Liberalism and radicalism in France

Updated on Oct 08, 2024

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Liberalism and radicalism in France refer to different movements and ideologies.

The main line of conflict in France during the 19th century was between monarchists (mainly Legitimists and Orléanists, but also Bonapartists) and republicans (Radical-Socialists, Opportunist Republicans, and later socialists). The Orléanists, which favoured constitutional monarchy and economic liberalism, were opposed to Republican Radicals.

The Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party (now divided into the center-right Radical Party and the center-left Radical Party of the Left), and especially the Republican parties (Democratic Republican Alliance, Republican Federation, National Centre of Independents and Peasants, Independent Republicans, Republican Party, Liberal Democracy) have since embraced liberalism, including its economic version, and have mostly joined either the Union for a Popular Movement in 2002, later re-named The Republicans in 2015, or the Union of Democrats and Independents, launched in 2012.

In 2016 Emmanuel Macron, a former Socialist, launched a liberal party named En Marche!.

Background and history

The early high points of liberalism in France were:

1790–1792: when Girondins and Feuillants dominated the early French Revolution;

1848: Revolution of 1848, which ended the Orléans monarchy (since 1830) and led to the creation of the French Second Republic.

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 use of the term radical to refer to political liberalism. The Radicals tended to be more statist than most European liberals, but shared liberal values on other issues, especially support for individual liberty and secularism, while the Republicans were keener on economic liberalism than secularism.

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 Independent 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 a free-market libertarian 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 Republians) in 2002. The Radicals and several former Republicans launched the Union of Democrats and Independents in 2012.

In 2016 Emmanuel Macron, a former Socialist, launched a liberal party named En Marche! to contest the 2017 presidential election.

19th Century

1815: The Orléanists were formed.

1818: Former Feuillants re-united in the Democrats, also known as Liberals.

1848: A radical faction forms the Radicals, supporting the Second Republic in opposition to the Orléanists.

1870: The Third Republic is formed.

1871: The Opportunist Republicans, whose official name was Republican Left (GR), and the Republican Union (UR) are formed.

1885: The GR and the UR are united in the Democratic Union (UD).

1889: The Progressive Republicans, whose official name was Liberal Republican Union (ULR), are formed.

1894: The Progressive Union (UR) is formed.

The Republican tradition

1901: The centre-right liberal Democratic Republican Alliance (ARD) and the Popular Liberal Action (ALP) are formed.

1902: the Progressive Union (UR) is merged into the ARD.

1903: The more conservative Republican Federation (FR) is founded and the Liberal Republican Union (ULR) is merged into it.

1911: The ARD is re-named Democratic Republican Party (PRD).

1917: The ARD goes back to its original name.

1919: The ALP is merged into the FR.

1920: The ARD is further re-named Social, Democratic and Republican Party (PRDS).

1926: The ARD is finally re-named Democratic Alliance (AD).

1945: The liberal-conservative Republican Party of Liberty (PRL), successor of the FR, is founded.

1948: The liberal-conservative National Centre of Independents and Peasants (CNIP) is founded.

1949: The declining AD and the PRL are absorbed by the CNIP.

1962: A group of splinters from the CNIP, led by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, oppose the party's decision to withdraw support to President Charles de Gaulle and, in order to continue to be part of the government, form the Independent Republicans (RI).

1977: The RI are re-named Republican Party (PR).

1978: PR joins forces with the Centre of Social Democrats, the Radical Party and the Social Democratic Party to form the Union for French Democracy (UDF).

1995: The Popular Party for French Democracy (PPDF) is formed by supporters of Giscard, including several Republicans, within the UDF.

1997: The PR, under the new leader Alain Madelin, is re-named Liberal Democracy (DL).

1998: The DL separates from the UDF, but a group of dissidents form the Independent Republican and Liberal Pole (PRIL) in order to remain loyal to the UDF.

2002: The DL and the PPDF merge with the Gaullist-conservative Rally for the Republic (RPR) to form the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). Liberal factions within the new party include The Reformers, the "Liberal Clubs", "Liberal Generation" and the "Free Right", as well as the Radical Party (see below).

2007: The UDF is transformed into the Democratic Movement (see below).

2015: The UMP is transformed into The Republicans (LR).

The Radical tradition

1901: The Radicals organise themselves in the Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party (Rad).

1926: Dissident Radicals form the Independent Radicals (RI), later Independent Radical Party (PRI).

1946: The Radicals, along with the PRI, the Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance (UDSR) and minor parties, form the Rally of Left Republicans (RGR).

1956: The Radicals and the other components of the RGR join forces with the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO), however some dissidents transfor the RGR into a full-fledged party and other Radical dissidents from the Republican Centre (CR).

1959: The RGR merges into the Gaullist Union for the New Republic (UNR).

1961: Pierre Mendès France, a leading Radical and former Prime Minister, joins the Unified Socialist Party (PSU).

1972: A left-wing faction forms the Movement of Left Radicals (MRG).

1978: The Rad becomes an affiliated member of the centrist UDF.

1996: The MRG is re-named Radical-Socialist Party (PRS).

1996: The PRS is re-named Radical Party of the Left (PRG).

2002: The Rad leaves the UDF and becomes an affiliated member of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP).

2011: The Rad cuts its ties with the UMP and joins The Alliance.

2012: The Rad is, along with the New Centre, the Democratic European Force, the Centrist Alliance, Modern Left and other minor parties, a founding member of the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI), which aims at being a centrist alternative to the UMP.

The Libertarian tradition

2006: A group of classical liberals establish the Liberal Alternative (AL).

2008: A group of dissidents leaves the AL and launches the Liberal Democratic Party (PLD).

2012: The PLD joins the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI).

Democratic Movement

2007: The Democratic Movement (MoDem) is formed by François Bayrou, until then leader of the Union for French Democracy (which had suffered the split of some of its founding components in 1998–2002, see above), on the remnants of the latter party.