ABSTRACT

The history of European modern democracies is intrinsically linked to that of liberal parties. This chapter focuses on the evolution of liberal parties in Europe. It provides a major gap in the literature, as very few volumes have been dedicated to the party family. One of the most straightforward ways to identify liberal parties is to look at their name or at their transnational affiliation. Although these two approaches are easy to apply and reveal a great deal of the party's self-perception and identity, they carry some problems. In the case of liberal parties, labels can be misleading and contribute to the heterogeneous image of the liberal party family. Labels can tell a lot about the values promoted by liberal parties and about their organisation but they are of little help when trying to identify them a priori. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.