New Zealand National Party

The New Zealand National Party, shortened to National or the Nats, is a centre to centre-right political party in New Zealand. National has been characterised as a broad-tent party, with both liberal and conservative factions, though support for economic liberalism is prevalent. National describes itself as a liberal-conservative party, while taking influence from neoliberalism and classical liberalism.

Early History
The New Zealand National Party was founded on the 14th of May 1936 following a merger of the liberal, urban United Party and the conservative, rural Reform Party. From 1931 the United-Reform Coalition had governed New Zealand, but the effects of the Great Depression resulted in a severe loss to the New Zealand Labour Party in the 1935 general election. In order to better combat the popularity of the socialist Labour Party of Michael Joseph Savage, the United and Reform parties merged into one organisation that would represent the whole nation, rather than just the urban and rural bases of each respective party. National remained in opposition until the 1949 election, when Sidney Holland led the party to victory and governed for three terms. During the First National Government, Holland worked towards "the private ownership of production, distribution and exchange" but still retained the majority of the welfare state established by Labour. In 1951 the National government used harsh measures to end the Waterfront Dispute involving striking port workers, and lost the 1954 election after Holland resigned due to poor health.

National returned to power in 1960, with Keith Holyoake having defeated a single-term Labour government led by Walter Nash. The Second National Government would again last for 3 terms and during this period it relaxed compulsory unionism, abolished capital punishment for murder, committed troops to the Vietnam War, and re-established compulsory military training. Much like the previous National government, the 1972 election was lost when Holyoake resigned and his successor failed to win the confidence of the electorate. National would remain in opposition for just 3 years until Robert Muldoon defeated Bill Rowling in 1975, but quickly moved National away from is economically liberal roots. Muldoon implemented interventionist policies like "Think Big" and ensured that New Zealand's tightly regulated economy remained so, and even increased state control. His autocratic style of leadership eventually became unpopular, as did his imposition of wage, price and currency freezes to combat inflation. In 1984 Muldoon drunkenly called a snap election which he lost to David Lange, and in the period between the election and the entrance of the new government Muldoon caused a currency and constitutional crisis by refusing to devalue the New Zealand dollar.

Lange's Fourth Labour Government radically liberalised the New Zealand economy, and society, driven by the reforms of Finance Minister Roger Douglas. During the 1990 election, National Party leader Jim Bolger successfully campaigned on a promise of restoring "the Decent Society" and halting Labour's neoliberal reforms, but soon found that the state of government finances was in a far worse position than originally thought. In order to maintain a balanced budget, Finance Minister Ruth Richardson continued Douglas' reforms and made substantial cuts to social services. While Richardson was removed following the 1993 election, National continued to pursue market liberal policies and also held a referendum to reform the electoral system, promised by the previous Labour government. Change won and New Zealand used Mixed-Member Proportional representation for the first time in the 1996 election where National coalitioned with the populist New Zealand First party. Bolger was ousted as leader by Jenny Shipley in 1997, and after a period of instability with New Zealand First leaving the coalition, National lost the 1999 election to Helen Clark.

National returned to power in 2008 under the leadership of John Key, who brought the party towards the centre with comparatively liberal social policies and the promise of recovering the New Zealand economy in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis. John Key was an especially popular leader, being nicknamed "Teflon John" for his ability to avoid any scandals sticking to him. The Fifth National Government lowered personal and business income taxes to stimulate the economy, partially privatised a number of state energy companies and Air New Zealand, resolved a record number of Treaty of Waitangi claims, held a referendum on changing the New Zealand flag, and championed the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.