Progress (Liberto-Ancapistan)

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Progress

Pêşverûtî
LeaderCasimir Bergen
ChairmanAbu-Hamza Hashmi
Deputy LeaderIndra Makarin
Founded24th January 1884
Split fromLibertarian Party
HeadquartersBakur Corn Exchange, Bakur Quarter, Bajazad
Youth wingProgressive Youth
Santian wingProgress in Santia
Overseas wingProgressive International
IdeologySocial liberalism
Social democracy
Georgism
Political positionCentre-left
Colors  Blue
  Red
House of Commons
236 / 500
House of Asagi
31 / 110
Provincial Premiers
2 / 7

Progress (Basaquese: Pêşverûtî), known between 1884 and 1996 as the Liberal-Radical Party and between 1996 and 2020 as the Alliance for Progress, is a centre-left political party in Liberto-Ancapistan. It is one of the two major parties of contemporary Liberto-Ancapistan along with the Libertarian Party, from which it originally split. Progress has been a major party since the formation of Liberto-Ancapistan, but only became the largest in the country in 2020. There have been two Progress Chancellors, Zakia Askari and Casimir Bergen.

The party was founded in 1884, after the Republic of Libertarya's highly influential Society of Libertarians reformed itself into the Libertarian Party, gaining a stronger leadership structure and placing greater influence in the hands of more conservative members. Several prominent left-leaning MPs, including cabinet member Adel Xwe, split from the party to found a new body in order to advocate for more radical social reforms, named the Liberal-Radical Party. The party would go on to govern Libertarya between 1902 and 1908, during which it passed several long-standing social reforms, and remained a major force until the unification of Liberto-Ancapistan. Like many other parties from Libertarya, the party successfully established itself on a national level through informal mergers with regional left-leaning parties.

The party regularly attained chief opposition party status through the late 20th century, forming coalition governments with the Libertarian Party through the mid 1970s. In 1977, the party responded to the 'corners' crisis' recession by helping to form a non-Libertarian coalition government until 1980. This success was even more strongly repeated in 1990, when the Liberal-Radicals became the centrepiece of another coalition led by party leader Zakia Askari, ruling until 1994. Following Askari’s defeat, and poor election results in 1996, the party rebranded itself the ‘Alliance for Progress’. During the 2000s, the Alliance benefitted from the weakness of the Libertarian Party, but failed to establish itself as a major contender for power until the 2019 anti-austerity protests, when it saw a surge in popularity. In 2020 the party’s name was shortened to Progress, and shortly after won the 2020 general election, establishing a coalition government. Since then, the party has won two further general elections, but suffered with the breakaway of the Social Democratic Party in 2022.

Progress has historically adopted a mixture of social-liberal and social-democratic policies, though following the departure of several MPs to form the Social Democratic Party in 2022 it has gravitated primarily towards the former. Additionally, the party has a strong Georgist tendency, and is highly supportive of both land value taxes and universal basic income. Progress is strongly internationalist, and has pursued a more interventionist foreign policy than other Liberto-Ancapistanian parties. The party has taken a broadly supportive approach to the United Federation of Telrova (UFT), with Progress Chancellor Casimir Bergen joining it in 2022. However, Progress has shown scepticism towards proposals of further UFT integration, including a joint customs union.