Political parties of the Kryfona Kingdom

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Political parties in the Kryfona Kingdom are categorized into two broad groups: federal parties, and non-federal parties (also known as minor parties). Although the Kryfona Constitution does not explicitly lay out the idea of political parties and even now includes no provisions regarding the founding and maintenance of political organizations or parties, the first political parties were founded almost immediately after the creation of the Kryfonsparliszaiye, the Kingdom's elected legislative body. The first major party to be founded was the Kryfona Royalist Party, which was established in 1729 and swept the first series of parliamentary elections; its counterpart in the Kryfona Loyalist Party was founded in 1733, and since the 1735 parliamentary elections all parliamentary elections have been contested by 2 or more parties.

Today, there are six major political parties in the Kryfona Kingdom: the aforementioned KRP and KLP, the Yaraan Kryfon's Movement, the United Kryfona Party, the Pazem Tuszkeya, and the Aryela Party. These six parties constitute the federal parties of the Kingdom; by law, there can only be a certain number of federal parties at any given time, and only these parties can contest Kryfonsparliszaiye elections. Non-federal parties, of which there are over a hundred, can contest all elections below the federal level and have traditionally dominated provincial legislatures. While most minor parties are small, and exert little or no influence over the direction of the province or provinces they stand in, some of the larger current non-federal parties, such as the Progressive Party, are much larger and theoretically eligible for federal party consideration.

History

Because of its history as an absolute monarchy prior to the establishment of the Kryfonsparliszaiye, the Kryfona Constitution wholly lacks any provisions on the subject of political parties; there are, after all, none in an absolute monarchy. Nevertheless, ideologically-based politics were well cemented into the government long before the establishment of the Kryfonsparliszaiye, and it was not unusual for the cabinets of monarchs to reflect a given political ideology. From this, the first political organizations–at first informally, and later formally–arose, and eventually morphed into the political party system that is exhibited by the Kryfona Kingdom today.

Proto-party system: 1721-1735

The predecessor to the original party system of the Kryfona Kingdom took form out of the political scandal that resulted in the resignation of Yunjaqvi Cizoqwi-Nizli, and the subsequent creation of the cabinets of Pyaviadin Przeoniwaltizeqi and his directly-appointed successor Yerubanjeh Przeoniwaltizeqi. Cizoqwi-Nizli, a noted advocate for reducing the power of the crown, had unknowingly surrounded himself with staunch crown supporters when he formed his cabinet, P. Prze being the most significant among them. Subsequently, the ideologies of Cizoqwi-Nizli and the majority of his cabinet came into massive conflict that ultimately became a political power crisis. While on paper, Cizoqwi-Nizli had more power in the situation, unbeknownst to him, P. Prze had colluded with the majority of the cabinet and established a secret cabal of royalists who wished to undermine his rule. These "royalists" would form the basis of P. Prze's own cabinet, as well as the cabinet of Y. Prze, and the establishment of the cabal essentially kicked off the formation of a political party system in the Kingdom.

In late 1720, the conflict between Cizoqwi-Nizli and his cabinet came to a head, with P. Prze threatening to resign and take most of Cizoqwi-Nizli's cabinet with him unless the latter renounced his ties to what would eventually become loyalism. Cizoqwi-Nizli resisted, and later refused to cater to P. Prze's whims; P. Prze responded in kind by handing in a resignation to Cizoqwi-Nizli on 22 January, 1721, and most of his cabal followed.[1] Cizoqwi-Nizli refused to accept the resignations, calling P. Prze "disingenuous"[2] and accusing him of trying to "undermine the monarchy."[3] But in spite of the public's general support of the monarchy, Cizoqwi-Nizli had great difficulty controlling the situation, and P. Prze decried Cizoqwi-Nizli as a "corrupt politician who ... ought to resign."[4] P. Prze's cabal agreed, naturally, and starting in February of 1721 they began to leak information in an effort to undermine Cizoqwi-Nizli. The leaking was obvious, of course; but that did not matter, and gradually the public began to support P. Prze and not Cizoqwi-Nizli. Within two months, Cizoqwi-Nizli found himself fighting a losing battle and, apparently resigning to the inevitable, announced his resignation effective 1 May, 1721. Cizoqwi-Nizli then handed the reins over to P. Prze, who became king officially on 4 May.

With the Prze cabal now in control, P. Prze ushered in a "royalist" government, and established the foundation of what would eventually become the Kryfona Royalist Party. Most of his cabal was quickly appointed to government positions, wherein they established what is typically considered the first royalist government, although the Kryfona Royalist Party was not yet established itself.

First Party System: 1735-1813

Victories by party system[note 1]
Party System Party A Party B
First 14 0
Second 4 5
Third 0 6
Fourth 7 0
Fifth 4 2
Sixth 3 3

Main article: First Party System

The first Kryfona parliamentary election, which occurred in 1729, was contested by only one party: the Kryfona Royalist Party. This first election is something of an anomaly, however; although the Kryfona Royalist Party was an officially royalist party, a number of the MPs who were elected in 1729 were far more loyalist than royalist, and subsequently in 1735 these MPs became members of the Kryfona Loyalist Party. The first true elections, in 1735, are typically considered to be the beginning of the First Party System, which saw the royalists dominate, winning 14 straight Kryfonsparliszaiye elections from 1729 to 1807. Despite this, the royalists lost seats in 8 out of these 14 elections.

During this period, the early alignments of the parties were established; royalists of the First Party System tended to support the monarchy heavily, with a lesser emphasis on economic and social policy. In the latter half of the 1700s, the Kryfona Royalist Party also adopted a strong platform of anti-secessionism, particularly towards what at the time was the Yaraan Autonomous Province. In stark contrast, the early Kryfona Loyalists were supportive of the government, but not the monarch per se, and established progressivism as a political force in the Kingdom for the first time.

Dominant social issues of the time included the Yaraan and Tuszkean questions, the Kryfonic Industrial Revolution which was then taking shape, political relations with the Arieles Kingdom, and how to navigate the democratic processes in the wake of the establishment of the Kryfonsparliszaiye.

Second Party System: 1813-1861

Beginning in about 1801, a gradual shift in the political strength of both the KRP and KLP began to take shape, and with it shifted their policies. The elections of 1801 and 1807 were hotly contested, and both decided by one seat. The policies put forward by the incumbent-KRP going into the year 1801 had backfired precipitously when the Yaraan Secession Crisis broke out in 1802, and although they were able to hang on to political power in 1807, the KLP established itself as being against the ideals that had gotten the Kingdom into the issue. Subsequently, the party shifted to the left, becoming a more progressive party on the whole but in particular establishing itself as pan-gryphon. In contrast, the KRP, having been burned by the war effort, came out against Yaraan integration and slowly moved to the right. Both parties became less based around the monarchy, and by the start of the Second Party System in 1813, had become largely independent of their original political ideologies of royalism and loyalism.

The victory of the loyalists in the 1813 elections is generally considered to be the end of the First Party System, and the beginning of the Second Party System. In the 84 prior years to 1813, the loyalists had not won a single parliamentary election; during the Second Party System, they won 5 of the 9 held. Helped by the rise of progressivism in the Kingdom and the failures of the royalist government in the Yaraan Secession Crisis, the Second Party System had a great deal of parity, and marked the only time until the rise of the Fifth Party System some eighty years after the 1860s that one party was not extremely dominant.

Politics in the Kryfona Kingdom generally shifted to the left during the Second Party System, mostly because of the explosion of the Kryfonic Industrial Revolution. During the Second Party System, workers rights, industrial regulation, economic and socioeconomic policy, and the fights for living wages and union rights became the major policy points, although in the later stages of the System foreign policy also came to a head. It was during this period that some of the oldest policy positions for both the KRP and KLP were established. For the KRP, defense spending and border security became keystone issues; conversely, the KLP first established its positions on the rights of workers and the need for a minimum wage. Broadly speaking, politics on the whole in the Kingdom shifted left during the Second Party System.

Under the Second Party System, many of the historical parties of the Kryfona Kingdom were founded, most notably the Kryfona Loyalist-Royalist Party which thrived as a unified ticket in a number of provinces before dying out in the early 1900s. To a lesser extent, the Second Party System was kind to the Anti-Aryela Unified Front, an anti-Arieles political party which exploded in popularity during the Majszyx War in the 1830s, and just as quickly collapsed in popularity upon its conclusion in 1850.

Third Party System: 1861-1903

Debate over what is now considered the Third Party System began in earnest in 1943, and officially it was canonized as a Party System in 1954. The transition between the Second Party System and the Third Party system was subtle, and of all the Party Systems the Third is by far the most similar to its predecessor. The parties by and large did not change during this period, with exception given to a brief splinter in the Royalists between the vehemently nationalistic, proto-Impurist wing of the party and the traditionally conservative wing of the party, which eschewed the Impurists generally. Largely, the distinction between the Third Party System and the Second comes in the rise and reform of economics and labor in the Kingdom, the subject of LGBT rights, and the domination of the radical- and far-left wing during the period.

Like with the Second Party System, politics were generally left-wing during this period, although in provinces such as Azsaeh this was not strictly the case. Nationally, however, the Kryfonsparliszaiye was dominated between 1861 and 1903 by the Loyalists, who won every election and were considered the 'voice of the unheard' in the period. Royalists nonetheless retained significant power in the Kingdom, and they controlled a fair number of the provincial legislatures; however, they did not return to power across the Kingdom until the 1903, 1906, and 1909 election cycles.

Labor disputes in this period were also common, giving rise to the Summers of Hell in which repeated labor striking and rioting required the intervention of the federal government and caused significant turmoil within the Kingdom. The Summers of Hell are generally considered to have fallen between the years 1871 and 1876, although similar widespread disputes also broke out in 1881, 1884, and 1885, and were responsible for the passing of the first comprehensive labor laws in the Kingdom. During the tail end of the Third Party System, particularly between 1890 and 1900, LGBT rights also became a significant issue, and as a consequence same-sex marriages were legalized by the Marriage Amendment in 1900.

Fourth Party System: 1903-1945

Around 1895, the Kryfona Royalist Party began the first stages of a shift to the left when the Kryfonist wing of the party began to amass power and influence within its ranks. The Kryfonists were not leftists, nor were they left-wing; however, compared to the traditionalists of the party, they may as well have been. Regardless, the Kryfonists effectively ran the party in all-but-name by the turn of the century, and after the reestablishment of the monarchy in 1902, controlled all but the actual lead position of the party. This shift would become codified after the 1903 elections (in which the Royalists regained power), when Rauva Garizin took control of the party. In comparison, the Kryfona Loyalist Party essentially stayed the course, undergoing no real shift from its Third Party System position.

The Fourth Party System is generally considered to have begun with the 1903 elections–when the Royalists regained power and subsequently held on to it until 1945–although the party shift for the Royalists was not firm until 1904. In any case, the Royalists established themselves as a party for the moderate in stark contrast to the clearly-left-wing Loyalists of the time, and as a result managed to amass a loose but powerful coalition of traditionalist moderates and conservatives, the far-right, and the middle-to-upper-class worker. The pell-mell nature of this coalition was evident in how it performed: in only two elections between 1903 and 1939 did the party gain seats. However, the coalition was enough to push the party over the edge, and the Loyalists never won an election during the period. Nonetheless, the left-wing remained a powerful force, and the Loyalists often defeated the agenda of the Royalists when push came to shove. Likewise at the provincial level the Royalists alternated considerably between strength and weakness–only after 1951 did they stabilize in many provinces. Overall, however, the first half of the decade belonged to the Royalists, and they were the clear winners of the Fourth Party System.

The YKM, which was the beneficiary of the first amendment to the Majority Party Act in 1903, played a significant role in the outcome of the Fourth Party System. Yaraa was a Loyalist stronghold prior to the establishment of the YKM, but once the YKM was established voters in the province fled the Loyalists en masse, depriving them of a significant source of Kryfonsparliszaiye seats. Yaraa in fact was often the difference between the Royalists and the Loyalists; had the YKM not been in a place to win seats in the province, it is likely that the Loyalists would have won with a minority or majority almost every election between 1903 and 1939, as they had between 1861 and 1903. Instead, the YKM often found itself a part of the opposition, and it would not be until 1945 that the party even tasted government for itself.

The defining issues of the Fourth Party System were usually societal in nature, with agriculture to a lesser extent playing a role. During the very early and very late portions of the System, sovereignty issues came to a head, and the 1933 and 1939 elections were held with the looming issues of the Impurist Movement and the Yaraan and Tuszkean responses to them. Partly because of this, neither Yaraa nor Reriskzeiy broke for the Royalists (despite much focus on them), and to date Royalists have been almost wholly unsuccessful at the federal level in both. Also during the Fourth Party System, nationalism and national healing were heavy on the public conscience, and as a consequence of this many of the modern nationalistic or provincialistic movements that dot the Kingdom were formed in this period.

Fifth Party System: 1945-1981

With looming crises in the domestic sphere, and their then-current political positioning becoming less and less powerful, the two big parties of the Kryfonsparliszaiye began to undergo a realignment around the time of the 1939 elections. The Loyalists, formerly the party of the radical-left, the poor and urban, and the "ignored and condemned," now positioned themselves as the party of the working class, city-dwellers, and the minorities of the Kingdom, while the Royalists went about establishing a coalition of agricultural and rural workers, traditionalist moderates, and typical conservatives. The effects of this sudden but subtle realignment first appeared in the 1942 local elections, wherein the Loyalists routed the Royalists in Iyarzalhne and Tauba, and ran up the score on them in Elesaqa, Rsza, and parts of Peiretsaja. Nonetheless, the Royalists stayed the course, and in 1945 put forward a platform completing their realignment. The Loyalists, slightly behind, transitioned essentially by 1945, but not completely until 1947.

The 1945 elections were the first under the Fifth Party System of the Kryfona Kingdom and the first since the 1897 elections in which the Royalists lost their power. Despite performing exceedingly well in many of their strong seats, the Royalists were decisively beaten or pushed to their limit in many of the Southwestern seats, where their platform was unpopular. Three seats fell to the Loyalists, followed by three more in the 1951 elections when a renewed effort to win the Southwest collapsed. In both instances, the KLP took their chances with the Yaraan Kryfon's Movement and established what became known as the YKM-KLP pact. The pact ruled for twelve years before falling out of power.

Despite the efforts of the YKM-KLP pact to hold power, the KRP returned to power in 1957 when it won back virtually all of the seats in the Southwest it had lost. A "second" realignment in which the KRP abandoned its coalition of rural and conservative voters in favor of a Nineteen Province strategy took place under Hiergalyz Magale in 1955, to immediate success. After the collapse of the YKM-KLP pact, the KRP and KLP joined into an informal pact known as the KRP-KLP pact in which the parties were loosely co-aligned but would act independently of one another. The pact would continue until the end of the Fifth Party System, and the KRP would win every election from 1957 onwards in the System.

There was one final act of chicanery, however, in the Fifth Party System. With the second amendment of the Majority Party Act of 1839 in 1962, two new political parties in the form of the Pazem Tuszkeya and the United Kryfona Party burst into the federal scene, making an impact in the 1963 elections by sweeping the entirety of Tuszke and the entirety of the Southwest, respectively. The Loyalists were decisively shattered in both regions by the new parties, and never returned to political form in either place (although Loyalists at one point limited the Pazem to 4 seats). This likely hastened the demise of the Fifth Party System.

Sixth Party System: 1981-present

Main article: Sixth Party System

The Sixth Party System is generally considered to have begun with the introduction of the Aryela Party to the scene of Kryfona politics in 1981. Defined early on by the conclusion of the Tuszkean and Yaraan political revolutions, and by the effective defeat of the Eporisya Malosom, the Sixth Party System has largely been based in social and economic policies, rather than national and political policies. In the former half of the Sixth Party System, the Kryfona Royalist Party continued its dominance and its political alliance with the loyalists; however, a string of poor performances, most notably in 1993 and 1999 brought the United Kryfona Party into the fray for power. In 1999, the two parties ended with exactly 21 seats, leading to a split government in which the two parties alternated power. This agreement lasted until 2005, when the UKP won an outright plurality of seats and became the largest party in the Kryfonsparliszaiye.

Politically, the Sixth Party Era has been defined by the collapse of the two status-quo parties of the KRP and KLP, and the rise of the newer parties such as the Pazem Tuszkeya, UKP, and Aryela Party. In the six elections since the start of the Sixth Party System, the KRP has gained seats in only one; the KLP has gained seats in 0. Conversely, the UKP has posted gains in every election of the System. The Pazem Tuszkeya and the YKM, while less consistent, have also generally seen increases in their seat totals since the start of the Sixth Party System.

Seventh Party System?

Some Kryfona political historians have argued that the rise of the UKP into the largest party in the Kryfona Kingdom, as well as the shift from the historically major parties to comparatively newer parties, constitutes the existence of a Seventh Party System. Dates for the establishment of the Seventh Party System range from 1999 to as late as 2011; although there is a broad consensus that the 2005 elections played a pivotal role in this theoretical Seventh Party System.

Proponents of the Seventh Party System argue that, although there has not been a marked shift in the political views of the parties themselves, this has been made up for by the voting patterns of the modern Kryfona Kingdom. These voting patterns, it is said, have gradually shifted the power balance between the parties from the parties of the old, status quo to the parties of the new which challenge the status quo. This view is supported by a number of prominent Kryfona political historians, including Zasri Meiddem, who wrote in 2006 that:

It’s sometimes very easy to forget politics on the whole have changed in the Kryfona Kingdom. Just 13 years ago, it was seen as a longshot by most pundits that the United Kryfona Party would ever win a plurality of the seats in the Kryfonsparliszaiye. Today, they are the largest party in the Kryfonsparliszaiye and perhaps even the entire Kryfona Kingdom, and they control the future. Yet the policies of the major parties themselves have hardly changed since 1993… so what did? The answer is simple: voting patterns. In many respects, these new voting patterns constitute a new party system–the Seventh Party System. It is a system in which the voters have spoken, and they have chosen fiscal conservatism and social liberalism as the way forward.[5]

Nonetheless, there are a large number of critics to the Seventh Party System. In particular, it is often brought up that voter preferences alone do not constitute a change in party system; rather, it indicates that voters themselves are shifting while the parties are not, or, in other words, that it is no a party shift at all. The short time frame that a theoretical Seventh Party System would give the Sixth Party system is also criticized often as unrealistic, as such a massive event as a Party System shift would not happen in such a short time frame.

Major political parties

There are currently six major political parties in the Kryfona Kingdom, which constitute the federal parties of the Kingdom. Historically, this number has been lower. Between 1735 and 1903, only the Kryfona Royalist Party and the Kryfona Loyalist Party could legally contest elections at the federal level; from 1903 to 1963 this expanded to include the Yaraan Kryfon's Movement; from 1963 to 1981 the United Kryfona Party and Pazem Tuszkeya were included; and finally in 1981 the Aryela Party became the last party to ascend to the federal level. However, despite a century of multi-party democracy, it was not until 1947 that a party besides the major two was a part of the government; it was not until 1999 that a party besides the major two governed in any way; and it was not until 2005 that a party besides the major two won an election.

Kryfona Royalist Party

Main article: Kryfona Royalist Party

The Kryfona Royalist Party is the oldest extant party in the Kingdom, having been established in 1729 with the introduction of democracy to the Kryfona Kingdom. It is one of the two historical major parties of the Kingdom, and the oldest political party in the world.

The Kryfona Royalists have changed significantly in political orientation since the party's founding, although consistently they have been a right-wing party. The early Kryfona Royalists were heavily based in the royalty of the Kingdom (the party was in fact founded and originally run by King Yerubanjeh Przeoniwaltizeqi); however they have gradually become less tied to the royalty with time. Owing to the politics of the Kingdom at the time, the early party subscribed to the openly-racist Oszej ideology–this was effectively eliminated by the 1840s, however. Since around 1840, the party has subscribed to the traditionally conservative Neyuoszej, although wings of the party as late as 1950 had wings that subscribed to Oszej, Impurism, and other "far-right" ideologies. The party has generally bounced between being supported by rural and agricultural workers and the urban working class throughout its history, and has often garnered the support of traditionalist moderates and conservatives.

The party has historically been and remains the most successful of the major parties, having won 32 of the 48 elections of the Kryfonsparliszaiye since the legislative body's creation in 1729. However, the party has lost a significant amount of support since 1963, and despite remaining very popular among conservative and right-wing voters, it has been challenged significantly by the UKP in both demographics.

Political strength in the Kryfonsparliszaiye

Political party strength in the Kryfona Kingdom
     Kryfona Royalist Party      Kryfona Loyalist Party      Loyalist Alliance      Yaraan Kryfon's Movement      Pazem Tuszkeya      United Kryfona Party      Aryela Party

Notes

  1. Using the listed time periods of 1735-1813, 1813-1861, 1861-1903, 1903-1945, 1945-1981, and 1981-present.

References