Introduction
I have chosen to write about two liberal parties Democratic Party of the United States of America (USA) and the Latvia’s Way of Latvia because I consider myself to be liberal and I have chosen these parties because they are the main liberal parties in both countries and they have pushed through the main reforms and have been the most successful. I will also look at the party ideologies and party platforms of both parties, because party ideologies and positions really matter, because they give voters important choices in the electoral process and help guide the direction of the nation. I will also look how they fulfill their promises and do they follow their political platforms.
I have posed two Hypothesis: 1) Although both parties are considered to be overwhelmingly liberal, they both have a different perception, what liberalism is, and they deal in social, economic and foreign policy in different ways. 2) Both Parties use liberalism for vote catching, party recruitment and identity building, but not always they use liberalism in policy framing.
I have set some questions which I will reply in my research:
What is liberalism in Europe and USA?
Are these political parties liberal? Why are they liberal or not?
How do they use liberal ideology?
How do these parties understand Liberalism?
How do they deal with social, economic and foreign policy?
In the theoretical part I will explain what liberalism and party ideology means. In empirical part I will describe both parties and ideologies of both parties and how they use their ideology to attract their voters. I will also analyze three main policies of political agenda of liberalism: Social policy, Economic policy and Foreign policy. I will describe how both parties deal with these policies ideologically and in praxis.
1.1. Liberalism
A proper understanding of liberalism must include perceptions of the term within both a historical and a contemporary setting.
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