The Liberal State Party, "the Freedom League" (, LSP), was a conservative liberal

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

from 1921 to 1948. It is historically linked to the

People's Party for Freedom and Democracy The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ( , VVD) is a Conservative liberalism, conservative-liberal List of political parties in the Netherlands, political party in the Netherlands. The VVD, whose forerunner was the Freedom Party (Netherl ...

(VVD), a major Dutch political party.

History

The LSP was founded on 16 April 1921 as a merger of the mainstream liberal Liberal Union, the conservative liberal League of Free Liberals, the minor Economic League and the single seat parties of the Neutral Party and the Middle Class Party. They were joined by the General Political Party, who lacked parliamentary representation. These were all the liberal parties in the Netherlands except for the progressive-liberal Free-thinking Democratic League (VDB). The merger was forced by the constitutional revision of 1918 implementing

universal suffrage Universal suffrage or universal franchise ensures the right to vote for as many people bound by a government's laws as possible, as supported by the " one person, one vote" principle. For many, the term universal suffrage assumes the exclusion ...

and

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

. The two biggest parties (the Liberal Union and the League of Free Liberals) had lost a considerable number of seats with the implementation of universal suffrage, while the other three parties had profited from the system of proportional representation. During its entire existence the LSP lost seats, the party started with ten seats in 1922 and was left with only four in 1937. Unlike other social groups, the liberals did not build up a structure of pillarised organisations around it: therefore liberal voters were relatively independent from the League and were easily attracted by new political parties, like the National Socialist Movement. Although the party was very small it was part of coalition cabinet two times between 1933 and 1937 in the second and third cabinets of Hendrikus Colijn. In 1939 several individual League-members were involved in the short-lived fifth Colijn cabinet. In 1941, after the Netherlands was invaded in 1940 by the Germans, the party was forbidden. In 1946, after the Netherlands was liberated, the Liberal State Party was reformed to the Freedom Party, which in 1948 became the

(VVD). In 1963 a group of VVD members tried to rekindle the "Freedom League" flame, but they were unable to gain seats in the elections and dissolved.

Name

The party was official founded as the "Freedom League" ("Vrijheidsbond"), during the 1920s the party adopted the name Liberal State Party, "the Freedom League" (Liberale Staatspartij, "de Vrijheidsbond"), after 1937 it adopted the name Liberal State Party ("Liberale Staatspartij").

Ideology and electorate

The LSP was a conservative liberal party. Personal freedom was their most important principle. It therefore defended a small state and was in favour of

free trade Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold Economic liberalism, economically liberal positions, while economic nationalist politica ...

. Government should however be involved in providing

social security Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance ...

for the extremely poor and

pension A pension (; ) is a fund into which amounts are paid regularly during an individual's working career, and from which periodic payments are made to support the person's retirement from work. A pension may be either a " defined benefit plan", wh ...

s for the elderly. It defended

public education A state school, public school, or government school is a primary school, primary or secondary school that educates all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in part by taxation and operated by the government of the state. State-f ...

. Internationally it favoured international (mutual) disarmament and the gradual implementation of autonomy for the

Dutch Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which declared independence on 17 August 1945. Following the Indonesian War of Independe ...

. The LSP mainly received support from agnostics or latitudinarian

protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

s (such as Remonstrants, moderate orthodox or freethinking members of the

Dutch Reformed Church The Dutch Reformed Church (, , abbreviated NHK ) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the traditional denomination of the Dutch royal famil ...

and

Mennonites Mennonites are a group of Anabaptism, Anabaptist Christianity, Christian communities tracing their roots to the epoch of the Radical Reformation. The name ''Mennonites'' is derived from the cleric Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland, part of ...

) from higher classes:

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for ...

men,

civil servants The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

, wealthy farmers, and voters with free professions (lawyers, doctors etc.). The party performed particularly well in the major trading cities

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

and

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

, the rich municipalities around

Hilversum Hilversum () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands. Located in the heart of the Gooi, it is ...

and

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

and in northern rural provinces, like

Groningen Groningen ( , ; ; or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen (province), Groningen province in the Netherlands. Dubbed the "capital of the north", Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of ...

and

Drenthe Drenthe () is a province of the Netherlands located in the northeastern part of the country. It is bordered by Overijssel to the south, Friesland to the west, Groningen to the north, and the German state of Lower Saxony to the east. As of Jan ...

Electoral performance

This table shows the LSP's results in elections to the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

and

States-Provincial The provincial council (, PS), also known as the States-Provincial, is the provincial parliament and legislative assembly in each of the provinces of the Netherlands. It is elected for each province simultaneously once every four years and has ...

, as well as the party's political leadership: the fractievoorzitter, is the chair of the parliamentary party and the lijsttrekker is the party's top candidate in the general election, these posts are normally taken by the party's leader. The party's leader can also be in cabinet.

Municipal and provincial government

The party was particularly strong in urban

municipal A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the gov ...

and provincial governments. The party supplied several mayors of larger cities, such as Pieter Droogleever Fortuyn in

In the following figure one can see the election results of the provincial election of 1931 per province. It shows the areas where the LSP is strong, namely South Holland and too a lesser extent Gelderland and North Holland. The party is very weak in rural and Catholic Limburg and Brabant.

Pillarisation

The LSP lacked a real system of pillarised organisations around it. 'Neutral' organisations, which were not linked to a pillar, often had friendly relations with the LSP. This included the general broadcasting association

AVRO Avro (an initialism of the founder's name) was a British aircraft manufacturer. Its designs include the Avro 504, used as a trainer in the First World War, the Avro Lancaster, one of the pre-eminent bombers of the Second World War, and the d ...

(Algemene Verenigde Radio Omroep, General United Radio Broadcasting Organisation), the general union ANWV (Algemene Nederlandse Werkelieden Vereniging, the General Dutch Workers' Association), furthermore the neutral employers' organisation VNO and the financial newspaper '' Het Handelsblad'' had good relations with the League. Together with the other liberal party, the VDB, these organisation formed the weak general pillar.

Leadership

* Party chairmen: ** 1921–1926: Hendrik Coenraad Dresselhuijs ** 1927–1933: Dirk Fock ** 1933–1938: Willem Carel Wendelaar ** 1938–1945: Ben Telders ** 1945: M.H. de Boer (acting) * Chairmen of the parliamentary group: ** 1921–1922: Pieter Rink ** 1922–1926: Hendrik Coenraad Dresselhuijs ** 1926–1929: Anton van Gijn ** 1929–1933: Hendrik Johan Knottenbelt ** 1933–1940:

Steven Bierema Stephen or Steven is an English given name, first name. It is particularly significant to Christianity, Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; he is w ...

* Chairmen of the Senate group: ** 1923–1932: Pieter Rink ** 1932–1935: Dirk Fock ** 1935–1938: Pieter Droogleever Fortuyn ** 1938–1946: Joan Gelderman

References

{{Defunct political parties in the Netherlands 1921 establishments in the Netherlands 1946 disestablishments in the Netherlands Conservative liberal parties Netherlands 1921 Defunct political parties in the Netherlands Liberal parties in the Netherlands Political parties established in 1921 Political parties disestablished in 1946