Liberal Party of Australia

The Liberal Party of Australia is a major centre-right political party in Australia, one of the two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-left Australian Labor Party. It was founded in 1944 as the successor to the United Australia Party.
The Liberal Party is the larger and dominant party in the Coalition with the National Party of Australia. Except for a few short periods, the Liberal Party and its predecessors have operated in similar coalitions at federal level since the 1920s. The party's leader is Scott Morrison, the incumbent prime minister, and its deputy leader is Josh Frydenberg. The pair were elected to their positions at the August 2018 Liberal leadership ballot, with Morrison and Frydenberg replacing Malcolm Turnbull and Julie Bishop respectively. The Coalition has been in power since the 2013 federal election, forming the Abbott (2013–2015), Turnbull (2015–2018) and Morrison Governments.
The Liberal Party has a federal structure, with autonomous divisions in all six states and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). The Country Liberal Party (CLP) of the Northern Territory is an affiliate. Both the CLP and the Liberal National Party (LNP), the Queensland state division, were formed through mergers of the local Liberal and National parties. At state and territory level, the Liberal Party is in office in three states: New South Wales since 2011, Tasmania since 2014 and South Australia since 2018. The party is in opposition in the states of Victoria, Queensland, and in both the ACT and Northern Territory, and sit on the crossbench in Western Australia.
The party's ideology has been referred to as conservative, liberal-conservative, conservative-liberal, and classical liberal. The Liberal Party tends to promote economic liberalism (which in the Australian usage refers to free markets and small government). Two past leaders of the party, Sir Robert Menzies and John Howard, are Australia's two longest-serving Prime Ministers.
History.
Party Foundation.
The Liberals' immediate predecessor was the United Australia Party (UAP). More broadly, the Liberal Party's ideological ancestry stretched back to the anti-Labor groupings in the first Commonwealth parliaments. The Commonwealth Liberal Party was a fusion of the Free Trade (Anti-socialist) Party and the Protectionist Party in 1909 by the second prime minister, Alfred Deakin, in response to Labor's growing electoral prominence. The Commonwealth Liberal Party merged with several Labor dissidents (including Billy Hughes) to form the Nationalist Party of Australia in 1917. That party, in turn, merged with Labor dissidents to form the UAP in 1931.
The UAP had been formed as a new conservative alliance in 1931, with Labor defector Joseph Lyons as its leader. The stance of Lyons and other Labor rebels against the more radical proposals of the Labor movement to deal the Great Depression had attracted the support of prominent Australian conservatives. With Australia still suffering the effects of the Great Depression, the newly formed party won a landslide victory at the 1931 Election, and the Lyons Government went on to win three consecutive elections. It largely avoided Keynesian pump-priming and pursued a more conservative fiscal policy of debt reduction and balanced budgets as a means of stewarding Australia out of the Depression. Lyons' death in 1939 saw Robert Menzies assume the Prime Ministership on the eve of war. Menzies served as Prime Minister from 1939 to 1941 but resigned as leader of the minority World War II government amidst an unworkable parliamentary majority. The UAP, led by Billy Hughes, disintegrated after suffering a heavy defeat in the 1943 election. In New South Wales, the party merged with the Commonwealth Party to form the Democratic Party, In Queensland the state party was absorbed into the Queensland People's Party.
From 1942 onward Menzies had maintained his public profile with his series of "The Forgotten People" radio talks—similar to Franklin D. Roosevelt's "fireside chats" of the 1930s—in which he spoke of the middle class as the "backbone of Australia" but as nevertheless having been "taken for granted" by political parties.
Menzies called a conference of conservative parties and other groups opposed to the ruling Australian Labor Party, which met in Canberra on 13 October 1944 and again in Albury, New South Wales in December 1944. Outlining his vision for a new political movement, Menzies said:
The formation of the party was formally announced at Sydney Town Hall on 31 August 1945. It took the name "Liberal" in honour of the old Commonwealth Liberal Party. The new party was dominated by the remains of the old UAP; with few exceptions, the UAP party room became the Liberal party room. The Australian Women's National League, a powerful conservative women's organisation, also merged with the new party. A conservative youth group Menzies had set up, the Young Nationalists, was also merged into the new party. It became the nucleus of the Liberal Party's youth division, the Young Liberals. By September 1945 there were more than 90,000 members, many of whom had not previously been members of any political party.
In New South Wales, the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party replaced the Liberal Democratic Party and Democratic Party between January and April 1945. In Queensland, the Queensland People's Party did not become part of the Liberal Party until July 1949, when it became the Queensland division of the Liberal Party.
Menzies Era.
After an initial loss to Labor at the 1946 election, Menzies led the Liberals to victory at the 1949 election, and the party stayed in office for a record 23 years— the longest unbroken run ever in government at the federal level. Australia experienced prolonged economic growth during the post-war boom period of the Menzies Government (1949–1966) and Menzies fulfilled his promises at the 1949 election to end rationing of butter, tea and petrol and provided a five-shilling endowment for first-born children, as well as for others. While himself an unashamed anglophile, Menzies' government concluded a number of major defence and trade treaties that set Australia on its post-war trajectory out of Britain's orbit; opened up Australia to multi-ethnic immigration; and instigated important legal reforms regarding Aboriginal Australians.
Menzies was strongly opposed to Labor's plans to nationalise the Australian banking system and, following victory at the 1949 election, secured a double dissolution election for April 1951, after the Labor-controlled Senate rejected his banking legislation. The Liberal-Country Coalition was returned with control of the Senate. The Government was re-elected again at the 1954 election; the formation of the anti-Communist Democratic Labor Party (DLP) and the consequent split in the Australian Labor Party early in 1955 helped the Liberals to secure another victory in December 1955. John McEwen replaced Arthur Fadden as leader of the Country Party in March 1958 and the Menzies-McEwen Coalition was returned again at elections in November 1958—their third victory against Labor's H. V. Evatt. The Coalition was narrowly returned against Labor's Arthur Calwell in the December 1961 election, in the midst of a credit squeeze. Menzies stood for office for the last time at the November 1963 election, again defeating Calwell, with the Coalition winning back its losses in the House of Representatives. Menzies went on to resign from parliament on 26 January 1966.
Menzies came to power the year the Communist Party of Australia had led a coal strike to improve pit miners' working conditions. That same year Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb, and Mao Zedong led the Communist Party of China to power in China; a year later came the invasion of South Korea by Communist North Korea. Anti-communism was a key political issue of the 1950s and 1960s. Menzies was firmly anti-Communist; he committed troops to the Korean War and attempted to ban the Communist Party of Australia in an unsuccessful referendum during the course of that war. The Labor Party split over concerns about the influence of the Communist Party over the Trade Union movement, leading to the foundation of the breakaway Democratic Labor Party whose preferences supported the Liberal and Country parties.
In 1951, during the early stages of the Cold War, Menzies spoke of the possibility of a looming third world war. The Menzies Government entered Australia's first formal military alliance outside of the British Commonwealth with the signing of the ANZUS Treaty between Australia, New Zealand and the United States in San Francisco in 1951. External Affairs Minister Percy Spender had put forward the proposal to work along similar lines to the NATO Alliance. The Treaty declared that any attack on one of the three parties in the Pacific area would be viewed as a threat to each, and that the common danger would be met in accordance with each nation's constitutional processes. In 1954, the Menzies Government signed the South East Asia Collective Defence Treaty (SEATO) as a South East Asian counterpart to NATO. That same year, Soviet diplomat Vladimir Petrov and his wife defected from the Soviet embassy in Canberra, revealing evidence of Russian spying activities; Menzies called a Royal Commission to investigate.
In 1956, a committee headed by Sir Keith Murray was established to inquire into the financial plight of Australia's universities, and Menzies injected funds into the sector under conditions which preserved the autonomy of universities.
Menzies continued the expanded immigration program established under Chifley, and took important steps towards dismantling the White Australia Policy. In the early-1950s, external affairs minister Percy Spender helped to establish the Colombo Plan for providing economic aid to underdeveloped nations in Australia's region. Under that scheme many future Asian leaders studied in Australia. In 1958, the government replaced the Immigration Act's arbitrarily applied European language dictation test with an entry permit system, that reflected economic and skills criteria. In 1962, Menzies' "Commonwealth Electoral Act" provided that all Indigenous Australians should have the right to enrol and vote at federal elections (prior to this, indigenous people in Queensland, Western Australia and some in the Northern Territory had been excluded from voting unless they were ex-servicemen). In 1949, the Liberals appointed Dame Enid Lyons as the first woman to serve in an Australian Cabinet. Menzies remained a staunch supporter of links to the monarchy and British Commonwealth but formalised an alliance with the United States and concluded the Agreement on Commerce between Australia and Japan which was signed in July 1957 and launched post-war trade with Japan, beginning a growth of Australian exports of coal, iron ore and mineral resources that would steadily climb until Japan became Australia's largest trading partner.
Menzies retired in 1966 as Australia's longest-serving Prime Minister.
Holt Government.
Harold Holt replaced the retiring Robert Menzies in 1966 and the Holt Government went on to win 82 seats to Labor's 41 at the 1966 election. Holt remained Prime Minister until 19 December 1967, when he was declared presumed dead two days after disappearing in rough surf in which he had gone for a swim. As of 2020, his body has still not been found.
Holt increased Australian commitment to the growing War in Vietnam, which met with some public opposition. His government oversaw conversion to decimal currency. Holt faced Britain's withdrawal from Asia by visiting and hosting many Asian leaders and by expanding ties to the United States, hosting the first visit to Australia by an American president, his friend Lyndon B. Johnson. Holt's government introduced the "Migration Act 1966", which effectively dismantled the White Australia Policy and increased access to non-European migrants, including refugees fleeing the Vietnam War. Holt also called the 1967 Referendum which removed the discriminatory clause in the Australian Constitution which excluded Aboriginal Australians from being counted in the census – the referendum was one of the few to be overwhelmingly endorsed by the Australian electorate (over 90% voted "Yes"). By the end of 1967, the Liberals' initially popular support for the war in Vietnam was causing increasing public protest.
Gorton Government.
The Liberals chose John Gorton to replace Holt. Gorton, a former World War II Royal Australian Air Force pilot, with a battle scarred face, said he was "Australian to the bootheels" and had a personal style which often affronted some conservatives.
The Gorton Government increased funding for the arts, setting up the Australian Council for the Arts, the Australian Film Development Corporation and the National Film and Television Training School. The Gorton Government passed legislation establishing equal pay for men and women and increased pensions, allowances and education scholarships, as well as providing free health care to 250,000 of the nation's poor (but not universal health care). Gorton's government kept Australia in the Vietnam War but stopped replacing troops at the end of 1970.
Gorton maintained good relations with the United States and Britain, but pursued closer ties with Asia. The Gorton government experienced a decline in voter support at the 1969 election. State Liberal leaders saw his policies as too Centralist, while other Liberals didn't like his personal behaviour. In 1971, Defence Minister Malcolm Fraser, resigned and said Gorton was "not fit to hold the great office of Prime Minister". In a vote on the leadership the Liberal Party split 50/50, and although this was insufficient to remove him as the leader, Gorton decided this was also insufficient support for him, and he resigned.
McMahon Government and Snedden leadership.
Former treasurer, William McMahon, replaced Gorton as Prime Minister. Gorton remained a front bencher but relations with Fraser remained strained. The McMahon Government ended when Gough Whitlam led the Australian Labor Party out of its 23-year period in Opposition at the 1972 election.
The economy was weakening. McMahon maintained Australia's diminishing commitment to Vietnam and criticised Opposition leader, Gough Whitlam, for visiting Communist China in 1972—only to have the US President Richard Nixon announce a planned visit soon after.
During McMahon's period in office, Neville Bonner joined the Senate and became the first Indigenous Australian in the Australian Parliament. Bonner was chosen by the Liberal Party to fill a Senate vacancy in 1971 and celebrated his maiden parliamentary speech with a boomerang throwing display on the lawns of Parliament. Bonner went on to win election at the 1972 election and served as a Liberal Senator for 12 years. He worked on Indigenous and social welfare issues and proved an independent minded Senator, often crossing the floor on Parliamentary votes.
Following Whitlam's victory, John Gorton played a further role in reform by introducing a Parliamentary motion from Opposition supporting the legalisation of same-gender sexual relations. Billy Snedden led the party against Whitlam in the 1974 federal election, which saw a return of the Labor government. When Malcolm Fraser won the Liberal Party leadership from Snedden in 1975, Gorton walked out of the Party Room.
Fraser years.
Following the 1974–75 Loans Affair, the Malcolm Fraser led Liberal-Country Party Coalition argued that the Whitlam Government was incompetent and delayed passage of the Government's money bills in the Senate, until the government would promise a new election. Whitlam refused, yet Fraser insisted leading to the divisive 1975 Australian constitutional crisis. The deadlock came to an end when the Whitlam government was controversially dismissed by the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr on 11 November 1975 and Fraser was installed as caretaker Prime Minister, pending an election. Fraser won in a landslide at the resulting 1975 election.
Fraser maintained some of the social reforms of the Whitlam era, while seeking increased fiscal restraint. His government included the first Aboriginal federal parliamentarian, Neville Bonner, and in 1976, Parliament passed the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976, which, while limited to the Northern Territory, affirmed "inalienable" freehold title to some traditional lands. Fraser established the multicultural broadcaster SBS, accepted Vietnamese refugees, opposed minority white rule in apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia and opposed Soviet expansionism. A significant program of economic reform, however, was not pursued. By 1983, the Australian economy was suffering with the early 1980s recession and amidst the effects of a severe drought. Fraser had promoted "states' rights" and his government refused to use Commonwealth powers to stop the construction of the Franklin Dam in Tasmania in 1982. Liberal minister Don Chipp split off from the party to form a new social liberal party, the Australian Democrats in 1977. Fraser won further substantial majorities at the 1977 and 1980 elections, before losing to the Bob Hawke-led Australian Labor Party in the 1983 election.
Federal opposition, state success.
A period of division for the Liberals followed, with former Treasurer John Howard competing with former Foreign Minister Andrew Peacock for supremacy. The Australian economy was facing the early 1990s recession. Unemployment reached 11.4% in 1992. Under Dr John Hewson, in November 1991, the opposition launched the 650-page Fightback! policy document—a radical collection of "dry", economic liberal measures including the introduction of a Goods and Services Tax (GST), various changes to Medicare including the abolition of bulk billing for non-concession holders, the introduction of a nine-month limit on unemployment benefits, various changes to industrial relations including the abolition of awards, a $13 billion personal income tax cut directed at middle and upper income earners, $10 billion in government spending cuts, the abolition of state payroll taxes and the privatisation of a large number of government owned enterprises − representing the start of a very different future direction to the keynesian economic policies practiced by previous Liberal/National Coalition governments. The 15 percent GST was the centerpiece of the policy document. Through 1992, Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating mounted a campaign against the Fightback package, and particularly against the GST, which he described as an attack on the working class in that it shifted the tax burden from direct taxation of the wealthy to indirect taxation as a broad-based consumption tax. Pressure group activity and public opinion was relentless, which led Hewson to exempt food from the proposed GST—leading to questions surrounding the complexity of what food was and wasn't to be exempt from the GST. Hewson's difficulty in explaining this to the electorate was exemplified in the infamous birthday cake interview, considered by some as a turning point in the election campaign. Keating won a record fifth consecutive Labor term at the 1993 election. A number of the proposals were later adopted into law in some form, to a small extent during the Keating Labor government, and to a larger extent during the Howard Liberal government (most famously the GST), while unemployment benefits and bulk billing were re-targeted for a time by the Abbott Liberal government.
At the state level, the Liberals have been dominant for long periods in all states except Queensland, where they have always held fewer seats than the National party (not to be confused with the old Nationalist Party). The Liberals were in power in Victoria from 1955 to 1982. Jeff Kennett led the party back to office in that state in 1992, and remained Premier until 1999.
In South Australia, initially a Liberal and Country Party affiliated party, the Liberal and Country League (LCL), mostly led by Premier of South Australia Tom Playford, was in power from the 1933 election to the 1965 election, though with assistance from an electoral malapportionment, or gerrymander, known as the Playmander. The LCL's Steele Hall governed for one term from the 1968 election to the 1970 election and during this time began the process of dismantling the Playmander. David Tonkin, as leader of the South Australian Division of the Liberal Party of Australia, became Premier at the 1979 election for one term, losing office at the 1982 election. The Liberals returned to power at the 1993 election, led by Premiers Dean Brown, John Olsen and Rob Kerin through two terms, until their defeat at the 2002 election. They remained in opposition for 16 years, under a record five Opposition Leaders, until Steven Marshall led the party to victory in 2018.
The dual aligned Country Liberal Party ruled the Northern Territory from 1978 to 2001.
The party has held office in Western Australia intermittently since 1947. Liberal Richard Court was Premier of the state for most of the 1990s.
In New South Wales, the Liberal Party has not been in office as much as its Labor rival, and just three leaders have led the party from opposition to government in that state: Sir Robert Askin, who was premier from 1965 to 1975, Nick Greiner, who came to office in 1988 and resigned in 1992, and Barry O'Farrell who would lead the party out of 16 years in opposition in 2011.
The Liberal Party does not officially contest most local government elections, although many members do run for office in local government as independents. An exception is the Brisbane City Council, where both Sallyanne Atkinson and Campbell Newman have been elected Lord Mayor of Brisbane.
Howard Government.
Labor's Paul Keating lost the 1996 Election to the Liberals' John Howard. The Liberals had been in Opposition for 13 years. With John Howard as Prime Minister, Peter Costello as Treasurer and Alexander Downer as Foreign Minister, the Howard Government remained in power until their electoral defeat to Kevin Rudd in 2007.
Howard generally framed the Liberals as being conservative on social policy, debt reduction and matters like maintaining Commonwealth links and the American Alliance but his premiership saw booming trade with Asia and expanding multiethnic immigration. His government concluded the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement with the Bush Administration in 2004.
Howard differed from his Labor predecessor Paul Keating in that he supported traditional Australian institutions like the Monarchy in Australia, the commemoration of ANZAC Day and the design of the Australian flag, but like Keating he pursued privatisation of public utilities and the introduction of a broad based consumption tax (although Keating had dropped support for a GST by the time of his 1993 election victory). Howard's premiership coincided with Al Qaeda's 11 September attacks on the United States. The Howard Government invoked the ANZUS treaty in response to the attacks and supported America's campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In the 2004 Federal elections the party strengthened its majority in the Lower House and, with its coalition partners, became the first federal government in twenty years to gain an absolute majority in the Senate. This control of both houses permitted their passing of legislation without the need to negotiate with independents or minor parties, exemplified by industrial relations legislation known as WorkChoices, a wide-ranging effort to increase deregulation of industrial laws in Australia.
In 2005, Howard reflected on his government's cultural and foreign policy outlook in oft repeated terms:
The 2007 federal election saw the defeat of the Howard federal government, and the Liberal Party was in opposition throughout Australia at the state and federal level; the highest Liberal office-holder at the time was Lord Mayor of Brisbane Campbell Newman. This ended after the 2008 Western Australian state election, when Colin Barnett became Premier of that state.
After Howard.
Following the 2007 federal election, Dr Brendan Nelson was elected leader by the Parliamentary Liberal Party. On 16 September 2008, in a second contest following a spill motion, Nelson lost the leadership to Malcolm Turnbull. On 1 December 2009, a subsequent leadership election saw Turnbull lose the leadership to Tony Abbott by 42 votes to 41 on the second ballot. Abbott led the party to the 2010 federal election, which saw an increase in the Liberal Party vote and resulted in the first hung parliament since the 1940 election.
Through 2010, the party remained in opposition at the Tasmanian and South Australian state elections and achieved state government in Victoria. In March 2011, the New South Wales Liberal-National Coalition led by Barry O'Farrell won government with the largest election victory in post-war Australian history at the State Election. In Queensland, the Liberal and National parties merged in 2008 to form the new Liberal National Party of Queensland (registered as the Queensland Division of the Liberal Party of Australia). In March 2012, the new party achieved Government in an historic landslide, led by former Brisbane Lord Mayor, Campbell Newman.
In March 2013, the Western Australian Liberal-National government won re-election while the party won government in Tasmania in 2014 and lost their fourth election in a row at the South Australian election. However, the Victorian Liberal-National government, now led by Denis Napthine, became the first one term government in Victoria in 60 years. Similarly, just two months later, the Liberal National government in Queensland was defeated just three years after its historic landslide victory. The New South Wales Liberal-National Coalition, however, managed to win re-election in March 2015. In 2016 the Federal Liberals narrowly won re-election in July 2016 while the Liberal-affiliated Country Liberals suffered a historic defeat in the Northern Territory and Canberra Liberals lost their fifth election in a row in October 2016. The Liberals fared little better in 2017 with the Barnett-led Liberal-National government in Western Australia also suffered a landslide defeat in March.
Turnbull government.
Turbull's time in office saw tensions between Moderate and Conservative factions within the Liberal Party.
On 21 August 2018 after a week of mounting pressure on Turnbull's leadership over his handling of energy policy and election strategy, the prime minister used the regular party-room meeting to spill the party leadership in an attempt to head off a growing conservative-led move against him by Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton. Turnbull survived the challenge, winning 48 votes to Dutton's 35.
A further spill was called by Turnbull, in which he declined to stand and the leadership of the party was decided in favour of Treasurer Scott Morrison, over Dutton.
Morrison government.
In August 2018, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton unsuccessfully challenged Turnbull for the leadership of the Liberal Party. Leadership tension continued, and the party voted to hold a second leadership ballot on 24 August, with Turnbull choosing not to stand. In that ballot, Morrison was seen as a compromise candidate and defeated both Dutton and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop to become leader of the Liberal Party. He was sworn in as prime minister by the governor-general later that day. Morrison went on to lead the Coalition to an unexpected victory in the 2019 election.
Under Scott Morrison, the Liberal party won the 2019 Australian federal election by a considerable margin, defying almost all predictions from political pollsters. Decreasing income tax rates, securing jobs and investing in infrastructure projects were hallmark Liberal Party policies at the election, and these strongly resonated with voters giving the LNP a comfortable 77/151 seat majority in the House of Representatives, and 36/76 seats in the Senate.
Key policies of the Morrison government include rebuilding the Australian economy, supporting small business, lowering income taxes and investing in infrastructure. The Morrison government has also beaten its 2020 Kyoto targets by 459 million tonnes, and are on track to beat the Paris commitment to reduce emissions by 26 to 28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.
The Morrison government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic was internationally praised for its quick response whilst ensuring minimal damage to the Australian economy. Despite poor poll numbers in January 2020 due to what was described as poor leadership during the 2019/2020 Australian catastrophic bushfires, Morrison's management of the pandemic has seen a resurgence in supportive poll numbers.
Ideology and factions.
The contemporary Liberal Party generally advocates economic liberalism. Historically, the party has supported a higher degree of economic protectionism and interventionism than it has in recent decades. However, from its foundation the party has identified itself as an anti-socialist grouping of liberals and conservatives. Strong opposition to socialism and communism in Australia and abroad was one of its founding principles. The party's founder and longest-serving leader Robert Menzies envisaged that Australia's middle class would form its main constituency.
Towards the end of his term as Prime Minister of Australia and in a final address to the Liberal Party Federal Council in 1964, Menzies spoke of the "Liberal Creed" as follows:
Soon after the election of the Howard Government the new Prime Minister John Howard, who was to become the second-longest serving Liberal Prime Minister, spoke of his interpretation of the "Liberal Tradition" in a Robert Menzies Lecture in 1996:
Throughout their history, the Liberals have been in electoral terms largely the party of the middle class (whom Menzies, in the era of the party's formation called "The forgotten people"), though such class-based voting patterns are no longer as clear as they once were. In the 1970s a left-wing middle class emerged that no longer voted Liberal. One effect of this was the success of a breakaway party, the Australian Democrats, founded in 1977 by former Liberal minister Don Chipp and members of minor liberal parties. On the other hand, the Liberals have done increasingly well in recent years among socially conservative working-class voters. However, the Liberal Party's key support base remains the upper-middle classes—16 of the 20 richest federal electorates are held by the Liberals, most of which are safe seats. In country areas they either compete with or have a truce with the Nationals, depending on various factors.
Menzies was an ardent constitutional monarchist, who supported the monarchy in Australia and links to the Commonwealth of Nations. Today the party is divided on the question of republicanism, with some (such as incumbent leader Scott Morrison) being monarchists, while others (such as his predecessor Malcolm Turnbull) are republicans. The Menzies Government formalised Australia's alliance with the United States in 1951 and the party has remained a strong supporter of the mutual defence treaty.
Domestically, Menzies presided over a fairly regulated economy in which utilities were publicly owned, and commercial activity was highly regulated through centralised wage-fixing and high tariff protection. Liberal leaders from Menzies to Malcolm Fraser generally maintained Australia's high tariff levels. At that time the Liberals' coalition partner, the Country Party, the older of the two in the coalition (now known as the "National Party"), had considerable influence over the government's economic policies. It was not until the late 1970s and through their period out of power federally in the 1980s that the party came to be influenced by what was known as the "New Right"—a conservative liberal group who advocated market deregulation, privatisation of public utilities, reductions in the size of government programs and tax cuts.
Socially, while liberty and freedom of enterprise form the basis of its beliefs, elements of the party have wavered between what is termed "small-l liberalism" and social conservatism. Historically, Liberal Governments have been responsible for the carriage of a number of notable "socially liberal" reforms, including the opening of Australia to multiethnic immigration under Menzies and Harold Holt; Holt's 1967 Referendum on Aboriginal Rights; John Gorton's support for cinema and the arts; selection of the first Aboriginal Senator, Neville Bonner, in 1971; and Malcolm Fraser's Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976. A West Australian Liberal, Ken Wyatt, became the first Indigenous Australian elected to the House of Representatives in 2010.
The Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison, stated the following in his 2019 victory speech;
This is, this is the best country in the world in which to live. It is those Australians that we have been working for, for the last five and a half years since we came to Government, under Tony Abbott's leadership back in 2013. It has been those Australians who have worked hard every day, they have their dreams, they have their aspirations; to get a job, to get an apprenticeship, to start a business, to meet someone amazing. To start a family, to buy a home, to work hard and provide the best you can for your kids. To save your retirement and to ensure that when you're in your retirement, that you can enjoy it because you've worked hard for it. These are The Quiet Australians who have won a great victory tonight.
The Liberal Party is a member of the International Democrat Union.
Organisation.
The Liberal Party's organisation is dominated by the six state divisions, reflecting the party's original commitment to a federalised system of government (a commitment which was strongly maintained by all Liberal governments bar the Gorton government until 1983, but was to a large extent abandoned by the Howard Government, which showed strong centralising tendencies). Menzies deliberately created a weak national party machine and strong state divisions. Party policy is made almost entirely by the parliamentary parties, not by the party's rank-and-file members, although Liberal party members do have a degree of influence over party policy.
The Liberal Party's basic organisational unit is the "branch", which consists of party members in a particular locality. For each electorate there is a "conference"—notionally above the branches—which coordinates campaigning in the electorate and regularly communicates with the member (or candidate) for the electorate. As there are three levels of government in Australia, each branch elects delegates to a local, state, and federal conference.
All the branches in an Australian state are grouped into a "Division". The ruling body for the Division is a "State Council". There is also one "Federal Council" which represents the entire organisational Liberal Party in Australia. Branch executives are delegates to the Councils "ex-officio" and additional delegates are elected by branches, depending on their size.
Preselection of electoral candidates is performed by a special electoral college convened for the purpose. Membership of the electoral college consists of head office delegates, branch officers, and elected delegates from branches.
State and territory divisions.
For a brief period between 27 October 2020 (appointment of Elizabeth Lee as leader of Canberra Liberals) and 12 November 2020 (resignation of Deb Frecklington as leader of the LNP), five Liberal Party state and territory divisions were led by women, the highest number in Liberal Party history. The leaders were:
Donors.
For the 2015–2016 financial year, the top ten disclosed donors to the Liberal Party were: Paul Marks (Nimrod resources) ($1,300,000), Pratt Holdings ($790,000), Hong Kong Kingson Investment Company ($710,000), Aus Gold Mining Group ($410,000), Village Roadshow ($325,000), Waratah Group ($300,000), Walker Corporation ($225,000), Australian Gypsum Industries ($196,000), National Automotive Leasing and Salary Packaging Association ($177,000) and Westfield Corporation ($150,000).
The Liberal Party also receives undisclosed funding through several methods, such as "associated entities". Cormack Foundation, Eight by Five, Free Enterprise Foundation, Federal Forum and Northern Sydney Conservative forum are entities which have been used to funnel donations to the Liberal Party without disclosing the source.


Amnon Linn

Amnon Linn (; 29 March 1924 – 21 July 2016) was an Israeli politician.
Biography.
Linn was born in Mishmar HaEmek to Hava and David (Dodia) Linn. He became a member of the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement in 1940, and in 1942 joined the Palmach, fighting in Haifa. He met his wife, Ruth Hushi, daughter of Abba Hushi in 1945, and married her later that same year. He has two sons - Shai and Ran, and one daughter - Orna.
Linn joined Mapai, the ruling party, in 1951, and was appointed director of the Arab Department of the party in the north of the country, a job he held until 1965 when he became national Director of the Arab Department. In the same year Mapai and Ahdut HaAvoda merged to form the Alignment.
In the 1965 elections he narrowly missed out on winning a seat in the Knesset; he was placed 48th on the Alignment's list, but the party won only 45 seats. However, following the resignation of two Alignment MKs and the death of Minister of Police Bechor-Shalom Sheetrit, Linn entered the Knesset in 1967. However, he lost his seat in the 1969 elections.
Linn returned to the Knesset after the 1973 election, this time as a member of Likud. He was re-elected in 1977 and 1981, but in 1982, along with most other members of the "Movement for Haifa and the North" (which he had founded in 1977), he defected back to the Alignment. He was re-elected in 1984 as an Alignment MK and chaired the Knesset subcommittee for the civil guard in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), but lost his seat in 1988.


Einar Iveland

Einar Iveland (9 May 1892 – 15 May 1975) was a Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party.
He was born in Iveland.
He was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Aust-Agder in 1950, but was not re-elected in 1954. He had previously served in the position of deputy representative during the term 1934–1936.
Iveland held various positions in Iveland municipality council from 1933 to 1950, and was chairman of Aust-Agder county council in 1940 and 1945–1949.


Manitoba Liberal Party

The Manitoba Liberal Party () is a political party in Manitoba, Canada. Its roots can be traced to the late 19th century, following the province's creation in 1870.
Origins and early development (to 1883).
Originally, there were no official political parties in Manitoba, although many leading politicians were affiliated with parties that existed at the national level. In Manitoba's first Legislative Assembly, the leader of the opposition was Edward Hay, a Liberal who represented the interests of recent anglophone immigrants from Ontario. Not a party leader as such, he was still a leading voice for the newly transplanted "Ontario Grit" tradition. In 1874, Hay served as Minister of Public Works in the government of Marc-Amable Girard, which included both Conservatives and Liberals.
During the 1870s, a Liberal network began to emerge in the city of Winnipeg. One of the key figures in this network was William Luxton, owner of the Manitoba Free Press newspaper and himself a member of the Manitoba legislature on two occasions. Luxton was not initially supportive of Premier Robert A. Davis (1874–1878), but endorsed the Davis ministry after brought John Norquay into cabinet (Davis's early supporters were primarily from the francophone community, and Norquay's presence gave the ministry greater credibility among the anglophone population). Luxton subsequently supported Davis and Norquay against Conservative Orangeman Thomas Scott, a leader of the local opposition (not to be confused with the figure executed by Louis Riel in 1870).
Although the Davis administration was on favourable terms with federal Liberal Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie (1873–1878), his successor Norquay was more closely aligned with the federal Conservatives. This was partly a matter of necessity. As a small province, Manitoba needed to be on favourable terms with whatever party was in power at the federal level. As such, when John A. Macdonald's Conservatives were returned to power in 1878, the local balance of power began to shift. Luxton's Liberal network supported Norquay against Scott in 1878 and 1879, but was subsequently marginalized by the Norquay government. In 1882, Norquay forged a new alliance with the province's Conservatives.
The party under Thomas Greenway (1883–1904).
Also in 1882, Thomas Greenway formed a new organization known as the Provincial Rights Party. Based in the province's rural areas, this group soon surpassed the Winnipeg Liberals as the dominant opposition to Norquay. After the election of 1883, Greenway united the opposition MLAs into the Manitoba Liberals (which were soon recognized as a de facto political party). For the next 21 years, Greenway's control over the party would be unchallenged.
Greenway's Liberals took power in 1888 and ended the Canadian Pacific Railway's monopoly in the province. The Greenway government's most notable feat in office was curtailing the rights of Manitoba's French Canadian population. Manitoba had been founded as a bilingual province, but Greenway's government provoked the Manitoba Schools Question, ending the educational rights of (predominantly French) Catholics, and making the public school system entirely English and Protestant. English became the province's sole official language.
Greenway was able to win large majorities in 1892 and 1896, based largely on single-issue populism relating to the schools question. After this was resolved in 1897, his government became increasingly directionless. The Liberals were defeated by the Manitoba Conservative Party in 1899.
The Liberals were unable to regain their previous support base in the decade that followed. Greenway continued to lead the party through a disastrous 1903 campaign, winning only 9 seats. He resigned in 1904 to run for federal office.
The party in the early 20th century.
Charles Mickle was chosen parliamentary leader on December 5, 1904, and led the party until a provincial convention was held in late March 1906. That convention acclaimed Edward Brown as the party's new leader. Brown failed to win a seat in the 1907 election, however, and resigned shortly thereafter. Mickle again became the party's legislative leader, and served as leader of the opposition until leaving politics in 1909.
Tobias Norris became Liberal leader in 1910. When the Tories under Rodmond Roblin resigned amid scandal in 1915, he became the province's premier, and retained the position until 1922. The Norris Liberals introduced temperance laws, votes for women, workers compensation, and the minimum wage.
The Norris administration's relationship with the Liberal Party of Canada under Wilfrid Laurier was often antagonistic. Norris withdrew funding for French-language education in 1916, at a time when the federal Liberals were attempting to regain the support of Quebec nationalists. The Manitoba Liberals also supported Robert Borden's Union government in the election of 1917 (see Conscription Crisis of 1917), and were not reconciled with the "Laurier Liberals" until 1922. Even then, they refused to officially re-align themselves with the federal party.
The Liberals were swept from power in 1922 by the United Farmers of Manitoba, who were also known as the Progressive Party. Norris continued to lead the party through most of the 1920s, but was replaced by Hugh Robson before the 1927 election (which was again won by the Progressives). Robson, in turn, resigned on January 3, 1930. He was replaced as parliamentary leader by James Breakey. In 1931, Murdoch Mackay was selected as the party's official leader.
Liberal-Progressive Party: Merger with the Progressives.
Pressured by William Lyon Mackenzie King, Mackay brought the Liberals into a coalition with Premier John Bracken's Progressives before the 1932 election. The national Progressive Party had been largely absorbed into the Liberal Party of Canada by this time, and King believed that it was foolish to divide the resources of the parties within Manitoba. He was especially concerned that the Conservatives could recapture the provincial government if the Liberals and Progressives were not united.
For the election of 1932, the provincial government referred to itself as "Liberal-Progressive" (effectively a fusion of the parties, albeit one dominated by Progressives). A small group of Liberals, led by St. Boniface mayor David Campbell, opposed the merger and ran as "Continuing Liberals". They were resoundingly defeated. After the election, the Liberals of Manitoba were absorbed into the Progressive Party. Two non-coalition Liberals were elected in 1936, but they were not intended to represent a rival party.
Despite being dominated by Progressives, the merged party soon became popularly known as the "Liberal Party of Manitoba". The federal Progressive Party had long since disappeared, and the "Progressive" name had little continued meaning in Manitoba politics. The party formally changed its name to the "Liberal Party of Manitoba" in 1961, over only scattered objections from Progressive diehards.
The party in the 1940s and 1950s.
In 1940, Bracken's Liberal-Progressives forged an even broader coalition, bringing the Conservatives, Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and Social Credit in a "non-partisan" government. This coalition governed the province until 1950, although the CCF left in 1943.
The Liberal-Progressive governments were cautious and moderate. Bracken's government undertook few major initiatives, and was unfriendly to labour issues even during its alliance with the CCF. Following World War II, the government of Stuart Garson (who replaced Bracken as premier in January 1943) led a program of rapid rural electrification, but was otherwise as cautious as Bracken's. Garson left provincial politics in 1948 to join the federal Liberal Cabinet of Louis St. Laurent.
The government of Garson's successor, Douglas Lloyd Campbell, was socially conservative and generally opposed to state intervention of any sort. The educational system remained primitive (it was dominated by one-room schoolhouses well into the 1950s), and no significant steps were taken on language or labour issues. The province did modernize its liquor laws during this period, however.
The Liberal-Progressives lost their majority in the 1958 provincial election by the Progressive Conservatives under Dufferin Roblin. Campbell initially hoped to stay in office with a minority government supported by the CCF, but this was brought to nothing, and the CCF threw its support to a PC minority government. However, the Manitoba PCs were dominated by Red Tories, and Roblin's government was actually well to the left of Campbell's government.
Manitoba Liberal Party: Declining popularity.
Gildas Molgat, a protégé of Campbell, became party leader in 1961 of what again became known as the Manitoba Liberal Party. Molgat prevented the Liberals from falling to third-party status during the 1960s, but never posed a serious threat to Roblin's government.
Robert Bend, a former minister under Campbell, came out of retirement to lead the party in 1969. However, Bend's rural populism didn't play well with urban voters. Under his leadership, the party adopted a "cowboy"/"rodeo" theme for the campaign, which made it look and sound dated. The election that followed was an unmitigated disaster; the party dropped to only five seats, the fewest it had ever won. Bend himself was unsuccessful in his bid to succeed Campbell in his own riding. A succession of leaders, including Israel Asper (1970–1975), Charles Huband (1975–1978) and Doug Lauchlan (1980–1982) were unable to prevent the party's decline.
Well into the 1970s, the party was considered very right-wing for its time, despite the Liberal label. This was especially true under Asper's leadership; during his tenure as party leader Asper supported laissez-faire economics and an end to the welfare state—putting it to the right of the Tories. The party largely distanced itself from its right-wing past in the mid-1970s. By this time, however, the province was polarized between the Tories and the New Democratic Party of Manitoba (NDP, successor to the Manitoba CCF), and the Liberals were unable to present themselves as a viable alternative. The party bottomed out in 1981 election, when it was completely shut out of the legislature for the first time ever.
The 1980s.
In 1984, the party chose Sharon Carstairs as its new leader. She was elected to the assembly in the 1986 election, and in the 1988 election, led the party to 20 seats—its best showing since 1953—and official opposition status. This was precipitated by the unpopularity of Howard Pawley's New Democratic government, which allowed the Liberals to win the support of many centre-left voters.
The Liberals' resurgence sparked hopes that they could win the next election. This proved to be a temporary recovery. The NDP revived under Gary Doer, and the Liberals slipped back into third place in the 1990 election with only seven seats, against 20 for the NDP and 30 for the Conservatives. Many in the party felt Carstairs had squandered their best chance of winning government in three decades.
Further decline (1993–2013).
Carstairs was replaced as leader by Paul Edwards in 1993. By the time the 1995 election was called, the party had managed to recover to a strong second-place position in the polls. They ran a poor campaign, however, and were again overtaken by the NDP well before election day. Despite having almost 24% of popular support, the Liberals won only three seats and lost official party status. Edwards, who was defeated in his own riding, stepped down as party leader in 1996.
The leadership convention of 1996 exposed deep divisions in the party, as Ginny Hasselfield defeated Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) Kevin Lamoureux by only 21 votes. Two of the party's three MLAs (Lamoureux and Gary Kowalski) subsequently sat as "Independent Liberals", and there were threats of legal action between Hasselfield and Lamoureux. The party was only reunited when Hasselfield resigned in 1998, replaced by former federal Member of Parliament (MP) Jon Gerrard.
Liberal Party support fell by 10% in the election of 1999, which allowed Gary Doer's New Democrats to regain centre-left support and win government. Gerrard became the party's only MLA, winning election in the upscale riding of River Heights, Carstairs' old riding. The party failed to recover much of its support base in the 2003 election, although Lamoureux was able to regain his seat in north Winnipeg to become the party's second MLA.
Despite Lamoureux's re-election, the Liberal popular vote fell in 2003 even through the party managed to field a full slate of candidates (they were 7 shy in 1999). The Liberals did have more second-place finishes than in the previous election, which appeared to be a sign of a rebound. If the party had any momentum to build upon, it was negated by a weak campaign in the 2007 provincial election. Gerrard and Lamoureux were both re-elected, but the party's popular support declined to just above 12%. They also had fewer second-place finishes than they had in 1999. The 2011 provincial election resulted in Gerrard being the only Liberal MLA being elected. He subsequently announced his intention to resign as party leader after serving in the position for 15 years.
Rebuilding the Party (2013–present).
On October 26, 2013, the Manitoba Liberal Party held a leadership convention in Winnipeg. The contested nomination saw three individuals put their name forward: Bob Axworthy (younger brother of Lloyd Axworthy, former MP, federal Minister of various portfolios, and MLA), Rana Bokhari, and Dougald Lamont. Rana Bokhari was elected leader of the party with 431 ballots cast.
In preparation of the 2016 Manitoba general election, the Liberals nominated candidates. The party initially had high hopes for the election after a strong showing by the federal Liberals in the 2015 federal election, in which they took all but one seat in Winnipeg. By the time of the writ, Elections Manitoba disqualified 4 candidates due to improper paperwork and 1 for being an enumerator while collecting signatures for her candidacy. The Liberals found their pre-writ polling of approximately 25% fall to 14% on Election Day. On May 7, 2016, Bokhari announced that she would not lead the party into the next election but would remain on as leader until her successor was chosen. Judy Klassen served as the interim leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party until June 13, 2017 when she stepped down to become a leadership candidate. Dougald Lamont was elected Manitoba Liberal leader at the October 21, 2017 Liberal leadership election, defeating MLA Cindy Lamoureux on the second ballot by eight votes.
Under the leadership of Dougald Lamont the party has been seeing an increase in memberships and notoriety in local media. The Lamont leadership passed its first major challenge July 17, 2018, when Lamont won a by-election in St Boniface, both gaining him a seat, and giving the Liberals official party status for the first time in 23 years. The vote followed the resignation of former NDP Premier Greg Selinger.
Lamont led the Manitoba Liberals into the 2019 provincial election. He was one of three Liberal MLAs returned, being re-elected in St. Boniface, while Gerrard was re-elected in River Heights and Lamoureux won in Tyndall Park.
Party leaders.
Liberal Party leaders
"Continuing Liberal" leaders
Liberal-Progressive Party leaders
Liberal Party leaders (renewal)


Margaret Boswell

Margaret "Peggy" Boswell born Margaret Montgomerie (1738 – June 4, 1789) was the Scottish wife and cousin of the diarist James Boswell.
Life.
She was born in about 1738 at Lainshaw in Ayrshire. She was soon an orphan as her father James Boswell (seventh laird of Auchinleck) and her mother Lady Elizabeth (born Bruce) died while she was young. Her father's elder sister, Elizabeth, inherited, but they left her an annuity worth £1000 which would bring her an income of £100 every year. James was open with her before their marriage telling her of his "a disposition to melancholy and the most violent passion for the family of Auchinicck".
She married her first cousin who was James Boswell. They married in London and the witnesses to their marriage included Archibald Douglas, 1st Baron Douglas, the writer Samuel Johnson and the Corsican statesman Pasquale Paoli. The marriage contract is now held by Yale University. Once married their social life was based at their house in James Court in Edinburgh. Her substantial annuity did not prevent the couple from being debt for all of their marriage. James described her as a "heathen goddess" who was treated to double standards. James berated her when he thought she was too friendly with men, but his friendliness with women resulted in two children Charles Boswell and Sally. Margaret would respond to his unfaithfulness by refusing his advances in "a divorce", but she would in time forgive him.
In 1783 she was at the family seat of Auchinleck House where she catalogued the valuable library of books at the house.
Henry Singleton created a group painting of Margaret's family in about 1786. On the left of the painting was her husband and she was on the right holding a six year old Elizabeth Boswell. The other two figures in the painting are Veronica and James (the younger).
Boswell died in Auchinleck on 4 June 1789 just before her husband arrived after rushing from London to be with her. James broke with tradition and he attended Margaret's funeral on the 11 June. Despite her annuity, James was in debt was still in debt when she died. She was interred beneath the church, but her body was exhumed and moved later. Their children were Alexander, James the younger, Veronica, Euphemia and Elizabeth Boswell.


Yosef Ahimeir

Yosef "Yossi" Ahimeir (, born 19 May 1943) is an Israeli journalist and former politician, chief editor of the Hebrew ideological quarterly - "Ha-Umma". Since April 2005 he is also the director-general of the Jabotinsky Institute in Israel. Today, Ahimeir is member of the directorate of Yad Vashem and of International Board of Governors of the Ariel University Center of Samaria.
Biography.
Ahimeir was born in Jerusalem during the Mandate era, the son of the journalist and historian Abba Ahimeir. He gained a BA from Tel Aviv University, and began working as a journalist at "HaYom", the Gahal-affiliated newspaper, in 1966. In 1969 he moved to "Ma'ariv", where he worked until 1984.
In 1984 he became assistant to Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. In 1988 he was appointed Director of the Prime Minister's Office, a post he held until Shamir lost the 1992 elections.
Ahimeir was on the Likud list for the elections, and although he failed to win a seat, he entered the Knesset on 7 August 1995 as a replacement for the deceased Haim Kaufman. However, he lost his seat in the 1996 elections.
His brother, Ya'akov Ahimeir, is also a journalist.


Arnljot Karstein Eidnes

Arnljot Karstein Eidnes (18 July 1909 - 13 May 1990) is a Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party.
He served as a deputy representative to the Norwegian Parliament from Troms during the terms 1961–1965 and 1965–1969.
References.
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Paul Taylor (Gaelic footballer)

Paul Taylor is a Gaelic football manager and former player.
He played as a forward for the Sligo county team between 1993 and 2007. His point of origin is at Eastern Harps, with whom he won six Sligo Senior Football Championships.
He was appointed manager of Sligo in 2018, having earlier worked as a selector under the management of Kevin Walsh.
Bradford oversaw a winless 2019 season for Sligo, an early All-Ireland Senior Football Championship exit following swiftly on from an early Connacht Senior Football Championship exit. These in turn followed relegation from the National Football League, confirmed by a home defeat to Wstmeath in March with two rounds of the competition still to play. A few weeks later, Bradford ran for Fianna Fáil in the 2019 local elections in Sligo and was elected to Sligo County Council.
On the morning of 12 November 2020, Taylor informed of his decision to depart as Sligo manager, citing "family commitments, work commitments and the current health crisis" as influencing his decision. On 9 January 2021, Roscommon GAA-based intermediate club Kilmore announced Taylor as its manager.


National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism

The Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT) is a non-profit organization founded in response to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Supported by Department of Homeland Security and other government grant funds, it conducted research into the causes of terrorism and maintained the MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base — which was an online database of terrorist incidents, groups, and other information. MIPT also worked in conjunction with RAND, for some of its research and analysis. The institute provides training and professional development dedicated to improving the skills of law enforcement officers.
Role and focus.
MIPT provides training to the 800,000 uniformed officers of US domestic police forces through its training model, Information Collection on Patrol (InCOP). InCOP is a series of workshops that enhance departmental intelligence capacity, both in traditional crime and terrorism prevention, by progressively improving the collection skills of the line officer, improving the quality, quantity and timeliness of reporting.
InCOP course offerings include InCOP 1 which highlights the importance of the line officers role in the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative. This offering includes the Hypervigilience Process, a way of scanning the patrol environment as well as The 2-Minute Interview technique. In InCOP 2, participants learn the importance of cultivating community contacts. InCOP 3 begins an open facilitated dialogue between officers and crime analysts, while InCOP 4 teaches the evolution and changes of the terrorism threat, the current terrorist threat, terrorist tactics and operations and how to develop warnings and indicators as well as detect them.
History.
MIPT was founded by the survivors and family members of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. It was their intention to establish an institute dedicated to terrorism prevention. The first Board of Directors was appointed in 2000 by then Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating. The institute soon began operations conducting research and funding a wide array of projects, both hard and soft science, developing advanced tools such as explosive detection devices, and new work on the biology of anthrax.
In 2004, MIPT conceptualized, developed and launched three knowledge bases: Lessons Learned Information Sharing, the Responder Knowledge Base and the Terrorism Knowledge Base.
In 2007, MIPT became a national training center. MIPT’s training model and content is recognized by both the United States Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security as a part of the National Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative.
In August 2014, MIPT closed after losing federal funding.
MIPT's Lawson Library.
MIPT’s Lawson Library is building a collection of online law enforcement resources and already houses the largest collection of terrorism and homeland security related resources outside the Library of Congress.
Physical artifacts.
MIPT houses the Terrorism Memorial Flag. The flag is 63 feet (19m) long, 35 feet (11m) tall and contains the names of over 4,000 U.S. citizens who were victims of terrorism since 1970. The flag, and its accompanying database are housed on the MIPT website.
MIPT achievements.
Incorporated in 2000 with funding through the National Institute of Justice’s Office of Science and Technology, early research focused primarily on technical and applied projects including: detectors for explosives and chemical and biological weapons; personal protective equipment; forensics; and critical infrastructure protection to name a few.
MIPT developed and provided oversight for three knowledge bases: Lessons Learned Information Sharing (LLIS), the Responder Knowledge Base (RKB) and the Terrorism Knowledge Base (TKB).
Parent agencies and partners.
MIPT is supported by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through a cooperative agreement with the Federal Emergency Management Association National Preparedness Directorate, Training Division.
Closure of MIPT.
In August 2014, MIPT closed after losing federal funding. The MIPT and TKB websites were shut down and the database is currently not accessible to the public.


Abstentionism

Abstentionism is standing for election to a deliberative assembly while refusing to take up any seats won or otherwise participate in the assembly's business. Abstentionism differs from an election boycott in that abstentionists participate in the election itself. Abstentionism has been used by Irish republican political movements in the United Kingdom and Ireland since the early 19th century. It was also used by Hungarian and Czech nationalists in the Austrian Imperial Council in the 1860s.
Hungary.
When suppressing the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, the Austrian Empire abolished the Diet of Hungary. Austria's 1861 February Patent reserved places for Hungary in the indirectly-elected Imperial Council, but the Hungarians did not send representatives, arguing the council was usurping authority properly belonging to the Diet. Emulating the Hungarians, the Czech delegates for Bohemia withdrew in 1863, and those from Moravia in 1864. Hungarian demands were met by the Compromise of 1867, with the empire becoming the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary in which the Hungarian half was ruled by a revived Diet. In 1904, Arthur Griffith published "The Resurrection of Hungary" arguing for a British–Irish dual monarchy similar to the 1867 compromise. Griffith's subsequent ""Sinn Féin" policy" developed this model. Tom Kettle of the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) countered that Bohemia had remained in the Austrian half of the post-1867 empire, and its delegates abandoned abstentionism in 1879.
In Ireland.
Before partition.
After the Act of Union 1800, Ireland was represented in the British Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in the House of Lords and the House of Commons. Repeal of the Act of Union was a goal of many Irish nationalists.
In 1845, a motion was carried at the Repeal Association's committee for all Irish members of parliament (MPs) to withdraw from Westminster. It was proposed by Thomas Osborne Davis of the Young Ireland movement. However, the committee felt that MPs already sitting could not withdraw without breaking the oath of office they had taken upon election. The Irish Confederation, which withdrew from the Repeal Association in 1847, resolved in favour of immediate abstention; however, its founder William Smith O'Brien continued to speak at Westminster. In 1848, Charles Gavan Duffy proposed that Irish MPs expelled from Westminster should sit in a separate Irish parliament.
Other early abstentionist advocates included George Sigerson in 1862, and John Dillon in 1878, who envisaged abstentionist Irish MPs meeting in a separate Irish parliament.
From the 1860s, Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) leaders Charles Kickham and John O'Leary favoured abstentionism. In 1869, G. H. Moore suggested nominating imprisoned republicans for election, knowing they were precluded as convicted felons from taking seats. On this basis, Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa (in 1870) and John Mitchel (twice in 1875) were returned at by-elections in Tipperary; O'Donovan Rossa was in prison at his election, while Mitchel was in exile.
Kickham envisaged a "great national conference" calling on Irish MPs to withdraw from Westminster. A motion to that effect was proposed by Charles Guilfoyle Doran and passed at the convention of the Home Rule League (HRL). "Honest" John Martin, "independent nationalist" MP for Meath from 1871 to 1875, spoke in Westminster only to raise nationalist protests, and refused to vote. In the 1874 election, 59 HRL MPs were returned, including John O'Connor Power in Mayo, who was a member of the IRB Supreme Council. He was to fall out with the IRB over allegations of misappropriating election funds, and became progressively less radical. O'Connor Power believed that Westminster was the best platform to argue Ireland's case for self-government. Withdrawal from Parliament would be an abandonment of the Home Rule party to those who favoured conciliation rather than confrontation. By 1876 it was clear that the HRL would never be able to organise a national convention, and MPs elected with its endorsement would remain at Westminster. An alternative to abstentionism was obstructionism, including the use of filibuster. This was practised by the HRL and its successor, the IPP under Charles Stuart Parnell from the late 1870s.
Sinn Féin.
Arthur Griffith's "Sinn Féin Policy", formulated between 1905 and 1907, called for Irish MPs to abstain from Westminster and sit in a parallel parliament in Dublin. The first Sinn Féin abstentionist candidate was Charles Dolan in 1908. Having sat as MP for North Leitrim for the IPP, he resigned after joining Sinn Féin, and lost the ensuing by-election. Laurence Ginnell's 1909 proposal that the United Ireland League (UIL) adopt abstentionism caused a near-riot; he left the UIL but continued to sit at Westminster until he joined Sinn Féin in 1917. Abstentionism was opposed by most nationalists, especially after the January 1910 general election when the IPP held the balance of power at Westminster and secured passage of the Third Home Rule Bill from the Liberal government. The nationalist mood changed after the 1916 Rising, and the IPP itself withdrew from Westminster in April 1918, to protest against the extension of conscription to Ireland. At the 1916 West Cork by-election, Sinn Féin initially endorsed All-for-Ireland League candidate Frank J. Healy, a supporter interned after the 1916 Rising, but withdrew support when Healy declared his intention to take his seat; the confusion contributed to Healy's defeat.
The first abstentionist MP elected was Count George Noble Plunkett after the North Roscommon by-election of 3 February 1917. Plunkett did not categorically state his abstentionism until after his victory. Plunkett's Liberty League, Griffith's monarchist Sinn Féin, and the northern Irish Nation League merged later that year into a reconstituted Sinn Féin, agreeing after contentious disputation that abstentionism was a principle rather than merely a tactic. Sinn Féin MPs elected to Westminster in November 1918 refused to take their seats there and instead constituted themselves in Dublin in January 1919 as the TDs () of the first "Dáil", which was claimed to be the legitimate parliament of the Irish Republic. The Irish Labour Party stood aside in 1918 in favour of Sinn Féin, having at first proposed to be abstentionist until emergency laws were lifted. Sinn Féin was unsure whether to boycott the 1921 elections to the House of Commons of Northern Ireland and House of Commons of Southern Ireland set up by the Government of Ireland Act 1920. It decided to contest the Northern election for tactical reasons and the Southern one for consistency, with its returned MPs becoming the TDs of the Second Dáil.
One strand within Republicanism, in remaining loyal to this pre-Partition Irish Republic, denies the legitimacy of both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Other parties reached accommodation with the southern state but not Northern Ireland. Some groups have boycotted elections within either jurisdiction; others have been abstentionist; others abstained from some bodies but not others. Abstentionism has often been a divisive issue within Republicanism.
In the Irish Free State/Republic of Ireland.
The 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty established the Irish Free State, with an opt-out for Northern Ireland and requiring an Oath of Allegiance for Free State legislators. The Treaty split Sinn Féin, mainly over the Oath rather than "Partition", and caused the Irish Civil War. The June 1922 election featured a "Sinn Féin panel" of pro- and anti-Treaty candidates, but the resulting Third Dáil was boycotted by the anti-Treaty TDs. These refounded Sinn Féin in 1923 and based their continued abstention from the Free State Dáil on Partition. Fianna Fáil split from Sinn Féin in 1926 and abandoned abstentionism in the Free State in 1927. From 1955, Sinn Féin contested local elections in the Republic of Ireland and took its seats, arguing this did not amount to recognising the state.
In 1970, at its Ard Fheis (annual conference), Sinn Féin split again on the issue of whether or not to reverse its long-standing policy of refusing to take seats in Dáil Éireann. The split created two parties calling themselves "Sinn Féin". The anti-abstentionist party was known as "Official" Sinn Féin. It changed its name to "Sinn Féin the Workers Party" (SFWP) and won a seat in the Dáil in the general election of 1981, which it took. The following year it dropped "Sinn Féin" from its name to become "The Workers' Party". The abstentionist party was initially referred to as "Provisional" Sinn Féin, but after 1982 it was known simply as "Sinn Féin"; it continued to abstain from taking seats won in all institutions.
Sinn Féin split in 1986, as in 1970, over whether to take seats in Dáil Éireann. The larger group led by Gerry Adams abandoned abstentionism, while Republican Sinn Féin (RSF), led by Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, retained it. Sinn Féin's first sitting Teachta Dála was Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, elected in Cavan–Monaghan in 1997.
RSF has retained the policy of abstentionism from both Dáil Éireann and the Northern Ireland Assembly. RSF has not in fact contested elections for Dáil Éireann or Westminster.
In Northern Ireland.
After Partition, most non-abstentionist parties in the southern state did not organise at all in Northern Ireland. In early 1922, the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State was seen as representing the interests of nationalists in Northern Ireland and had a policy of not recognising the Northern Irish government. Catholic bishop Joseph MacRory (who later became Archbishop of Armagh and a Cardinal) indicated to the Provisional Government that Joe Devlin and his party members wanted to enter the new Parliament of Northern Ireland, and was worried that the policy of non-recognition would result in Northern Irish nationalists having to "fight alone", but his advice was ignored.
Abstentionism at local elections was effectively prohibited by a 1934 law requiring candidates to take an oath to attend council sessions.
The Nationalist Party did not take their seats during the first Stormont parliament (1921–25). Despite forming the second-largest parliamentary party, they did not accept the role of Opposition for a further forty years. They did so on 2 February 1965 but withdrew from opposition again in October 1968, two weeks after police batoned demonstrators at a civil rights march in Derry on 5 October 1968.
Cahir Healy was elected to both the Stormont and Westminster parliaments under a variety of nationalist labels between the 1920s and the 1960s. He was abstentionist in Stormont until 1927 and at Westminster from 1950 to 1952. In the 1930s, Healy led the Irish Union Association, which supported his policy of intermittent tactical abstentionism, whereas the otherwise-similar Northern Council for Unity regarded abstentionism as a principle.
From 1953, Stormont candidates were required to take the British oath of allegiance before standing, precluding Sinn Féin from doing so. This did not apply at Westminster elections, where Sinn Féin often gave non-Sinn Féin abstentionist nationalists a free run to avoid splitting the nationalist vote, but conversely fielded a spoiler candidate against non-abstentionist nationalists.
The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) became the Opposition on its formation on 21 August 1970 but that party withdrew from Stormont in July 1971. The SDLP participated in the assembly set up for the Sunningdale Agreement, and in the Constitutional Convention. It originally intended to boycott the election to the 1982 Assembly, but adopted abstentionism to avoid giving a free run to Sinn Féin. Brian Feeney suggests that Sinn Féin's "active abstention", where those elected acted as local spokespeople in the media, was more effective than the SDLP's policy of sending its representatives instead to the New Ireland Forum in Dublin. The SDLP's participation in the 1996–98 Northern Ireland Forum was intermittent.
Sinn Féin adopted the "Armalite and ballot box strategy" in 1981, and first contested modern elections in Northern Ireland with the 1982 Assembly elections, from which they abstained. The 1983 ardfheis resolved to take seats in the European Parliament, as the 1985 ardfheis did for that year's local elections. Sinn Féin abstained from the Northern Ireland Forum.
Since the establishment of the Northern Ireland Assembly under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, both the SDLP and Sinn Féin have taken their seats in that body. SDLP MPs have consistently taken their seats in Westminster, in contrast to Sinn Féin MPs, who refuse to take their seats there. Sinn Féin MPs believe that as British political institutions should play no part in governing the people of Ireland, they as MPs should not make decisions on behalf of British people.
Fianna Fáil's sole Stormont election came in 1933, when its leader Éamon de Valera agreed to stand as an abstentionist for South Down, where he had been a Sinn Féin MP in the 1920s. Fianna Fáil registered as a political party within Northern Ireland in 2007. In 2014 its leader Mícheál Martin announced it would contest elections from 2019. It has not made clear whether it will contest elections to Westminster.
Republican Sinn Féin continue their long standing policy of abstentionism. It is not a registered party in Northern Ireland, but members have contested the Assembly elections as independents. When Saoradh, a dissident republican party, was established in 2016, it had not decided whether to contest elections, but said it would in any case abstain from taking up any seats won in Stormont, Westminster or Leinster House.
After the June 2017 UK general election, which resulted in a hung parliament with the Conservatives as the largest party with the DUP in potential balance of power, Gerry Adams reiterated Sinn Féin's long-standing position that their elected MPs would not swear allegiance to the Queen nor take their seats in Westminster.


Demosisto

Demosistō () was a pro-democracy political organisation established on 10 April 2016 as a political party. It was led by Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow – former leaders of Scholarism, along with Nathan Law, former secretary-general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS). Scholarism and the HKFS were the two student activist groups which played an instrumental role in the 79-day occupy protests known as the Umbrella Revolution in 2014.
Demosistō advocated a referendum to determine Hong Kong's sovereignty with the goal of obtaining autonomy after 2047, when the one country, two systems principle as promised in the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Hong Kong Basic Law is supposed to expire. It won a seat in the 2016 Legislative Council election with its 23-year-old chairman Nathan Law becoming the youngest candidate ever to be elected. In 2017, Law was disqualified from the Legislative Council over the oath-taking controversy and was imprisoned with Joshua Wong for the storming into the Civic Square during the Umbrella Revolution. After a series of disqualification of the Demosistō candidates, the party passed a resolution in January 2020 to abandon its advocacy for "democratic self-determination". After the passing of the Hong Kong national security law, the party's leadership resigned from their offices and the party disbanded on 30 June 2020.
Beliefs.
The following are the major missions of Demosistō:
Background.
The name "Demosistō" is derived from the Greek "demos" ("δῆμος", meaning "people", from which the English word "democracy" is derived) and Latin "sisto" (meaning "to stand", from which English words such as "insist", "persist" and "resist" are derived). Literally translated as "people to stand" in English, it means "stand for democracy", or "stand for the people". The Chinese name means "the will of the people".
The idea of forming Demosistō was inspired by Taiwan's New Power Party which was formed by the Sunflower Movement leaders and fared well in the 2016 Taiwanese legislative election. In February 2016, core figures of the student activist group Scholarism – Joshua Wong, Oscar Lai and Agnes Chow – who played an instrumental role in the 2014 Hong Kong protests, announced their plan of forming a new political party with other Umbrella Movement leaders, including Nathan Law, former secretary-general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS), to run in the September Legislative Council election. Scholarism officially ceased functioning on 20 March 2016 as the group disallowed any party affiliation.
History.
Founding.
The party was officially established on 10 April 2016 with former secretary-general of Hong Kong Federation of Students Nathan Law as chairman, former spokesman of Scholarism Oscar Lai as vice-chairman, former convenor as Joshua Wong as secretary-general and former core member Agnes Chow Ting as deputy secretary. Founding party members included Shu Kei, Dean of Film and Television at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts as party's executive committee member, teacher Ng Mei-lan and Hong Kong Unison's Fermi Wong Wai-fun as member of the Kowloon East team.
The Company Registry and police have yet to allow them to register as a company or society, as the registry had asked Demosistō to explain if it adheres to the Basic Law in pushing for Hong Kong's "self-determination" when the then-political party tried to register as a company. It was thus unable to set up its own bank account to raise funds as other parties and organisations did and had to rely instead on individual members' personal accounts. Joshua Wong also accused HSBC of exercising "political censorship" in rejecting his request to open a joint savings account to handle the business of his political party.
2016 Legislative Council election.
Demosistō initially planned to field chairman Nathan Law in Hong Kong Island and vice-chairman Oscar Lai in Kowloon East. In July 2016, Oscar Lai decided to drop his candidacy in Kowloon East due to the lack of funding. The mailings of the campaign pamphlets of chairman Nathan Law, who was running in Hong Kong Island, were also delayed as the Hongkong Post had to seek legal advice from the justice department regarding Law's pamphlets mentioning phrases such as "self-determination". Law, 23, eventually became the youngest candidate ever to be elected to the Legislative Council after he received 50,818 votes, the second-highest among all candidates in the constituency. Demosisto's electoral allies, environmentalist Eddie Chu and university lecturer Lau Siu-lai who ran with a similar platform of "self-determination" also won seats in New Territories West and Kowloon West.
In the Legislative Council, Demosistō and its allies joined the 27-strong pro-democracy caucus. In the 2017 Chief Executive election, the party and other radical democrats backed the League of Social Democrats legislator Leung Kwok-hung to run against the two former government officials Carrie Lam and John Tsang, who was backed by the mainstream pro-democrats. Leung later dropped out after failing to grab enough signatures in an unofficial civil petition.
Disqualifications and imprisonment of members.
In July 2017, Nathan Law was ousted from the Legislative Council over their manners at the oath-taking ceremony at the inaugural meeting with three other pro-democracy legislators, Leung Kwok-hung, Lau Siu-lai and Yiu Chung-yim, losing the party's only elected representation. The controversy, triggered by two pro-independence legislators, Sixtus Leung and Yau Wai-ching of Youngspiration resulted in the unprecedented legal actions by the government against elected legislators and the controversial interpretation of the Basic Law of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC) which led to the disqualification of the six legislators as a result.
In 17 August 2017, Nathan Law and Joshua Wong, the chairman and the secretary-general of Demosistō, were imprisoned alongside former general secretary of the Hong Kong Federation of Students Alex Chow for their storming into the Civic Square which triggered the 79-day 2014 Hong Kong protests.
Agnes Chow, core member of Demosistō, announced her candidacy for the seat left vacant by Nathan Law in the 2018 Hong Kong Island by-election. However, her candidacy was disqualified by the Electoral Affairs Commission of the basis that she "cannot possibly comply with the requirements of the relevant electoral laws, since advocating or promoting 'self-determination' is contrary to the content of the declaration that the law requires a candidate to make to uphold the Basic Law and pledge allegiance to the [Hong Kong Special Administrative Region]."
In the 2019 District Council election, Demosistō secretary-general Joshua Wong, who planned to run for the South Horizons West constituency, received letters from Returning Officers asking if he was running on behalf of his party Demosistō and if he supported the notion of "self-determination" for Hong Kong. More than ten days after the nomination period, acting Returning Officer Laura Liang Aron, who replaced Dorothy Ma Chau Pui-fun who took indefinite sick leave, barred Joshua Wong from running due to political reasons, making Wong the only pro-democrat to be disqualified due to his political stance in the election. Aron issued a six-page ruling noting that Wong dropped his advocacy of the option of independence as "a compromise, instead of a genuine intention" as Wong referred to President Xi Jinping's remarks on separatism as a "stern threat" and reason for him and Demosistō to give up the advocacy of independence. Wong said the Returning Officer's decision showed that the central government was rigging the election, which was expected to be a key test of public sentiment about the protest movement.
Abandoning "self-determination" advocacy and dissolution.
After a series of disqualification of the Demosistō candidates, the party passed a resolution in January 2020 to abandon its advocacy for "democratic self-determination" on its platform, replacing with "democratic and progressive values".
On 30 June 2020 hours after the NPCSC passed the Hong Kong national security law, secretary-general Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow, Jeffrey Ngo and former chairman Nathan Law announced they were withdrawing from Demosistō. Shortly after, the party announced it would disband, effective immediately.


Generation Opportunity

Generation Opportunity is a center-right political advocacy organization in the United States focused on economic policy and aimed at young adults. It is a sister organization to the Americans for Prosperity-led political network initially funded by the Koch family. The group has campaigned against the Affordable Care Act.
History.
Founded in 2010, Generation Opportunity initially focused on a variety of issues including taxes, high gas prices, and broader economic issues. Generation Opportunity then began to look at youth unemployment statistics and the Millennial Jobs Report, which gave unemployment statistics for 18- to 29-year-olds on the first day of each month. In September 2013, Generation Opportunity launched a campaign called "Opt Out of Obamacare". Evan Feinberg headed the organization from 2013 through 2015. In 2016, the organization released its "The State of the Millennial Report", which reviews the challenges and opportunities faced by young people in the United States
Issues.
Youth unemployment.
On the first Friday of every month, Generation Opportunity uses the information released from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to calculate unemployment for Americans aged 18–29. Generation Opportunity advocates for removing barriers to youth employment such as occupational licenses and regulations harmful to the sharing economy. Another strategy for reducing youth unemployment that is advocated by the organization is criminal justice reform, since a criminal sentence often traps generations of Americans into cyclical poverty.
Affordable Care Act.
Generation Opportunity opposes the Affordable Care Act and has campaigned against it. Generation Opportunity launched its Opt Out of Obamacare campaign in September 2013. Generation Opportunity conducted a college campus tour to 20 campuses to convince college students to sign a petition to opt out of the Affordable Care Act. The organization states that its goal is inform millennials of options outside of the Affordable Care Act, and to raise awareness of the cost of the Act for younger generations.
On September 18, 2013 it released a video advertisement named "Opt Out - The Exam - Creepy Uncle Sam". The video received over 600,000 views within its first 36 hours, 3.5 million views within its first week, and drew a response from President Obama during a speech in Maryland. The video features "Uncle Sam" intruding between the legs of a female patient during a gynecological exam. A third "Creepy Uncle Sam" video was released on October 25, receiving 300,000 views in 3 days.
Reception.
When asked to explain the creepy Uncle Sam ad, Feinberg compared his ad to the ad Democrats ran against Congressman Paul Ryan on his proposal to restructure Medicare: "They're not suggesting Paul Ryan is literally pushing granny off a cliff but trying to make a policy point," he said. "We're trying to make a policy point that Obamacare is creepy and invasive. It's obvious satire."
Funding.
In 2013, "Politico" reported that Generation Opportunity had received a $5 million grant from Freedom Partners, a group of about 200 donors that is associated with Charles and David Koch.


Rampart College

Rampart College (also called Freedom College and Freedom School was a libertarian educational institution established by Robert LeFevre in Colorado, United States, in 1956. The college was an unaccredited four-year school for classical liberals and individualist anarchists.
The early years.
LeFevre bought “Glenrose Park,” a 320-acre ranch in Douglas County, south of Larkspur, in the state of Colorado in September of 1955, using the inheritance he received from his mother’s estate, and started enrolling students in 1956.He purchased the property explicitly in order to establish a school to teach free enterprise principles. Rising to over 7,000 feet above sea level, the forested land contained several cabins of “questionable condition.” The first Board of Directors included Ruth Dazey, William J. Froh, Lois LeFevre, Robert LeFevre, Majorie Llewellin, Robert B. Rapp, and Edith Shank.
Freedom School renamed Rampart College.
During the winter of 1964, the Trustees of the Freedom School decided to officially rename the educational institution Rampart College after the nearby Rampart Range mountains. Bill Froh assumed the position of president while Robert LeFevre was named dean and put in charge of instruction. By October of 1964 the institution claimed that over 730 students had completed courses at Freedom School since 1956. From 1965 to 1968, Rampart College published its primary publication—"Rampart Journal of Individualist Thought"—
which ran a number of stories favorable to individualist anarchism, such as Roy Child’s article that explained why Ayn Rand’s Objectivism “necessarily implied anarchism.” In addition, the journal featured an article that proposed a new way of looking at the political spectrum, which was to become an early version of what was later to be known as the Nolan Chart. By 1968, Rampart College had come to a point where they believed they could offer master's degrees to the general public.
Lecturers at the School and College.
Over 50 teachers, guest instructors and guest lecturers taught at the school in Colorado. Some of the more notable lecturers included Milton Friedman, Ludwig von Mises, Leonard Read, F.A. Harper, Elgie Marcks, Ellis Lamborn, Frank Chodorov, Hans F. Sennholz, R. C. Hoiles, Percy Greaves, Ruth Maynard, Oscar W. Cooley, R. C. Hoiles, A. Neil McLeod, and Butler D. Shaffer. According to Brian Doherty, some of the other speakers included Rose Wilder Lane, Gordon Tullock, James Buchanan, and Roy Childs.
The flood and end of Rampart College in Colorado.
Over 14 inches of rain drenched the Palmer Range above Rampart College on June 16, 1965, causing a torrent of water to fill the cabins with mud halfway to the roof, causing $150,000 in damages. The flooding and mudslides destroyed most of the campus, which halted its operations. With the school’s total indebtedness of close to $700,000, it became apparent that the entire 320-acre campus had to be sold. Near the end of 1968 the land and facilities of Rampart College, still often referred to as the “Freedom School campus,” were sold. The property was bought by a religious organization, the Mennonites, who had been searching for a location to use for educational purposes. According to Jeff Riggenbach, who visited the former school in 1981, the facilities looked more like retreat for troubled boys.
Rampart College moves to Southern California.
In November of 1968, LeFevre moved to Southern California and took possession of the 7,000 sq. ft. house on two acres in Arcadia, California, under the name of Rampart College. He planned to hold college courses and lectures at the residential property, but was unable to convince city officials to re-zone the property to establish a small college. To resolve this and other problems, LeFevre signed a six-year lease for a suite of offices on the top floor of the First Western Bank Building in Santa Ana and sold the Arcadia property. During this time period, Rampart College produced two 16mm color documentary films: “Property: A Basis for Morality” and “The Meaning of Responsibility and Obligation,” narrated by Robert LeFevre. A number of seminars were conducted across California, including some on the island of Catalina and the Carmel Valley area. In addition, the institute produced two home study courses, the "Fundamentals of Liberty" and "Raising Children for Fun and Profit", along with 50 thirty-minute lectures on cassette tape based on LeFevre’s "Fundamentals of Liberty" home study course.
In January of 1973, LeFevre resigned from Rampart College and turned over its assets and presidency to Sy Leon, an instructor and administrator of the college since 1966. Leon focused on organizing speaking tours for author Harry Browne, managed a series of libertarian programs, and arranged media interviews to promulgate libertarian principles. Within a few years, Sy Leon was unable to make rental payments to keep Rampart College afloat and the college closed its doors.
In 1980, LeFevre and others attempted to revive the institution by establishing another school and “Freedom” library under the name of Rampart Institute. However, LeFevre passed away in 1986 before he was able to acquire a new site for a libertarian-orientated college.