Atlas / Organisations / Free Democratic Party
Free Democratic Party
FDP · 1948– · Germany · Liberal · Electoral party · coding confidence high
Each axis runs from −10 to +10, with zero a genuine mixed or balanced position rather than an absence of opinion. A score describes a stated position and a governing record; it is not a judgement of merit. What each score means →
Core principles
Economic freedom, civil liberties, digitalisation, fiscal rules, individual responsibility.
Economic model
Tax cuts, deregulation, debt brake, private pension provision, opposition to subsidies.
Organisation of powers
Constitutional rights, data protection, opposition to surveillance.
Reading note
Economically far right and culturally liberal — the diagonal that one-dimensional coverage always describes incorrectly.
Check a claim about Free Democratic Party. The interactive atlas measures the distance between any two organisations across all six axes and shows which ones carry the disagreement.
Open in the atlasThe evidence for every score
All six cells are sourced. A rationale explains what the score is measuring and each artefact is something a third party can check without taking anyone's word for it.
EC · Economic organisation · scored +08
Included as a calibration point for the diagonal: far market economics with liberal cultural positions.
- Programme textThe constitutional debt brake and opposition to new borrowing are the party's defining recent commitments.
- Comparative datasetCHES places the party at the market end of lrecon and toward the libertarian end of galtan simultaneously.
CU · Social and cultural order · scored −03
Coded −3: consistently liberal on personal freedom questions.
- Documented act or statuteSupported cannabis legalisation, self-identification for gender registration and same-sex marriage.
AU · Organisation of power · scored −06
Coded −6: civil liberties and data protection are the party's oldest commitments.
- Documented act or statuteBrought the constitutional challenge that struck down blanket telecommunications data retention in 2010.
SC · Scale of decision · scored 00
Coded at zero: federalist domestically and pro-European.
- Programme textSupports the single market and opposes joint EU debt.
ID · Rule of membership · scored −03
Coded −3: supported the skilled immigration and citizenship liberalisation of 2023–24.
- Documented act or statuteBacked reducing the residence requirement for naturalisation and permitting dual nationality.
CH · Method and tempo · scored −06
Coded −6: coalition politics and constitutional method throughout.
- Documented act or statuteLeft the governing coalition in 2024 over the debt brake rather than suspend it.
Where it came from, and what came after
- is a continuation ofClassical Liberalism
The German liberal tradition, continuous through both republics.
Nearest organisations by measured distance
Straight-line separation across all six axes, out of a maximum of 49.0. Proximity means similarity of stated position, not endorsement and not resemblance in outcome.
- Classical Liberalism4.0
- Georgism5.3
- Ordoliberalism5.9
- Neoliberalism7.3
- Third Way7.5
- Democratic Progressive Party7.5
Countries
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Scores are revised on evidence, so a citation should carry the version it refers to. Version 4.3.1 is current; the revision log records every change.
Free to quote and reproduce with attribution. This is a synthesis rather than a peer-reviewed dataset — where an authoritative figure is needed, cite the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the Manifesto Project or V-Dem.