn. The relationship between the national and the liberal elements changed with the former overshadowing the latter, thereby also changing its own character by adopting more aggressive, exclusivist and integralist forms. At the same time, the structural changes in party politics, catalyzed by expanding suffrage, also resulted in loss of a clear ideological character. The national liberal heirs of the early twentieth century were thus “liberal” primarily through their genealogical background and what they “were not” (non-Catholic, non-Marxist) and not through commitment to any specific strand of liberal ideology.