Whig

1. A member of an 18th- and 19th-century British political party that was opposed to the Tories.
2. A supporter of the war against England during the American Revolution.
3. A 19th-century American political party formed to oppose the Democratic Party and favoring high tariffs and a loose interpretation of the Constitution.

[Probably short for Whiggamore, a member of a body of 17th-century Scottish Presbyterian rebels.]

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In British usage, originally a Scottish Presbyterian opponent of Anglican government; subsequently applied 1679 to those who opposed the succession of the Catholic James II to the throne (see Locke) and thence to those who supported the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1689. They were in government for most of the eighteenth century, in opposition for most of the period following the French Revolution, and in government again after the 1832 Reform Act. In the nineteenth century the word was partly superseded by ‘Liberal’ but retained to denote the right-wing, aristocratic faction of liberalism. Most of its members joined the Tories in or after 1886.

In US usage, member of a party opposing the Democrats between 1834 and 1856; the name was chosen deliberately for its echoes of English resistance to the executive.

The Whigs were one of the two main political parties in Britain between the later 17th and mid-19th cents. The term, which derived from ‘whiggamore’, the name by which the Scots covenanters had been derogatorily known, was first used by the Tories during the Exclusion crisis to brand the opponents of James, duke of York. Whiggery thus began as a distinctly oppositional and populist ideology, which saw political authority stemming from the people, a ‘contract’ existing between them and their king, whom they might resist if he overrode their interests. Early Whig principles played a key part in shaping the 1689 revolution settlement. As firm supporters of the Hanoverian succession the Whigs presided over George I's accession in 1714 and afterwards engineered the long-term proscription of their Tory rivals. The resulting ‘Whig oligarchy’ achieved a hitherto unseen stability in political life over the next few decades, with power concentrated in the hands of the great Whig families.

By the 1760s all politicians regarded themselves loosely as Whigs, but the term was consciously appropriated and used by the remnants of the old corps who had regrouped as an aristocratic country party led by Rockingham. Their consciousness as a ‘party’ was promoted by Burke in the 1770s and 1780s, with economical reform and the reduction of the power of the crown essential to their evolving ideology. The political crisis at the end of the American war brought them briefly to office until Rockingham's sudden death in July 1782. The Rockingham Whigs, now led by the duke of Portland and Charles James Fox, split in 1794 over their reaction to the French Revolution, with ‘conservative’ Whigs under Portland joining Pitt's administration, and the Foxites remaining in opposition. The latter kept alive the name of Whig, associating it with political, religious, and social reform. The mid-19th cent. saw Whiggery largely subsumed into liberalism, and the Whig label disappeared from political vocabulary.

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Whig may refer to:

Contents 1 Parties and factions 1.1 In the United Kingdom 1.2 In the United States 1.3 Other 2 Music 3 Newspapers 4 Other uses 5 See also

Parties and factions

In the United Kingdom

• A faction of the Scottish Covenanters during the 17th-century Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and the original Whigs. (See also Whigg and Whiggamore Raid)
• Whig (British political party), one of two political parties in England and the United Kingdom from the 17th to 19th centuries
• Radical Whigs, a faction of British Whigs associated with the American Revolution
• Patriot Whigs or Patriot Party
• A nickname for the Liberal Party, a UK political party that succeeded that country's Whigs

In the United States

• Whig Party (United States), an American political party which operated from 1834-1856
• A nickname for Patriots, supporters of the American Revolution
• Modern Whig Party , a current minor American political party

Other

• True Whig Party, also known as the "Liberian Whig Party", Liberia's only legal political party from 1878 to 1980
• Confederate States Whig Party, a fictional political party created by alternate history author Harry Turtledove

Music

• The Whigs, a 2000s garage rock band
• The Afghan Whigs, a 1990s indie rock band

Newspapers

• Cecil Whig of Cecil County, Maryland, United States
• Kingston Whig Standard of Kingston, Ontario, Canada
• Knoxville Whig, of Knoxville, Tennessee, United States
• Quincy Herald-Whig of Quincy, Illinois, United States

Other uses

• American Whig-Cliosophic Society, also known as "Whig-Clio", a political, literary, and debating society at Princeton University
• White House Iraq Group, also known as the White House Information Group
• Whiggish historiography, a theoretical approach among historians

See also

• Wig (disambiguation)
• Tory

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - populær betegnelse for gammelt liberalt engelsk parti

Nederlands (Dutch)
lid liberale partij (tegenover de Tories), voorstander van onafhankelijkheid in de Amerikaanse Revolutie, lid van de voorloper van de Amerikaanse Republikeinse partij

Français (French)
n. - (Pol, Hist) Whig
adj. - (Pol, Hist) whig

Deutsch (German)
n. - Whig
adj. - Whig-

Ελληνική (Greek)
n., -
adj. - (ιστ.) (Βρετ.) Ουίγος

Italiano (Italian)
liberale

Português (Portuguese)
n. - membro (m) de um partido político inglês favorável ao progresso

Русский (Russian)
виг, либерал, ханжа, нудный человек, относящийся к вигам, либеральный

Español (Spanish)
n. - miembro del Partido Liberal
adj. - liberal

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - anhängare till Whig-partiet, liberal
adj. - whig-, liberal

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
辉格党

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 輝格黨

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 휘그당원, 휘그당

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - ホイッグ党員, ホイッグ党, 独立派

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) الهويغي أي عضو في حزب بريطاني, راديكالي أي أحد أفراد حزب الأحرار, أمريكي مؤيد للثروة على إنكلترا, عضو في حزب أميركي (صفه) هويغي‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮וויג - איש המפלגה הליברלית הבריטית במאה ה-91, תומך במהפכה האמריקאית, חבר במפלגה אמריקאית במאה ה-91 שהוחלפה ע"י הרפובליקנית‬

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