Gosant

In Carucerean politics the gosant (lit. big centre) refers to political parties and movements that are mainly organized to pursue the political interests of the social or ethnic communities they represent, instead of having a specific or consistent ideological orientation. To achieve this, they seek to ensure their proximity to the current ruling political party in order to gain advantages and concessions and to maintain clientelistic networks for their constituents. Despite its name, they are not exclusively centrist but the term instead refers to their central role in Carucere's politics.

The gosant is often contrasted with the ideolojis or the ideology-based political parties, mainly represented by the Carucerean National Congress. Although nearly all political parties in Carucere's race centered politics are favored by certain demographics, the ideolojis consistently promote a coherent political platform. Although some parties of the gosant are more ideologically coherent than others, experts argue that these gosant parties merely reflects the desires of the ethnic group they represent.

History

The term has its origins from national politics during the 1950s, when it was used to collectively refer to the nominally center left political parties that revolved around ethnic interests than ideological orientation. At the time, the gosant consisted of three main national parties; the National Party, United Reform Party, and the Social Republican Party, which represented Creole, Bahian, and Dezevauni ethnic interests respectively. While the three parties generally espoused similar policies, they had mutually exclusive interests and competed for political influence during elections and distributed resources and political favors to their community, usually to the detriment of the others when in power.

The gosant would gain its modern prominence after the decline of the Carucerean National Congress in the 1980s, and the formation of the blouk (bloc), a political alliance between the United Progressive Party (PPI) and the General Assembly for Development Party in 1985. By cooperating and evenly dividing resources, the two former rivals no longer had to compete against each other and had more resources to spend for their voter bases. The alliance often clashed with President Edwin Serville over political priorities and patronage systems. The blouk would remain in power in the Senate until 2002.

Congress-aligned President Daniel Sayasone sought to break up the blouk and pursued a policy of playing both parties off each other. President Sayasone would offer agreements or proposals to one party that would favor them over their partner and force them to decide to accept or not the deal. These disputes would break up the blouk in 1998, leading the Congress party's first government since the 1980s. The gosant would eventually return to prominence when a IPP Premier returned to power in 2010. Instead of a formal alliance, they cooperated with other parties on an ad hoc basis in exchange for support. Today the gosant consists of several parties.

Members

The following parties have generally been considered to be part of the gosant.

Party	Senators	Description
United Progressive Party (IPP)	22	Founded in 1951 as a merger of three parties to represent the Dezevauni-Carucerans community, particularly those who continue to practice Badi. It supported in the Serville, Sayasone and Gubina presidencies. Supported Neil Gubina's reelection campaign in the 2022 presidential election. Nominally left-wing and left-wing nationalist, but it mainly is a populist party.
Carucerean Country Party (CCP)	7	Founded as the political wing of the Padarathan Association cultural organization, the party represents the interests of the Satrian community in Carucere. It participated in the Sayasone and Gaubina presidencies. It was neutral in Neil Gaubina's reelection campaign in the 2022 presidential election, but backed him in the runoff election in exchange for political favors. Nominally centre-left.
Reformed Social Party (RSP)	13	Founded in 1967 to represent Amendist Noir, it has become more socially conservative in recent decades. It participated in the Lurel, Serville, and Sayasone presidencies but opposed Gaubina's presidency. It opposed Neil Gaubina's reelection campaign in the 2022 presidential election, but declared neutrality in the runoff election after lobbying. Like the NPC it is more ideologically coherent than the rest of the gosant, however it has no specific stances outside of social issues and thus is nominally right-wing.
National Party of Carucere (PNC)	10	The National Party was founded in 1944 as part of the opposition to the Democratic Party, representing the Catholic Church and Carucerean Catholics. It has since shifted to be the main political party of Carucerean creoles. It participated in the Lurel, Serville, and Sayasone presidencies but opposed Gaubina's presidency. It opposed Neil Gaubina's reelection campaign in the 2022 presidential election, but declared neutrality in the runoff election after political lobbying. While it is firmly sotirian democratic and socially conservative, it has only minor electoral success outside of its traditional ethnic base and it often represents their ethnic issues. Broadly centre-right to right-wing.
General Assembly for Development Party (JADP)	8	Founded in 1975 as a general association to represent the interests of the Carucerean Maroon community. It participated in the Lurel, Serville, Sayasone, and Gaubina presidencies. It supported Neil Gaubina's reelection campaign in the 2022 presidential election, in exchange for political favors. Nominally centrist/centre-left.
National Front (NF)	2	The National Front is a right-wing party which espouses policies that appeal towards white conservatives. Due to its radical nature, all other political parties enacted a Cordon sanitaire and have refused to work with the Front. Mainly right-wing to far-right.