“National Liberal Heirs” as Region-Specific Type of Political Party

Beginning by delineating three possible types of party liberalism within the context: the “liberals proper,” the “functional heirs of liberalism” and the “genealogical heirs of liberalism” (the “national liberal heirs”), the chapter turns attention to the latter type, as the dominant and most common form. It sets up a common horizon for studying the “national liberal heirs” as a specific party type, from which their ideological orientations, political courses, policies and stances, discourses and rhetoric may be analyzed and compared. This is done through a general overview and comparison of the three case studies, pointing out the crucial parallels, as well as notable differences regarding electoral performance, social base, inner divisions and their dynamics, as well as relations to other political blocs and other parties within their own political camps. The national liberal heirs were characterized by broad internal heterogeneity and division into various factions and wings, reflecting ideologically, socially, geographically and generationally based cleavages. Apart from the negatively defined ideological demarcation from other political blocs, the crucial common characteristic, acting as a distinctive common ground and strongest unifying link for the otherwise internally fragmented and ideologically unclearly defined parties, was their self-styled pronounced “national” orientation and the claim of representing the national whole, regardless of class-, professional and other interest-based differences (“all-national” claim).