Liberal Party Parti Liberal | |
|---|---|
| Haitian Creyole name | Pati Liberal |
| Abbreviation | PL |
| Founder | Jean-Pierre Boyer Bazelais, Edmond Paul |
| Founded | February 19, 1870 |
| Ideology | Economic liberalism, technocracy |
| Political position | Center-right |
| Slogan | "Government by the Most Competent" |
| Main Opponent | National Party |
The Liberal Party, (Parti Liberal; PL)[1] founded on February 19, 1870,[2] by Jean-Pierre Boyer Bazelais and Edmond Paul, was an economically liberal political party in Haiti that advocated for technocratic leadership, well embodied in its motto "Government by the Most Competent". Central to the party's ideology was the bourgeois belief that the small elite of Haiti were best suited to chart its future. Their main rival was the National Party.
The Liberals were a dominant force in the early 1870s, initially controlling the majority of seats in Haiti’s parliament under the presidency of Jean-Nicholas Nissage Saget. They were then sidelined during the succeeding presidency of Michel Domingue, with many prominent Liberals fleeing Haiti to Jamaica and beyond. In 1876, the Liberals mounted a successful invasion of Haiti to reclaim control, overthrowing President Domingue and installing Pierre Théoma Boisrond-Canal as head of a provisional government, who would later assume full presidential authority.
Throughout the late 1870s and into the 1880s, the Liberal Party splintered into rival factions, driven more by personal rivalries rather than ideological differences. One faction was led by Boisrond-Canal (Canalistes), while the other by one of the party's founders, Boyer-Bazelais (Bazelaisistes). Despite this fragmentation, the Liberals continued to resist National Party rule under Lysius Salomon, culminating into the Liberal Insurrection of 1883, during which Boyer-Bazelais was killed. From the presidency of Florvil Hyppolite onwards (1889—1896), the lines between the Liberals and Nationals became increasingly blurry and ultimately irrelevant.
Ultimately, there is no consensus among Haitian writers on whether or not the Liberal Party and the National Party truly survived the deaths of their respective leaders - Boyer-Bazelais in 1883 and Salomon in 1888.[a]
- ^ "Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies" (PDF). Federal Research Division, Library of Congress (9): 444.
- ^ "Racial equality and anticolonial solidarity: Anténor Firmin's global Haitian liberalism" (PDF). American Political Science Review.
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