Druermark
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Druermarsk Council Republic Druermarsk Rådsrepublikk | |
|---|---|
 Flag
 Emblem
| |
| Motto: Alle Skal Med All Shall Take Part | |
| Anthem: Internasjonalen (official) The Internationale  | |
 Map of Druermark | |
| Capital and largest city | Runavik |
| Official languages | Norrsk |
| Recognised national languages | Blommjordic Almik Wiaqqat Ametik Natchiik Kiina |
| Demonym(s) | Druermarsk (ethnic) Druermarker (citizen) |
| Government | One-party Unitary councilist republic |
| Kate Sjøhorn | |
| Sven Godmann | |
| Legislature | Folksråd |
| Establishment | |
• First Contact | 991 CE |
• Viceroyalty of Nysund | 1596 |
• Druermarsk Republic | 1803 |
• Council Republic | 1919 |
| Population | |
• 2020 estimate | 84,542,134 |
| Date format | dd.mm.yyyy |
| Driving side | right |
| ISO 3166 code | DR |
| Internet TLD | .dr |
Druermark, known officially as the Druermarsk Council Republic, is a nation in the northern areas of Cesylle, bordered by Acadia, the Oleannan Council Republic, Watauga, Okala, and Minerva. It also maintains a permanent claim on the northern ice continent of Frigora Regni. Druermark is is a one-party councilist republic led by the Druermarsk Councilist Party (Druermarsk Rådmannspartiet). Its capital, Runavik, rests on the east coast, with a population of 6.9 million. Other cities include Straumsfjord, Kjolr, Olofsby, and Eirikstad.
Druermark is a one-party council communist state with a recently formed element of workplace democracy. In the DKR, all industrial sites are effectively worker cooperatives, of which elect their representatives to the party, as well as to the Druermarsk Labor Council. Despite this, Druermark's main party, the DRP, maintains a monopoly in politics, with all other parties banned by the DRP.
Druermark is a developed nation with a high standard of living, one of the healthiest nations, and maintains a high degree of economic diversity. Healthcare is completely socialized and is regarded as a human right. Druermark has since 1993 mandated a 100% ecological efficiency quota, pushing for 100% renewable energy by 2040. Regardless, major industries include oil extraction and refining, forestry, agriculture, mineral extraction, along with refined goods. Druermark has a developing technology, weaponry, and capital goods industry. Druermark is a charter member of the International Assembly, the IA Security Council, and a founding member of the Alliance for Socialist Liberation.
History
Antiquity
Druermark has been inhabited by indigenous peoples for centuries before contact by Marisians, such as the Natchiik, Wiaqqat, Ametik, and Kiina peoples. Archaeological evidence suggests that few conflicts between these tribes existed with the exception of the Ametik and Wiaqqat tribes, both having a long history of potentially ritualistic combat. Conflict between the Natchiik and tribes south into areas such as Seneca and Okala were rare, typically only during abnormally cold weather.
First Contact
Halfdan the Traveler, a well-seasoned sea raider of Norrmark, and his crew (along with about 100 civilians) were the first non-Cesyllians to step foot on its soil in 991 CE, in a bay on the island of Vavenok near the modern day city of Oubee. Expelled from their homeland, they were forced to travel west, lest they be hunted for sport. Their settlement, Nyhavn, managed to hold on by threads through the harsh northern winter, largely due to Norrmarsk experience in cold climate, but additionally through the aid of the Malket tribe, an offshoot of the much larger Wiaqqat people. Seeing the new arrivals as refugees in need of aid, the Malket sought to trade and make peace with whom they called “Jiltasugsisgal" or "Mark-Faces", so named for the skogarmaor mark in the shape of an othala rune (ᛟ) on their cheek. Eventually, they established contact with their leaders and came to a mutual charter. Halfdan, needing farming aid, took to purchasing slaves from the Malket, who were former Ametik natives seized in their near ceaseless conflict between each other. After some time adjusting to the growing season, Halfdan sent his men to survey the island and find the mainland, which they would name “Druermark or “The Land of the Grape Vines.”
Aside from the grapes and the already very enticing old growth timber, of which they gladly used to make more ships, the crew additionally found gold and silver in various indigenous mines. Loading a few new ships with tonnes of gold and silver ore, locally made mead and wine, and slaves, Halfdan sent a party back to Norrmark and they returned with letters of pardon, as well as more settlers. Eventually, these settlers would go on to start their own colonies in what is now Kaldelven, Runavik, Husavik, and Jorvik. Halfdan was named the first Jarl of Nyhavn when the Malket and Wiaqqat tribes, seeking a defensive alliance against the Ametik, would recognize his rule over Vavenok. Raising a band of native and Norrsk forces, they would raid the Ametik capital of Sutik in 1003, during which Halfdan fell to an arrow. Though the battle was a success, the loss of Halfdan caused the eventual decline of Nyhavn as a settlement, and by 1220 the first Norrsk settlement on the continent would be abandoned.
Viceroyalty of Nysund
The new landed class in the Norrsk settled regions of Cesylle, jarls and their huskarls, kept receiving a steady flow of settlers, though there were still relatively few inhabitants until the 1350s when The Red Death, an extremely deadly disease, ravaged Maris. Wave after wave of refugee landed on the shores, overflowing the villages, and wiping out entire populations of native and Norrskman alike with the Red Death. Upwards of a third of each population died, but on paper, the settlements quadrupled in size. This came with its own political upheaval, as the Kingdom of Norrmark, now a united entity, aimed to assert its rule over Cesyllien Norrskmen. One by one, by war, plague, or treaty, the jarldoms would coalesce into a client kingdom in 1596 under a Norrmarsk puppet, The Viceroyalty of Nysund (Visekongedømmet Nysund). Centuries after his death, Halfdan’s wish would be granted, as his descendent Erik “Forkbeard” Tjodolfsson was declared viceroy of the territory.
The Norrskmen of Nysund did not look, speak, or act the same as the Norrskmen of !Europe, after 600 years of relative isolation, multiethnic marriage, and language syncretics. Norrmark would attempt to rectify that by coercing the Fara dynasty in 1631 to pass edicts banning further interracial relationships and by creating a caste system with the more fair-skinned at the top. Additionally, !Christianity was forced on the population, with the practices of both Norrsk and Arakoan paganism being made punishable by outlawry or death. This arrangement only worked insofar as they could directly control the population with Norrsk military and sympathetic militia. This worked, for a time, but by the 1700s, the !Enlightenment would reach the feudal lands of Nysund, and the organic anti-feudalist movement of Druermarkisme would grow. In budding industrial areas such as Runavik, Husavik, and Dorvavik, the meeting house (møtehus) would become the staging ground for these thoughts and ideals. These houses, a combination of tavern and government office, were rife for political disagreement and bloodshed. The Tjodolfsson dynasty was more or less unable to cease revolutionary thought, but was able to keep the populace busy by rapid expansion and by conscription in Norrmark’s many wars in the main continent. Also at this time, starting in the late 1600s, a portion of land north of Nysund was carved out by treaty/force from the Natchiik and Ametik peoples for the purpose of relocating the Almik people, a Finno-Ugric, initially migratory people living in Northern Norrmark. The Almik Settlement, as it was called, consisted of the town of Dorvavik (renamed to Dorvajara), Kavilijarvi, and the land north of the Istra River.
Settlement westward was slow but constant, with overcrowding on the coast becoming more and more the norm. Skogfjell, Olofsby, and Dalgvann were the new frontier trading posts. While Norrmark claimed the entirety of the continent north of the Adelwulf Line, treaty obligations with Arnynsland caused permanent settlement to be prohibited west of the Ryggrad Mountains, making Olofsby and Dalgvann technically illegal settlements. Attempts to evict the population was met with armed resistance, and in 1767 the Olofsby Rebellion was proclaimed. Though ending in ultimate failure, the resistance caused the Viceroyalty to reconsider the treaty line, and in 1770, the treaty was broken for good during the outbreak of several revolutions to the immediate south. While Norrmark managed to escape the first tide of revolution, they would not hold their “Great White Jewel” for long.
Independence
After several cessions and land grabs, many of which involved taking them directly from the native population, what was once the Viceroyalty of Nysund was in 1790 reorganized into the Druermarsk Dominion (Druermarsk Herredømme) by the Acts of Unification, utilizing the old Norrmarsk name for the entire continent. With that, the Tjodolfsson dynasty was essentially removed from their title of nobility, but retained a commanding hold on the post-Acts Druermarsk military and aristocracy. While Harald VI Tjoldolfsson was complacent in taking the deal given to him by Norrmark, his son Eirik was not so inclined. A scholar and professed liberal, he cared less for his aristocratic titles, or the power his family was denied, but instead professed a desire for national self-autonomy, like the nations to the Dominion’s south. Inspired by the revolutions both there and in Maris, he made swift alliances with fellow travelers in the Reform Movement (Also known as the Bluecoats), and amended relations between them and the more conservative but still anti-colonial figures in the Constitutionalists, also known as the Buffcoats. Denied regional autonomy, these figures more or less kept to the meetinghouses and conspired amongst themselves. Eirik kept his political affiliations formally secret, dispelling any rumors of his beliefs, until he was offered a commission in the Norrmarsk “Druerhæren” to replace his now late father, which he of course used to sway military staff to his side.
Eventually, things boiled over when in 1797 Eirik Tjoldolffson made his move, and ordered his troops to march on Runavik and clear the garrisons there. Initially they were successful and drove the Norrmarsk military from the city, though it immediately came under blockade. The war had begun. Eirik and his allies made alliances and assurances with the local aristocrats that loyalty to him would secure their holdings and interests, and therefore domestic trade continued even afterwards. The war itself was a mess, with little notion of a clear front, of irregular militias fighting alongside and against professional army elements, of conflicting uniforms, and of generals continually attempting to either turncoat or seize power of their respective elements for themselves. By 1801, Eirik’s forces more or less convinced King Haakon VI of Norrmark to cut his losses and sign a treaty two years later. In 1803, the Druermarsk Republic was born, Eirik not wanting to be a king himself. He instead served as the first Statsminister. He served for 10 uninterrupted years before retiring from politics and instead went on to found the city of Eirikstad, the first major city west of the Adelwulf Line.
Druermarsk Republic
While the fledgling republic was far better in terms of self-autonomy, life for the average person barely changed. Forced segregation was still mandated by law, and native treaties were still violated and ignored. Land reform, though limited to the holdings of Norrmarsk loyalists. Aristocrats ran the country by and far unopposed, with only landed allowed to vote. This naturally meant only the rich and male, and skewed against non-Norrsk citizens. This was abated by the colonist’s playbook: rapid expansion. Calling the bluff of their southern neighbors, the cities (first forts) of Straumsfjord, Trehorningen, and Storelven were founded within a decade of each other, but it was the discovery of gold and silver in the west, lands that would become the territories of Fjernkyst and The Nahaani Territory that turned these frontier towns into boom cities in the making. Though countless cities went bust when their claims dried up, many today serve as the western hubs of population, even as the west of the country is still relatively underdeveloped in comparison to the east. In any cases, these cessions came at the cost of native possessions, and the Natchiik and the Kiina peoples were the last tribes to be subjugated under the Republic’s blue and buff banner. Additionally, Republican naval elements discovered Thule Bay in 1865, setting up a station for fur trade in Artuka. Gold was discovered there as well, and multiple gold and diamond rushes would serve as catalyst for expansion after expansion.
Though these rushes often proved lucrative and profitable to the nation, these riches did not equally dole itself out. Financial interests, mercantilists, and railroad companies would gladly extract what little gold wealth there was from those fools blind enough to seek it. By 1867, the average prospector was destitute and desperate for a solution. And in response, the Druermarsk Councilist Party was founded in 1871. Modern Druermarsk founding myths point to the founding date of the party as the "rebirth" of Druermark. Along with the prospector's plight, the conditions within the rapidly industrializing cities were worsening with the explosion of birth rates and resettlement from the Eastern Continents. Pledging to fight against corruption, expand suffrage, and reform labor laws. They started mass union drives, started charities, and strikes. Their influence, though clandestine as they were ruthlessly persecuted by the government, spread westward towards the cattle towns, boom towns, and ghost towns. Eventually, they sought and accrued electoral victories, though sparse. Treated like pariahs in the government, they were never recognized by the Prime Minister as a legitimate party to coalition with, officially counting them as independents. Often, their representatives were locked out of votings or simply not recorded at all. In response, the Druermarsk Councilist Party, led by Sven Lindt, called for a general strike and set up barricades in Runavik. This was known as the Red Summer, and for five months the Republic struggled to quell the uprising. Though notably, the moment the Red Summer began, it was doomed.
The March Revolution
The result of the uprising was the first ban on unionization, the widening of the streets of Runavik, and the crackdown on the party, in which Sven Lindt was hanged. Most of the party went underground while many others escaped to Maris and hid among the Norrmarsk and Valkian people. It was this generation of exiles that would, over the next few years return in clandestine ways and sow the eventual seeds of revenge. From the end of the Red Summer of 1876 to the March Revolution of 1919, the Republican government would know only the hatred of their own workers. Repeated campaigns of secret unions, walkouts, quiet quitting, and banditry in the countryside would dominate the time. The Republican government would be unable to fully handle the period of unrest, but would continue to get involved in international affairs, powerbroking its way into acquiring Helgøya, and the tropical islands Sankt Albrekt and Sankt Haakon. Despite all this, class conditions would improve just enough to make bare just how bad the proletarian had it. The time was ripe. Torsten Berg, a prominent Valkian Born Druermarsk exile, would come out of hiding in the Nahaani Valley, proclaiming a people’s war against the old corrupt regime. The March Revolution had begun, and it swept the nation into a gory, but quick, civil war. The returning soldiers, too beaten and worn by a demoralizing war, either laid down their arms or joined ranks with the Reds. Within 88 days, Runavik fell, and the government in exile was cornered in Oubee when the natives refused to allow them to take port. Facing certain execution, the Prime Minister, Sir Karl von Rikirhus, elected to take his own life.
Early Council Republic
The next couple of years remained tedious. Victorious, Torsten Berg and the Interim Presidium consolidated political power, redistributed wealth and assets amongst the workers, setting up worker councils, and reformed all government institutions. While the assets of everyone was "audited," those who refused often found themselves in a labor camp. The Auditors, officially known as the ID, or Domestic Political Directorate (Innenlandspolitisk Direktorat), would cause years of terror that culturally redefined Druermark. Many of the recipients of redistributed assets were Almic or Native Cyrellian peoples, seen as some of the first attempts by a Druermarsk government to address the wrongs of their predecessors. The first rendition of the Druermarsk Council Republic was a unitary state filled with revolutionary vigor as well as terror. A cultural revolution would be waged by Berg and his Presidium, reinvigorated by Kardian assistance. Statues were destroyed and melted down to make new ones of Berg and the revolutionaries. For a time, Halfdan the Traveler was transformed from an outlawed explorer to near mythical hero - but even then that did not last. Berg enacted purges specifically to target his own political dissidents; those who were deemed too religious, or too nosy, or too deviant, were often found dead, or convicted in show trials. Berg would later write about the First Terror with regret, but the damage was done. It would take years for Druermark to overcome the political and military deficit the purges caused, making them easy targets in the upcoming Second World War.
Central to Berg's philosophy was the concept of the "Eternal Flame," an international-aligned and ongoing fight against capitalism, "on all facets, in all theatres, by any means necessary." This often resulted in, at least in the early days of the Radsrepublikk, unofficial volunteer groups of Druermarsk agitators, trained and equipped by the IPD, or International Political Directorate (Internasjonalt Politisk Direktorat), sent to other countries to stir up trouble and attempt socialist revolutions, to mixed initial success. Agents of Berg would find homes in Valkia, which later would be instrumental in the Valkian Revolution that was seen as an inevitable consequence of the end of the First World War. Druermarsk agents would aid Nastenovian communists to take control of their country in 1926, though would ultimately fail in keeping the fledgling government safe from inevitable military counterrevolution, as Emilio Vasquez’s military reforms caused the Nastenovian Civil War, which the fascists won. Druermarsk agents however would link up with militias in the countryside and would continue to harass the fascists for years. The last confirmed agent, a man known as Thorvald “Snake-Eater" Haraldson, surrendered to Osceolan border agents in 1959. After Berg’s death in 1928, a round table of bureaucrats would replace him as Secretary-General until Bernt Gulseth would take the position, a diplomat from the early days of the revolution. He would be known for his defense of the nation during the First World War, but also for his diplomatic work. Working closely with Kardia, the two fledgling socialist powers would declare the Internationale, a political alliance between socialist powers. This organization would evolve into the Alliance for Socialist Liberation.
The Second Great War and the Deluge
During the Second Great War, still reeling from the economic and diplomatic fallout the failure of the Nastenovian Revolution would bring, Druermark would see their southern border invaded by Aldlocke and a cadre of anti-communist volunteers from various other nations, who had attempted to use the open hostilities to intervene in ridding Cel of a particularly pesky player on the world stage, by dividing it in half by taking advantage of the flat terrain of the Great Cesyllian Steppe. Gamlekoner, deep inland from the border, found itself beseiged twice before the Aldlockean forces were rejected from the countryside at great cost.
An offensive into Aldlocke was planned, however The Impact of Wormwood put a stop to both the invasion and the war, the global economy reeling in the staggering loss of life. Over 75% of the infrastructure of Druermark's western states was immediately decimated, and hundreds of thousands died in the tsunami. A white peace was established in 1939, however the two nations remained bitter rivals, neither of which deciding to normalize relations.
The Wormwood Impact had created a revival of religious and reactionary movements in the nation, many of which believing that the end times were upon the world, and stated that the asteroid was penance upon the world for the sins of materialism, communism, and turning away from Lucianist principles. Fearing a counterrevolution, Gulseth would enact the Second Terror. While initially successful, the government was forced to relent after calls from within the party led to Gulseth's resignation. Replaced by former chair of the IPD Jan Madsen, he smoothed tensions with the religious community by making some allowances in religious practice that carry on to this day. Additionally, Maraisian "Cathedrals to the Worker," named Folkhus, were placed in many rural areas as community centers, to try and offer secular community spaces, many of which served as schools, clinics, libraries, and hubs for the DRP.
Aldlockean Nuclear Crisis
Things were not well in Aldlocke. While Druermark was busy solving internal issues, the Aldlockean Confederacy planned in silence to stamp out Druermark as well as Elaklania, whom they felt were succumbing to socialism. Deploying several nuclear weapons against both Druermark and Elaklania, they ambitiously spewed over the border in an attempt to once again cut Druermark in half. Gamlekoner, still recovering from the Second Great War, was quickly overran as Aldlockean troops closed in on the main rail hub between the west and east, Eirikstad. A daring defense mounted in urgency, the city lay seiged from three sides for 2 months before reinforcements from Runavik cut the attackers off. A counteroffensive encircled and slaughtered Aldlockean troops, and a bee line to [CAPITAL] was never clearer. Through massive bombing campaigns, artillery, and armored pushes, coined by Madsen as "the instruments of proletarian hatred", alongside the international coalition that came to the aid of both nations, Aldlocke surrendered unconditionally in 1947, leading to much of its northern regions splintering into smaller nations, some of which socialist under the guiding hand of the newly-formed Alliance for Socialist Liberation.
After the Nuclear Crisis was settled, Druermark and Elaklania formed a post-war government for the territory of Former Aldlocke, however could not agree as to how that government would be set up or ran. Druermark, twice attacked by their southern neighbor, wanted greater concessions and restrictions to be levied to prevent it from happening again, by either creating a government favorable to Madsen or to mandate a massive demilitarized zone in the north of the country. Unable to reach a decent compromise, Druermark vacated the proceedings, and instead occupied some former portions of the nation to mandate their own buffer zone, creating the client republics of Okala, Oleanna, and Minerva, and focusing their efforts on not only rebuilding these areas, but on acquiring nuclear secrets from the Okalan testing grounds. This was seen by the South Cesyllian powers, including Nastanovo, as a bridge too far, and inadvertedly led to the founding of DTIN. Fearing an inevitable nuclear exchange, Madsen would focus much of the latter half of the 1940s on hastening nuclear research and payload delivery systems such as strategic bombers and missiles, delaying the rebuilding of the country. Innovations from this period would be the first jet propulsion engines, new tanks, and the Lindt series of medium range nuclear capable missiles. Eventually, Madsen's death in 1951 would see a realigning of priorities by the Presidium, who held the first elections in DRR history, although the choices were pre-determined from DRP loyalists already high up in the Politburo. Though choices were low, Albrekt Hansen was elected Premier of the Folksråd and Secretary-General of the party, who ran on a platform of reindustrializing and focusing more on the social welfare of the nation, while maintaining a pragmatic approach to foreign affairs. While Madsenism, as it was coined by the party, was claimed to being abandoned, the overall policy of the nation still incorporated various elements of Jan Madsen's vision.
The Hansen Thaw
Hansen first started by conducting a series of political liberalization reforms, releasing some political prisoners and pardoning some religious dissidents in exile. Immediately, he ordered the Commissariat of Justice to reexamine the case files of purges and abuses committed during the First and Second Terrors, clearing the names of over 10,000 dead political dissidents and freeing another 120,000 from forced servitude. Sentencing of all non-violent crimes was capped at 10 years or less. Additionally, Albrekt Hansen ordered an investigation into the condition of the indigenous people of the north and ordered the creation of autonomous zones within the regions, though they were never completed in full.
Hansen went later about the work of designating the destroyed cities of Eirikstad, Olofsby, Skarvby, Gamlekoner, and Haraldshavn as National Reconstruction Zones, and awarded government contracts to construction union chapters who would send workers to them. Druermarsk researchers concluded that the background radiation in Olofsby and the border areas would return to normal levels within the span of 5 years, and within that time, the city was rebuilt from the ashes. Western communities still ruined by the Deluge also received massive amounts of government industrialization contracts, turning husks of cities like Kjolr, Straumsfjord, and Storelven into distribution hubs for new economic developments in Fjernkyst and Nahaani. At that time, the Kalkstein Oil Field was discovered in the area, further industrializing the region. Part of the Post-War Plan included a unified passenger and commercial rail system, airports, community gardens, and an expansion of the education system.
Economically, Hansen introduced Programm Velstand, a new economic policy designed to restructure the economy from some of its earlier inefficiencies, as well as double the standards of living of the people, becoming the undisputed industrial powerhouse of the ASL, and expanding the social safety net by passing a cadre of reforms such as enacting better worker safety standards, expanding pension programs, enacting sweeping healthcare programs (notably the state health provider KL), providing a job guarantee, public works projects, art grants, expanding trade colleges, and expanded union membership to encapsulate "every single profession under the Sun." The result was a GDP doubling, as well as a doubling of the income of the average citizen. The Velstand Program birthed a new art and architecture known as Funkisme, which emphasized incorporations of natural light, honesty in construction material, glass, and open communal spaces. Additionally, greenery was incorporated into the design, integral planners, ivy cultivation, and water structures were typical inclusions into larger scale projects.
Hansen would prove to be the longest serving Secretary-General and Premier of Druermark, serving an uninterrupted 23 years before he retired from politics in 1974, though he was succeeded by Ivar Branting, who, although more radical and more controversial, had in many ways been Hansen's student and protégé, and was endorsed by Hansen.
Akselerasjonisme
As much as Hansen's administration been one of reform and renaissance, Branting's administration was much the opposite. Coined "Akselerasjonisme" or Accelerationism by his supporters, the Branting administration sought to reign in on some of the market reforms Hansen's programs had brought, instead creating vast bureaus that would directly manage the output of products for sale, removing the individual worksite's role in its sale. This robbing of employee self management came at great disapproval, and worker demonstrations in 1978 in Runavik led to a storming of the Folksråd by protestors, the approval of lethal force, and the deaths of over 300 protestors over the course of 3 weeks, known as the Hot Summer of 1978. Eventually, the demarketization was successful, but inefficiencies and stagnation would soon follow. Additionally, union leadership was replaced with more loyal party liaisons.
Branting was a social liberator and advocate for gender equality and women's rights, creating the Commissariat of Sexual Equality, and speaking at a global feminist conference in 1976. This would later expand to encompass a broader scope, and in 1993 would become the Commissariat of Equality. He was known for his outspoken comments regarding atrocities, being the first Premier to outwardly condemn the First and Second Terror, the mass repressions and wars waged by the Augustiato regime in Nastanovo, and more. Additionally, he sought inroads with Ilbon, sending Hansen's son Karl Hansen to become the first official ambassador to the state since 1919. During his premiership, a far-right Lucian militia, The Holy Covenant of the Sword, would challenge his reforms via terrorist plots. While it is still unknown how many acts of violence were their doing, at least 3 anthrax attacks and an attempted bombing of a public building have been attributed to them. Most notably, their one successful attack came from the 12 October Incident, when they successfully set off an improvised explosive device underneath Branting's motorcade, killing him instantly.
The Peterssen Triumvirate
After Branting's sudden assassination in 1990, an emergency joint meeting of the party's Politburo and the Presidium of the Folksråd outlined a response plan to replace Branting. Having left no obvious successor, they were by and large opposed to each others' proposals. The Politburo proposed that the party appoint three from their own to serve as an interim until an official convention can be called, while the Folksråd, many of which were outspoken opponents to the chokehold on politics the party had restricted them to, had proposed open elections from within the party. Incensed by this, the Politburo effectively disbanded the Folksråd, and went with their solution anyway, handpicking Jan Tynikken, Karl Peterssen, and Otto Bakken. Leading the pack would be Peterssen, though he allowed Tynikken and Bakken to maintain their titles to grant an aire of representation. Peterssen replaced many of his detractors in the government with hand-picked loyalists, though that would eventually lead to his downfall.
During this time, Peterssen halted all efforts to increase nuclear power plant construction and operation, instead empowering his cronies in the Miner and Driller's Union (GBF). He was a reactionary and a Druermarsk Chauvinist, attempting to end much of the benefits programs to the Indigenous of the north and stripping autonomy from the rådsrepubliks. Seeing him as an opportunist, the now dismissed Folksråd convened in secret and elected Stig Jansen as the Shadow Premier. The Triumvirate attempted to root out the Folksråd, to no avail, as many in Peterssen's own party and in the military was refusing to follow his orders. Left with little choice, Peterssen resigned in disgrace on the 22nd of December, 1992, a day known colloquially as Black Sunday. Peterssen was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison, and Stig Jansen was appointed leader.
The Jansen Reforms
Jansen, and his future Secretary-General Otto Aune, was a devout reformer and with his appointment came a wide variety of reforms that were fast-tracked into law:
- A ban on members holding more than one position, ending the era of dual Premier/Secretary-Generals
- A revocation of the ban on parties participating in the Folksråd, although all parties are essentially still subject to the DRP
- A complete reversal of Peterssen's counter-reforms and an establishment of a formal Autonomous Rådsrepublik system such as what Hansen had attempted
- A partial reversal of Branting's centralization of the unions
- A reintrodution of Hansenist Market Socialism
Since 1993, the title of Premier and Secretary-General is held in equal regard, leading many to call the current system a duumvirate.
Politics
Governance
Druermark defines itself as a "Council Republic," as defined by the Constitution of 1920, and is structured along a model coined by Bergist adherents as "The Dual Government." Essentially, the government simultaneously acts as a civic state, with a congress, or Folksråd, and the Worker's Assembly, or Arbeiderforsamling, representing the combined might and interests of trade unions, guilds, and agricultural cooperatives. People vote directly for their representatives, called Assemblymen, through their workplace, who then elect representatives to represent pre-determined districts in the Folksråd, themselves called Congressmen. Both assemblymen and congressmen are held subject to their respective electors and bound by their instructives through an imperative mandate system. This is in direct contrast to the more traditional trustee model of representation. Both can be, at any time, recalled by their respective electors, assemblymen by their worker's councils, and congressmen by the Worker's Assembly. Additionally, elections are regularly held in a yearly fashion in the Assembly, and every 5 years in the Folksråd.
Additionally, every 5 years, the Folksråd will elect a Premier who will serve as the chief executive of Druermark, serve as a tie-breaking vote in the legislative body, appoint a Deputy Premier to carry out the day-to-day activities of leading the Folksråd, and will appoint a Presidium to head 11 Commissariats (subject to Assembly confirmation.) These Commissars serve concurrent terms with the Premier and Deputy Premier, and can also be recalled at any moment in time via a vote of no confidence by the Assembly. These Commissariats are:
- The Commissariat of Foreign Affairs
- The Commissariat of Economic Management
- The Commissariat of Labor
- The Commissariat of Health
- The Commissariat of Defense
- The Commissariat of Justice
- The Commissariat of Industry
- The Commissariat of Agriculture
- The Commissariat of Education
- The Commissariat of The Environment
- The Commissariat of Science and Technology
- The Commissariat of Culture
Political parties were banned following the March Revolution, and only members of the Druermarsk Councilist Party may be elected to serve in government. As a result, party politics often matter as much or more to Druermarsk internal policy than government politics. Until 1990, high ranking members of the party often served dual roles, one in the party, another in government, leading every preceding Premier often to inevitably serve as the Secretary-General of the party. This was encouraged for a time, even going so far as to be coined the term "Unitary Mandatism" by Jan Madsen, before the actions of the the Peterssen Triumvirate undermined this trust. Since then, party leadership and civic leadership have been divorced from each other, and dual positions banned. Additionally, while in theory the Druermarsk Councilist Party is united around a common ideology, the party is rife with internal factions, caucusing, and ad-hoc voting blocs, all of which attempt to steer policy.