Cõbromizo

Cõbromizo refers to a tradition in post-war Castelan politics in which the country's two largest parties, the Movement for Castelana and the Labour Party, collectively govern and share power on a national and state level, splitting ministries evenly between them in order to balance out power between the two parties, and the resulting consensus-based political system that has arisen from this cohabitation arangement.

The agreement has not universally been dominant on the national level but has ruled the national government for significant periods of time and has been extended to the state level in four of the country's five states, yet has received criticism from across the political spectrum for entrenching political patronage and resulting in an inherent inertia and lack of major ideological differentiation to the country's two major parties.

Emergence

The concept's emergence is penned to the country's reconstruction era after the end of the Second Great War, in which the 1944-1952 Tripartite Government between conservative corporatists, secular liberals and reformist socialists was formed out of a desire to reconcile the country's deep interwar political polarisation, with the mistrust and division between the three major factions being seen as responsible for the growth of Lanzism in the country.

While the Tripartite Government is cited as the birth of cõbromizo as a major aspect of the Castelan political system, its specific development is traced to the exclusion of the Liberal Party from the government after the 1952 election as tensions emerged between the three parties over economic and social policy, with the Liberal Party's support for social and economic liberalism conflicting with the scepticism of the conservative corporatist and reformist socialist factions of the government towards the free market and the significant Perendist influence on both parties, resulting in the term specifically gaining a specific association with economic interventionism and Perendist social values as keystones of government policy.

Federal level

Since its full emergence after the 1952 election, cõbromizo has come to dominate the federal government throughout the second half of the 20th century and early 21st century as the Movement for Castelana and the Labour Party came to represent the conservative corporatist and reformist socialist pillars of the country's political system, with specific measures to divide political power between the two parties being adopted.

Notably, specific rules for the division of ministries within the government has emerged between the two parties - while the two largest parties in the Senate holding each Consul position respectively has been standard practice since the Golden Uprising, specific rules for the division of ministries between the two parties has emerged, with the Movement traditionally controlling the Finance, Internal Affairs, Rural Affairs, Education and Defence portfolios and the Labour Party traditionally controlling the Economy, Foreign Affairs, Social Affairs, Healthcare and Justice portfolios and many state-owned corporations and bodies seeing equal representation from both parties on their boards.

Separatist violence within Riania during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s significantly strengthened the agreement, with party propaganda from the time period noting the need for national unity against the threat of separatist organisations - the 1983 election, held four weeks after the Porthmellon bombing by the Rianic Liberation Front which saw the deaths of 39 civilians, notably saw a high watermark in support for both parties as public attention turned to the necessity of the system to maintain national stability.

The cõbromizo agreement has not universally run the country - notably between 1987 and 1991 the Movement formed a government with the classically liberal Democrats and between 2003 and 2007 Labour formed a government with the Democrats. In both cases, the Democrats had surpassed the excluded party in popular vote shares and significant media coverage was given to the potential end of the cõbromizo system, yet the Democrats notably suffered after their inclusion in government in both cases and the system returned after the next election.

State level

The system has been extended to the four Castelan-speaking states of Castelana, with the practice of power sharing between the two largest parties in the legislature to form a government being enshrined into the state constitutions of Les Ostras, Les Borias and Cendraçuda and being common practice in Sãda Mõdanha while not being explicitly codified into the state constitution.

The practice has not extended to Riania due to the relative weak performance of the two cõbromizo parties in the state and the relative strength of the Democrats and the Rianic separatist movement, significantly complicating the political system of the state. In stead, majoritarian-based ideological governments are the norm within the state with a faultline generally running between centralists, which both the Movement and the Labour Party are both seen as aligned with, and the regionalists and separatists, which the Democrats and newer parties such as Dialogue, the Green Party and the Party for Riania are considered to be aligned with.

Criticism

The system has been criticised by many within Castelana both within the cõbromizo parties and from outside forces. Many have attributed the system as a source of political patronage and cronyism and as causing political stagnation and a lack of direction within the government.

Many politicians within the Movement and the Labour Party have cited the agreement as damaging the ideological integrity of the parties and their commitments to the social groups they were formed to represent, with former Senator Austo Cereçarõ noting that "the Movement shows little concern for or relation to the interests of the Perendist lower middle class it was formed to represent" and Labour Party activist Flavia Valerã noting that many politicians had "long abandoned the ideology of social democracy for their own personal gain", with both directly linking this to the cõbromizo system.

The 2019 election notably saw the growth of two political forces running on opposition to the cõbromizo system both to its right and its left, with the right-wing populist Our Home party entering the Senate with 4.15% of the vote on a socially conservative platform criticising the system as "internalised corruption" and parties to the left of Labour, such as the anti-establishment and progressive Dialogue and the Green Party criticising it as holding the country back, criticising both party's heavy links to the Perendist church and the ideological stagnation of the country's government.

The system has also gained heavy criticism from Rianic separatists, who have claimed that due to the weak relative support both parties get in the state it disenfranchises Riania within the government, with the 2019 Party for Riania manifesto claiming that "Cõbromizo fully dispels the notion that the Castelan state somehow comes from an equal marriage of the Sabarine and Rubic cultures". This line of criticism has been attacked by Finance Minister Mychal Ongaer, a native Rianic speaker, as "untrue and a self-fulfilling prophecy".