ABSTRACT
The first political movement to organise as a party in continental Europe, the Belgian liberals has endured several internal mutations and ideological realignments through their history. From Belgian ‘unionism’ to anticlericalism, from laissez-faire to social liberalism, Belgian liberals have constantly reinvented themselves. Comparative analyses of Belgian liberals’ evolution since the party split have been scant and covered only a limited time span. C. Rudd is a notable exception. He brilliantly covered the history of the Belgian Liberal family until the early 1980s, and paved the way for a comparative analysis of each party after the party split. The chapter proposes to combine S. M. Lipset and S. Rokkan's genetic approach of political parties and Pedersen's lifespan approach to discern respectively the origin and development of Belgian Liberal parties. As one of the first political parties to appear in continental Europe, the Belgian Liberal Party achieved very early and almost simultaneously the thresholds of declaration and authorisation.
