Liberal or Republican in charge (4)
I believe the answer is:
free
'liberal' is the definition.
(I know that liberal can be written as free)
'republican in charge' is the wordplay.
'republican' becomes 'r' (abbreviation).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'charge' becomes 'fee' (fee is a kind of charge).
'r' going into 'fee' is 'FREE'.
'or' is the link.
(Other definitions for free that I've seen before include "Out of bondage" , "As cheap as can be!" , "Not confined" , "Untie" , "Not busy" .)