World's Smallest Political Platform

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The World's Smallest Political Platform (also referred to as the WSPP), is a platform or manifesto written for use by libertarian political parties.

1 Content of the WSPP
2 Background of the WSPP
3 Organizational use of the WSPP
4 Notes

[edit] Content of the WSPP

The WSPP reads:

"The [insert name] Party supports reducing the size, scope and power of government at all levels and on all issues, and opposes increasing the size, scope and power of government at any level, for any purpose."

[edit] Background of the WSPP

The WSPP was written by political activist Thomas L. Knapp [1], who released it [2] under a Creative Commons license for commercial or non-commercial use, with attribution and without modification.

It was written during the period immediately preceding the Libertarian Party's 2006 national convention as a "model platform" for possible adoption by that party, and was intended to address two internal LP disputes:

The dispute between "purist" and "reformer" factions over whether the party should take an "abolitionist" (broadly defined by many libertarians to include ending many political impositions, rather than only chattel slavery) or "incrementalist" approach to public policy issues; and

A related dispute over whether the party's platform should be a short, "directional" statement (with specific public policy positions contained in a short-term "program") or a longer document incorporating the party's specific public goals.

The WSPP is written to form such that a party adopting it may (while remaining in accordance with it) take either an "abolitionist" or "incrementalist" approach -- or a mix of the two -- but not an approach which requires compromise, or trading off of "steps in the wrong direction" for other "steps in the right direction."

The WSPP is also written to require a programmatic approach to specific issues, as the platform itself is unmodifiable under the terms of its author's license.