Liberal State Party

The Liberal State Party, "the Freedom League" (LSP, Dutch: Liberale Staatspartij "de Vrijheidsbond"), was a Dutch conservative-liberal political party from 1921 to 1948. It is historically linked to the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), a major Dutch political party.

History

The LSP was founded in 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 constitution revision of 1918 implementing universal suffrage and proportional representation. 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 pillarized organisations around it: therefore liberal voters were relatively independent from the League and were easily attracted by new political parties,...
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