How are liberals doing internationally?
Considering that liberalism is a very apolitical stance in politics, and is based more on long-term non-political gains for society rather than short-term political gains for the party…liberals have been doing surprisingly well.
Claiming to be a liberal, in theory, should not win you many votes, and even doom your political career even.
Yet, in Germany, the Vice Chancellor is a liberal whose party managed to win 5% of all the seats, with nearly 100 seats in the national parliament and nearly 200 in the regional ones. No matter that their parliament rises up in outrage at every one of Guido Westerwelle’s liberal talking points - he is still considered a member of their political establishment at all, and is not seen as a pariah or a political lightweight.
Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine, and a few other nations in southeastern and eastern Europe are known for extremely liberal policies, and as a result Estonia has shown amazing economic growth and development in the post-Soviet era. Estonia was creating tens of thousands of jobs even during the recent recession. Lithuania has a large number of independent candidates not affiliated to parties; perhaps this is the key to a successful liberal society?
Poland is completely dominated by liberals, with the Civic Platform and Law & Justice Parties, which have found no opposition in deregulating and privatising their state. Unfortunately, Poland is also a puritanical society, and worries far more about abortion, divorce, gambling and homosexuals. It’s tied up on the petty distraction issues, which hold it back in liberalising Poland.
Australia has also been a historically liberal-dominated nation, but many allege that it is now liberal in name only. Many Australians allege that John Howard has done far more to destroy freedom than to protect it, and Australia, like Poland, has also been too focused on petty matters like banning and censoring entertainment media, because of its puritanical values.
In Netherlands, the 13th most capitalist nation in the world with a long history of laissez-faire policies, Geert Wilders, of the Party for Freedom, is now looking like he is going to win the elections when they come up.
In UK, liberalism died 22 years ago with its famous Liberal Party being dissolved. It is quite ironic that the birthplace of liberalism has itself abandoned it.
Similarly, in United States, liberals are also nearly decimated. Interestingly, ‘liberal’ eventually even became a hijacked term for a Far Left person who is the compete opposite of an actual liberal (doublethink in action), much the way ‘conservative’ also became a hijacked term for Woodrow-Wilsonian style progressive, so Americans have no idea what a liberal actually is. Liberals in US are political lightweights, such as Ron Paul, and wield no influence whatsoever. Liberal Americans are far more likely to be in academia than influencing policy, and in a fiercely progressive society like America, liberalism may well have been shunned back in the 1960s.
At least that is still better than Asian countries like mine, where liberalism has not even been born…