United Kingdom According to
Encyclopædia Britannica, the first use of the term
radical in a political sense is generally ascribed to the English
parliamentarian Charles James Fox, a leader of the left wing of the
Whig party who dissented from the party's
conservative-liberalism and looked favourably upon the radical reforms being undertaken by
French republicans, such as universal male suffrage. In 1797, Fox declared for a "radical reform" of the
electoral system. This led to a general use of the term to identify all supporting the movement for parliamentary reform. Jeremy Bentham is believed to have coined the specific noun "radicalism" in the autumn of 1819. Initially confined to the upper and middle classes, in the early 19th century "popular radicals" brought
artisans and the "labouring classes" into widespread agitation in the face of harsh government repression. More respectable "
philosophical radicals" followed the
utilitarian philosophy of
Jeremy Bentham and strongly supported parliamentary reform, but were generally hostile to the arguments and tactics of the "popular radicals". By the middle of the century,
parliamentary Radicals joined with others in the
Parliament of the United Kingdom to form the
Liberal Party, eventually achieving reform of the
electoral system.
Origins The Radical movement had its beginnings at a time of tension between the American colonies and
Great Britain, with the first Radicals, angry at the state of the
House of Commons, drawing on the
Leveller tradition and similarly demanding improved parliamentary representation. These earlier concepts of democratic and even egalitarian reform had emerged in the turmoil of the
English Civil War and the brief establishment of the
republican
Commonwealth of England amongst the vague political grouping known as the Levellers, but with the
English Restoration of the monarchy such ideas had been discredited. Although the
Glorious Revolution of 1688 had increased parliamentary power with a
constitutional monarchy and the
union of the parliaments brought
England and
Scotland together, towards the end of the 18th century the monarch still had considerable influence over the
Parliament of Great Britain which itself was dominated by the English aristocracy and by patronage. Candidates for the House of Commons stood as
Whigs or
Tories, but once elected formed shifting coalitions of interests rather than splitting along party lines. At
general elections, the vote was restricted to property owners in constituencies which were out of date and did not reflect the growing importance of manufacturing towns or shifts of population, so that in many
rotten borough seats could be bought or were controlled by rich landowners while major cities remained unrepresented. Discontent with these inequities inspired those individuals who later became known as the "
Radical Whigs".
William Beckford fostered early interest in reform in the
London area. The "
Middlesex radicals" were led by the politician
John Wilkes, an opponent of war with the colonies who started his weekly publication
The North Briton in 1764 and within two years had been charged with
seditious libel and expelled from the House of Commons. The
Society for the Defence of the Bill of Rights which he started in 1769 to support his re-election, developed the belief that every man had the right to vote and "natural reason" enabling him to properly judge political issues. Liberty consisted in frequent elections and for the first time middle-class radicals obtained the backing of the London "mob". Middlesex and
Westminster were among the few parliamentary constituencies with a large and socially diverse electorate including many
artisans as well as the middle class and aristocracy and along with the county association of
Yorkshire led by the Reverend
Christopher Wyvill were at the forefront of reform activity. The writings of what became known as the "
Radical Whigs" had an influence on the
American Revolution. and author of
Take Your Choice and
The English Constitution Produced and Illustrated.
Major John Cartwright also supported the colonists, even as the
American Revolutionary War began and in 1776 earned the title of the "Father of Reform" when he published his pamphlet
Take Your Choice! advocating annual parliaments, the secret ballot and manhood
suffrage. In 1780, a draft programme of reform was drawn up by
Charles James Fox and
Thomas Brand Hollis and put forward by a sub-committee of the electors of Westminster. This included calls for the six points later adopted in the ''People's Charter'' (see
Chartists below). The American Revolutionary War ended in humiliating defeat of a policy which King
George III had fervently advocated and in March 1782 the King was forced to appoint an administration led by his opponents which sought to curb Royal patronage. In November 1783, he took his opportunity and used his influence in the
House of Lords to defeat a Bill to reform the
British East India Company, dismissed the government and appointed
William Pitt the Younger as his Prime Minister. Pitt had previously called for Parliament to begin to reform itself, but he did not press for long for reforms the King did not like. Proposals Pitt made in April 1785 to redistribute seats from the "
rotten boroughs" to London and the counties were defeated in the House of Commons by 248 votes to 174.
Popular agitation In the wake of the
French Revolution of 1789,
Thomas Paine wrote
The Rights of Man (1791) as a response to
Edmund Burke's
counterrevolutionary essay
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), itself an attack on
Richard Price's sermon that kicked off the so-called "pamphlet war" known as the
Revolution Controversy.
Mary Wollstonecraft, another supporter of Price, soon followed with
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. They encouraged mass support for democratic reform along with rejection of the
monarchy,
aristocracy and all forms of privilege. Different strands of the movement developed, with middle class "reformers" aiming to widen the franchise to represent commercial and industrial interests and towns without parliamentary representation, while "Popular radicals" drawn from the middle class and from
artisans agitated to assert wider rights including relieving distress. The theoretical basis for electoral reform was provided by "Philosophical radicals" who followed the
utilitarian philosophy of
Jeremy Bentham and strongly supported parliamentary reform, but were generally hostile to the arguments and tactics of the "popular radicals". In Ireland, the
United Irishmen movement took another direction, adding to the doctrine of a secular and parliamentary republic inspired by the
American and
French republican revolutions, another doctrine of the French Revolution:
civic nationalism. Dismayed by the inability of British parliamentarianism to introduce the root-and-branch democratic reforms desired, Irish Radicals channelled their movement into a republican form of nationalism that would provide equality as well as liberty. This was pursued through armed revolution and often with French assistance at
various points over the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Popular Radicals were quick to go further than Paine, with
Newcastle schoolmaster
Thomas Spence demanding land nationalisation to redistribute wealth in a penny periodical he called ''Pig's Meat'' in a reference to
Burke's phrase "swinish multitude". Radical organisations sprang up, such as the
London Corresponding Society of artisans formed in January 1792 under the leadership of the shoemaker
Thomas Hardy to call for the vote. One such was the
Scottish Friends of the People society which in October 1793 held a British convention in
Edinburgh with delegates from some of the English
corresponding societies. They issued a manifesto demanding universal male suffrage with annual elections and expressing their support for the principles of the French Revolution. The numbers involved in these movements were small and most wanted reform rather than revolution, but for the first time working men were organising for political change. The government reacted harshly, imprisoning leading Scottish radicals, temporarily suspending
habeas corpus in England and passing the
Seditious Meetings Act 1795 which meant that a license was needed for any meeting in a public place consisting of fifty or more people. Throughout the
Napoleonic Wars, the government took extensive stern measures against feared domestic unrest. The corresponding societies ended, but some radicals continued in secret, with Irish sympathisers in particular forming secret societies to overturn the government and encourage mutinies. In 1812,
Major John Cartwright formed the first
Hampden Club, named after the
English Civil War Parliamentary leader
John Hampden, aiming to bring together middle class moderates and lower class radicals. After the Napoleonic Wars, the
Corn laws (in force between 1815 and 1846) and bad harvests fostered discontent. The publications of
William Cobbett were influential and at political meetings speakers like
Henry Hunt complained that only three men in a hundred had the vote. Writers like the radicals
William Hone and
Thomas Jonathan Wooler spread dissent with publications such as
The Black Dwarf in defiance of a series of government acts to curb circulation of political literature. Radical riots in 1816 and 1817 were followed by the
Peterloo massacre of 1819 publicised by
Richard Carlile, who then continued to fight for press freedom from prison. The
Six Acts of 1819 limited the right to demonstrate or hold public meetings. In
Scotland, agitation over three years culminated in an attempted general strike and abortive workers' uprising crushed by government troops in the "
Radical War" of 1820. Magistrates powers were increased to crush demonstrations by manufacturers and action by radical
Luddites. To counter the established
Church of England doctrine that the aristocratic social order was divinely ordained, radicals supported
Lamarckian Evolutionism, a theme proclaimed by street corner agitators as well as some established scientists such as
Robert Edmund Grant.
Political reform Economic conditions improved after 1821 and the
United Kingdom government made economic and criminal law improvements, abandoning policies of repression. In 1823,
Jeremy Bentham co-founded the
Westminster Review with
James Mill as a journal for "philosophical radicals", setting out the
utilitarian philosophy that right actions were to be measured in proportion to the greatest good they achieved for the greatest number.
Westminster elected two radicals to Parliament during the 1820s. The
Whigs gained power and despite defeats in the
House of Commons and the
House of Lords the
Reform Act 1832 was put through with the support of public outcry, mass meetings of "political unions" and riots in some cities. This now enfranchised the middle classes, but failed to meet radical demands. The Whigs introduced reforming measures owing much to the ideas of the philosophic radicals, abolishing slavery and in 1834 introducing
Malthusian Poor Law reforms which were bitterly opposed by "popular radicals" and writers like
Thomas Carlyle. Following the 1832 Reform Act, the mainly aristocratic Whigs in the House of Commons were joined by a small number of
parliamentary Radicals as well as an increased number of middle class Whigs. By 1839, they were informally being called "the
Liberal party".
Chartists From 1836, working class Radicals unified around the
Chartist cause of electoral reform expressed in the ''People's Charter'' drawn up by six members of Parliament and six from the
London Working Men's Association (associated with
Owenite Utopian socialism), which called for six points:
universal suffrage, equal-sized
electoral districts,
secret ballot, an end to property qualification for Parliament, pay for Members of Parliament and Annual Parliaments. Chartists also expressed economic grievances, but their mass demonstrations and petitions to parliament were unsuccessful. Despite initial disagreements, after their failure their cause was taken up by the middle class
Anti-Corn Law League founded by
Richard Cobden and
John Bright in 1839 to oppose duties on imported grain which raised the price of food and so helped landowners at the expense of ordinary people.
Liberal reforms The
parliamentary Radicals joined with the
Whigs and
anti-protectionist Tory Peelites to form the
Liberal Party by 1859. Demand for parliamentary reform increased by 1864 with agitation from
John Bright and the
Reform League. When the Liberal government led by
Lord Russell and
William Ewart Gladstone introduced a modest bill for parliamentary reform, it was defeated by both Tories and reform Liberals, forcing the government to resign. The Tories under
Lord Derby and
Benjamin Disraeli took office and the new government decided to "dish the Whigs" and "take a leap in the dark" to take the credit for the reform. As a minority government, they had to accept radical amendments and Disraeli's
Reform Act 1867 almost doubled the electorate, giving the vote even to working men. The Radicals, having been strenuous in their efforts on behalf of the working classes, earned a deeply loyal following—British trade unionists from 1874 until 1892, upon being elected to Parliament, never considered themselves to be anything other than Radicals and were labeled
Lib-Lab candidates. Radical trade unionists formed the basis for what later became the
Labour Party.
Belgium The territories of modern Belgium had been merged into the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815. Aside from various religious and socioeconomic tensions between the Dutch north and proto-Belgian south, over the 1820s a young generation of Belgians, heavily influenced by French Enlightenment ideas, had formulated criticisms of the Dutch monarchy as autocratic. The monarch enjoyed broad personal powers, his ministers were irresponsible before parliament; the separation of powers was minimal; freedom of press and association were limited; the principle of universal suffrage was undermined by the fact that the largely Catholic south, despite possessing two-thirds of the population, received as many seats to the Estates-General (parliament) as the smaller Protestant north; and the Dutch authorities were suspected of forcing Protestantism onto Catholics. These concerns combined to produce a pro-Catholic Radicalism distinct from both the anticlerical Radicalism of France, and the Protestant Liberalism of the Dutch north. Following the political crisis of 1829, where the Crown Prince was named prime minister, a limited reform was introduced establishing constitutional rights, similar to the charter of rights of France's autocratic Restoration Monarchy; the Belgian Radicals, like their French counterparts, regarded such a charter of rights as insufficient, potentially revocable by a whim of the monarch. Belgian Radicals closely followed the situation in France when, on 26 July to 1 August 1830, a conservative-liberal
revolution broke out, overthrowing the autocratic monarchy for a
liberal constitutional monarchy. Within a month a revolt had erupted in Brussels before spreading to the rest of the Belgian provinces. After Belgian independence, the Constitution of 1831 established a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary regime, and provided a list of fundamental civil rights inspired by the French Declaration of the Right of Man. As in Britain, Radicals in Belgium continued to operate within the Liberal Party, campaigning throughout the 19th Century for the property-restricted suffrage to be extended. This was extended a first time in 1883, and
universal male suffrage was
achieved in 1893 (though female suffrage would have to wait
until 1948). After this Radicalism was a minor political force in Belgium, its role taken over by the emergence of a powerful
social-democratic party.
France – he belonged to
The Mountain of the
Jacobin Club, a radical force during the
French Revolution. During the nineteenth century, the Radicals in France were the political group of the far-left, relative to the centre-left "
opportunists" (Gambetta: conservative-liberal and republican), the centre-right
Orléanists (conservative-liberal and monarchist), the far-right
Legitimists (anti-liberal monarchist), and the supporters of a republican military dictatorship, the
Bonapartists. Following the
Napoleonic Wars and until
1848, it was technically illegal to advocate
republicanism openly. Some republicans reconciled themselves to pursuing liberalism through the socially-conservative monarchy—the 'opportunists'. Those who remained intransigent in believing that the French Revolution needed to be completed through a republican regime based on parliamentary democracy and universal suffrage therefore tended to call themselves "Radicals" – a term meaning 'Purists'. Under the Second Republic (1848–1852), the Radicals, on a platform of seeking a "social and democratic republic", sat together in parliament in a group named
The Mountain. When
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte launched his
military coup, Radicals across France rose up in insurrection to defend the democratic republic. This experience would mark French Radicalism for the next century, prompting permanent vigilance against all those who – from
Marshall Mac-Mahon to
General De Gaulle – were suspected of seeking to overthrow the constitutional, parliamentary regime. After the return to parliamentary democracy in 1871, the Radicals emerged as a significant political force: led by
Georges Clemenceau, they claimed that the socially-conservative liberal republicanism of
Léon Gambetta and
Jules Ferry had drifted away from the ideals of the French Revolution, and that the Radicals were the true heirs to 1791. In 1881, they put forward their programme of broad social reforms: from then on, the tactic of the main Radical Party was to have 'no enemies to the left' of the Republic, allying with any group that sought social reform while accepting the legality of the parliamentary republic. The Radicals were not yet a political party as they sat together in parliament out of kinship, but they possessed minimal organisation outside of parliament. The first half of the Third Republic saw several events that caused them to fear a far-right takeover of parliament that might end democracy, as Louis-Napoléon had:
Marshall Mac-Mahon's self-coup in 1876, the
General Boulanger crisis in the 1880s, the
Dreyfus Affair in the 1890s. The Radicals were swept to power first in a
coalition government (1899) then in
governments of their own from 1902. They finally managed to implement their long-standing programme of reforms, such as the
separation of Church and State, or the introduction of
secret ballotting. In order to ensure that their legacy would remain unreversed, they unified the local Radical committees into an elector party: the
Radical-Socialist Party, the first major modern political party in French history. Intellectuals played a powerful role. A major spokesman of radicalism was
Émile Chartier (1868–1951), who wrote under the pseudonym "Alain." He was a leading theorist of radicalism, and his influence extended through the Third and Fourth Republics. He stressed individualism, seeking to defend the citizen against the state. He warned against all forms of power – military, clerical, and economic. To oppose them he exalted the small farmer, the small shopkeeper, the small town, and the little man. He idealized country life and saw Paris as a dangerous font of power. The Radical–Socialist Party was the main governmental party of the
Third Republic between 1901 and 1919, and dominated government again between 1924 and 1926, 1932–1933 and 1937–1940; the centre-right governments dominated by the conservative-liberal centre-right often gave a portfolio to a Radical, who would join cabinet in a personal capacity as the most left-leaning minister. The party itself was discredited after 1940, due to fact that many (though not all) of its parliamentarians had voted to establish the
Vichy regime. Under the dictatorship several prominent Radicals, such as the young left-leaning former education minister
Jean Zay, and the influential editorialist
Maurice Sarraut (brother to the more famous Radical party leader
Albert), were assassinated by
the regime's paramilitary police, while others, notably
Jean Moulin, participated in the
resistance movement to
restore the Republic. The
Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance was established after
World War II to combine the politics of French Radicalism with credibility derived from members' activism in the
French resistance. In the 1950s,
Pierre Mendès-France attempted to rebuild the Radical Party as an alternative to both the Christian-democratic
MRP, while also leading the opposition to
Gaullism which he feared to be another attempt at a right-wing coup. During this period the Radicals frequently governed as part of a
coalition of centrist parties, spanning from the Socialists to the Christian-democrats. Ultimately the installation of the
Fifth Republic in 1958, and the subsequent emergence of a two-party system based on the Socialist and Gaullist movements, destroyed the niche for an autonomous Radical party. The Radical Party split into various tendencies. Its leading personality, Mendès-France himself, left in 1961 in protest at the party's acceptance of De Gaulle's military coup and joined the small social-democratic
Unified Socialist Party. A decade later, a second faction advocated maintaining an alliance with the Socialist-dominated coalition of the left; it broke away in 1972 to form the
Radical Party of the Left, which maintains close ties to the Socialist Party. The remainder of the original Radical Party became a de facto liberal-conservative party of the centre-right: renamed as the
'Valoisien' Radical Party, it advocated alliances with the rest of the liberal centre-right, participating first in the pro-
Giscard d'Estaing Union for French Democracy (1972), then with the
conservative Union for a Popular Movement (2002).
Ireland Irish republicanism was influenced by American and French radicalism. Typical of these classical Radicals are 19th century such as the United Irishmen in the 1790s,
Young Irelanders in the 1840s,
Fenian Brotherhood in the 1880s, as well as
Sinn Féin, and
Fianna Fáil in the 1920s.
Japan Japan's radical-liberalism during the
Empire of Japan was dissident because it resisted the government's political oppression of republicanism.
Rikken Minseitō, who supported the Empire of Japan's system at the time, were classified as "
conservative". Therefore, the radical liberal movement during the Japanese Empire was not separated from
socialism and
anarchism unlike the West at that time.
Kōtoku Shūsui was a representative Japanese radical liberal. After World War II, Japan's left-wing liberalism emerged as a "peace movement" and was largely led by the
Japan Socialist Party. Since Japanese conservatism was influenced by
Shintoism, Japan's radical liberalism and
democratic socialism against it were influenced by
Christianity.
Korea United States One of the trends of the American radical movement was the
Jacksonian democracy, which advocated political egalitarianism among white men. Radicalism was represented by the
Radical Republicans, especially the Stalwarts, more commonly known as Radical Republican. A collection of abolitionist and democratic reformers, some of whom were fervent supporters of trade unionism and in opposition to wage labor such as Benjamin Wade. Later political expressions of classical Radicalism centered around the
Populist Party, composed of rural western and southern farmers who were proponents of policies such as railroad nationalization, free silver, expansion of voting rights and labor reform.
Continental Europe and Latin America In continental
Europe and
Latin America, as for instance in France,
Italy,
Spain,
Chile and
Argentina (
Radical Civic Union), Radicalism developed as an ideology in the 19th century to indicate those who supported at least in theory a
republican form of government, universal male suffrage and, particularly,
anti-clerical policies. In German-speaking countries, this current is known as
Freisinn (literally "free mind", or "
freethought"), as in
German Freeminded Party from 1884 to 1893, then
Eugen Richter's
Freeminded People's Party; and the
Free Democratic Party of Switzerland. The
Freethinker parties, located mainly in the Netherlands, Scandinavia and German-speaking countries, included: • In Switzerland: • The Radical movement (or "Free-thinking" movement in the German-speaking cantons), not yet a political party, emerged during the period of
Regeneration, starting 1830 (coincident with the French
July Revolution). It became the dominant political force under the
1848 Constitution, holding all seven posts in the Federal Council until 1891. • The
Radical-Democratic Party (PRD; in French-speaking Switzerland), also known as the Free-minded Democratic Party (FDP; in German-speaking Switzerland) existed from 1894 to 2009. It started as a centre-left party but gradually moved to the centre-right in the course of time. It was still by far the strongest party until the 1940s, holding at least four of seven posts in the Federal Council. Under the 1959 "magic formula" it held two of seven posts in the Federal Council. • The
Radical-Liberal Party (PLR), or
FDP. The Liberals (in the German-speaking regions), was formed in 2009 by the merger of PRD/FDP with the smaller, more right-leaning
Liberal Party of Switzerland. • In the Netherlands: •
Radical League (1882–1901) •
Free-minded Democratic League, a political party in the Netherlands from 1901 to 1946 • In Germany, a succession of Radical parties existed: • The
German Free-minded Party (1884–1893), which split into two successors: • The left-leaning
Free-minded People's Party (1893–1910) • The centre-leaning
Free-minded Union (1893–1910) • These merged as the
Progressive People's Party (1910–1918) • This was reformed as the
German Democratic Party (DDP; 1918–1930) • The Radical Democratic Party formed by left-leaning and pacifist members of the DDP (1930–1933) • In Austria, liberalism was originally closely related to German nationalism but later split: • liberal-nationalist Progressive Club (1873–1881). • United Left (1881–1888). • United German Left (1888–1897) • German Progressive Party (1896–1910). •
Centrist Democrats, Democratic Middle-class Party, Democratic Economic Party and Economic People's Party (c. 1919) •
Civic Workers' Party (1920–1927) • Democratic List (1927) • Branches of German and Austrian formed new parties in aftermath of World War I •
Territory of the Saar Basin: • German Democratic Party of the
Territory of the Saar Basin (1922–1924; 1928–1935) •
Free City of Danzig: • German Democratic Party (1920–1925) • German Party for Progress and the Economy (1921–1925) • German Liberal Party (1925–1932) •
Czechoslovakia: • German Liberal Party (1919–1938) • In Denmark: • The current Liberal Party began as a radical party in 1870, hence its name in Danish (, meaning 'Left'). When it became more conservative, the Radical wing split in 1905 to form a new party, known as
Radikale Venstre ('Radical Left'). • In Norway: • The current Liberal Party began as a radical party in 1884, hence its name in Norwegian (
Venstre, meaning 'Left'). In Mediterranean Europe, Radical parties were often labelled 'Democratic' or 'Republican' parties: • In France, during the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century, radicalism was intertwined with republicanism to the point that radical parties were often simply labelled 'republicans'. The election of
Alexandre Ledru-Rollin in 1841 is generally considered the start of the radical-republican movement as a political force in France. Over the next century a pattern emerged of Radicals forming a party on the left of the parliamentary spectrum (but to the right of socialists), only for the party to drift to the centre, which would cause the party's left to splinter off and re-establish a new main Radical party while the weakened parent party was eventually absorbed by the liberal centre. This meant that there were generally two rival Radical parties at any one time, one leaning relatively towards socialism, and the other relatively towards liberalism. •
La Montagne (The Mountain) (1848–1851) was the first parliamentary group to provide a home for France's miscellaneous radical republicans. Its official name, the Socialist Democrat group, signalled its two tendencies: the more socialist-leaning tendency of
Louis Blanc, and the more middle-class democratic-reformist tendency of
Alexandre Ledru-Rollin. At that time it represented a very small political current situated on the far-left of the parliamentary spectrum. • The
Republican Union (1871–1884), led by
Léon Gambetta, was the Mountain's spiritual successor during the transition to democracy; its members included former parliamentarians of the Montagne such as
Louis Blanc, and prominent Radical intellectuals like
Victor Hugo. A minor force at first, by 1876 it had grown in parliamentary strength but begun to drift towards centrist cooperation with liberal Catholics; this prompted the party's more fervent radicals to splinter off in several waves and form new Radical parties (
Georges Clemenceau in 1876; René Goblet's Radical Left in 1881; Isambart's Progressive Union in 1894). • The
Progressive Union (1894–1902) was originally a splinter of the Republican Union by left-leaning radicals during the Dreyfus Affair. In 1902 the formation of the major new Radical-Socialist Party to its immediate left forced it to pick a political family, and it chose to ally then merge with other centrist parties to form the politically liberal Republican Democratic Alliance. •
Radical Left (1881–1940), a parliamentary group initially formed by hardline anticlerical radicals dissatisfied with the Republican Union's centrism. It was a major political force in centre-left and centrist governments between 1898 and 1918, and regularly provided ministers in centrist and right-wing governments between 1918 and 1940; the importance of this current was underlined by its leader, the veteran Radical
Georges Clemenceau, being called to lead the
war government during the First World War. The foundation of the PRRRS to its left in 1901 pushed it one space towards the centre and it increasingly drifted into alliance with the
liberal republican centre-right. By 1918 it was de facto a party of the centre-right, and from 1936 was essentially absorbed by the liberal right, its old political niche taken over by the PRRRS. • The
Radical-Socialist Party (officially the
Radical, Republican and Radical-Socialist Party or
PRRRS), the most famous of France's many radical parties. It was the dominant political force in France from 1901 to 1919, and a major force from 1920 to 1940. Due to its central political role it could alternate in and out of alliance with both socialists and with conservative-liberals; this prompted several splinters by the party's most left- and right-wing members: • Centrist and centre-right Radical splinters: The
Social and Unionist Radical Party (1928–37) was a small splinter of anti-socialist radicals from the PRRRS, led by
Henry Franklin-Bouillon, who preferred to ally with the centrist Radical Left and other liberal right wing parties. The
French Radical Party (1937–1938) was a similar small anti-communist splinter, led by
André Grisoni. These two small groups merged in 1938 as the short-lived
Independent Radical Party, which was itself restored after the Second World War and was a founding organisation of the
Alliance of Left Republicans. •
Independent Radical Party (1937–1940), a merger of the
Unionist Radical Party and the
French Radical Party. • Social-democratic Radical splinters: The
Republican-Socialist Party (1911–1935) and the
French Socialist Party (1923–1935) were two small parties formed of left-wing Radicals philosophically close to social-democracy or rightwing social-democrats philosophically close to Radicalism, but unable or unwilling to join either the
official socialist party or the PRRRS. Although electorally small, they were a significant political force as they regularly provided ministers and heads of government in left-wing and centrist coalitions. They merged with other social-democratic parties and independents in 1935 as the
Socialist Republican Union. • The
Camille Pelletain Radical Party, a small splinter of anti-fascists from the PRRRS that briefly existed between 1934 and 1936. The party opposed the willingness by the PRRRS's party leaders during 1934–35 to prefer cooperation with the right and far-right rather than with other left-wing parties. Its name was a reference to a leading historical figure of left-wing Radicalism,
Camile Pelletain, as a way to lay claim to an authentic Radical tradition felt to have been abandoned by the official party. Once the PRRRS returned to allying with the rest of the left in 1936, the Pelletanist Radicals returned to the old party. • After the Second World War, the pre-war Radical-Socialist Party, Radical Left party and their smaller counterparts were left discredited and weakened as
communism,
social-democracy,
Christian-democracy and
Gaullism exploded in popularity. The remaining Radicals mostly banded together with the remnants of other pre-war liberal parties to form a centre-right umbrella party named the
Rally of the Republican Left: this was no longer distinctly Radical in ideology, but espoused
laissez-faire parliamentary
liberal-democracy. In 2017 the Radical-Socialist Party merged with the
Radical Party of the Left to form the
Radical Movement. • In Spain, Radicalism took the form of various 'democratic', 'progressive', 'republican' and 'radical' parties. • The
Progressive Party (1835–1869), formed by former participants in the radical Revolution of 1820; • The
Democratic Party (1849–1869), split from the Progressive Party, a progressive party of
Jacobin inspiration, mainly active in the 1850s. It split into two successor parties: • The
Federal Democratic Republican Party (1868–1910) or "Federal Party" for short, whose leaders
Estanislao Figueras,
Francesc Pi i Margall and
Emilio Castelar were Presidents during the First Republic (1873–1874), and • The
Radical Democratic Party (or just "Radical Party") (1869/71–1876), whose leader
Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla was Prime Minister for two short periods in 1871 and 1872–1873; later known as the
Republican Reformist Party (1876–1880). It was refounded as the
Progressive Republican Party (1880–1912), whose majority merged into the
Republican Union (1903–1910) • The Democratic Party (1876–1879), split from the Federal Democratic Republican Party, reformed as the
Possibilist Democratic Party (1879–1890) • The
Radical Republican Party (1908–1936), a splinter of the
Republican Union, becoming the major radical party of the Second Republic (1931–1936/39), moving to the centre-right under
Alejandro Lerroux (Prime Minister from 1933 to 1935); • Its leftist splinter, the
Radical-Socialist Republican Party (1928–1934). This merged with others to form the
Republican Left (1934–1959) • A second splinter of the Radical-Republican Party formed the Republican Democratic Party and
Republican Union (1934–1959) •
Reformist Party (1912–1924) and its successor
Republican Action (1925–1934) which was to the left of Radical Republican Party; merged into the Republican Left; its leader
Manuel Azaña was two-time prime minister of the Second Republic (1931–1933 and 1936) • In Italy: . His thoughts influenced many politicians of a later period, among them
Woodrow Wilson,
David Lloyd George,
Mahatma Gandhi,
Golda Meir and
Jawaharlal Nehru. •
Action Party, formed by
Risorgimento leaders around
Giuseppe Mazzini, striving for a unitary, secular Italian republic with universal suffrage, popular sovereignty and freedom of speech (1848/53–1867) • "
Historical Far Left" also known as "Party of Democracy" (1867/77–1904) •
Italian Republican Party (founded in 1895) •
Italian Radical Party (1904–1922) •
Liberals–Democrats–Radicals (1919–1921) •
Democratic Liberal Party (Italy) (1921–1926) •
Action Party (1942–1947) •
Radical Party (1955–1989) •
Transnational Radical Party (1989–) •
Antiprohibitionists on Drugs (1989–1992) •
Pannella List (1992–1999) •
Bonino List (1999–2004) •
Bonino-Pannella List (2009–2013) •
Amnesty Justice Freedom List (2013) •
Italian Radicals (2001–)
Serbia and Montenegro Radicalism had played a pivotal role in the birth and development of parliamentarism and the construction of the modern Serbian state leading to the Yugoslavian unification. The
People's Radical Party formed in 1881 was the strongest political party and was in power in the
Kingdom of Serbia more than all others together. The 1888 Constitution of the Kingdom of Serbia that defined it as an independent nation and formalised parliamentary democracy was among the most advanced in the entire world due to Radical contribution and it is known as
The Radical Constitution. In 1902, a crack had occurred in which the
Independent Radical Party left and "the Olde" remained in the party, leading the original People's Radical Party to stray far from progressivism and into right-wing nationalism and conservatism. In the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Independent Radicals united with the rest of the Serbian opposition and the liberal and civic groups in the rest of the new country, forming the
Yugoslav Democratic Party, while several Republican dissidents formed a Republican Party. The NRS had promoted Serb nationalism and put itself as the defender of Serb national interests. Democrats and Radicals were the dominant political parties, especially since the exclusion of the Communists. Later far-right parties such as the
Yugoslav Radical Union and the
Serbian Radical Party adopted the title "radical" as allusion to NRS. In Montenegro, a
People's Party was formed in 1907 as the country's first political party and remained the largest in the period of country's parliamentary history until the Yugoslavian unification. Later, a
True People's Party was formed, which never got widespread popular support and whose bigger part had joined the original NS, but the difference was not ideological and instead was opposition and support of the Crown and sometimes in foreign relations to Serbia (the clubbists were the crown's dissidents and supporters of the people as well as Serbia as a regional power and brotherly ally—the rightists were generally anti-democratic and autocratic monarchist and also distrustful to the Serbian government's acts on the national plan). == See also ==