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Deccan sultanates

The Deccan sultanates is a historiographical term referring to five late medieval to early modern Indian kingdoms on the Deccan Plateau between the Krishna River and the Vindhya Range that were created from the disintegration of the Bahmani Sultanate and ruled by Muslim dynasties: namely Ahmadnagar, Berar, Bidar, Bijapur, and Golconda. The five sultanates owed their existence to the declaration of independence of Ahmadnagar in 1490, followed by Bijapur and Berar in the same year. Golconda became independent in 1518, and Bidar in 1528.

Although the five sultanates were all ruled by Muslims, their founders were of diverse, and often originally non-Muslim origins: the Ahmadnagar Sultanate was founded by a Deccani Muslim of Brahmin origin; the Berar Sultanate by a Kannadiga Hindu Brahmin slave brought up as a Deccani Muslim; the Bidar Sultanate was founded by a Georgian slave;  the Bijapur Sultanate was founded by a Georgian slave purchased by Mahmud Gawan; and the Golconda Sultanate was of Iranian Turkmen origin.

All the Deccan Sultanates based their legitimacy as the successor states of the Bahmanid dynasty, and continued to use Bahmanid coins rather than issue their own coins. Although generally rivals, the sultanates did ally with each other against the Vijayanagara Empire in 1565, permanently weakening Vijayanagara in the Battle of Talikota. Notably, the alliance destroyed the entire city of Vijayanagara, with important temples, such as the Vitthala Temple, being razed to the ground.

In 1574, after a coup in Berar, Ahmadnagar invaded and conquered it. In 1619, Bidar was annexed by Bijapur. The sultanates were later conquered by the Mughal Empire: Berar was stripped from Ahmadnagar in 1596; Ahmadnagar was completely taken between 1616 and 1636; and Golconda and Bijapur were conquered by Aurangzeb's 1686–87 campaign.

Ahmadnagar Sultanate

The Ahmadnagar Sultanate was founded by Malik Ahmad Nizam Shah I, who was the son of Nizam ul-Mulk Malik Hasan Bahri, who was prominent in Bahmanid politics as the leader of the Deccani Muslim party at court. Nizam-ul-Mulk Bahri was a military slave, formerly a Hindu Brahmin from Vijayanagar originally named Timapa who converted to Islam, although the Brahmin lineage might have been a genealogical topos rather than fact, which, along with military training, Persian education and conversion by patronage, was meant to share with the origin of the Bahmanid dynasty. He became the regent of Muhammad Shah Bahmani after the former had devised the execution of Mahmud Gawan. As the head of the Sunni Deccani party, Nizam-ul-Mulk lead the wholescale massacre of the Shia foreigners, especially the Turks and Georgian population in Bidar, by the orders of the Bahmani Sultan. After the politically charged murder of Nizam-ul-Mulk Bahri, and frustrated with the weakened Bahmani Sultan and the factionalised administration at Bidar, the outrated son, Ahmad Nizam Shah, the governor of Junnar, defeated the Bahmani army led by general Jahangir Khan on 28 May 1490, declared independence and established dynastic rule over Ahmadnagar. The territory of the sultanate was located in the northwestern Deccan, between the sultanates of Gujarat and Bijapur. Initially, his capital was in Junnar. In 1494, the foundation was laid for the new capital of Ahmadnagar. Malik Ahmed Shah, after several attempts, secured the fortress of Daulatabad in 1499.

After Malik Ahmed Shah's death in 1510, his son Burhan, a boy of seven, was installed in his place. Burhan Shah I died in Ahmadnagar in 1553. He left six sons, of whom Hussain succeeded him. After the death of Hussain Shah I in 1565, his son Murtaza (a minor) ascended the throne. While Murtaza was a child, his mother, Khanzada Humayun Sultana, ruled as a regent for several years. Murtaza Shah annexed Berar in 1574. On his death in 1588, his son Miran Hussain ascended the throne; but his reign lasted only a little more than ten months, as he was poisoned. Ismail, a cousin of Miran Hussain was raised to the throne, but the actual power was in the hands of Jamal Khan, the leader of the Deccani group in the court. Jamal Khan Deccani lead the massacre of foreign nobles at Ahmadnagar, causing all the Persian nobles to flee and take service at Bijapur, including the historian Ferishta himself. "There were massacres(qatl-i 'aam) twice in the city [Ahmadnagar], in the course of which not a single person from abroad was left alive. The killing spree lasted for three days. Good people like learned men and traders, who had assembled here in this period, were all slain, and their houses were destroyed." Jamal Khan also enforced the Mahdavi religion on the state. Jamal Khan was killed in the battle of Rohankhed in 1591; and soon Ismail Shah was also captured and confined by his father Burhan, who ascended the throne as Burhan Shah. After the death of Burhan Shah, his eldest son Ibrahim ascended the throne. Ibrahim Shah died only after a few months in a battle with the Bijapur Sultanate. Soon, Chand Bibi, the aunt of Ibrahim Shah, proclaimed Bahadur, the infant son of Ibrahim Shah, as the rightful Sultan; and she became regent. In 1596, a Mughal attack led by Murad was repulsed by Chand Bibi.

After the death of Chand Bibi in July 1600, Ahmadnagar was conquered by the Mughals, and Bahadur Shah was imprisoned. But Malik Ambar, and other Ahmadnagar officials, defied the Mughals and declared Murtaza Shah II as sultan in 1600 at a new capital, Paranda. Malik Ambar became prime minister and Vakil-us-Saltanat of Ahmadnagar. Later, the capital was shifted first to Junnar and then to a new city Khadki (later Aurangabad). After the death of Malik Ambar, his son Fath Khan surrendered to the Mughals in 1633 and handed over the young Nizam Shahi ruler Hussain Shah, who was sent as a prisoner to the fort of Gwalior. But soon Shahaji with the assistance of Bijapur, placed an infant scion of the Nizam Shahi dynasty, Murtaza, on the throne but acted as regent. In 1636, Aurangzeb, the Mughal viceroy of Deccan, finally annexed the sultanate to the Mughal empire, after defeating Shahaji.

Rulers

 * 1) Malik Ahmad Nizam Shah I (1490–1510)
 * 2) Burhan Nizam Shah I (1510–1553)
 * 3) Hussain Nizam Shah I (1553–1565)
 * 4) Murtaza Nizam Shah I (1565–1588)
 * 5) Miran Nizam Hussain (1588–1589)
 * 6) Isma'il Nizam Shah (1589–1591)
 * 7) Burhan Nizam Shah II (1591–1595)
 * 8) Ibrahim Nizam Shah (1595–1596)
 * 9) Ahmad Nizam Shah II (1596)
 * 10) Bahadur Nizam Shah (1596–1600)
 * 11) Murtaza Nizam Shah II (1600–1610)
 * 12) Burhan Nizam Shah III (1610–1631)
 * 13) Hussain Nizam Shah II (1631–1633)
 * 14) Murtaza Nizam Shah III (1633–1636).

Berar Sultanate
The Berar Sultanate was founded by Fathullah Imad-ul-Mulk, who was born a Kannadiga Hindu, but was captured as a boy by Bahmani forces, which were on an expedition against the Vijayanagara empire, and reared as a Muslim. In 1490, during the disintegration of the Bahmani Sultanate, Imad-ul-Mulk, then governor of Berar, declared independence and founded the Imad Shahi dynasty of the Berar Sultanate. He established the capital at Achalpur (Ellichpur), and Gavilgad and Narnala were also fortified by him.

Upon his death in 1504, Imad-ul-Mulk was succeeded by his eldest son, Ala-ud-din. In 1528, Ala-ud-din resisted the aggression of Ahmadnagar with help from Bahadur Shah, Sultan of Gujarat. The next ruler of Berar, Darya, first tried to ally with Bijapur, to prevent the aggression of Ahmadnagar, but was unsuccessful. Later, he helped Ahmednagar on three occasions against Bijapur. After his death in 1562, his infant son Burhan succeeded him; but in 1574 Tufal Khan, one of Burhan's ministers, usurped the throne. In the same year, Murtaza I, Sultan of Ahmadnagar, annexed Berar to his sultanate. Burhan, Tufal Khan, and Khan's son Shamshir-ul-Mulk, were taken to Ahmadnagar and confined to a fortress where all of them subsequently died.

Rulers

 * 1) Fathullah Imad-ul-Mulk (1490–1504)
 * 2) Aladdin Imad Shah (1504–1530)
 * 3) Darya Imad Shah (1530–1562)
 * 4) Burhan Imad Shah (1562–1574)
 * 5) Tufal Khan (usurper) (1574)

Bidar Sultanate
Bidar was the smallest of the five Deccan sultanates. The Sultanate was founded by Qasim Barid I, who was Georgian enslaved by Turks. He joined the service of Bahmani ruler Mahmud Shah Bahmani ((r. 1482 – 1518)) as a sar-naubat (commander), and later became a mir-jumla (governor) of the Bahmani Sultanate. In 1492, he became de facto ruler of Bahmani, although Sultan Mahmud Shah Bahmani remained as the nominal ruler.

After Mahmud Shah Bahmani's death in 1504, his son Amir Barid controlled the administration of the Bahmani Sultanate. In 1528, with the flight of the last Bahmani ruler, Kalimullah, from Bidar, Amir Barid became practically an independent ruler. Amir Barid was succeeded by his son Ali Barid, who was the first to assume the title of shah. Ali Barid participated in the Battle of Talikota and was fond of poetry and calligraphy.

The last ruler of the Bidar Sultanate, Amir Barid Shah III, was defeated in 1619, and the sultanate was annexed to the Bijapur Sultanate.

Rulers

 * 1) Qasim Barid I (1492–1504)
 * 2) Amir Barid I (1504–1542)
 * 3) Ali Barid Shah I (1542–1580)
 * 4) Ibrahim Barid Shah (1580–1587)
 * 5) Qasim Barid Shah II (1587–1591)
 * 6) Ali Barid Shah II (1591)
 * 7) Amir Barid Shah II (1591–1600)
 * 8) Mirza Ali Barid Shah III (1600–1609)
 * 9) Amir Barid Shah III (1609–1619)

Bijapur Sultanate

Located in southwestern India, straddling the Western Ghats range of southern Maharashtra and northern Karnataka, the Bijapur Sultanate was ruled by the Adil Shahi dynasty from 1490 to 1686. The founder of the dynasty, Yusuf Adil Shah, may have been a Georgian slave who was purchased by Mahmud Gawan from Iran. The Adil Shahis were originally provincial governors of the Bahmani Sultanate; but with the break-up of the Bahmani state after 1518, Ismail Adil Shah established an independent sultanate. Ismail Adil Shah and his successors embellished the capital at Bijapur with numerous monuments.

Ibrahim Adil Shah I switched to a Deccani Muslim identity, and converted strongly to Sunni Islam, the religion of the Deccani Muslims. He deviated from the traditions of his predecessor and introduced many innovations in the political and religious policies, discontinuing previous Shia practices and restoring the exercise of the Sunni Islamic practices. He degraded most of the afaqi(foreign) faction (with a few exceptions), and in their place enrolled the Deccani Muslims to services. Consequently, he brought Sunni Muslims to power and ended Shia domination by dismissing them from their posts

The Adil Shahis fought the Vijayanagara Empire, which lay to the south, across the Tungabhadra River, but fought the other Deccan sultanates as well. However, four of the five sultanates combined forces to decisively defeat Vijayanagar at the Battle of Talikota in 1565, after which the empire broke up, Bijapur seizing control of the Raichur Doab. In 1619, the Adil Shahis conquered the neighbouring sultanate of Bidar, which was incorporated into their realm.

Later in the 17th century, the Marathas revolted successfully under Shivaji's leadership, captured major parts of the sultanate, and its capital, Bijapur. The weakened sultanate was conquered by Aurangzeb in 1686 with the fall of Bijapur, bringing the dynasty to an end.

Rulers

 * 1) Yusuf Adil Shah (1490–1510)
 * 2) Ismail Adil Shah (1510–1534)
 * 3) Mallu Adil Shah (1534–1535)
 * 4) Ibrahim Adil Shah I (1535–1558)
 * 5) Ali Adil Shah I (1558–1580)
 * 6) Ibrahim Adil Shah II (1580–1627)
 * 7) Mohammed Adil Shah (1627–1656)
 * 8) Ali Adil Shah II (1656–1672)
 * 9) Sikandar Adil Shah (1672–1686)

Golconda Sultanate

The dynasty's founder, Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk, migrated to Delhi from Persia with some of his relatives and friends in the beginning of the 16th century. Later he migrated south to the Deccan and served the Bahmani Sultan Mohammed Shah I. Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk conquered Golconda and became the governor of the Telangana region in 1518, after the disintegration of the Bahmani sultanate. Soon after, he declared his independence and took the title of Qutb Shah.

The dynasty ruled for 171 years, until the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb's army besieged and conquered Golconda in 1687.

Rulers

 * 1) Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk (1518–1543)
 * 2) Jamsheed Quli Qutb Shah (1543–1550)
 * 3) Subhan Quli Qutb Shah (1550)
 * 4) Ibrahim Quli Qutub Shah (1550–1580)
 * 5) Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah (1580–1611)
 * 6) Sultan Muhammad Qutb Shah (1611–1626)
 * 7) Abdullah Qutb Shah (1626–1672)
 * 8) Abul Hasan Qutb Shah (1672–1687)

Conflicts with Vijayanagara
The protracted series of conflicts between the Deccan Sultanates and the Vijayanagar Empire culminated in the defeat of Vijayanagar at the Battle of Talikota. Following this major event, the Vijayanagar Empire experienced a significant decline, marking the beginning of its fragmentation and eventual disintegration.

Cultural contributions
The rulers of the Deccan sultanates made a number of cultural contributions in the fields of literature, art, architecture, and music.

An important contribution was the development of the Dakhani language, which, having started development under the Bahamani rulers, developed into an independent spoken and literary language during this period by continuously borrowing from Arabic-Persian, Marathi, Kannada, and Telugu. Dakhani later became known as Dakhani Urdu to distinguish it from North Indian Urdu.

Deccani miniature painting—which flourished in the courts of Ahmadnagar, Bijapur, and Golconda—is another major cultural contribution of the Deccan sultanates.

Architectural splendors of the Deccan such as Charminar and Gol Gumbaz belong to this period. A number of monuments built by the Deccan Sultanates are on a tentative list for nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The religious tolerance displayed by the Nizam Shahi, Adil Shahi, and Qutb Shahi rulers is also worthy of mention.

Ahmadnagar
The Nizam Shahi rulers of Ahmadnagar enthusiastically patronised miniature painting, the earliest surviving of which are found as the illustrations of the manuscript Tarif-i-Hussain Shahi (c. 1565), which is now in the Bharat Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal, Pune. A miniature painting of Murtaza Nizam Shah (c. 1575) is in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris, while another one is in the Raza Library in Rampur. The Running Elephant is in an American private collection, the Royal Picnic is in the India Office Library in London, and the Young Prince Embraced by a Small Girl, most likely belonging to the Burhan Nizam Shah II period, is in the Edwin Binney 3rd Collection of South Asian Works in the San Diego Museum of Art.

The earliest notable architecture of the Nizam Shahi rulers of Ahmadnagar is the tomb of Ahmad Shah I Bahri (1509), at the centre of Bagh Rouza, a garden complex. The Jami Masjid also belongs to the same period. The Mecca Masjid, built in 1525 by Rumi Khan, a Turkish artillery officer of Burhan Nizam Shah I, is original in its design. The Kotla complex was constructed in 1537 as a religious educational institution. The impressive Farah Bagh was the centrepiece of a large palatial complex completed in 1583. Other monuments in Ahmednagar of the Nizam Shahi period are the Do Boti Chira (tomb of Sharja Khan, 1562), Damri Masjid (1568), and the tomb of Rumi Khan (1568). The Jami Masjid (1615) in Khirki (Aurangabad) and the Chini Mahal inside the Daulatabad fort were constructed during the late Nizam Shahi period (1600–1636). The tomb of Malik Ambar in Khuldabad (1626) is another impressive monument of this period. The Kali Masjid of Jalna (1578) and the tomb of Dilawar Khan (1613) in Rajgurunagar also belong to this period.

During the reign of Ahmad Shah I Bahri, his keeper of imperial records, Dalapati, wrote an encyclopedic work, the Nrisimha Prasada, where he mentioned his overlord as Nizamsaha. It is a notable instance of the religious tolerance of the Nizam Shahi rulers.

Berar
The ruined palace of Hauz Katora, 3 km west of Achalpur, is the only notable surviving Imad Shahi monument.

Bidar

The main architectural activities for the Barid Shahi rulers were building garden tombs. The tomb of Ali Barid Shah (1577) is the most notable monument in Bidar. The tomb consists of a lofty domed chamber, open on four sides, located in the middle of a Persian four-square garden. The Rangin Mahal in Bidar, built during the reign of Ali Barid Shah, is a complete and exquisitely decorated courtly structure. Other important monuments in Bidar from this period are the tomb of Qasim II and the Kali Masjid.

An important class of metalwork known as Bidriware originated in Bidar. This metalwork consists of a black metal, usually a zinc alloy, inlaid with intricate designs in silver, brass, and sometimes copper.

Bijapur

The Adil Shahi rulers contributed greatly to architecture, art, literature, and music, as Bijapur developed into a cosmopolitan city under their rule and attracted many scholars, artists, musicians, and Sufi saints from Rome, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Turkestan. The Adil Shahi kings were known for their tolerance towards Hindus and non-interference in their religious matters. They employed Hindus to high posts, especially as officers overseeing accounts and administration, whose documents were maintained in Marathi.

Amongst the major architectural works in the Bijapur Sultanate, one of the earliest is the unfinished Jami Masjid, which was begun by Ali Adil Shah I in 1576. It has an arcaded prayer hall, with fine aisles, and has an impressive dome supported by massive piers. One of the most impressive monuments built during the reign of Ibrahim II was the Ibrahim Rouza which was originally planned as a tomb for queen Taj Sultana, but was later converted into the tomb for Ibrahim Adil Shah II and his family. This complex, completed in 1626, consists of a paired tomb and mosque. Ibrahim II also planned to construct a new twin city to Bijapur, Nauraspur, whose construction began in 1599 but was never completed. The greatest monument in Bijapur is the Gol Gumbaz, the mausoleum of Muhammad Adil Shah, which was completed in 1656, and whose hemispherical dome measures 44 m across. The other important architectural works from this period are the Chini Mahal, the Jal Mandir, the Sat Manzil, the Gagan Mahal, the Anand Mahal, and the Asar Mahal (1646), all in Bijapur, as well as the Kummatgi (16 km from Bijapur), the Panhala Fort (20 km from Kolhapur), and Naldurg Fort (45 km from Solapur).

Persian artists of the Adil Shahi court have left a rare treasure of miniature paintings, some of which are well preserved in Europe's museums. The earliest miniature paintings are ascribed to the period of Ali Adil Shah I. The most significant of them are the paintings in the manuscript of Nujum-ul-Ulum (Stars of Science) (1570), kept in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, which contains about 400 miniature paintings. Two other illustrated manuscripts from the period of Ali Adil Shah I are Jawahir-al Musiqat-i-Muhammadi in the British Library, which contains 48 paintings, and a Marathi commentary of Sarangadeva's Sangita Ratnakara kept in the museum of City Palace, Jaipur, which contains 4 paintings. But the most miniature paintings come from the time of Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah II. One of the most celebrated painters of his court was Maulana Farrukh Hussain. The miniature paintings of this period are preserved in the Bikaner Palace, the Bodleian Library in Oxford, the British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Muśee Guimet in Paris, the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersberg, and the Náprstek Museum in Prague.

Under the Adil Shahi rulers many literary works were published in Dakhani. Ibrahim Adil Shah II himself wrote a book of songs, Kitab-i-Nauras, in Dakhani. This book contains a number of songs whose tunes are set to different ragas and raginis. In his songs, he praised the Hindu goddess Sarasvati along with Muhammad and Sufi saint Khwaja Banda Nawaz Gesudaraz. A unique tambur (lute) known as Moti Khan was in his possession. The famous Persian poet laureate Muhammad Zuhuri was his court poet. The Mushaira (poetic symposium) was born in the Bijapur court and later travelled north.

Golconda

Qutb Shahi rulers appointed Hindus in important administrative posts. Ibrahim Quli Qutb Shah appointed Murari Rao as Peshwa, second to only Mir Jumla (prime minister).

One of the earliest architectural achievements of the Qutb Shahi dynasty is the fortified city of Golconda, which is now in ruins. The nearby Qutb Shahi tombs are also noteworthy. In the 16th century, Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah decided to shift the capital to Hyderabad, 8 km east of Golconda. Here, he constructed the most original monument in the Deccan, the Charminar, in the heart of the new city. This monument, completed in 1591, has four minarets, each 56 m. The construction of the Mecca Masjid, located immediately south of the Charminar, was started in 1617, during the reign of Muhammad Qutb Shah, but completed only in 1693. The other important monuments of this period are the Toli Masjid, Shaikpet Sarai, Khairtabad Mosque, Taramati Baradari, Hayat Bakshi Mosque, and the Jama Masjid at Gandikota.

The Qutb Shahi rulers invited many Persian artists, such as Shaykh Abbasi and Muhammad Zaman, to their court, whose art made a profound impact on the miniature paintings of this period. The earliest miniature paintings were the 126 illustrations in the manuscript of Anwar-i-Suhayli (c. 1550–1560) in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The illustrations Sindbad Namah in the India Office Library and Shirin and Khusrau in the Khudabaksh Library in Patna most probably belong to the reign of Ibrahim Quli Qutb Shah. The 5 illustrations in a manuscript of the Diwan-i-Hafiz (c. 1630) in the British Museum, London, belong to the reign of Abdullah Qutb Shah. The most outstanding surviving Golconda painting probably is the Procession of Sultan Abdullah Qutb Shah Riding an Elephant (c. 1650) in the Saltykov-Shtshedrine State Public Library in St. Petersberg. Their painting style lasted even after the dynasty was extinct and evolved into the Hyderabad style.

The Qutb Shahi rulers were great patrons of literature and invited many scholars, poets, historians and Sufi saints from Iran to settle in their sultanate. The sultans patronised literature in Persian as well as Telugu, the local language. However, the most important contribution of the Golconda Sultanate in the field of literature is the development of the Dakhani language. Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah was not only a great patron of art and literature but also a poet of a high order. He wrote in Dakhani, Persian, and Telugu and left an extensive Diwan (collection of poetry) in Dakhani, known as Kulliyat-i-Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah. Apart from the praise of God and the Prophet, he also wrote on nature, love and contemporary social life. Kshetrayya and Bhadrachala Ramadasu are some notable Telugu poets of this period.

The Qutb Shahi rulers were much more liberal than their other Muslim counterparts. During the reign of Abdullah Qutb Shah, in 1634, the ancient Indian sex manual Koka Shastra was translated into Persian and named Lazzat-un-Nisa (Flavors of the Woman).

title: Deccan sultanates


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Liberalism in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, the word liberalism can have any of several meanings. Scholars primarily use the term to refer to ''classical liberalism. The term can also mean economic liberalism, social liberalism or political liberalism.'' It can simply refer to the ideology and practises of the historic Liberal Party (1859–1988), or in the modern context, of the Liberal Democrats, a UK party formed after the original Liberal Party's demise.

Liberalism can occasionally have the imported American meaning; however, the derogatory connotation is much weaker in the UK than in the US, and social liberals from both the left and right wing continue to use liberal and illiberal to describe themselves and their opponents, respectively.

Background
Historically, the term referred to the broad liberal political alliance of the nineteenth century, formed by Whigs, Peelites, and radicals. This alliance, which developed into the Liberal Party, dominated politics for much of the Victorian era and during the years before the First World War.

British liberalism is now organised between two schools;
 * 1) the social liberalism of the Liberal Democrats (member LI, ALDE) and their counterpart the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (member LI, ALDE),
 * 2) and the classical liberalism of the Conservative Party which was adopted in the late 1970s by the late former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher whose fundamental changes to party policy aligned it to classical liberalism with its commitment to low taxation and economic deregulation. In his speech to the party conference in 2006, David Cameron described the party as a "liberal conservative" party, and in a speech in Bath on Thursday 22 March 2007, he described himself as a "liberal Conservative".

In addition, The Economist magazine, based in Britain and with an international audience, claims to be "liberal" and regrets the split between the two schools.

Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) dominated liberalism and the Liberal Party in the late 19th century. He served for 12 years as prime minister, spread over four terms beginning in 1868 and ending in 1894. He also served as Chancellor of the Exchequer four times and between terms was usually the minority leader. The historian H. C. G. Matthew states that Gladstone's chief legacy lay in three areas: his financial policy; his support for Home Rule (devolution) that modified the view of the unitary state of Great Britain; and his idea of a progressive, reforming party broadly based and capable of accommodating and conciliating varying interests, along with his speeches at mass public meetings.

Historian Walter L. Arnstein concludes "Notable as the Gladstonian reforms had been, they had almost all remained within the nineteenth-century Liberal tradition of gradually removing the religious, economic, and political barriers that prevented men of varied creeds and classes from exercising their individual talents in order to improve themselves and their society. As the third quarter of the century drew to a close, the essential bastions of Victorianism still held firm: respectability; a government of aristocrats and gentlemen now influenced not only by middle-class merchants and manufacturers but also by industrious working people; a prosperity that seemed to rest largely on the tenets of laissez-faire economics; and a Britannia that ruled the waves and many a dominion beyond.

Lord Acton wrote in 1880 that he considered Gladstone one "of the three greatest Liberals" (along with Edmund Burke and Lord Macaulay).

In 1909 the Liberal Chancellor David Lloyd George introduced his "People's Budget", the first budget which aimed to redistribute wealth. The Liberal statesman Lord Rosebery ridiculed it by asserting Gladstone would reject it, "Because in his eyes, and in my eyes, too, as his humble disciple, Liberalism and Liberty were cognate terms; they were twin-sisters."

Lloyd George had written in 1913 that the Liberals were "carving the last few columns out of the Gladstonian quarry".

Lloyd George said of Gladstone in 1915: "What a man he was! Head and shoulders above anyone else I have ever seen in the House of Commons. I did not like him much. He hated Nonconformists and Welsh Nonconformists in particular, and he had no real sympathy with the working-classes. But he was far and away the best Parliamentary speaker I have ever heard. He was not so good in exposition."

Writing in 1944 the classical liberal economist Friedrich Hayek said of the change in political attitudes that had occurred since the Great War: "Perhaps nothing shows this change more clearly than that, while there is no lack of sympathetic treatment of Bismarck in contemporary English literature, the name of Gladstone is rarely mentioned by the younger generation without a sneer over his Victorian morality and naive utopianism".

In the latter half of the 20th century Gladstone's economic policies came to be admired by Thatcherite Conservatives. Margaret Thatcher proclaimed in 1983: "We have a duty to make sure that every penny piece we raise in taxation is spent wisely and well. For it is our party which is dedicated to good housekeeping—indeed, I would not mind betting that if Mr Gladstone were alive today he would apply to join the Conservative Party". In 1996, she said: "The kind of Conservatism which he and I...favoured would be best described as 'liberal', in the old-fashioned sense. And I mean the liberalism of Mr Gladstone, not of the latter-day collectivists". That sort of liberalism in the 21st century is termed neoliberalism.

A. J. P. Taylor wrote "William Ewart Gladstone was the greatest political figure of the nineteenth century. I do not mean by that that he was necessarily the greatest statesman, certainly not the most successful. What I mean is that he dominated the scene."

1900s: New Liberalism and welfare state
When the Liberals lost the 1895 general election, a political crisis shook the Liberal Party. Until that, the Liberal Party adhered to the Gladstonian liberalism, of free markets, low taxation, self-help and freedom of choice, but after the 1895 election many Liberals clamoured for political reform. The reformers' leaders were Thomas Hill Green and Herbert Samuel, that in the Progressive Review of December 1896, said that the classical liberalism was "sapped and raddled", claiming for more state's powers. Samuel's "New Liberalism" called for old-age pensions, labour exchanges (job-placement organizations), and workers' compensation, all prefiguring modern welfare. Other important intellectuals 1906-14 included  H. A. L. Fisher, Gilbert Murray, G. M. Trevelyan, Edwin Montagu, Charles Masterman, Alfred Marshall, Arthur Cecil Pigou and young John Maynard Keynes. Socialists meanwhile dominated the Fabian Society.

Key politicians included future prime ministers Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Winston Churchill, H. H. Asquith and David Lloyd George, sceptics of non-interventionism on economy and free market, embraced the New Liberalism. During the Liberal Governments of 1905–1916, the welfare state was introduced to provide provision for lower incomes. In 1908 a pension system was created with old-age pensions for people older than age 70; an income tax was introduced and in 1911 the National Insurance Act was approved. To fund extensive welfare reforms Lloyd George proposed taxes on land ownership and high incomes in the "People's Budget" (1909), which the Conservative-dominated House of Lords rejected. The resulting constitutional crisis was only resolved after two elections in 1910 and the passage of the Parliament Act 1911. His budget was enacted in 1910, and with the National Insurance Act 1911 and other measures helped to establish the modern welfare state. Lloyd George promoted the disestablishment of the Church in Wales, until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 suspended its implementation. All Liberals were outraged when Conservatives used their majority in the House of Lords to block reform legislation. In the House of Lords, the Liberals had lost most of their members, who in the 1890s "became Conservative in all but name." The government could force the unwilling king to create new Liberal peers, and that threat did prove decisive in the battle for dominance of Commons over Lords in 1911.

However, the Great War of 1914 reduced popular support for the Liberals and the Party split in two factions in 1918: Asquith's supporters and Lloyd George's coupons. While Asquith became Leader of the Opposition, Lloyd George forged a coalition with the Conservative leader Bonar Law, continuing to be Prime Minister with a mostly Conservative base. The Liberal internal conflict caused many reformer and radical voters to join in the Labour Party, while more conservative liberals merged to the Conservatives led by Stanley Baldwin. The 1924 general election signalled the end of the Liberal Party as government force. However, the New Liberalism continued to be the preferred ideology by the Liberal Party, until its dissolution in 1988 when formed the Liberal Democrats.

1940–1975: Post-war consensus
The post-war consensus began in the 1930s when Liberal intellectuals led by John Maynard Keynes and William Beveridge developed a series of plans that became especially attractive as the wartime government promised a much better post-war Britain and saw the need to engage every sector of society. The foundations of the post-war consensus was the Beveridge Report. This was a report by William Beveridge, a Liberal economist who in 1942 formulated the concept of a more comprehensive welfare state in Great Britain. The report, in shortened terms, aimed to bring widespread reform to the United Kingdom and did so by identifying the "five giants on the road of reconstruction": "Want… Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness". In the report were labelled a number of recommendations: the appointment of a minister to control all the insurance schemes; a standard weekly payment by people in work as a contribution to the insurance fund; old age pensions, maternity grants, funeral grants, pensions for widows and for people injured at work; a new national health service to be established.

In the period between 1945 and 1970 (consensus years) that unemployment averaged less than 3%. The post-war consensus included a belief in Keynesian economics, a mixed economy with the nationalisation of major industries, the establishment of the National Health Service and the creation of the modern welfare state in Britain. The policies were instituted by all governments (both Labour and Conservative) in the post-war period. The consensus has been held to characterise British politics until the economic crises of the 1970s (see Secondary banking crisis of 1973–1975) which led to the end of the post-war economic boom and the rise of monetarist economics. The roots of his economics, however, stem from critique of the economics of the interwar period depression. Keynes' style of economics encouraged a more active role of the government in order to "manage overall demand so that there was a balance between demand and output".

1980s: Neoliberalism
With the rise of Margaret Thatcher as Conservative Party leader in the 1975 leadership election ushered in a resurgence of the old 19th-century Gladstone laissez-faire Classical liberal principles. The UK in the 1970s had seen sustained high inflation rates, which were above 20% at the time of the leadership election, high unemployment, and over the winter of 1978–79 there was a series of strikes known as the "Winter of Discontent". Thatcher led her party to victory at the 1979 general election with a manifesto which concentrated on the party's philosophy rather than presenting a "shopping list" of policies. This philosophy became known as Thatcherism and it focused on rejecting the post-war consensus that tolerated or encouraged nationalisation, strong labour unions, heavy regulation, high taxes, and a generous welfare state. Thatcherism was based on social and economic ideas from British and American intellectuals such as Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman. Thatcher believed that too much socially democratic-oriented government policy was leading to a long-term decline in the British economy. As a result, her government pursued a programme of Classical liberalism, adopting a free-market approach to public services based on the sale of publicly owned industries and utilities, as well as a reduction in trade union power. She held the belief that the existing trend of unions was bringing economic progress to a standstill by enforcing "wildcat" strikes, keeping wages artificially high and forcing unprofitable industries to stay open.

Thatcherism promoted low inflation, the small state, and free markets through tight control of the money supply, privatisation and constraints on the labour movement. It is a key part of the worldwide Classical liberal movement and as such is often compared with Reaganomics in the United States, Economic Rationalism in Australia and Rogernomics in New Zealand. Thatcherism is also often compared to classical liberalism. Milton Friedman said that "Margaret Thatcher is not in terms of belief a Tory. She is a nineteenth-century Liberal." Thatcher herself stated in 1983: "I would not mind betting that if Mr Gladstone were alive today he would apply to join the Conservative Party". In the 1996 Keith Joseph memorial lecture Thatcher argued that "The kind of Conservatism which he and I ... favoured would be best described as 'liberal', in the old-fashioned sense. And I mean the liberalism of Mr Gladstone, not of the latter day collectivists".

From 1859 to 1899

 * 1859: The Whigs merged with the Peelites and Radicals into the Liberal Party. The Liberal Party win an overall majority in the 1859 general election, winning 356 seats. Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston becomes Prime Minister for the second time.
 * 1865: The Liberal Party win an overall majority in the 1865 general election, winning 369 seats. Lord Palmerston dies in office and is succeeded by John Russell, 1st Earl Russell.
 * 1868: The Liberal Party win an overall majority in the 1868 general election, winning 387 seats. William Ewart Gladstone becomes Prime Minister.
 * 1874: The Liberal Party lose the 1874 general election, winning 242 seats. A Conservative Government is formed.
 * 1880: The Liberal Party win an overall majority in the 1880 general election, winning 352 seats. Gladstone becomes Prime Minister for the second time.
 * 1885: The Liberal Party gain the most seats (319 seats) in the 1880 general election but fail to win an overall majority with the Irish Nationalists holding the balance of power.
 * 1886: Opponents of Irish Home Rule in the Liberal Party, led by Lord Hartington and Joseph Chamberlain, secede to form the Liberal Unionist Party. The Liberal Party lose the 1886 general election winning 191 seats. The Liberal Unionists win 77 seats and informally co-operate with the newly formed Conservative Government.
 * 1892: The Liberal Party win 272 seats in the 1892 general election and Gladstone becomes Prime Minister for the fourth time forming a minority government dependent on Irish Nationalist support. The Liberal Unionists win 45 seats.
 * 1894: Gladstone resigns as prime minister and his successor is Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery.
 * 1895: The Liberal Party lose the 1895 general election, winning 177 seats. The Liberal Unionists win 71 seats and with the Conservatives form an Unionist Government.

1900 to 1944

 * 1900: The Liberal Party win 184 seats in the 1900 general election. The Liberal Unionists win 68 seats and with the Conservatives form an Unionist Government.
 * 1906: The Liberal Party win an overall majority in the 1906 general election, winning 396 seats. Henry Campbell-Bannerman becomes Prime Minister. This would prove to be the greatest victory for the Liberals and also the last time the Liberal Party won a majority in their own right. The Liberal Unionists win 25 seats.
 * 1908: Henry Campbell-Bannerman resigns as prime minister and is succeeded by H. H. Asquith.
 * 1910: The Liberal Party win 274 seats and the Liberal Unionists win 32 seats in January 1910 general election. Asquith forms a government with the support of the Irish Nationalists. Another election is held in December, with the Liberal Party winning 272 seats and the Liberal Unionists winning 36 seats. This would prove the last time the Liberal Party won the highest number of seats in the House of Commons.
 * 1912: The Liberal Unionists merge with the Conservatives to form the present-day Conservative and Unionist Party (known as the Conservative Party).
 * 1915: After several British set backs in the First World War, H. H. Asquith invites the Conservatives to form a war-time coalition government. This marked the end of the last all Liberal government.
 * 1916: H. H. Asquith loses support of the Conservative Party and David Lloyd George becomes Prime Minister. The Liberal Party is now split into two factions: one camp supporting Lloyd George and the other following Asquith.
 * 1918: At the end of the war, a general election was held. The Liberal Party remained split with Lloyd George's Coalition Liberals winning 127 seats and the Asquith led Liberals winning 36 seats. Lloyd George remains Prime Minister with Conservative support.
 * 1922: Lloyd George is forced to resign after loss of support from the Conservatives. In the 1922 general election, the Lloyd George led National Liberals win 53 seats, whilst the Asquith led Liberals win 62 seats.
 * 1923: The National Liberals and the Asquith Liberal factions are re-united as one in support of free trade and the Liberal Party win 158 seats in the 1923 general election. It was the last election in which the Liberals won more than 100 seats.
 * 1924: The Liberal Party are nearly wiped out and win only 40 seats in the 1924 general election.
 * 1929: The Liberal Party win 59 seats in the 1929 general election.
 * 1931: The Liberal Party agrees to join the National Government. After the National Government proposed to fight the 1931 election for a mandate of tariffs, the Liberal Party was split into three groups. A faction, led by John Simon, supported the protectionist government policy and formed the Liberal National Party. Another faction, led by Lloyd George, became the Independent Liberals. The third grouping, the 'official' Liberal Party, was led by Herbert Samuel. In the 1931 general election, the Liberal Nationals won 35 seats, the 'official' Liberals won 33 seats, the Independent Liberals won 4 seats.
 * 1933: The 'official' Liberal Party leave the National Government.
 * 1935: In the 1935 general election, the Liberal Nationals won 33 seats, the 'official' Liberals won 21 seats, the Independent Liberals won 4 seats. Lloyd George's Independent Liberals rejoined with the rest of the 'official' Liberal Party after the general election. The Liberal Nationals remain in the National Government.
 * 1940: Both the Liberal Party and the Liberal National Party join the Churchill Wartime Government.

1945 to present day

 * 1945: The Liberal Party win 12 seats, and the Liberal Nationals win 11 seats in the 1945 general election.
 * 1947: The Liberal National Party is renamed National Liberal Party and formally merges with the Conservative Party at constituency level; however some MPs and candidates continue to use the National Liberal label (and variants thereof) for the next twenty years.
 * 1950: The Liberal Party win 9 seats in the 1950 general election. Candidates under the National Liberals banner win 17 seats.
 * 1951: The Liberal Party win 6 seats in the 1951 general election. National Liberals win 19 seats and with the Conservatives form a Conservative Government.
 * 1955: The Liberal Party win 6 seats in the 1955 general election. National Liberals win 21 seats and with the Conservatives form a Conservative Government.
 * 1959: The Liberal Party win 6 seats in the 1951 general election. National Liberals win 19 seats and with the Conservatives form a Conservative Government.
 * 1964: The Liberal Party win 9 seats in the 1964 general election. National Liberals win 6 seats.
 * 1966: The Liberal Party win 12 seats in the 1966 general election. National Liberals win 3 seats.
 * 1968: The National Liberals merge completely with the Conservative Party.
 * 1970: The Liberal Party win 6 seats in the 1970 general election.
 * 1974: The Liberal Party win 14 seats in the February 1974 general election and hold the balance of power. The Liberal Party win 13 seats in the October 1974 general election.
 * 1975: Margaret Thatcher becomes leader of the Conservative Party and the party adopts the classical liberal philosophy which became known as Thatcherism.
 * 1979: The Conservative Party win a landslide victory in the 1979 general election with 339 seats and the Liberal Party win 11 seats.
 * 1981: A faction in the Labour Party break away and form Social Democratic Party (SDP).
 * 1983: An electoral and political alliance between the Liberal Party and SDP is formed. The Liberal Party win 17 seats and the SDP win 6 seats in the 1983 general election. The Conservatives win another landslide victory with 397 seats.
 * 1987: The Conservatives win another victory with 376 seats and the Liberal–SDP alliance win 22 seats in the 1987 general election.
 * 1988: The Liberal Party merge with SDP into the Liberal Democrats. The anti-merger Liberal Party and continuing SDP are formed.
 * 1992: The Conservatives win another victory with 336 seats and new Liberal Democrats win 20 seats in the 1992 general election.
 * 1997: The Conservatives win 165 seats and the Liberal Democrats win 46 seats in the 1997 general election.
 * 2001: The Conservatives win 166 seats and the Liberal Democrats win 52 seats in the 2001 general election.
 * 2002: A splinter group of the Conservative Party, the Pro-Euro Conservative Party merges into the Liberal Democrats.
 * 2005: The Conservatives win 198 seats and the Liberal Democrats win 62 seats in the 2005 general election.
 * 2010: The Conservatives win the 2010 general election with 306 seats and the Liberal Democrats win 57 seats, however with no overall control the two parties form a coalition government.
 * 2015: The Conservatives win the 2015 general election with 330 seats and the coalition is ended; the Liberal Democrats are nearly wiped out and win only 8 seats.
 * 2017: The Conservatives win another victory with 317 seats and the Liberal Democrats win 12 seats in the 2017 general election.
 * 2019: The Conservatives win the 2019 general election with 365 seats and the Liberal Democrats win 11 seats.

Timeline of Liberal parties in Northern Ireland

 * 1956: The Ulster Liberal Association is formed, and is soon renamed as the Ulster Liberal Party.
 * 1969: The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland is formed.
 * 1985: The Ulster Liberal Party fields its last candidate in a Northern Ireland election and subsequently endorses Alliance candidates instead.
 * 1988: A small branch of the Liberal Democrats is formed in Northern Ireland. Like the Ulster Liberal Party, it supports Alliance Party candidates in elections.
 * 2010:The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland win their first seat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom at the 2010 General Election. Party leader Naomi Long becomes the MP for Belfast East.

2015
The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland lose their 1 seat in the 2015 General Election.

2019

 * The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland win 1 seat in the 2019 General Election.:

Liberal thinkers
In the Contributions to liberal theory the following British thinkers are included:

 * Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679)
 * John Locke (1632–1704)
 * John Trenchard (1662–1723)
 * Thomas Gordon (c. 1692–1750)
 * David Hume (1711–1776)
 * Richard Price (1723–1791)
 * Adam Smith (1723–1790)
 * Joseph Priestley (1733–1804)
 * Thomas Paine (1737–1809)
 * Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832)
 * David Ricardo (1772–1823)
 * James Mill (1773–1836)
 * Richard Cobden (1804–1865)
 * James Wilson (1805–1860)
 * John Stuart Mill (1806–1873)
 * Herbert Spencer (1820–1903)
 * Thomas Hill Green (1836–1882)
 * John A. Hobson (1858–1940)
 * Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse (1864–1929)
 * William Beveridge (1879–1963)
 * John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946)
 * Friedrich Hayek (1899–1992)
 * Karl Raimund Popper (1902–1994)
 * John Hicks (1904–1989)
 * Isaiah Berlin (1909–1997)
 * Ralf Dahrendorf (1929–2009)
 * David Laws (born 1965)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Liberalism in the United Kingdom


text:
Xylose

Xylose (cf. ξύλον, xylon, "wood") is a sugar first isolated from wood, and named for it. Xylose is classified as a monosaccharide of the aldopentose type, which means that it contains five carbon atoms and includes an aldehyde functional group. It is derived from hemicellulose, one of the main constituents of biomass. Like most sugars, it can adopt several structures depending on conditions. With its free aldehyde group, it is a reducing sugar.

Structure
The acyclic form of xylose has chemical formula. The cyclic hemiacetal isomers are more prevalent in solution and are of two types: the pyranoses, which feature six-membered rings, and the furanoses, which feature five-membered  rings (with a pendant  group). Each of these rings is subject to further isomerism, depending on the relative orientation of the anomeric hydroxy group.

The dextrorotary form, -xylose, is the one that usually occurs endogenously in living things. A levorotary form, -xylose, can be synthesized.

Occurrence
Xylose is the main building block for the hemicellulose xylan, which comprises about 30% of some plants (birch for example), far less in others (spruce and pine have about 9% xylan). Xylose is otherwise pervasive, being found in the embryos of most edible plants. It was first isolated from wood by Finnish scientist, Koch, in 1881, but first became commercially viable, with a price close to sucrose, in 1930.

Xylose is also the first saccharide added to the serine or threonine in the proteoglycan type O-glycosylation, and, so, it is the first saccharide in biosynthetic pathways of most anionic polysaccharides such as heparan sulfate and chondroitin sulfate.

Xylose is also found in some species of Chrysolinina beetles, including Chrysolina coerulans. They have cardiac glycosides (including xylose) in their defensive glands.

Chemicals
The acid-catalysed degradation of hemicellulose gives furfural, a precursor to synthetic polymers and to tetrahydrofuran.

Human consumption
Xylose is metabolised by humans, although it is not a major human nutrient and is largely excreted by the kidneys. Humans can obtain xylose only from their diet. An oxidoreductase pathway is present in eukaryotic microorganisms. Humans have enzymes called protein xylosyltransferases (XYLT1, XYLT2) which transfer xylose from UDP to a serine in the core protein of proteoglycans.

Xylose contains 2.4 calories per gram (lower than glucose or sucrose, approx. 4 calories per gram).

Animal medicine
In animal medicine, xylose is used to test for malabsorption by administration in water to the patient after fasting. If xylose is detected in blood and/or urine within the next few hours, it has been absorbed by the intestines.

High xylose intake on the order of approximately 100 g/kg of animal body weight is relatively well tolerated in pigs, and in a similar manner to results from human studies, a portion of the xylose intake is passed out in urine undigested.

Hydrogen production
In 2014 a low-temperature 50 C, atmospheric-pressure enzyme-driven process to convert xylose into hydrogen with nearly 100% of the theoretical yield was announced. The process employs 13 enzymes, including a novel polyphosphate xylulokinase (XK).

Derivatives
Reduction of xylose by catalytic hydrogenation produces the sugar substitute xylitol.

title: Xylose


text:
Liberalism in Germany

This article aims to give a historical outline of liberalism in Germany (Liberalismus). The liberal parties dealt with in the timeline below are, largely, those which received sufficient support at one time or another to have been represented in parliament. Not all parties so included, however, necessarily labeled themselves "liberal". The sign ⇒ denotes another party in that scheme.

Background
The early high points of liberalism in Germany were the Hambacher Fest (1832) and the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states. In the Frankfurt Parliament National Assembly in the Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt Paulskirche (1848/1849), the bourgeois liberal factions Casino and Württemberger Hof (the latter led by Heinrich von Gagern) were the majority. They favored a constitutional monarchy, popular sovereignty, and parliamentary rule. Organized liberalism developed in the 1860s, combining the previous liberal and democratic currents. Between 1867 and 1933 liberalism was divided into progressive liberal and national liberal factions. Since 1945 only one liberal party has been significant in politics at the national level: The Free Democratic Party (Freie Demokratische Partei, FDP).

From German Progress Party to German State Party

 * 1861: Liberals united in the German Progress Party (Deutsche Fortschrittspartei)
 * 1867: The moderate faction seceded as the ⇒ National Liberal Party
 * 1868: A radical South German faction seceded as the ⇒ Democratic People's Party
 * 1884: The party merged with the ⇒ Liberal Union into the German Freeminded Party (Deutsche Freisinnige Partei)
 * 1893: The party split in the Freeminded People's Party (Freisinnige Volkspartei) and the ⇒ Freeminded Union (Freisinnige Vereinigung)
 * 1910: The FVP merged with the ⇒ Freeminded Union and the ⇒ German People's Party into the Progressive People's Party (Fortschrittliche Volkspartei)
 * 1918: The party is reorganised into the German Democratic Party (Deutsche Demokratische Partei), incorporating parts of the ⇒ National Liberal Party
 * 1930: The DDP in an attempt to survive reorganised itself into the German State Party (Deutsche Staatspartei)
 * 1933: The party is forced to dissolve itself

German People's Party (1868)

 * 1868: A radical faction of the ⇒ German Progress Party formed the German People's Party (Deutsche Volkspartei)
 * 1910: The DVP merged into the ⇒ Progressive People's Party

National Liberal Party / German People's Party (1918)
National Liberals
 * 1867: A right-wing faction of the ⇒ German Progress Party formed the National Liberal Party (Nationalliberale Partei)
 * 1871: A conservative faction of NLP formed the Imperial Liberal Party (Liberale Reichspartei)
 * 1880: A left-wing faction seceded as the ⇒ Liberal Union
 * 1918: The NLP is reorganised into the German People's Party (Deutsche Volkspartei), part of the party joined the German Democratic Party
 * 1933: The party is dissolved

Liberal Union

 * 1880: A left-wing faction of the ⇒ National Liberal Party formed the Liberal Union (Liberale Vereinigung)
 * 1884: The party merged with the ⇒ German Progress Party into the ⇒ German Freeminded Party

Freeminded Union

 * 1893: The ⇒ German Freeminded Party split into the Freeminded Union (Freisinnige Vereinigung) and the ⇒ Freeminded People's Party
 * 1903: The ⇒ National Social Union joined the Freeminded Union
 * 1908: A left-wing faction seceded as the ⇒ Democratic Union
 * 1910: The party merged into the ⇒ Progressive People's Party

National Social Union

 * 1896: The National Social Union (Nationalsozialer Verein) is formed
 * 1903: The party is dissolved and members joined the ⇒ Freeminded Union

Democratic Union

 * 1908: A left-wing faction of the ⇒ Freeminded Union formed the Democratic Union (Demokratische Vereinigung)
 * 1918: The remnants of the Union joined the German Democratic Party

From Liberal Democratic Party of Germany to Alliance of Free Democrats (GDR)

 * 1945: Liberals in East Germany re-organised themselves into the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany (Liberal-Demokratische Partei Deutschlands). Since 1949 the party is under control of the communist dictatorship
 * 1990: The LDPD regained its liberal profile and shortened its name in February into Liberal Democratic Party (Liberal-Demokratische Partei). The same month it joined the newly founded Free Democratic Party (GDR) (Freie Demokratische Partei (DDR)) and the German Forum Party (Deutsche Forumpartei) into Association of Free Democrats (Bund Freier Demokraten). In March the Association of Free Democrats absorbed the National Democratic Party of Germany (Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands), and finally in August it merged into present-day ⇒ Free Democratic Party

Free Democratic Party

 * 1945–1946: Liberals in West Germany re-organised themselves in regional parties
 * 1948: The regional liberal parties merged into the Free Democratic Party (Freie Demokratische Partei)
 * 1956: A conservative faction seceded and formed the Free People's Party (Germany) (Freie Volkspartei). FDP is initially a hardright party well to the right of CDU
 * 1982: A left-wing faction seceded as the ⇒ Liberal Democrats
 * 1990: The FDP incorporated the ⇒ Association of Free Democrats

Liberal Democrats

 * 1982: A left-wing faction of the ⇒ Free Democratic Party formed the present-day Liberal Democrats (Liberale Demokraten), without success

New Liberals

 * 2014: A left-wing faction of the ⇒ Free Democratic Party formed the present-day New Liberals (Neue Liberale), contested in Hamburg state election 2015
 * 2021: The party was dissolved, formed into an association and members were urged to join Volt Deutschland

Party of Humanists

 * 2014: The secular liberal and socially liberal, Party of Humanists (Partei der Humanisten) is formed.

Liberal leaders

 * Liberals before 1918: Eduard Lasker (1829–1884); Rudolf von Bennigsen – Hans Victor von Unruh – Eugen Richter
 * Freisinn: Theodor Barth – Friedrich Naumann – Max Weber
 * Deutsche Demokratische Partei: Walther Rathenau – Theodor Heuss
 * Deutsche Volkspartei: Gustav Stresemann
 * LDPD (East-Germany): Waldemar Koch, Wilhelm Külz, Manfred Gerlach
 * Freie Demokratische Partei: Reinhold Maier – Thomas Dehler – Hans-Dietrich Genscher – Otto Graf Lambsdorff – Walter Scheel – Guido Westerwelle – Christian Lindner

Liberal thinkers
In the Contributions to liberal theory the following German thinkers are included:
 * Immanuel Kant (1724–1804)
 * August Ludwig von Schlözer (1735–1809)
 * Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835)
 * Lujo Brentano (1844–1931)
 * Friedrich Naumann (1860–1919)
 * Max Weber (1864–1920)
 * Walther Rathenau (1867–1922)
 * Adolf von Harnack (1851–1930)
 * Wilhelm Röpke (1899–1966)
 * Ralf Dahrendorf (1929–2009)
 * Karl-Hermann Flach (1929–1973)

title: Liberalism in Germany


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Liberalism in the Netherlands

Liberalism in the Netherlands started as an anti-monarchical effort spearheaded by the Dutch statesman Thorbecke, who almost single-handedly wrote the 1848 Constitution of the Netherlands that turned the country into a constitutional monarchy.

In contemporary politics, there are both left and right-wing parties that refer to themselves as "liberal", with the former more often espousing social liberalism and the latter more often espousing liberalism. A common characteristic of these parties that they are nominally secular, in contrast to the traditionally dominant and still popular Christian democracy.

In the contemporary economic situation, even though the markets for basic needs services like food and clothing are still subject to economic liberalism, this is not the case in housing, in child education, health care and payment services. For example the health care system does not satisfy basic requirements for being a market economy because in the distribution of goods and services the offered supply is not subject to patients demands, like this is the case in Germany.

This article gives an overview of liberalism in the Netherlands both as a movement politically espoused by the leading parties and what is actually implemented as liberal economic policy.

Background of economic liberalism
Even though the economic system is relatively highly ranked in terms of overall economic freedom, there are a number of sectors in the market that are inherently economically non-liberal. For example the health care system that consists of a market-driven welfare state can be considered to be non-liberal with respect to countries like Belgium, England, Sweden, and Germany where respectively Ziekenfonds in België, National Health Service (England), Health care in Sweden, and German statutory health insurance are state run and leave a market for individual private insurance and medical services.

There is no free-market in housing and building plots, because the municipal governments, through zoning plans, release the farming land for building, to the public subsidized housing, the housing associations and what is left for the private building industry, leading to special interest politics for home price levels and the distribution of building plots, and shortages and high prices for starters on the housing and labor markets.

Background of legal liberalism
The Dutch constitution was revised many times. In 1983 the list of constitutional [:nl:Grondrechten|fundamental rights] were altered, to include universal equal treatment and non-discrimination in the first article, applying to all, regardless of whether they are government officials, working for a business, or any other civilian. This contrasts with similar articles in European Convention on Human Rights or the United States Bill of Rights, that understands equal treatment as a liberty of all resident civilians, that only holds for conduct of government in due process, fair trial and all the welfare state services. Since universal equal treatment, a Marxist egalitarian doctrine, conflicts with property rights, freedom of contract and within this context the freedom of speech and freedom of association, it cannot be considered economically liberal and respecting the free will subject to property rights.

The Netherlands has a European continental legal system, with an inquisitional prosecuting judge within the criminal justice system that is supposed to maintain the principles of natural justice alone instead of balancing prejudice and bias by allowing both sides to question. There is no possibility for private prosecution, which could help with criminally prosecuting government officials, in contrast with France, England, Germany and many USA states where this is possible.

The police services are all national instead of municipal.

The constitution has a limited implementation of separation of powers, since the parliamentary government cabinet creates both the laws and leads the executive government, in contrast to the scarce situation of the EU where the executive government is not headed by the EU commission but the EU council. The government can be dissolved on a resolution of a motion of distrust, after which the same people may form the next government. There is no process of impeachment of the heads of government or state defined in the constitution. The Council for the Judiciary leading the judiciary power is independent of the Ministry of Justice. There is no real independent constitutional court in the Netherlands. Just like the UK legislation cannot be contested by administrative court procedure, because of the antireview clause in the constitution. Moreover already since the Torbecke's constitution of 1848 the laws of parliament overrule the laws of the constitution on collision. Parliamentary laws also overrule international treaties, as demonstrated by the law of equal treatment, which allows for positive discrimination and prioritizes over the anti-discrimination clause of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, even though the Netherlands is considered a monist country. An executive Council of State (Netherlands) must be consulted by the cabinet before an executive legislative bill is proposed to parliament. The advisory role of the council of state, also violates the principle of separation of powers. The parliament also has the constitutional rights to initiate a proposal for a bill.

The justice system in the Netherlands, lacks legal certainty because regular people and even experts are unable to predict the legality of an action or outcome of the question of law when the question of fact is fully known. Contributing to this issue is the usage of judicial discretion, which could be used to resolve ambiguity in the application of legal norms, left by the legislature, determining when a norm applies and what the corresponding legal consequences are. Legal theory describes this as the mutation of the deontic legal position of legal entities by the primary legal norms of conduct and the corresponding sanction norms. By nature, this also includes application of norm collision rules, and determination of what judicial interpretation is appropriate. This problem can be mediated by rejection of unclear legislation by the judiciary after constitutional review or judicial review. Alternatively legal certainty could be improved by having local jurisdictions maintain consistent partisan (politics) judges required to apply a consistent political ideology, say classical liberalism, and only allowing judicial discretion there when a precedent is required.

Punishment by legislative or executive (statutory) decision is allowed as demonstrated by the 'imported' EU parliament decision on Arkady_Volozh. This contrasts with the USA where bills of attainder are explicitly banned by the constitution, although in case of national emergency executive punishment is allowed through International_Emergency_Economic_Powers_Act. In liberal legal systems punishment by the state happens strictly via due process] of the justice system.

The constitution forwardly defines executive acts called AMvB's, that were later defined in the corresponding parliamentary law, which are called laws in formal sense. Both can be laws in material sense i.e. enforced laws. Executive act usually involve decisions concerning administrative procedure, but in practice may involve declaring a state of emergency, participating or getting involved in acts of war or declaring a state of martial law. In a liberal legal system these type of decisions require the explicit consent of parliament, or are plainly unconstitutional. In the USA a state of martial law, state of emergency, and in particular a curfew can still not violate the US Bill of Rights limiting the effect.

Background in democratic liberalism
The Netherlands has a limited form of democracy because members of the municipal government council, the regional board, provincial government council and the national government council are elected, but the municipal mayor, the provincial governor, the public prosecutors, the law enforcement commissioners, and the judges are all chosen by the national executive government, in contrast with many USA states. This allows very little opportunity for decentralized differences between provinces and municipalities. The delegation of the national legislative power to the EU parliament conflict with John Locke's principle of nondelegation, which secures decentralization of powers.

Background of liberal politics
The Netherlands has a long liberal political tradition. From the founding of the Dutch Republic in the 16th century to beginning of the 19th century the main political conflict was between the liberal urban patriciate and the supporters of the House of Orange, from the lower class and orthodox variants of Protestantism. The urban patriciate favoured religious tolerance. Between mid-19th century to the late-1800 they were a dominant force in shaping the Dutch parliamentary democratic rechtsstaat. In the early 20th century the liberals split between progressive liberals and conservative liberals. Due to their political division and the introduction of universal suffrage the liberals disappeared from the political stage. After the Second World War the liberals were united again under one roof, the VVD, but the party remained small. It entered some administration coalitions as a junior party. A progressive liberal party, D'66 was founded in 1966. Since the 1970s however liberalism has been on the rise again electorally. Since 1977 the largest, more conservative, liberal party, VVD has been in government for twenty two years. In early 21st century the VVD saw major splits over the issue of integration and migration. In 2010, they won the national elections for the first time in its history.

Before 1918

In the early years of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (1814–1848) the House of Representatives was dominated by conservatives supportive of the policy of government of William I and later William II. From 1840 onward, the amount of liberals in the House gradually increased. These liberals advocated a parliamentary democracy with a directly elected House of Representatives and in which the ministers, not the King, had executive power. In 1844, nine liberal representatives led by the jurist and historian Johan Rudolph Thorbecke attempted in vain to amend the constitution and introduce parliamentary democracy. In 1848, amidst a wave of revolutions across Europe, the balance of power shifted in favour of the liberals. In order to prevent civil unrest in the Netherlands, William II formed a commission, chaired by Thorbecke, which would draft a new constitution. The new constitution, which was introduced in October 1848, limited the power of the king by introducing ministerial responsibility and by giving parliament the right to amend laws and hold investigative hearings. It also extended the census suffrage and codified civil rights, such as the freedom of assembly, the privacy of correspondence, freedom of ecclesiastical organisation and the freedom of education.

In the period following the constitutional amendment, liberalism was the dominant political force in the Netherlands. Liberalism also dominated the universities, the media and business. The liberals supported a laissez-faire economy, free trade, civil rights and a gradual expansion of suffrage. Thorbecke became Prime Minister of the Netherlands in 1849, and would serve two more terms throughout his lifetime. Because of their dominant position, the liberals did not deem it necessary to organise themselves in a political party. Instead there was a loose liberal parliamentary group and locally organised liberal caucuses. The liberals also did not organize their own pillar, a system of like-minded social organisations. The liberals were politically allied with the Catholics, whom the liberals granted considerable freedom of religion. After Thorbecke's death in 1872, the liberals grew increasingly disunited. By 1897, a division had emerged between the supporters of the progressive liberal Jan Kappeyne van de Coppello on the one side, and those of the conservative liberal Johan George Gleichman on the other.

Only in the late 19th century, when the opposition began to organise itself in the Anti-Revolutionary Party and the Roman Catholic State Party, the liberals followed suit. On 4 March 1885, the Liberal Union was established. In the 1890s some liberals, such as Samuel van Houten, Johannes Tak van Poortvliet and Kappeyne van de Coppello started to propose a more active role of the government, breaking with the Thorbeckian laissez-faire ideal. This led to the establishment of the progressive Free-thinking Democratic League in 1901. The liberals saw a second split with the establishment of the more conservative liberal League of Free Liberals in 1906. There are different names for these two tendencies. The more progressive liberals have been called "radical", "freeminded" or "democratic" liberals, while the more conservative liberals have been called "free" or "old" liberals. The issue which divided the liberals most was the question whether to extend the census or even to introduce universal suffrage, the progressive liberals favoured universal suffrage, the conservative liberals did not. The progressive liberals also favoured government intervention in the economy, such as Van Houten's ban on child labour.

Due to the two round electoral system the liberals were required to cooperate. In order to prevent the coalition of Catholics and Protestants win the second round of the elections, all the liberals united behind their candidates in the second round, often joined by social democrats. This alliance was called the concentration. On basis of concentration pluralities, often supported by social democrats for a majority several cabinets were formed in the early 20th century.

In 1917 under one of these liberal minority cabinets universal male suffrage was introduced, as well as a proportional electoral system and equal finance for religious schools, this compromise was called the pacification of 1917. The extension of suffrage however severely weakened the position of the liberals. Of the 37 seats they had in 1917, they were left with 14 in 1918.

1918-1994
In 1922 the liberal parties reorganized: all conservative liberals, from the Liberal Union and the League Free Liberals as well as more conservative liberals from smaller parties, joined to form the Liberal State Party. The progressive liberals remained separate in the Freeminded Democratic League, a merger of the Radical League and progressive liberals, that had already been formed in 1901. In the interbellum the liberals grew even smaller. Under pressure of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the rise of the National Socialist Movement. The liberals did cooperate as junior partners in several cabinets in the crisis.

After the Second World War the conservative liberal Liberal State Party refounded itself as Freedom Party. The progressive liberal Freeminded Democratic League joined the new Doorbraak leftwing Labour Party. Several progressives were unhappy with the social-democratic course of the PvdA and joined the Freedom Party to found the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy in 1948.

The VVD remained a small party until the 1970s, with about 10% of the vote. They did however form part of the government both in the grand coalition with social-democrats, Catholics and Protestants in the late 1940s early 1950s, and with the Catholics and Protestants over the course of the 1960s. The party was led by the former leader of the Freeminded Democratic League, Pieter Oud. In the Dutch pillarized political system the liberals mainly appealed to urban, secular upper and middle class. The liberals did not have a strong pillar of social organization, such as trade unions and news papers, like the other political families had. Instead they were aligned with the weak neutral pillar.

In 1966 a radical democratic party was founded, Democrats 66. In the foundation several progressive liberals from the VVD had been involved. The party sought to radically democratize the political system, the society and the economy. D66 was led by the charismatic Hans van Mierlo. The party joined forces with the social-democratic PvdA and the progressive Christian PPR to work for a more fair and democratic Netherlands. The party participated in the leftwing cabinet Den Uyl. Over the course of the 1980s however the party began to espouse a more progressive liberal course, especially under Jan Terlouw. The party remained an ally of the PvdA however, joining a short-lived centre-left coalition cabinet with the PvdA and the Christian democratic CDA in 1981.

In the meanwhile the VVD had grown considerably. Under the leadership of Hans Wiegel the VVD has taken a more conservative course. The party began to criticize the large and inefficient welfare state. The party combined this economic liberalism with progressive positions on social issues, which characterized the 1970s, such as abortion, homosexuality and women's rights. The VVD capitalized the weakening of religious and depillarization of the 1970s and made considerable electoral gains: in 1967 the party won just over 10% in 1981 this had more than doubled to 23%.

Between 1982 and 1986 the VVD cooperated in the centre-right cabinets Lubbers, which implemented a far reaching reform of the welfare state the VVD had advocated since the 1970s.

After 1994
In 1994 the Christian democratic CDA lost its traditional electoral power base. The VVD and D66 won considerably. A progressive purple cabinet was formed with D66 and the VVD under the lead of PvdA. The cabinet managed a thriving Dutch economy, implemented progressive social legislation on euthanasia, gay marriage and prostitution. In the 2002 election campaign the purple coalition came under heavy criticism of the populist politician Pim Fortuyn for mismanaging the public sector, migration and the integration of migrants. The two liberal parties lost considerably in the elections. Liberalism in the Netherlands came under attack after the shock assassination of Fortuyn just days before the election.

The VVD however joined a coalition cabinet with the heirs of Fortuyn and the CDA. The cabinet fell shortly. After the 2003 elections the D66 replaced the LPF. The centre-right cabinet implemented reforms of the welfare state and oversaw declining migration figures.

Migration and integration and especially the place of the Islam in the Netherlands, however, remained controversial issues. In 2003 the VVD had invited social-democratic critic of Islam, Ayaan Hirsi Ali to join their parliamentary party. She together with MP Geert Wilders caused considerable controversy with her direct criticism of the Islam. In the cabinet VVD minister Rita Verdonk sought to limit migration and stimulate integration of minorities. Two years after Fortuyn's assassination, another murder, this time of filmmaker Theo van Gogh, put the country's liberal tradition at further risk.

In 2004 Geert Wilders left the VVD to form the Party for Freedom, which combined uncompromising criticism of Islam with a plea for lower taxation and skepticism towards European integration. In 2006 a conflict between Hirsi Ali and Verdonk over her status as an asylum seeker caused the downfall of the cabinet after D66 had revoked its confidence of Verdonk, whose positions on migration the party had already distanced itself from.

In the 2006 general election the VVD and D66 lost considerably: D66 lost three of its six seats, the VVD six of its 28 seats. Wilders' PVV won nine seats. Rita Verdonk, second on the list of the VVD won more preference votes than the party's lead candidate Mark Rutte. After demanding the leadership of the party, Verdonk left the VVD to form her own nationalist party, Proud of the Netherlands.

In the European Parliament election of 2009, the VVD and D66 both won 3 seats each, while PVV picked up 4 seats. The PVV was assigned the additional seat that went to the Netherlands after the Treaty of Lisbon was signed. The VVD and D66 joined the Liberal fraction in the European Parliament, while the PVV did not register as member of any fraction.

In the 2010 general election the VVD returned to previous strength and became the largest party the first time in history with 31 seats, leading to a liberal-led coalition for the first time since 1918. Also D66 increased their number of seats to 10. Ultimately, the VVD opted for a coalition with the CDA, with VVD leader Mark Rutte as prime minister—the first liberal to hold the post since 1918.

Individual Liberal Parties
Note: The ⇒ sign denotes parties which never achieved any representation in parliament.

From Liberal Union until People's Party for Freedom and Democracy

 * 1885: Liberals formed the Liberal Union (Liberale Unie)
 * 1892: A radical faction formed the ⇒ Radical League (Radicale Bond)
 * 1894: A conservative faction formed the ⇒ Free Liberals
 * 1901: A radical faction seceded to merge with the ⇒ Radical League into the ⇒ Freethinking Democratic League
 * 1921: The LU merged with the ⇒ Economic League, the ⇒ League of Free Liberals, the Neutral Party and the Middle Class Party into the Freedom League (Vrijheidsbond)
 * 1922: A conservative faction seceded as the ⇒ Liberal Party
 * 1928: The Vrijheidsbond is renamed in Liberal State Party (Liberale Staatspartij)
 * 1929: Staalman, founder of the Middle Class Party, leaves the LSP and found the Middle Party for City and Country
 * 1945: The LSP is reorganised into the Freedom Party (Partij van de Vrijheid), including a faction of the ⇒ Freethinking Democratic League
 * 1948: The Freedom Party merged with former members of the Freethinking Democratic League into the present-day People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie)

Radical League and Free-minded Democratic League

 * 1892: A radical faction of the ⇒ Liberal Union formed the Radical League (Radicale Bond)
 * 1901: A second radical faction of the ⇒ Liberal Union merged with the Radical League into the Free-minded Democratic League (Vrijzinnig Democratische Bond)
 * 1917: A right-wing faction secededas the ⇒ Economic League
 * 1946: The Free-minded Democratic League merged into the present-day Labour Party (Partij van de Arbeid), a faction joined the ⇒ Freedom Party
 * 1948: Some former members left the Labour Party and merged into the ⇒ People's Party for Freedom and Democracy

(League of) Free Liberals

 * 1894: A conservative faction of the ⇒ Liberale Union formed the Free Liberals (Vrije Liberalen), since 1906 renamed the League of Free Liberals (Bond van Vrije Liberalen)
 * 1921: The league merged into the ⇒ Freedom League

Economic League

 * 1917: A right-wing faction of the ⇒ Freethinking Democratic League formed the Economic League (Economische Bond)
 * 1921: The league merged into the ⇒ Freedom League

Liberal Party

 * 1922: A right-wing faction of the ⇒ Freedom League formed the Liberal Party (Liberale Partij) and disappeared in 1925

Democrats 66

 * 1966: Independent progressive liberals formed the party Democrats 66 (Democraten '66), later without apostrophe

Volt

 * 2018: Volt Netherlands (Volt Nederland) was founded.

Liberal leaders

 * Liberals in the 19th century
 * Johan Rudolf Thorbecke
 * Joannes Kappeyne van de Coppello
 * Pieter Cort van der Linden
 * Liberal Union
 * Nicolaas Pierson
 * Theo de Meester
 * Cornelis Lely
 * Johannes Tak van Poortvliet
 * Hendrik Goeman Borgesius
 * Pieter Rink
 * Radical League/Economic League
 * Willem Treub
 * League of Free Liberals
 * Willem de Beaufort
 * Hendrik Dresselhuys
 * Samuel van Houten
 * Meinard Tydeman
 * Hendrik Coenraad Dresselhuijs
 * Free-thinking Democratic League
 * Philip Kohnstamm
 * Dirk Bos
 * Hendrik Lodewijk Drucker
 * Pieter Oud
 * Roelof Kranenburg
 * Dolf Joekes
 * Liberal Party
 * Samuel van Houten
 * Freedom Party
 * Steven Bierema
 * Liberal State Party
 * Hendrik Coenraad Dresselhuijs
 * Dirk Fock
 * Willem Carel Wendelaar
 * Ben Telders
 * People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
 * Pieter Oud
 * Edzo Toxopeus
 * Molly Geertsema
 * Hans Wiegel
 * Ed Nijpels
 * Rudolf de Korte
 * Joris Voorhoeve
 * Frits Bolkestein
 * Hans Dijkstal
 * Gerrit Zalm
 * Jozias van Aartsen
 * Mark Rutte
 * Dirk Stikker
 * Johan Witteveen
 * Otto van Lidth de Jeude
 * Harm van Riel
 * Klaas Dijkhoff
 * Arie Pais
 * Hans de Koster
 * Annemarie Jorritsma
 * Haya van Someren
 * Annelien Kappeyne van de Coppello
 * Henk Kamp
 * Uri Rosenthal
 * Henk Korthals
 * Frits Korthals Altes
 * Johan Remkes
 * Leendert Ginjaar
 * Hans Hoogervorst
 * Neelie Kroes
 * Jo Schouwenaar-Franssen
 * Hans van Baalen
 * Henk Vonhoff
 * Ivo Opstelten
 * Koos Rietkerk
 * Democrats 66
 * Hans van Mierlo
 * Jan Terlouw
 * Els Borst
 * Alexander Pechtold
 * Jacob Kohnstamm
 * Jan Glastra van Loon
 * Aar de Goede
 * Alexander Rinnooy Kan
 * Thom de Graaf
 * Hans Wijers
 * Roger van Boxtel
 * Laurens Jan Brinkhorst
 * Sigrid Kaag

Liberal thinkers
In the Contributions to liberal theory the following Dutch thinkers are included:

 * Erasmus (1466–1536)
 * Hugo Grotius (1583–1645)
 * Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677)
 * Johan Rudolf Thorbecke (1798–1872)

title: Liberalism in the Netherlands


text:
National Institute of Economic Research (Sweden)

The Swedish National Institute of Economic Research (Konjunkturinstitutet, KI or NIER) is a government agency in Sweden responsible for economic analysis and forecasting. The NIER is publicly funded, although it does accept a small number of private commissions. It employs over 60 people, primarily economists.


text:
Giovanni Berlinguer

Giovanni Berlinguer (9 July 1924 – 6 April 2015) was an Italian politician, humanist, and professor of social medicine.

Life and career
Giovanni Berlinguer was born in Sassari, Sardinia, the son of Mario Berlinguer. A physician and professor of public health, he worked first in social medicine at the University of Sassari (1969–1974) and then in occupational health at the Sapienza University of Rome (1975–1999). Like his brother Enrico, he was a major figure in the Italian Communist Party (PCI) and was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1972, 1976, and 1979, and to the Senate of the Republic in 1983 and 1987. He ran for secretary of the Democrats of the Left (DS) in 2001 but was defeated by Piero Fassino 61.8% to 34.1%. From 2004 to 2009, Berlinguer was a member of the European Parliament representing the DS and sat with the Party of European Socialists group. At the convening of the European Parliament on 20 July 2004, he was found to be the oldest member, and as such presided over the parliament during the election of Josep Borrell Fontelles in 2004 and Hans-Gert Pöttering in 2007 as the president of the European Parliament.

Berlinguer was in charge of the first National Health Plan in the context of the Economic Development Program adopted by the Italian Parliament in 1968. He was also a member of the National Health Council between 1994 and 1996, and vice-chairman (1992–1995) and chairman (1999–2001) of the National Bioethics Committee (CNB). He was a member of the UNESCO International Bioethics Committee (2001–2007) and of the Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, as well as of the World Health Organisation. He was rapporteur on the first project, held in 2003, of the UNESCO "Universal Declaration on Bioethics".

In the years of his chairmanship, the CNB strategy underwent some noteworthy changes. Priority was no longer given to frontier bioethics but to its link with everyday bioethics, which Berlinguer articulated in his 2000 book Bioetica quotidiana (Everyday Bioethics). This change implied that the CNB opinions were open to contributions not only of specialists but also of lay people, and new channels of communication were established with the public at large. The democratic guidance had comments and a significant impact at the local, national, and international level.

Berlinguer died in Rome at the age of 90.

Honors

 * Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI, 1999.
 * Medaglia d'oro ai benemeriti della cultura e dell'arte, 2001.
 * Doctorat honoris causa, Université de Montréal, 1996; and University of Brasília, 1999.

title: Giovanni Berlinguer