In Britain in the period from the 1680s to the 1740s, and especially under the
Walpole ministry from 1730 to 1743, the
Country Party was a coalition of
Tories and disaffected
Whigs. It was a movement rather than an organised party and had no formal structure or leaders. It claimed to be a nonpartisan force fighting for the nation's interest—the whole "country"—against the self-interested actions of the
Court Party, that is the politicians in power in London. Country men believed the Court Party was corrupting Britain by using
patronage to buy support and was threatening English and Scottish liberties and the proper balance of authority by shifting power from Parliament to the
prime minister. It sought to constrain the court by opposing
standing armies, calling for annual elections to Parliament (instead of the seven-year term in effect), and wanted to fix power in the hands of the
landed gentry rather than the royal officials, urban merchants or bankers. It opposed any practices it saw as
corruption.
The Country Party attracted a number of influential writers (such as
Jonathan Swift,
Samuel Johnson, and
Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun) and political theorists. The ideology of the party faded away in England but became a powerful force in the
American colonies, where its tracts strongly motivated the
Patriots to oppose what the Country Party had cast as British monarchical tyranny and to develop a powerful political philosophy of
republicanism in the United States.
[1][2][3]
Historically, the name "Country Party" was used by what became the Whig Party itself in its initial stages, when headed by the
Earl of Shaftesbury during the
Exclusion Crisis of 1679-1681. Then, the term "
whiggamor", shortened to "Whig", started being applied to the party – first as a pejorative term, then adopted and taken up by the party itself. The name "Country Party" was thus discarded – to be taken up later by opponents of the Whig Party itself, once it had come to dominate British politics following the
Glorious Revolution.
www.hilltimes.com
