Liberal Party of Wizlandia

Liberal Party
Abbreviation	LP
Leader	Ashley Lavelle (Chief Executive)
Deputy Leader	Samuel Mitchell (Secretary of the Senate)
Founded	1922
Newspaper	The Lorenvia Times
Think tank	Liberal Policy Institute
Youth wing	Young Liberals
Ideology	Majority  • Liberalism  • Constitutional Liberalism  • Economic Liberalism  • Civil Libertarianism Factions  • Classical Liberalism  • Conservative Liberalism  • Third-Way Liberalism  • Centrism  • Libertarianism
Political position	Centre to Centre-Right
European affiliation	ALDE (Observing Member)
International affiliation	Liberal International
Colors	Navy Blue
Slogan	"Ensuring liberty, opportunity, and prosperity for all."
House of Commons	256 / 800
Senate	43 / 120
State Legislatures	1,496 / 4,826
Political parties

The Liberal Party, abbreviated LP, is one of the three major contemporary political parties of Wizlandia, along with its main political rivals the Social Democratic Party and the National Party. The party has dominated federal politics since the passage of the 1960 Constitution, it has consistently held the most seats in parliament and has been in government for 37 of the last 41 years. The party is currently the senior partner in coalition with the National Party.

The party's ideology is Liberalism, which incorporates economic liberal, cultural liberal, and civil libertarian positions. The party sits on the centre to centre-right of the political spectrum, with the National Party positioned to its right and the Social Democratic Party positioned to its left, though other scholars argue such left-right dichotomy is misleading as the Liberal Party tends to be more pro-market than the Nationals.

The Liberal Party's founding manifesto enshrines five principles that underpin the Wizlandian liberal movement and the Liberal Party, these being

• Limited Government: The power of the state is limited by the Constitution, which enshrines a federal parliamentary system of government with limited powers, in addition to an independent judiciary.

• Economic Liberalism: Protect and enforce property rights while maintaining an economy characterised by low taxation, contractual freedom, and open markets.

• Civil Liberties: Respect individual freedoms, maintain strong due process protections, while maintaining an effective law enforcement.

• Universalism and Tolerance: The law protects every person equally, all people are free from state discrimination, differing opinions, religions and lifestyles are tolerated, and the government embraces cosmopolitan values and an open society.

• Human Welfare: The state should tailor policies towards advancing human welfare, provided it doesn't significantly impinge on the other four principles. This includes promoting economic growth, population growth, environmentalism, tackling acute poverty, and spreading economic opportunity to all.

Policy-wise, the Liberals support a liberal market economy with policies such as free trade, liberal investment laws, a floating exchange rate, a flexible labour market, reducing occupational licensing requirements, phasing out income and capital gains tax to be replaced with a low but moderately progressive VAT, and maintaining the current Universal Catastrophic Coverage healthcare system. The party describes itself as an eco-capitalist party, and supports carbon pricing schemes to tackle climate change. On socio-cultural issues, the Liberal Party is strongly civil libertarian and culturally liberal, supporting open immigration, drug legalisation, legalisation of prostitution, gay marriage, polygamy, internet freedom, freedom of speech, and freedom of association.

The Liberals foreign policy has tend to be hawkish and focused on strengthening regional alliances, preserving shipping through its waters, and promoting liberal values. The party supports Wizlandia's continued status as a nuclear weapons state, in addition to continued membership in the World Assembly, the Liberal Democratic Union, the South-Asian Union, the Trans-Asian Free Trade Agreement, and the International Defence League. However, Liberals maintain that resolutions passed by the World Assembly are not legally binding in Wizlandia, and opposes giving up fiscal or other domestic policymaking powers to supranational institutions.

Political Positions

Constitution

The Constitution of Wizlandia was enacted in 1960 by a Liberal majority government, and the current Liberal Party are in favour of maintaining the current structure of government and civil liberties guaranteed by the Constitution. In particular, Liberals staunchly oppose amendments that would lower the threshold of passing a bill from a three-fifths supermajority of both houses to a simple majority, and they oppose amendments that would weaken the Constitutional provisions restraining federal power.

Economics

The Liberal Party support free-market economics, including free trade, investment freedom, and oppose legislation that would increase zoning regulations, occupational licensing regulations, create a minimum wage, or promote collective bargaining, which they describe as rent-seeking behaviour. Instead, the party advocate maintaining Wizlandia's flexible labour market. The Liberal Party support a small to medium sized welfare state in the form of cash transfers, funded by a combination of Progressive VAT, a Carbon Tax, and a Land-Value Tax, which they believe is a more efficient way to help the poor than interfering with markets or raising revenue via labour and capital income taxation. Liberals oppose instituting a corporate or wealth tax, and they tend to opposed high-levels of government borrowing, believing that it crowds out more productive private investment, but they support counter-cyclical deficit spending during economic recessions. The party supports the independence of the Federal Bank, and oppose any attempts to link the Wizcoin to a fix quantity of gold or to other currencies such as the U.S. Dollar or the Euro.

Environment

The Liberal Party support the current Carbon Tax, believing that forcing consumers to internalise pollution externalities to be the most cost-effective method of fighting global climate change. In addition, the party supports nuclear and hydroelectric power, and tend to downplay environmental concerns regarding the construction of dams.

Healthcare

Historically, the Liberal Party has opposed significant government intervention in the healthcare market, although the modern iteration of the party is more supportive of government regulation and healthcare spending. In 2000, the Liberal-SDP Coalition passed the Universal Catastrophic Healthcare Act, modelled after the Singaporean healthcare system, which created a Health Savings Account and ensured affordable catastrophic care for all Wizlandians, in addition to increasing funding for preventative care and healthcare research. The Liberal Party support the regulation of pharmaceutical drug prices, allowing drug patents to expire faster, forcing healthcare providers to be transparent about prices, and support the use of cost-sharing methods. Liberals oppose making public healthcare free at the point of use.

Education

The Liberal Party considers education to be the greatest provider of opportunity, and they oppose any significant cut to education spending. The Liberal Party support increased devolution of education to the states, in addition to supporting the federal school voucher system, though they stress that for private and charter schools to qualify for the voucher program, they must meet certain federal standards and must not discriminate in the students they accept. The Liberal Party oppose any attempts to establish a federal teacher's union, and advocate for policies that would reduce the power of teacher's unions at the local level. Liberals support continuing the prohibition of affirmative action in public university admissions.

Immigration

The Liberal Party support the current open-borders status quo, and some of the most outspoken radical wings have criticised worldwide border controls as a system of global apartheid. Liberals oppose immigration quotas and cultural or language requirements to Wizlandian residency, though they still support a degree of background checks that would prevent known felons, terrorists, and those carrying communicable diseases from entering the country.

Sociocultural Positions

The Liberal Party are very civil libertarian, and they support maintaining the status quo of internet freedom, legal gay marriage, legal polygamy, legal incest, legal soft drugs such as marijuana, and not making hard drug use a criminal offence. Critics on the right have accused Liberals soft-on-crime policy for resulting in one of the highest crime rates in the developed world. Liberals oppose amending the constitution to make hate speech a crime or to increase restrictions on the right to protest, oppose federal restrictions on guns and abortion, and at the state-level they oppose restrictions on first-trimester abortions and excessive gun regulations. The Liberal Party advocate legalising prostitution, believing that making prostitution legal would make the industry safer and increase women's freedom.

Foreign Policy

The Liberals foreign policy has tend to be hawkish and focused on strengthening regional alliances, preserving shipping through its waters, and promoting liberal values. The party supports continued membership in the World Assembly, the Liberal Democratic Union, the South-Asian Union, the Trans-Asian Free Trade Agreement, and the International Defence League. The party supports continuing Wizlandia's status as a nuclear weapons state, and also maintains that resolutions passed by the World Assembly are not legally binding in Wizlandia, and opposes giving up fiscal or other domestic policymaking powers to supranational institutions.

Historically, the Liberal Party has held a critical line towards the Thuoyean government, though in recent years the party, in cooperation with the SDP, has overseen a warming of relations with Thuoye, including returning the previously occupied Thuoye Island.

Factions

Walrus Liberals

Walrus Liberals are the classical and neoliberal wing of the party, and is the largest faction within the Liberal Party. The faction largely follows the political principles of former Chief Executive Alexander Xennol, who oversaw the drafting of the Constitution, the liberalisation of the Wizlandian economy, immigration, and civil society. The faction supports a relatively small welfare state, maintaining the current Universal Catastrophic Healthcare system, and are in favour of large cuts to the federal government and some cuts to cash transfer programs. In addition, the faction is very civil libertarian, and were the leading voice in the 1970s efforts to liberalise drug laws, prostitution laws, and advance LGBT rights including adoption rights and marriage equality.

The Walrus Liberals tend to be moderately hawkish on the global stage. They support maintaining Wizlandia's nuclear arsenal in addition to its large navy, though also caution against wasteful military spending. On the global stage, the party supports free trade, open immigration, and tends to support Wizlandia's membership in various supranational organisations. However, the faction is critical of handing domestic policymaking powers to such organisations, and some experts characterise the faction as a soft-WA skeptic. Currently, Senator Wojteczek Kopczuk is the leader of the Walrus Liberals.

Liberal Democrats

Liberal Democrats are the conservative-liberal faction of the party, and is the oldest faction of the Liberal Party. The Liberal Democrats dominated Wizlandian politics during the 1950s and 1960s, and most of the civil war leaders and provisional government members were a part of the faction. In the 1960s, the Liberal Democrats hewed to a more moderate form of Liberalism - while they were supportive of expanding LGBT rights and liberalising immigration, they were more critical of the general laissez-faire cultural attitude of the Walrus and Acela Liberals, especially on areas of crime, drugs, euthanasia, prostitution and nudity in public beaches. The party has become somewhat more liberal on these issues, but are generally still the least liberal faction on crime and drugs. On economic issues, the Liberal Democrats lie in the centre of the party, and were key in building parliamentary support for economic liberalisation during the 1960s and 1970s. The faction supports increased funding for business and economics education in addition to small-business subsidies, which they view as integral not only to the economic development of Wizlandia but also to the preservation of its entrepreneurial and pro-market values.

The Liberal Democrats are the most hawkish wing of the Liberal Party. They support expanding and modernising Wizlandia's nuclear arsenal, in addition to increased naval spending to counter hostile nations such as Thuoye and piracy in nearby waters. The faction is moderately internationalist, they support Wizlandia's membership in various supranational institutions, but members tend to stress Wizlandia's right to engage in unilateral action when they see the actions of supranational organisations to not be in line with Wizlandian interests. Currently, Senator Samir Khatri is the leader of the Liberal Democrats.

Acela Liberals

Acela Liberals are the more centrist third-way wing of the party. The faction rose to prominence during the 1990s in response to persistent poverty in the South, and advocate a third-way between the Social Democrats on the centre-left and the Walrus Liberal establishment. This third-way is characterised by the establishment of a Universal Catastrophic Healthcare system, the creation of a small-medium welfare state consisting of cash-transfer payments to very low-income individuals and their children, an increased investment in public education, while still maintaining various pro-growth policies in a very deregulated market economy. Like the Walrus Liberals, the party is very civil libertarian and culturally liberal, supporting liberalisation of drugs, prostitution, as well as advancing LGBT rights such as adoption and marriage.

The Acela Liberals are moderately hawkish on the global stage. They support maintaining Wizlandia's nuclear arsenal, but also advocate small cuts to the military budget. On the global stage the faction is very internationalist, in addition to free trade and open immigration, the faction tends to have substantially more positive views on supranational organisations such as the World Assembly, and it desires much closer economic, legal and military integration with the Liberal Democratic Union and the South-Asian Union. The current Chief Executive Ashley Lavelle and long-time Executive of Education Xifeng Zhang descend from the Acela Liberal faction, and the current leader of the faction is Representative Harta Sutedja.

Wednesday Liberals

The Wednesday Liberals is the centrist faction of the Liberal Party, formed from the split of the Wednesday Alliance into it and the Civic Alliance. The faction is the most centrist of the Liberal Party, and composes of a large amount of the "swing" voters in the House and Senate. As the centrist faction, the Wednesday Liberals tend to be less economically and culturally liberal than the rest of the party, and have been more open to market interventions and harsher crime policies than other Liberals, and tend to seek closer cooperation and pass tripartisan legislation with the National and the Social Democratic parties.

The Wednesday Liberals are moderate hawks and support maintaining current levels of military spending. On foreign policy, the faction is internationalist and pro-globalisation, and seeks greater economic, legal and military integration with the Liberal Democratic Union. All of the Speakers for the House and the Senate have been from the faction, including the current speakers David Campbell (House of Representatives) and Matthew Wilson (Senate). The current leader of the Wednesday Liberals is Robert Hadley.

Free Liberals

The Free Liberals are the smallest and most radical wing of the Liberal Party. As ardent libertarians and minarchists, Free Liberals advocate for the smallest possible government in all areas, including the elimination of all welfare spending, very large cuts to the federal government, and complete legalisation of all drug and other victimless crimes. The faction has had an uneasy relationship with the rest of the party, they view the other four factions as too moderate and willing to compromise in coalition, and have at various times revolted against the party leadership over budgetary issues. After the passage of the Universal Catastrophic Healthcare Act in 2000, many Free Liberals left the party to join the Libertarian Party.

Free Liberals have a substantially different foreign policy view than the rest of the party. The faction is very dovish and desires to enact large scale cuts to the military, in addition to withdrawing from all supranational organisations, though they still advocate for free trade and open immigration like the rest of the party. The current leaders of the the Free Liberal faction are Senator Linda Rand and Representative Terence Adams.