Radicalism (historical)

The term "Radical" (from the Latin radix meaning root) during the late 18th-century and early 19th-century identified proponents of democratic reform, in what subsequently became the parliamentary Radical Movement. Historically, Radicalism began in the United Kingdom with political support for a "radical reform" of the electoral system to widen the franchise. Some radicals sought republicanism, abolition of titles, redistribution of property and freedom of the press. In France in the nineteenth century, the Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party, initially identifying itself as a far-left party opposed to more right-wing parties (such as the Orléanists, the Legitimists and the Bonapartists), eventually became the most important party of the Third Republic (1871–1940). As historical Radicalism became absorbed in the development of political liberalism, in the later 19th century in both the United Kingdom and in continental Europe the term "Radical" came to denote a progressive liberal ideology.

Many European parties that are nowadays categorised in the group of social-liberal parties have a historical affinity with radicalism and may therefore be called "liberal-radical".

According to Encyclopædia Britannica the first use of the word "Radical" in a political sense is generally ascribed to the English Whig parliamentarian Charles James Fox. In 1797, Fox declared for a "radical reform" of the electoral system. This led to a general use of the term to identify all supporting the movement for parliamentary reform.

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