Politics of Gylias
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| This article is part of a series on the politics and government of Gylias |
The politics of Gylias take place in the framework of a semi-direct democracy, organised as a federal republic. The Constitution is based on the principle of self-government, while the six codes of law establish a civil law system. At the federal level, legislative power is exercised by the Gylian Parliament; executive power by the Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister; and the judiciary is independent, headed by the Court of Cassation and the Constitutional Court.
Gylias has followed an atypical path of democratic development in Tyran. It is a successor to the Free Territories, and has accordingly been strongly influenced by anarchism. There is a strong tradition of direct democracy, manifested in the use of communal assemblies and the system of popular initiative. The allocation of responsibilities between the different levels of government is based on the principle of subsidiarity. There is broad support among political parties for the Gylian consensus, which together with the direct democratic elements ensures a mostly cooperative political scene. A high number of parties is represented, leading to large coalition governments as a characteristic of Gylian politics.
Gylians have a high level of satisfaction with the political system, as measured by surveys. Gylias is regularly considered one of the least corrupt countries in the world by international organisations.
Constitution
The Constitution was created through a popular drafting process, along with the six codes, and was approved by referendum in 1961. It is one of the shortest constitutions in Tyran — only 40 articles in length — and preserved many of the institutions and foundations of the Free Territories, giving Gylian politics unique traits within the region.
Power is vested in the people of Gylias, with the state being established on a temporary basis. The division of powers favours local governance, with higher levels established for coordination and management purposes. The strong delimitations of administrative bodies' responsibilities and capacities means that in practice many officeholders are figureheads, who must rely on persuasion to gain support for their agenda.
The foundational principles of the Constitution include self-governance, equality of all Gylians, comprehensive human rights, common ownership of natural resources and the means of production, workers' self-management, and non-recognition of private property.
Direct democracy
Gylias' form of government is based on direct democracy functioning in parallel with complementary representative democracy. The main instrument of governance is communal assemblies, weekly meetings at a community level, selected partly by sortition, where deliberations take place and decisions are made.
Through the system of popular initiative, Gylians can submit any proposal to a referendum, including constitutional amendments. Referendums can be organised at a local, regional, or federal level. Referendums can also be called to repeal existing laws passed by a municipal, regional or federal legislature, or to recall elected officials.
Communal assemblies and referendums are subject to Gylias' compulsory voting laws. As a result, they benefit from a high level of voter turnout in general, allowing for a robust system of participatory democracy.
Cooperative democracy
Cooperative democracy is the term for additional forms of democracy at the local level, which augment both direct and representative democracy. Two main approaches to cooperative democracy are distinguished:
- Commissioning approach: the public participate in planning and decisionmaking with elected officeholders and the administrative agencies. The public thus has a commissioning role in developing local solutions and proposing new legislation. The commissioning approach includes local and regional advisory councils, formed of Gylians with the necessary competences, which advise governments on policy.
- Co-producing approach: the public are encouraged to take over the running of community centres and spaces, and engage in mutual aid and support groups. The co-producing approach places more of an emphasis on volunteering with support from governments, including incentives such as sectoral and time-based currencies.
Government
Governance in Gylias is non-hierarchical and based on subsidiarity. Any legislative or executive institutions above communal assemblies only exercise the responsibilities and capacities that are delegated to them. The majority of powers are concurrent powers, shared by all levels of governance.
All Gylian legislatures are popular legislatures, whose members serve part-time and have another occupation besides being a legislator. This measure was adopted to prevent accumulation of power by the legislatures at the expense of communal assemblies. The result has been the primacy of direct democracy in Gylian politics, with representative democracy being used for coordination and handling issues more complicated than running daily affairs.
Local government
Local government is based on municipalities. There are 3175 municipalities at present, which are in turn federated into 20 regions.
Legally, municipalities can assume any competence they wish, as long as it does not disrupt the constitutional foundation of Gylias. Regions are mostly responsible for local matters that require greater coordination and planning than municipalities can provide, and have an executive function, carrying out the implementation of policies made at the municipal or federal level.
Responsibilities assumed by municipal and regional governments include: culture, health, education, social services, policing, roads and transport, urban planning, housing, sanitation, emergency services, energy, public works, environmental protection, and civil registration. They are also responsible for local and regional currencies and the collection of local and regional taxes.
Generally, smaller municipalities govern themselves through direct democracy: residents can attend communal and extraordinary assemblies where they can vote on laws and other decisions. Municipalities where population makes it less feasible elect municipal councils to complement the work of communal assemblies. Cities can federate their municipal councils into a city council.
The majority of municipalities use a directorial system where the council collectively forms the government, and a professional manager is appointed to chair its meetings. Large cities have mayors who are elected separately and must work together with city councils and communal assemblies. Municipal government members, heading specific departments, are known as ediles, derived from the Latin aedile.
Administrative regions elect regional councils, as well as governors separately. Regional government members, heading specific departments, are known as prefects. The size of regional councils depends on population — the largest, Nerveiík-Iárus-Daláyk, elects 200 members; the smallest, Makarces, elects 60 members.
Federal government
The federal level is characterised by a separation of powers and more limited responsibilities, which are mainly advisory, coordinating, and management roles.
The legislative branch is headed by the Gylian Parliament. It is composed of the Chamber of Deputies, whose 500 members are elected from local circonscriptions, and the Senate, whose 300 members are chosen by sortition and presidential appointment. The Parliament is a popular legislature which plays a mainly deliberative and delegative role in Gylian politics. Deputies are subject to imperative mandates and recall from their constituents.
The executive branch is represented by the Cabinet of Gylias, headed by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is designated by the President to form a cabinet, which must have the confidence of the Parliament. Cabinets function collegially, with ministers having equal prominence and autonomy in carrying out their duties. The Prime Minister assembles the cabinet, establishes its direction, and consults with the people and local governments over decisions to be made and matters of national importance. The cabinet as a whole is subject to both individual ministerial responsibility and cabinet collective responsibility. It prepares preliminary resolutions and decisions for Parliament to consider.
The judicial branch is headed by two supreme courts: the Court of Cassation, which deals with all civil and penal cases, and the Constitutional Court, which deals with constitutional compliance and administrative cases. Both have 9 members, appointed for a single 9-year term by the President, on the advice of professional bodies.
The President occupies a distinct role outside of the three branches. They are defined constitutionally as "the main counselor and arbiter of the people" — in practice a head of state, but without acknowledgement of the state. The President has a mainly ceremonial figurehead role, and carries out representative and practical functions with the advice of the cabinet.
Political parties
Gylias has a rich party landscape. The profusion of parties makes majority government impossible, and coalition government the norm. Parties may confederate into electoral blocs based on ideology. The established electoral blocs have 5 member parties each, as Chamber of Deputies circonscriptions elect 5 members each.
Federal
At the federal level, there are currently 5 electoral blocs represented, as well as unaffiliated parties and independent members, commonly known as Non-inscrits.
Local
The political landscape at the municipal and regional level is different. Large electoral blocs are disadvantaged by comparison, whereas smaller parties — particularly the Urban Movement, People's Party for a Flourishing Nightlife, Free Land Party, and Independent Regional Alliance for Minorities — and independent politicians predominate.
Multiple residents' associations and localist parties exist at the municipal level, many of whom are essential to the formation of municipal governments.
Due to the Law on Electoral Representation of 1960 restricting parties to one candidate per circonscription, municipal and regional elections feature a number of independent candidates who use descriptions such as "Independent Urban Movement", "Independent Free Land", "Independent Nightlife", "Independent Democratic Forum" and so forth. These candidates, if elected, will caucus with the parties they have indicated they favour. The Constitutional Court has ruled that the practice is permissible only for non-inscrit parties at the local and regional level.
Each region has a regionalist party. These parties are customarily assigned a shade of purple as their colour. In addition to independent regionalists, regional parties can also enter into electoral alliances with electoral blocs, presenting up to 5 common candidates in a circonscription.
Nerveiík-Iárus-Daláyk is the sole region to have two regional parties: the NL runs candidates only on the Nerveiík Peninsula, and the CI only on Iárus and Daláyk islands.
Politicians
Gylias has a history of strong political involvement by ordinary people through popular movements. The dispersal of power, part-time legislatures, and focus on self-governance have produced a notable phenomenon: election candidates and elected officeholders who are eccentric yet capable, or simply come from outside politics, such as scientists, academics, qualified professionals, artists, sex workers, sportspersons, and others.
Notable examples of the phenomenon include poet Phaedra Metaxa, illusionist Sanai Ḑány, writers Virginia Gerstenfeld and Anaïs Nin, musician Hilda Wechsler, pornographic actresses Moana Pozzi and Ilona Stahler, historian Herta Schwamen, chemist Margaret Roberts, and scientist Dora Eðyn.
Elections
All Gylian elections use ranked voting: single transferable vote for legislatures, and instant-runoff voting for mayors, governors, and Presidents. All Gylians can vote if they are at least 15 years old and have a valid address; citizenship is not necessary. Voting is compulsory; turnout for elections and referendums is consistently high.
The Law on Electoral Representation of 1960 is the basis of Gylian election law. Each administrative level has its own independent electoral commission, and they are collectively federated into Elections Gylias.
Gylian parties are not allowed to submit more than one candidate for each circonscription. By-elections do not exist. In the event of a vacancy, the ballots of the election are re-examined, with the former candidate eliminated, and votes re-transferred. Vacancies thus automatically change the composition of a legislature.
Party political broadcasts
Political advertising on television or radio is illegal in Gylias. Instead, parties are allocated broadcast slots free of charge on broadcast channels, with a maximum length of 5 minutes. These slots are known as party political broadcasts (French: émissions des partis politiques), abbreviated "PPB" or "émpas".
The allocation of PPBs is determined by the National Broadcasting Office according to a formula, to not disadvantage small parties. PPBs with discriminatory, hateful, or anti-constitutional content are banned.
Civil service
Gylias has a permanent and politically neutral civil service, embodied in the administrative agencies, which independently carry out policies and decisions. Local government departments and federal ministries are comparatively smaller, and more focused on deliberation, negotiation, planning, and policy formulation.
Officeholders are not allowed to interfere with the functioning of the public service, a crime known as "ministerial reign".
Foreign relations
Gylian foreign policy is based on principles of non-alignment, neutrality, and multilateralism. The country is a member of the Common Sphere and Organization of Tyrannic Nations.
Gylias is active in international peace efforts and negotiations.
Political issues
The confluence of direct democracy and atypical influences on political development have shaped voting blocs and issues in Gylian politics. Social issues are generally absent among political divisions, as a result of the marginalisation and exclusion of social conservatism from mainstream politics. The main debates between opposing parties tend to revolve around economic and quality of life issues.
Notable divisions in Gylian politics include:
- Statism versus anarchism: The transition to a stateless society is commonly accepted as the ultimate goal of the Gylian polity, but divisions occur over how to achieve this goal. In general, the left-wing of Gylian politics and part of the right-wing favour anarchism, while liberals and conservatives are more accepting of the state as a means to coordinate governance and direct the economy.
- The role of the market: A key division in Gylian anarchism is whether economic organisation should be based on planning, emancipated markets, or a combination of the two.
- Engines of economic development: The demopolitan movement views cities as the driving force of economic development, therefore economic policy should favour urbanisation. The opposing view is espoused by Georgist, ecological, and agrarianist movements which view rural areas as the backbone of the economy.
- Economic scale: Environmentalists, demopolitans, and certain anarchists favour Gylias' light industry-based economic model, believing that small-scale economics and appropriate technology are more sustainable. In contrast, liberals, conservatives, and some leftists are more comfortable with development of heavy industry, particularly those who favour a Kirisakian-Akashian developmental state approach.
- Discouraging negative externalities: The debate around how to deal with harmful behaviours and goods is based on whether reinforcement through shaping choices and levying taxes is more effective than directly banning behaviours and goods through legislation and enforcement.
- Consumption: Consumption is one of the key drivers of the Gylian economy, within a strongly environmentalist framework. The increasing advocacy of degrowth and a circular economy among environmentalists and leftists led to the appearance of the Party of Consumers for Freedom in the 1990s to present a pro-consumerism viewpoint.
History
Gylian politics emerged during the Free Territories, against a backdrop of radical experimentation with self-governance and economic reorganisation. Anarchists had a substantial influence on the Free Territories' politics, and alternatives included Donatellism — popular in the former Cacertian Empire province of Alscia —, "constructive conservatives", a Kirisakian-style developmental state, Maria Elena Durante's left-wing populism, and more utopian schemes such as Phaedra Metaxa's mousaikratia or a revival of the Liúşai League.
The transition from the Free Territories to Gylias, starting in 1958, preserved the diversity and decentralisation of the former, and was able to an extent to synthesise the multiple ideologies and models in existence. The Constitution of Gylias, drafted through a people-driven process, aimed to establish "the minimum standards necessary to ensure the development of a free and flourishing society", according to Justina Mendonça Ferreira.
The first directly elected federal legislature, the Popular Assembly, was elected in 1958, using open list proportional representation for the only time. At the municipal level, politics continued to be based around small parties and independent candidates.
The Law on Electoral Representation of 1960, together with the creation of the bicameral Gylian Parliament, encouraged a profusion of parties. Several large existing parties, including the DCP, SP, and SDP, underwent a process of de-factionalisation: factions representing different ideological tendencies amicably split to form their own parties. Electoral blocs emerged, reuniting parties based on ideology.
Influenced by the Free Territories' legacy, Gylian politics was pushed heavily to the left. The PA, whose membership included anarcho-communist, anarcho-syndicalist, and council communist parties, came to represent Gylias' centre-left. The far-left was initially occupied by the authoritarian socialist RR. The modern party system emerged with the first Gylian Parliament election in 1962, which resulted in the Darnan Cyras government's broad left–liberal–regionalist coalition. The Gylian consensus emerged in domestic policy out of the Golden Revolution, enjoying broad support among the public.
During the 1960s, the popular front of the PA and LU was dominant on the centre-left, the CG formed the constructive opposition from the centre, and various Non-inscrits parties and independents could align with the larger blocs, leaving a vacuum on the right.
The CC was stridently reactionary and marginal from politics, occupying largely the same space as the far-right FROS. The two blocs were initially vehicles for former Xevdenite reactionaries and social conservatives; the FROS gradually transitioned towards a Gylian-specific brand of far-right politics, based on religious sectarianism and a veneer of left and anarchist rhetoric over a core of radical, authoritarian ultranationalism.
Gylian conservatism did not properly emerge at the federal level until after the 1969 federal election. Having seized control of the CC, Lea Kersed applied for its dissolution and that of its largest party to Elections Gylias, which was granted. With the bloc shut down, she created the CNP, modeled after the Ossorian Crown Nationalist Party. She was able to bring together the scattered successors of the "constructive conservatives" — independent parliamentarians, small non-inscrit parties, conservatives who joined the CG out of disgust with the CC — and stimulate the creation of new parties, forming the NB.
The NB became the main outlet of centre-right politics in Gylias. Under Lea's guidance, it repudiated the term "conservative", instead preferring the nomenclature of "national" and "reformist", and cultivated an image as moderate, progressive, liberal, and open to experiments, but resolutely anti-reactionary.
The growth of other political forces, initially concentrated at the local level and driven by the demopolitan UM, Georgist FLP, and populist MED, was greatly accelerated by the LSDP. A satirical party established in the wake of the Gylian protests of 1968, the LSDP captured the public imagination, becoming the largest non-inscrit party in 1969, and helped open space to the left of the PA for non-authoritarian groups.
The 1970s saw the appearance of the GP, the first organised green party in Tyran, and the first manifestation of the phenomenon of "molehill parties" or "teacup parties". Named dismissively after the idioms "mountain out of a molehill" or "storm in a teacup", they were right-wing populist parties that gained some minor success by opposing aspects of the Gylian consensus — such as high taxation rates, economic regulations, or official policies that favoured public transport and limiting meat consumption — before taking strong turns towards the right, causing their dissolution for anti-constitutional activities.
The establishment of regional governments after 1969 resulted in the emergence of regionalist parties, duplicating the localist and small parties' dominance of the municipal level.
The 1976 federal election, held amid a leadership vacuum on the left, marked a breakthrough for the NB and, unexpectedly, the RR. The latter, presenting a toned-down image under Aén Ďanez, capitalised on the exhaustion of the Golden Revolution's energy to finish joint first with the PA. The Aén Ďanez government, a tense coalition between the RR and PA, led to the wretched decade — a period in which Gylias was beset with crises, both domestic and foreign. The FROS, led by Anðe Leuák, recorded alarming gains in regional and federal elections, avoiding inflammatory rhetoric and capitalising on discontent with the wretched decade.
Aén's government fell after the Ossorian war crisis of May 1986, replaced by the Filomena Pinheiro government. Filomena formed a national unity government, composed of all parties but the RR and FROS. Engulfed by scandals and prosecutions, and deteriorating in the persistent glare of the media and public life, the RR and FROS collapsed, gradually losing their legislative seats and returning to the margins of politics.
The efforts to overcome the "wretched decade" aggravated internal tensions within the NB, where the moderates and progressives faced a growing neoliberal–right-libertarian current, partly fueled by contact with the anarcho-capitalist movement in comtemporary Megelan. Lea Kersed's death in 1988 brought the crisis to a head, and a showdown between the two factions at the 1989 parties' conference fractured the NB: the rightist faction broke off to form the UFP, exiting the government in the process.
A renewal of politics in the 1990s took place simultaneously with a renewal of national confidence and optimism. The 1990 federal election was a watershed: for the first time, the non-inscrits collectively gained a plurality of first preference votes and seats. Most of these gains came from the techno-progressive NAF, whose success was based on leader Mielikki Salonen's charisma and innovative campigning approach. The NB suffered a setback due to the 1989 fracture, while the UFP remained isolated on the margins.
The Mathilde Vieira government was constituted, a flexible coalition of the LU, NAF, and LND, which negotiated case-by-case support from different factions. The government oversaw a revitalisation and strengthening of the Gylian consensus, taking advantage of the growth of ICT and the Internet to increase popular participation in economic planning and political decision-making.
A constitutional reform supported by the NAF took place in the 1990s, which abolished elections for the Senate and transformed it into an upper house chosen through sortition and presidential appointment. The change took effect in 2000.
In the 2000s, the NB recovered from its setbacks under new leadership, the Pirates emerged and accepted a merger with the LSDP, and the NAF's popularity crested and declined to a more moderate level. The LU's previous influence in the coalition declined against a resurgent PA. The 2012 federal election ended two decades of liberal-led governments, replaced with the left-leaning Toni Vallas government.