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	LIBERTARIAN PARTY

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The Libertarian Party believes strongly in personal freedom and autonomy, and believes that people should be able to act as they wish provided they do not infringe upon the rights of others. They also believe that people should enjoy (or suffer) the consequences of their actions without hinderance, and are therefore against incremental taxation ("punative theft from the successful") or social security ("handouts to people who are unwilling to work for themselves"). The Libertarians apply their system of belief equally to political, social, and economic issues.

At present, the Libertarian Party has seven seats in the Senate. It is led by Amarito Cento, and its deputy leader is Voltara Micardanta. The current Secretary of the party is Marco Venturo.

Colour and Emblem

The Libertarian Party uses the colour teal as its official colour. Its symbol is a bell.

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The Lendian language name of the party is "lo Partido Libertariano".

Quote

"The state should do what it is necessary to maintain law and order, but no more. Intervention by the state in private matters is intolerable - all people should be free to make their own decisions about life, and should not be deprived of that right by a paternalistic government that thinks it knows best."

Key Policies

Political Freedom
The Libertarians believe strongly in the right of citizens to participate (or not, as they may choose) in the government of their nation. They believe that it is a fundamental human right to protest the actions of the government and to not suffer repercussions for doing so.

• Lower the voting age in Lendosa to eighteen (it is presently twenty).
• Remove most restrictions on the ability of people to register political parties.
• Decrease the powers of the police and intelligence services to deal harshly with civil disobedience and aggressive protests.
• Restrict the rights of intelligence services to spy on private citizens not accused of any criminal offence, and ensure that citizens have a right to view any information intelligence services hold about them.
• Reorganize intelligence and security services to make them more open and accountable to the elected government.

Economic Freedom
The Libertarian Party believes strongly in the idea that people should be free to do what they wish with their property, without any interference by the state. They also believe that present policy means that people do not receive reward or failure depending on their own actions.

• Remove the state from the economy as much as possible, creating a free laissez-faire system in which people may act without restraint.
• Deregulate those areas of industry which have government requirements imposed on them - it is not for the state to tell people how to run their own companies.
• Remove environmentalist restrictions on the use of land and resources, as these rules deprive people of the free use of their own belongings.
• Lower taxes as far as possible, and impose a flat rate - taxation for anything which the state need not do is no better than theft, and deprives people of wealth that they have earned and deserve to keep.
• End state provision of things such as health, education, and welfare, and allow the private sector to supply them instead - nobody has the duty to pay for the welbeing of others, and forcing the taxpayer to do so is theft. People should pay for things with their own money and effort, and not expect to receive handouts from those who are more successful.

Social Freedom
According to the Libertarian Party, the state has no right to tell people how they should live their lives, and should not interfere with people's rights to make their own decisions. It should also let people enjoy or suffer the consequences of their actions, without attempting to meddle.

• Eliminate the age restrictions for activities such as drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes, and remove the legal prohibitions about certain aspects of these activities (particularly the law against being intoxicated).
• Remove laws prohibiting drugs such as cannabis and marijuana - people should be free to make their own decisions about whether they are harmful or not, without being told by the state.
• Remove the few remaining instances of censorship and age restrictions on things such as pornography, as the state has no business trying to enforce moral standards on people.
• Fight all attempts to change the status quo regarding marriages - the state should remain completely uninvolved and let people do whatever they like (choose not to marry, have a same-sex marriage, etc.).
• Loosen restrictions on the ownership of firearms.

Issues Facing the Party


There is a small amount of tension inside the party, mostly between moderates and radicals. The more moderate members of the party believe simply that Lendosa is currently not free enough, and seek to promote gradual changes, but the more extreme members of the party follow doctrines which border on anarchism, seeing almost all state power as morally wrong. At present, the Libertarian Party is controlled by the more numerous moderates, and is unlikely to adopt more anarchistic views, but there nevertheless remains some slight controversy.

Subparties

The Libertarian Party does not have any subparties.

History of the Party

The Libertarian Party is one of the newest in Lendosa, having been founded on the 15th of December, 301 AP. Prior to its registration as a political party, it was a lobby group known as the Libertarian Association, which was dedicated to promoting civil and political freedom. The group, led by present Libertarian Party leader Amarito Cento, decided to register itself as a political party and contest the 302 AP elections, having decided that the group's impact on other political parties was too small to have an effect.

Libertarianism within what is now Lendosa has a long history, although the name "libertarian" (which was invented elsewhere) has only been applied to it in the last ten years. A number of early political philosophers held beliefs which would now be considered libertarian, but for the most part, they were motivated by belief in the traditional Virtues that Lendosa followed. One of these Virtues, known as merecedato, relates to giving people what they are due (both reward and punishment). Much of the basis for modern Lendosan libertarianism is found in this Virtue, and many claim that the belief in self-sufficiency is derived from it - people should gain rewards or suffer losses depending on what they have earned through work and merit, and any attempt to disrupt this balance with taxation or welfare is a violation of the principle of merecedato. Other influences of libertarianism came from the Rivan philosopher Alamono Zaro, who wrote a substantial amount about the merits of freedom and choice.

In 218 AP, the Liberal Party was founded, promoting both free-market economics and a progressive social policy. While the Liberal Party was much too moderate to be called libertarian, it served as a focus for libertarian thought. There was a recognisable (albeit small) wing of the party with noticeably libertarian traits. When the Liberal Party disintegrated due to policy disputes, most of the party's libertarian supporters gave their support to Randalo Avico, a Liberal senator who was a strong proponent of free-market economics.

Avico was not a libertarian, but was the most prominent of the politicians who were considered "close enough" by libertarian voters. Avico was a strong advocate of free market economics, and eventually established a new political party, the Capitalist Party, to advance these ideas. Many libertarians gave their support to this new party, but some fell away when the leadership passed to Paulo Dias, who was considerably more moderate. When Dias was ousted by the socially-strict Miguel Santana, almost all libertarian supporters of the party abandoned it. The Capitalist Party remained a strong advocate of free market economics, thus retaining libertarian policies in the economic sphere, but abandoned any trace of social libertarianism, instead taking a moralist line similar to that of the New Right in other countries.

The focus of libertarianism in Lendosa shifted to the Association for Social and Economic Freedom, later renamed the Libertarian Association. This was a group initially set up by a group of libertarians opposed to Avico's Capitalist Party, but when Avico and Dias had gone, most of the Capitalist Party's libertarian supporters joined them. There was considerable pressure for the group to form its own political party, one which would be firmly libertarian, but a vote of the membership rejected this - it was thought that they would have more influence as an independent organization, able to lobby all parties, rather than as an actual participant.

In 301 AP, however, the group changed its mind, having decided that their influence on political parties was too small. The Association applied to be registered as the Libertarian Party, and contested the 302 AP elections. It gained only 1.9% of the vote (understandable, the party said, due to its newness and lack of preparation time), but surprised commentators by also winning a regional race, bringing its total number of Senators to two. In the Senate, it cooperates with other parties mostly on a case-by-case basis, without any firm alliances with any group.

List of Past Leaders

• Amarito Cento (301 - )