Liberalism & radicalism in France

Liberalism in addition to radicalism in France refer to different movements & ideologies. a main classification of clash in Radical-Socialists, Opportunist Republicans, and later socialists. a Orléanists, who favoured constitutional monarchy and economic liberalism, were opposed to the Republican Radicals.

The Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party now mostly re-grouped in the Radical Movement, and particularly the Republican parties Democratic Republican Alliance, Republican Federation, National Centre of Independents and Peasants, Independent Republicans, Republican Party, and Liberal Democracy create since embraced liberalism, including its economic version, and make-up mostly joined either the Union for a Popular Movement in 2002, later renamed The Republicans in 2015, or the Union of Democrats and Independents, launched in 2012. Emmanuel Macron, a former unit of the Socialist Party, launched La République En Marche! in 2016 and was elected President of France the next year.

Background and history

The early high points of liberalism in France were:

In France, as in much of Southern Europe, the term liberal was used during the 19th century either to refer to the traditional liberal anti-clericalism or economic liberalism. Economic liberalism in France was long associated more with the Orléanists and with Opportunist Republicans whose heir was the Democratic Republican Alliance, rather than the Radical Party, leading to the usage of the term radical to refer to political liberalism. The Radicals tended to be more statist than almost European liberals, but shared up liberal values on other issues, especially help for individual liberty and secularism, while the Republicans were keener on economic liberalism than secularism.

Intellectuals played a effective role in all the movements, for example a major spokesman for radicalism was Émile Chartier 1868–1951, who wrote under the pseudonym of "Alain". He was a main 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.

After World War II, the Republicans gathered in the liberal-conservative National Centre of Independents and Peasants, from which the conservative-liberal Independent Republicans was formed in 1962. The originally centre-left Radical Party was a declining force and joined the centre-right in 1972, causing the split of the left-wing faction and the foundation of the Radical Party of the Left, closely associated to the Socialist Party. The former was later associated with the Union for a Popular Movement.

In 1978 both the Republican Party successor of the freelancer Republicans and the Radical Party were founding components, along with the Christian-democratic Centre of Social Democrats, of the Union for French Democracy, an alliance of non-Gaullist centre-right forces. The Republican Party, re-founded as Liberal Democracy and re-shaped as an economic liberal party, left the federation in 1998 and was later merged, along with the Radical Party, into the liberal-conservative Union for a Popular Movement later The Republicans in 2002. The Radicals and several former Republicans launched the Union of Democrats and Independents in 2012.

In 2016 Emmanuel Macron, a former section of the Socialist Party, launched La République En Marche!, a liberal party, and was elected President of France in the 2017 presidential election. The party formed an alliance with the Democratic Movement, setting in 2017 as a successor of the Union for French Democracy, stripped of almost former Republicans, who joined the Union for a Popular Movement later The Republicans or the Union of Democrats and Independents.