World's Smallest Political Platform

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

Content of the WSPP

The WSPP (version 1.1.) reads:

"[Name of organization] supports reducing the size, scope and power of government at all levels and on all issues, and opposes increasing the size, scope or power of government at any level or for any purpose."

Background of the WSPP

The WSPP was written in 2006 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. Knapp subsequently released a slightly revised version 3 in August of 2007 under a similar license, and created an offical site 4 for promotion and maintenance of the WSPP.

The WSPP was written during the period immediately preceding the Libertarian Party's 2006 national convention as a "model platform" for possible adoption by that party 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.

Organizational use of the WSPP

The WSPP (original version) is currently in use by one political organization, the Boston Tea Party.