Liberal Democrats



The Liberal Democrats (abbreviation: LD) is a Lovian progressive, social-liberal and democratic political party. It was founded in 2009, after a Lovian political revival in November 2009. The political party is considered to be one of the three major political parties of Lovia and occupies three out of twelve seats in Congress.

Foundation
The party was founded in November 2009 by Alexandru Latin, less than two months before the Federal Elections. Lovia had been in a crisis for almost two years. Rhere was a political vacuum, so many people wished a reform to make things work again. This liberal minded party has always had a clear viewpoint on reform, which attracted new members and made its popularity increase. Some members originally came from the other progressive party, that time the largest party of Lovia, the PD. Others had never been politically active before joining the Liberal Democrats.

Elections
The first Lovian elections in which the Liberal Democrats participated, were the January 2010 Federal Elections. The elections began with the candidacies of three members, namely Alexandru Latin, Harold Freeman and Lars Washington. Party leader Latin proposed to run together with the Walden Libertarian Party in the elections, forming the Coalition LD+WLP with one common Prime Minister candidate, the Libertarian Andy McCandless. However, after three weeks of the elections, the Liberal Democrats started to criticize the idea of the coalition which had become impopular amongst liberals. Once Harold Freeman had become the new party leader of the Liberals, he decided after a vote to end the coalition, so both parties went their own way by mid-January. By the end of the elections, Latin, Washington and Freeman were elected to Congress. The Liberal Democrats obtained an amazing result for a new party and became the second party of Lovia, after the Progressive Democrats.

Statistics

 * 2010 Federal Elections
 * Votes for the LD: 29.1% (2nd position)
 * Votes for Alexandru Latin: 11.3% (2nd position)
 * Votes for Lars Washington: 9.7% (shared 3rd position)
 * Votes for Harold Freeman: 8.1% (shared 4th position)

Organization
The organization of the Liberal Democrats is based on the principles of direct democracy. Important decisions are made per referendum on the talk page or by discussions. Although it remains necessary that the majority of the members has to approve the proposal. That makes this party a unique party in Lovia.

The party doesn't have a complicated structure. Besides the direct democracy, the party needs to have a representative, a party leader. Harold Freeman is currently the leader of the party. A party leader doesn't have real privileges as he or she is considered to be a member like all the others. But he is responsible for the party image and will most of the time be adressed as representative of the Liberal Democrats, by people from outside like the media.

Ideology

 * The Liberal Democrats is in favor of a as free as possible market economy.
 * The Liberal Democrats proposes to increase government spending on education.
 * Lovia already spends a lot of money to keep the environment. The Liberal Democrats don't find it credible to increase the amounts of money that go to environment during a economical crisis.
 * The Liberal Democrats want legalization of euthanasia and abortion.
 * Civil rights are one of the most important points of the party. Discrimination based on religion, ancestry, appearance, sexual preference, gender is forbidden.
 * We are against war and oppose the production of weapons of mass destruction.
 * Health care should be accessible for everyone.
 * No country can be entirely neutral. Lovia should have relative good relations with neighboring countries like Mexico and the United States.

Wikian ideology

 * A part of the members wants a reform in the local governments. As they have explained, they want the Mayors to have less power, while the States should become democratic, with a council, and get more influence. In the meantime Noble City should gets his own State, to avoid a possible future urbanization in the green region next to the Noble City Bay Area.
 * Originally, several members of this party have supported the idea of a Lovian Republic in the past. However, the party has officially declared to support the Kingdom entirely, if the Royal Family doesn't dominate the political environment of Lovia when not chosen by the people in an election. Thus the King can actually become member of the Congress, if elected. No automatic election for the King, he should be treated as every Lovian citizen. However he may become MOTC, governor, mayor, and so on, we want to forbid the King to become Prime Minister of Lovia or Judge.
 * The Liberal Democrats support the direct election of the Prime Minister, separate of the current Federal Elections. The Liberal Democrats want to keep the Federal and the State elections.
 * The party declared not to be in favor of regionalisms and new local languages. The Liberal Democrats sustain the recognition of (Lovian) English and Oceana, the only languages used in this country, not less and not more. However, in our view point, English should be the only official language of Lovia. Oceana may be recognized as a regional language, it may not be used in administration, to avoid complications.
 * The party proposes to make use of referendums more often when there is an important issue (for example concerning the voting system. If we as MOTC's want to change the Federal Elections, we should ask the citizen's opinion as it can result in a significant change).
 * Infrastructure is necessary for the development of Lovia. We want to modernize the airports, build more railways and highways/expressways and of course harbours, as Lovia is an archipelago.
 * Every human being on Lovian territory has the right to become a Lovian citizen. Immigrants should be treated as well as possible, as we actually need them to build our country. Hereby we want to change the rules for becoming a citizen. 24 hours after his registration, the immigrant can become a Lovian citizen if he makes 25 edits (currently, you need to make 50 "useful" edits, 4 days after your registration).

Quotes
King Dimitri I talking about the Liberal Democrats: "Lots of great ideas for radical reform, and that is a compliment you see."

Members

 * Harold Freeman (MOTC and party leader)
 * Bucurestean (MOTC)
 * Lars Washington (MOTC)
 * Super Warmonkey

Contact us

 * 17 Wallstreet, Drake Town, Hurbanova, Oceana
 * 4 Law Street, Downtown, Noble City, Sylvania
 * Monorail Street 2, Downtown, Train Village, Sylvania