Quote from: Spekulatius on July 11, 2012, 06:25:51 PM

To add an European point of view, in this case a German one: "liberal" (spelled exactly the same in German) still means libertarian over here. Most prominent party representing a less taxes, less laws and more civil liberties policy in such respect is the FDP (Freie Demokratische Partei). They are every second or so turn elected into government and mostly form a coalition with the CDU (Christlich Demokatische Union Deutschlands = 'Cristian Democratic Union of Germany'), representing the conservatives. They suffer from the 'caught in the middle' problem, as they have nothing really unique to offer, that would set them apart from the SPD (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands = the social democrats) or CDU and therefore live off the unpleased but still center of society voters, that are unsatisfied with both CDU and SPD, which at least in the past always formed coalitions either with one another or mostly, with FDP (+ CDU) or the greens (+ SPD). They are therefore always in the minority and often have to struggle to get into parliament at all, as we have a 5% hurdle in place, giving legitimicing only those partys for a seat in parliament, that hold at least 5% of the public votes. Because SPD and CDU each hold their own libertarian ideals, it doesnt feel like libertarian views are missing in German politics most of the time.

Please correct me if Im wrong.

Lately they have even been challenged, and lost, by another competitor in the political arena: The Pirates, that stand for civil liberties even more then the FDP does.

the fdp has always been liberal in name only. they never tried to develop long term unique positions and represent the modern politician like no other party: slick, opportunistic and completely free of any actual opinions or ideals.
the pirates are the complete opposite: inexperienced and often ackward or naive and full of ideals and visions, many of them convenient targets for ridicule.
they are much more like the green party in its early days. question is if they too fail to keep their ideals when they start to become more established and experienced.