Democratic Party (Atlantica)
Democratic Party | |
|---|---|
| File:Lýðræðislegtflokkurinn.png | |
| Leader | Þeba Ævarsdóttir |
| Founded | 19 December, 1919 |
| Headquarters | Brown House, Stórkostlegurborg, Atlantica |
| Student wing | Democratic Students |
| Youth wing | Democratic Youth |
| Ideology | Gaullism Nationalism Dirigisme Right-wing populism Internal Factions: Social Credit |
| Political position | Fiscal: Centre Social: Centre-right to Right-wing |
| National affiliation | Moderate Alliance |
| International affiliation | League of Esquarian Nationalists |
| Colors | Brown |
| Althing | 22 / 300 |
| Website | |
| http://www.lýðræðislegtflokkurinn.al | |
The Democratic Party (Atlantican: Lýðræðislegtflokkurinn) is a Gaulist political party in Atlantica, advocating for nationalism and Dirigisme, and strict opposition to immigration. Before 1968, the Democratic Party was known as the Social Credit Party and strongly advocated for social credit as pioneered in Oteki and was semi fascistic and often times anti-semitic. However, this semi-fascism and anti-semitism was thoroughly discredited after the Second Great War and the party essentially abandoned these policies and throughout the 1940s and 1950s gradually abandoned the ideology of social credit in favour of Gaullism, especially nationalism and dirigisme. As the Social Credit Party, the party became the largest right-wing party in the 1920s and one of the two largest parties in Atlantican politics, and despite not participating in government in the 1920s and 1930s, the party had a major influence on the policies of Socialist Lawspeaker of the Althing Gunnar Ólafursson, and there is a consensus among historians that the Social Creditors were the main drivers towards the nationalisation of all banking in Atlantica under the umbrella of the Bank of Atlantica (that exists to this day) and implementation of Atlantica's basic income, which exists to this day, whilst in 1965 the Social Credit Party became the senior partner in a coalition government with the once-major parties of the Blues and the Radicals and the Democrats helped make dirigisme a a key component of the Atlantican Model (and it continues to be a key component of the Atlantican Model to this day), as the Democrats used indicative planning to support the growth of Atlantica's tourism industry (and also supported the growth of Atlantica's petroleum industry by directing AtlanticaOil to open up massive new oil rigs and wells). However, in 1967 the Atlantican Federation of Labour called a general strike in protest of the Social Creditors closing down paper mills and replacing them with oil wells. In 1968 the Radicals once again became a major party in Atlantican politics, whilst support for the Social Creditors collapsed. The party's name was so tarnished that the Social Creditors changed their name to the Democrats, resulting in a minority faction moving to the Social Creditors, whilst the Democrats rebuilt their support and today are one of the four biggest political parties in Atlantican politics.
The Democrats are generally considered to be the most economically left-wing of Atlantica's right-wing political parties, though they are quite conservative (for ultra-liberal Atlantican standards, that is) on social issues. Today the Democrats are dominated by Gaullists.
The Democrats' main base comes from the lower middle-class, primarily attracted by the Democrats' strong opposition to immigration due to concerns about job competition and much of the elderly. This base has largely stayed the same throughout the Democrats' existence.