Centrists Assemble!

[ZuWo]

The way the Liberal Party appears to be constructed makes it likely that it is going to become a big-tent party, which draws from a sizable chunk of the JCP, partly from the RPP and from independents. This is not condemnable per se, of course, because everyone is free to assemble in the party of his choice. Indeed, I easily see the Liberal Party ending up with 30+ members in a very short period of time, which will in turn encourage other smaller parties to merge and become big-tent parties as well in order to have a better shot at elections.

It seems that the development towards a two- or three-party system in the long term is unavoidable, and I predict we will find ourselves in a similar situation as today in less than a year.

[ZuWo]

I echo Tmth's and afleitch's sentiments; the dissolution of the old parties is not even fully completed, and there are already new mergers going on, resulting in the formation of new and large big-tent rather than smaller but ideologically more clearly defined parties. This is why I believe we're heading to a future that will closely resemble the current situation. Mergers in one politial group will sooner or later lead to mergers in the other political groups due to reasons of competitiveness.

[ZuWo]

I echo Tmth's and afleitch's sentiments; the dissolution of the old parties is not even fully completed, and there are already new mergers going on, resulting in the formation of new and large big-tent rather than smaller but ideologically more clearly defined parties. This is why I believe we're heading to a future that will closely resemble the current situation. Mergers in one politial group will sooner or later lead to mergers in the other political groups due to reasons of competitiveness.

I don't see Liberals as a big-tent party.

Let me see ... you have leftists, centrists, libertarians, and even a rightist. Seems pretty big-tent.

[ZuWo]

I echo Tmth's and afleitch's sentiments; the dissolution of the old parties is not even fully completed, and there are already new mergers going on, resulting in the formation of new and large big-tent rather than smaller but ideologically more clearly defined parties. This is why I believe we're heading to a future that will closely resemble the current situation. Mergers in one politial group will sooner or later lead to mergers in the other political groups due to reasons of competitiveness.

I don't see Liberals as a big-tent party.

Let me see ... you have leftists, centrists, libertarians, and even a rightist. Seems pretty big-tent.

I don't think we've got any bona fide leftists, and one libertarian does not a big tent make, IMO...

Scott, Napoleon, you - even though you may come across as relatively moderate, I guess you are still considered leftists by many. Dallasfan, Jbrase; two libertarians, IMO.

But what I said is not directed at the Liberal Party alone, and it's not about blaming anyone for anything. What I observed is that already now, at this early stage of this "new" Atlasian era, people discuss the idea of mergers and loosely defined parties - this makes me believe that not much is going to change.

[ZuWo]

Verin will probably agree: I'd caution the Liberals about becoming too much of a big-tent party without much of a clear ideology. Those parties don't tend to last long. That can sort of work in a two-party system roughly divided between left and right like the JCP-RPP (or the Democrats and Republicans in real life), but in a multi-party system? That kind of thing doesn't have the best track record.

It'd be fun if I could divide the parties to my liking.

I'd have a social democratic party, a center-left liberal party, a center-right party like Afleitch is proposing here, a social conservative party, and maybe a libertarian party as well.

I agree with the second bit. I would also love to see such a multi-party system emerge.

Regarding the first half of your post: You may be right. Maybe the formation of a big-tent party in this new environment will not cause other parties to merge as I imagine it could happen, but instead lead to a split within the big-tent party in question. Only time will tell.