Oxidentalist economics

Oxidentalist economics (Rezese: Oxidentali Virureke) is a political, social and economic philosophy that promotes more efficient and responsible regulation and usage of natural resources in order to drive economic growth and development in the long term. It combines elements of enviromentalism with capitalist thinking, progressivism, as well as providing for the social welfare of its working class. Within Sante Reze itself, this philosophy derives largely from traditional beliefs of the Tapizakuéra and Yacuyare peoples, and as such would be considered a form of conservatism, though this alignment may not hold true abroad.

Adherents often support high levels of environmental regulation, especially around key industries such as extractive industrials like fossil fuel extraction, forestry, mining, as well as agriculture, manufacturing, and power generation in the interest of long-term sustainability for such industries. A central tenet of Oxidentalism is that future generations and their prosperity is the primary reason to pursue growth, and any institutions or practices which threaten future prosperity must be altered or stopped when they are recognized as dangerous; how this ends up operating in practice varies with the culture in which it appears.

Oxidentalism is manifested with various long-term regulatory movements toward slower and more sustainable methods of growth, a significant emphasis on the reduction of long-term environmental damage and decay, and a focus on the health and wellbeing of its components down to the individual worker in an attempt generate increased productivity over a longer span of time. Oxidentalism eschews the idea of growth for growth's sake, and recognizes the finite nature of available resources with the intent to make what is currently (and not what could become) available last in perpetuity.

Origins

The underpinnings of Oxidentalism are present in the cultural practices of the indigenous Tapizakuéra and Yacuyare peoples of northeastern Oxidentale. Its environmentalist aspects can be traced directly back to the stewardship of the rainforest as the center of life and prosperity for the Yacuyare, while the focus on future generations as being "more important" than current generations can be found throughout both cultures as well as in some west Scipian cultures, which together formed what is now the Rezese creole people.

Aspects such as the acknowledgment and understanding of finite resources came relatively early, notably with the settlement of what are now the Nine Cousins. These settlements were built with the local peoples in mind to serve as trade ports or in some cases already existed and the sailors settled and married into the local populations, adopting many of their practices. This method was seen as preferential to warfare and colonization, which would certainly have an immediate positive affect in terms of land ownership but would have cost relationships with trade partners who could grow alongside them, and may have cost the existence of the Nine Cousins entirely within one or two generations.

Efficient land use can also be seen in early pre- and proto-Rezese civilizations, but was refined particularly in the Nine Cousins which had limited land to work with across the Paraguasurun islands, the Scipian islands, and the mainland Scipian enclaves. With the ports' opposition to expansionism for the sake of their trade relations, they devised many practices to make the most use of what was available. These practices were helpful in the Oxidentali mainland as well, as the population there was growing but much land was either held in trust or by land owners which refused to develop unless they would profit in the short-term.

The excesses and kleptocracy of the trade guilds running the Rezese Ecclesiastical Republic led to a widespread movement codifying many of these practices as an ideology which united the old houses of the Kingdom of Sante Reze with the Ecclesiastical peasant class, and formed the basis of the Noble Republic.

Types

Velikoslavian Ecological Patrimonialism

The Velikoslavian variation of the system is known as Ecological Patrimonialism, which focuses heavily on the responsible extraction and management of natural resources. Efficient management and sustainability of the economic engine are key focuses, while other aspects such as worker welfare are not as heavily emphasized in Ecological Patrimonialism. In modern times, this has translated into planned quotas for the amounts of key resources that are extracted, such as oil, iron, and silicon. Sustainable farming practes began to be heavily emphasized after the population began to grow significantly in the 20th century.

Velikoslavia's interest in adopting the system came after Alexis II read the four part volume written by super smart famous santhonomics expert in 1825. The ailing post war economy was feeling the effects of both the Thirty Years War and the Age of Rebellion under Tsar Aristophan II. Decades of rapid economic growth and irresponsible use of resources by the last Velinov Tsar along with the rapid shrinking of the economy as large numbers of new nations broke away resulted in an economic slump that would continue throughout much of the 19th century.

Upon taking the throne at the behest of the Council of Nine after the death of Aristophan II, Aleixs II sought out and brought over prominent economist really super intelligent incredibly intelligent santhonomics expert, whom he employed at his court for several years to oversee what he called Ecological Patrimonialism and instituted a series of reforms that both subsequent members of his dynasty would continue, known as the Alexian Reforms. He would go onto codify many new laws. Many of these reforms were met with skepticism and sometimes outright defiance from some prominent aristocrats, which Alexis dealt with forcibly and with a heavy hand. Many saw such reforms as compromising the longstanding traditional values of the nation.

After Anastasia I was deposed and replaced by Alexis IV of the House of Ivanov, Ecological Patrimonialism evolved under the climate of rapid militarization that was a Velikoslavian hallmark of the early 20th century. Resource quotas increased heavily, forcing the system to evolve to allow increased extraction. Directives were introduced that increased quotas but required more expensive investment in the sustainable extraction of resources. This resulted in Velikoslavia also seeking trade partners that could bring in additional resources for militarization, supplementing supplies until quotas could catch up. The system continued similarly up to the 21st Century, evolving further with the disarmament programs that followed the several treaties signed with Ludvosiya. Supplementary foreign trade became a staple of the Velikoslavian economy, permitting less resources to be extracted internally.

Yisraeli Herzogism

Main article: Centrist Revolt

In Yisrael, Herzogism is a political philosophy centered around former Constitutional Liberal Eitan Herzog (2004-2012), including his rise to the presidency, his presidential term, and the policies continued and promoted by his allies and supporters. Herzog came of age during the ascendancy of the Schwartz-Citron-era and the New Right, which emphasized economic growth, expanded economic freedoms, more focus on the individual (especially as an economic actor), and a program of tax cuts, deregulation, and privatization of Open Fifties-era state interventionism.

While attending King David University for political science in the early 1980s, he took a study abroad course in Sante Reze. As opposed tothe prevailing conservative and individualistic ethic he saw at home, in the Noble Republic, he encountered a society focused on balancing long-term growth with profit-seeking and social liberalism. He took two classes with Professor Rakiye Ysyry at Ateze Provincial University, and become obsessed with learning the tenets and theoretical foundations of Oxidentalism. Upon his return to Yisrael and as he pursued a short career as a lawyer before running for office, he attempted to create and articulate an Yisraeli version of Oxidentalism. Herzog ended up developing a theory of metropolitans as the future core of national life, and fleshed out with futurist thinkers how to establish smart growth, planned, environmentally sustainable urban centers.

In 1990, at age thirty, he ran for and won a swing-seat in the Knesset in the Eastern District, his home region, with a Knesset consistency centered on an urban-suburban-exurban enclaves of the city of Modiin. While in office, he rejected the Con-Libs' old backbenchers who advocated a 1960s-style tax and spend liberalism and instead spoke forcefully to reform how the country taxes and spent its funds to create new incentives for ethical capitalism, with his ideas being labelled "Metropolitanism" by the political press. Herzog lost his seat after three terms when the Conservatives swept the presidency and Knesset in the 1996 elections.

In 1998, Herzog ran and won the Governorship of the Eastern District. He staffed his gubernatorial administration with a number of like-minded friends and allies, many of whom had helped expound on the emerging "Metropolitanism." With a spring coalition in the District legislature, Herzog began to propose and pass his new agenda, though it started unevenly. In his first year, his legislative allies passed the country's first District-wide smart growth plan concerning all new development, especially suburban sprawl, as well as mandate bike lanes and special "high occupancy lanes" on highways for vehicles with at least two or more passengers. In the next couple years, he introduced tax breaks for carpooling and utilizing renewable energy initiatives such as solar panels and monetizing carbon emissions inside the Eastern District. He soundly won re-election in 2002. While injecting a firm environmentalist focus in his policy view, he also - temperamentally and institutionally - reaffirmed market capitalism, couched his approach as being based in Torah, and generally upheld the socially conservative order, to the dislike and contempt of a new class of emerging social liberals on the party's left.

Following the Whirlwind Knesset of 2002 and the resignation of the scandal-plagued Naor Hillel, Hillel's Vice-President and successor, the Independent Ariel Halevi, declined to run for re-election, leaving the 2004 presidential election wide open. Amid his growing popularity among the center-left political establishment, Herzog ran in the Con-Lib primary, defeating several candidates to his left by championing his "Metropolitanism," though the press over the campaign season began to refer to his program as "Herzogism," which was adopted by friend and foe alike by Election Day.

Herzog narrowly won the presidency, and his Con-Lib-led spring coalition in the Knesset held a 5-seat majority. In his first years, he passed a raft of legislation, including a national version of his anti-commuter policies of disfavoring cars and supporting more funding, legal privileges, and infrastructure for carpooling, public transit, highway HOV lanes, and a congestion tax. He created "Federal Overlay Districts" to coordinate intra-District metropolitan problems such as certain Royal Government-funded environmental programs and regulatory enforcement, though lawsuits and legal defeats in the Sanhedrin limited their power and reach. He placed a tax on mortgages and raised the downpayment requirements to disincentivize the ease of purchasing a home to slow down rapid urban sprawl around the biggest cities, whose suburbs soared in double-digit growth and expansion for most of the period between the 1955 and 2000. He also attempted to tax the 1990s tech boom to fund more programs without raising broad-based taxes, though his proposed taxes on stock buybacks, stock call options, and mergers and acquisitions were defeated in the Knesset due to the closely-divided composition after 2006 and a cohort of anti-tax suburban Con-Libs who grew to oppose many elements of his agenda.

His Oxidentalist paradigm was dominant, though not supreme, as the governing philosophy inside the Constitutional Liberal Party from his rise to the presidency in the early 2000s until the 2020 election, during which the Herzogist-oriented candidates lost to left-wing firebrand Yosef Kaduri, who advocated a return to 1960s-era leftism. In 2021, the century-old party broke apart, and one of its successors, the National Liberals, are believed to have continued the Herzogist spirit. His program was the ascendant view of the center-left for most of the first twenty years of the 21st century, and popular among urbanites, upscale progressives, environmentalists, and green liberals.