Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/654

 6i6 Readings in European History The parlia- mentary party, or left center. The radical democratic party. 3. The parliamentary liberal party, sometimes called the Whig, or left center, recruited from the middle class, de- manded not only control by the elective assembly but its supremacy over the sovereign, his ministers, and the aristo- cratic chamber. Its ideal was the parliamentary system, a ministry chosen from the party in majority in the lower house, governing in the prince's name, but according to the will of the elected representatives of the nation. It de- manded a constitution which recognized the superior rights or sovereignty of the people, political liberties (such as liberty of the press, holding public meetings, and forming associa- tions), and absolute religious liberty. ... It would admit only property owners to vote, but tended to lower the qual- ifications for the franchise in order to include in the voting body the lower middle class. 4. The democratic, or radical party, formed by students, workingmen, writers, and lawyers, demanded, according to the motto of the French Revolution, the sovereignty and political equality of the people. It added to the demands of the parliamentary party universal suffrage, remuneration of representatives, abolition of all political privileges of the wealthy classes, and separation of church and state. Its ideal was a purely representative, democratic, and prefera- bly republican government like that of the French Conven- tion, or even a direct government by the people, in which they should themselves make the constitution. In 18 15 this party, so far from being in power in any country, had not even the right to formulate its programme publicly, except in England, Sweden, and Norway. The two extreme parties, absolutist and democratic, held diametrically opposite conceptions of government and so- ciety. The absolutists wanted a society based on heredi- tary inequality. . . . They also demanded an established religion. The democrats admitted neither political, heredi- tary, nor ecclesiastical authority. A country might, however, pass from one of these ex- tremes to the other gradually, for the four parties formed a continuous gradation. The absolutist system became