Liberalism in Lithuania

Part of a series on
Liberalism
Schools Classical Conservative Cultural Democratic Feminist Equity Green Internationalist Muscular National Neo Ordo Radical Religious Christian Catholic Islamic Jewish Secular Social Techno Third Way
Principles Consent of the governed Due process Democracy Economic liberalism Economic globalization Equality Gender Legal Federalism Freedom Economic Market Trade Press Religion Speech Harm principle Internationalism Invisible hand Labor theory of property Laissez-faire Liberty Negative Positive Limited government Market economy Natural monopoly Open society Permissive society Popular sovereignty Property Private Public Rights Civil and political Natural and legal To own property To bear arms Rule of law Secularism Secular humanism Separation of church and state Separation of powers Social contract Social justice Social services Welfare state State of nature
History Age of Enlightenment List of liberal theorists (contributions to liberal theory)
Philosophers Milton Locke Spinoza Montesquieu Voltaire Rousseau Smith Kant Turgot Burke Priestley Paine Beccaria Condorcet Bentham Korais De Gouges Wollstonecraft Staël Say Humboldt Constant Ricardo Guizot List Bastiat Martineau Emerson Tocqueville Mill Spencer Arnold Acton Weber Hobhouse Croce Cassirer Mises Ortega Keynes Collingwood Čapek Hu Hayek Popper Aron Berlin Friedman Rawls Sen Nozick Kymlicka Badawi
Politicians Jefferson Kołłątaj Madison Artigas Bolívar Broglie Lamartine Macaulay Kossuth Deák Cobden Mazzini Juárez Lincoln Gladstone Cavour Sarmiento Mommsen Naoroji Itagaki Levski Kemal Deakin Milyukov Lloyd George Venizelos Ståhlberg Gokhale Rathenau Madero Einaudi King Roosevelt Pearson Ohlin Kennedy Jenkins
Organizations Africa Liberal Network Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party Arab Liberal Federation Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats European Democratic Party European Liberal Youth International Alliance of Libertarian Parties International Federation of Liberal Youth Liberal International Liberal Network for Latin America Liberal parties Liberal South East European Network
Regional variants Europe Latin America Albania Armenia Australia Austria Belgium Bolivia Brazil Bulgaria Canada Chile China Hong Kong Colombia Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czechia Denmark Ecuador Egypt Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Venizelism Honduras Hungary Iceland India Iran Israel Italy Liberism Japan Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Mexico Moldova Montenegro Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Nigeria North Macedonia Norway Panama Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Cracovian Portugal Romania Russia Senegal Serbia Slovakia Slovenia South Africa South Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Thailand Tunisia Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom Cobdenism Gladstonian Manchester Whiggism United States Arizona School Classical Jeffersonian Modern Uruguay Venezuela Zimbabwe
Related topics Anti-authoritarianism Anti-communism Bias in American academia Bias in the media Capitalism Democratic Centrism Radical centrism Economic freedom Egalitarianism Empiricism Humanism Individualism Anarchist Land value tax Libertarianism Left Right Pirate Party Sexually liberal feminism Utilitarianism
Liberalism portal  Politics portal
v t e

This article gives an overview of liberalism in Lithuania. Liberalism was a major force in Lithuania since 1900. Next to the urban citizens, agrarian liberal parties became active. It is limited to liberal parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ denotes another party in that scheme. For inclusion in this scheme it isn't necessary so that parties labeled themselves as a liberal party.

History

After the restoration of independence in 1990 liberal parties arose again. Currently, the Liberal Movement and Freedom and Justice are centre-right liberal parties, and the Freedom Party is a centrist liberal party.

Lithuanian Democratic Party

• 1902: Liberal intellectuals and dissident social democrats formed the Lithuanian Democratic Party (Lietuvių Demokratų Partija).
• 1905: The LDP sponsored the forming of the ⇒ Lithuanian Peasants Union
• 1914: The LDP is renamed into Democratic Party of Lithuania (Lietuvos Demokratų Partija)
• 1917: A left wing faction formed the Lithuanian Popular Socialist Democratic Party and a moderate faction formed the ⇒ Democratic National Freedom League.
• 1920: The party is dissolved

From Lithuanian Peasants' Union to Lithuanian Popular Peasants' Union

• 1905: The ⇒ Lithuanian Democratic Party sponsored the foundation of the Lithuanian Peasants' Union (Lietuvos Valstiečių Sąjunga), a party working under supervision of the LDP
• 1920: The party became an independent party
• 1922: The party merged with the ⇒ Lithuanian Socialist Popular Democratic Party into the Lithuanian Popular Peasants' Union (Lietuvos Valstiečių Liaudininkų Sąjunga) under the leadership of Mykolas Sleževičius and Kazys Grinius^[1]
• 1935: The party is banned, but continued in exile
• 1990: It is refounded as a conservative-agrarian party

Lithuanian Socialist Popular Democratic Party

• 1917: A left wing faction of the ⇒ Lithuanian Democratic Party formed the Lithuanian Popular Socialist Democratic Party (Lietuvos Socialistų Liaudininkų Demokratų Partija)
• 1922: The party merged with the ⇒ Lithuanian Peasants' Union into the ⇒ Lithuanian Popular Peasants' Union

From Democratic National Freedom League to Farmers Party

• 1917: A moderate faction of the ⇒ Lithuanian Democratic Party formed the Democratic National Freedom League (Demokratinė Tautos Laisvės Santara)
• 1925: The party is renamed into the Farmers Party (Ūkininkų Partija)
• 1928: The party is banned, but continued in exile

From Lithuanian Liberal Union to Freedom Party

• 1990: In newly independent Lithuania liberals formed the Lithuanian Liberal Union (Lietuvos Liberalų Sąjunga).
• 1993: The Lithuanian Centre Union (Lietuvos Centro Sąjunga) is founded.
• 2002: A populist faction of the LLS formed the Liberal Democratic Party (Liberalų Demokratų Partija).
• 2003: The party merged with the ⇒ Lithuanian Centre Union and the Modern Christian Democratic Union into the Liberal and Centre Union (Liberalų ir Centro Sąjunga).
• 2002: An agrarian faction of the LCS formed the Lithuanian Centre Party (Lietuvos Centro Partija).
• 2006: The Liberals' Movement of the Republic of Lithuania was formed by the dissident members of LiCS.
• 2008: The National Resurrection Party (Tautos Prisikėlimo Partija) is founded.
• 2011: The TPP merged into the ⇒ LiCS.
• 2019: The Freedom Party (Laisvės Partija) was formed by the former members of LRLS.

New Union Social Liberals

• 1998: Artūras Paulauskas launched the New Union (Social Liberals) (Naujoji sąjunga (socialliberalai))
• 2011: The party merged into the ⇒ Labour Party

Lithuanian Freedom Union (Liberals) to Freedom and Justice

• 2011: The YES – Homeland Revival and Perspective (TAIP – Tėvynės atgimimas ir perspektyva) is founded by Artūras Zuokas.
• 2014: The Liberal and Centre Union merged with YES into the ⇒ Lithuanian Freedom Union (Liberals) (Lietuvos Laisvės Sąjunga (Liberalai)).
• 2020: The Lithuanian Freedom Union (Liberals) merged with Order and Justice (originally ⇒ Liberal Democratic Party) into ⇒ Freedom and Justice (Laisvė ir teisingumas).

Liberal leaders

• Jonas Vileišis - Mykolas Sleževičius - Kazys Grinius - Petras Auštrevičius - Remigijus Šimašius - Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen - Aušrinė Armonaitė

Liberal think tanks

• Lithuanian Free Market Institute (LLRI)
• Taikomosios politikos institutas (TPI)

See also

• History of Lithuania
• Politics of Lithuania
• List of political parties in Lithuania

References