Separate ways

In this chapter, I address the question of whether liberal parties ¹ have developed convergent responses to the emerging European polity that can be framed in terms of a distinguishable political project. I begin with a brief outline of the physiognomy of party-based liberalism in Europe and discuss how far liberal parties can be analysed as members of the same famille spirituelle. The analysis proceeds by focusing on the European policies of liberal parties since the 1950s. Special consideration is given to the development of institutionalised transnational links between liberal parties and to common programmatic responses issued at the European level. In the main part of the chapter, I analyse the developments of the European polity since the Single European Act in terms of their expected impact on the positions of liberal parties. I argue that the increasing emphasis on the market-correcting dimension of European integration has led to a decline in the pro-integrationist consensus between market liberal parties. Given the ever-closer linkage between domestic and European politics, the responses of market liberal parties to European integration are increasingly structured by the national context of state-based economic regulation. While market liberal parties from less-regulated economies tend to perceive European integration as a threat to their national acquis, market liberal parties from countries featuring higher levels of economic regulation are, in contrast, more supportive of European integration as they perceive the integration process as being in line with their domestic goals.