Liberal Imperialist Party
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| Established | 1967 |
| Dissolved | 1999 |
The Liberal Imperialist Party is a former political party in Praetonian politics. It is a philosophy that has spread abroad with limited success, with a powerful Liberal Imperialist Party in place in The Island of Rose and a small but influencial LIP presence in Sarzonia. The Liberal Imperialist Party has fallen out of favour in Praetonia in recent years, and has been attacked for its moderate left-wing economics. However, the key principles of Liberal Imperialism are still present in the current governing Liberal-Tory Party.
Contents
Tenets of Belief
The Liberal Imperialist philosophy is based on the Key Tenets of Liberal Imperialist which were set out in a speech by its founder. They are as follows:
- "A Liberal-Imperialist believes, before all else, in the absolute and undeniable sovereignty and primacy of his own nation, and will defend that nation to the death in the face of any adversary. In practise over the course of normal dealings with foreign nations, this belief would manifest itself in an unwillingness to allow even allied military forces onto friendly soil, and a major preference towards domestic arms producers over foreign ones, unless in doing so one would put the defence of the realm at stake."
- "A Liberal-Imperialist believes that, through faith in his own views and beliefs, that Liberal-Imperialism is the best system by which a nation should be governed, within the democractic system of his own state, and a Liberal-Imperialist would therefore seek to make the philosophy available for the governance of other nations."
- "A Liberal-Imperialist believes in the absolute right of his own state to further its interests, and in the fundamental authority of his state to govern foreign people if it is in the interests of his own state and, if possible, in the interest of the people to be governed."
- "A Liberal-Imperialist believes in the absolute duty of Government to serve its people, domestic or foreign under rule, and may not in good conscience be allowed to turn itself upon the people it is set over in any way that may be detrimental to that people, unless for the greater good of the majority of people where all other action would cause greater evil."
- "A Liberal-Imperialist believes in absolute right of those it is set over to govern their own affairs in any manner they wish so long as that in doing so they cause harm neither to other human beings nor to the intrinsic stability of the state which services their need for democratic governance."
Economics of Liberal Imperialism
'Classic' Liberal Imperialism
Liberal-Imperialism is a system which allows for almost no movement on matters of civil liberties and national strength and sovereignty, but the philosophy largely ignores economics and allows both ultra-capitalist and ultra-collectivist systems to exist within the basic framework. Many Liberal-Imperialist Governments have hence emmulated the Social Democratic model with regards to economics, with extensive public services, state ownership of business and high taxes. The Praetonian or 'Classic' brand of Liberal Imperialism did this a large extent, with taxes hovering around 50% for much of the time and peaking quite worryingly for many at a massive 80%. In addition, state control of the defence industry is often common under 'Classic' Liberal Imperialist governments. Indeed, some argue that it is in fact encouraged by the passages on national sovereignty in order to ensure that foreigners cannot gain control of domestic defence industries.
There was a time when the entire Praetonian Oil, Gas, Nuclear and Defence industries were under total government control, and most heavy industry and manufacturing was under government control. Proponents of this model argue that it ensures Praetonian control of business, that many of the government-owned businesses (Imperial Praetonian Shipyards, for example) were very successful during this period and that Praetonia as a whole was very rich and prosperous. However, the Praetonian economy has improved greatly since privatisation, although it is not known if this is due to the massive stock market boom caused by privatisation or by government deregulation and reductions in taxes which all took place at around the same time, and it is true that Praetonian state controlled industry has not been the story of abysmal failure that has been seen in other countries.
'Neo-Liberal' Imperialism or 'Liberal-Toryism'
Sir Tiberius Polax, current leader of the Liberal-Tory Party of Praetonia split his new party from the original following disputes concerning the left-wing attitude of the current party and what one Liberal-Imperialist Cabinet member described as "pointless stagnation caused by incessant debating about the meaning behind our founder's words at the first conference on our Tenets of Belief". It is true to say that many in the Liberal-Imperialist Party at that time viewed their founder's words as a sort of dogma, and constantly attempted to analyse his speeches to support their interpretation of Liberal-Imperialism, the man himself having died some years earlier. Sir Tiberius Polax said in his founding speech for the Liberal-Tory Party that:
"Whilst the spirit behind my views may be the same or similar to that that was behind our founder's when he spoke his immortal words at the first Liberal Imperialist Party Conference, I am not him and his words are not my words. I intend to move the Liberal-Imperialist philosophy forwards. I do not intend to stagnate it in bickering over the meaning of one man's words at the expense of the reality of men across the Nation & Commonwealth."
His vision of 'Neo-Liberal' Imperialism forged the first truely Capitalist Liberal Imperialist-style party the world had ever seen, and most people within the Liberal-Tory Party and experts on Praetonian politics regard the two very much as two sides of the same coin. With a general 'libertarian-Imperialist concensus' in Praetonia, this was very much a breath of fresh air, and the first time in decades that there had been a properly contested election in Praetonia.
Although in Praetonia the Liberal-Imperialist Party is viewed as a social-democrat one, and the Liberal-Tory Party as a Laissez Faire Party, there is nothing inherent in the Liberal-Imperialist Party doctrine that would prevent a 'pure' Liberal-Imperialist Party from having capitalist economic leanings, even to the extent of the actual Praetonian Liberal-Tory Party.
