Don't worry, it's not US only! As long as it's context appropriate historical parties and movements the more the merrier
AHC: Create an exotic party system
- Thread starter Born in the USSA
- Start date
I had an intrusive idea for a timeline I'm tentatively calling The King in Yellow so I wanted to put down some initial thoughts for the electoral shifts that set the whole thing up. It's not a wholly unique party system (since the Democrats at the very least will hang on in the end) but it does revolve around a successful third party shifting the course of the 20th century so I think it would still fit here!
The Independence Party is commonly described as the beneficiary of an almost inevitable meteoric rise, a sign of the times by which to conquer, but this is a comforting mask applied with hindsight over a roiling and tumultuous electoral force, a churning undertow born out of New York and New England and unleashed like a tide over the nation.
Originally founded to serve as an progressive electoral vehicle for William Randolph Hearst's successful New York mayoral run, the later success of the party in the 1907 Massachusetts gubernatorial race marked a turning point, transforming a New York party overnight into a potential national force and validating Hearst's heartfelt belief that he was destined for the presidency. Theodore Roosevelt had other ideas- after 8 years in the vice presidency he was still smarting over being dismissed as the 1904 Republican candidate in favor of Charles Fairbanks.
With the nation groaning under the weight of the Fairbanks presidency but the party establishment unwilling to budge, the progressive Republicans decided to bolt the party under Roosevelt's banner. Although there was talk in the early days of forming their own party, it was eventually decided that splitting the progressive vote between multiple parties would only doom both of them to collapse. It was decided, the progressive exodus changed their registration to the Independence Party, and Hearst suddenly had a competing center of power to contend with. Threatening to withdraw financial support would net him the nomination in the end, but the Independence Party was not yet ripe, with the 1908 election narrowly going to Bryan.
Though he would remain powerful within the party, Hearst would never again regain the sheer control he had in the beginning even as Bryan went on to win reelection over scattered Republican opposition. The Battle of Norfolk and the outbreak of World War I would severely tax the Bryan administration, with a surge of Independence Party candidates winning in the midterms. Roosevelt would decline to run himself as a condition for securing Hearst's support behind Beekman Winthrop as an inoffensive consensus candidate. The Independents would become vocal proponents of the war, with the US entering it a full year early.
Winthrop would serve two terms, combining Hearst's focus on urban renewal with Roosevelt's New Nationalism and the cutting edge of rational progressive policies.
The Independence party would declare itself the champion of defense and social spending, the friend of labor, and the executors of a rational policy to bring the nation into the new century and would nominate Leonard Wood to carry the banner forward in 1924. It would prove a rout, with Warren G. Harding winning the presidency on a tide of voters alarmed at the pace of change under Winthrop and seduced by the siren song of a "return to normalcy".
Although the party would retain enough of a place in congress to prevent the outright elimination of their policy gains, with the benefit of hindsight the most crucial development for the party that year was happening outside of it- first elected in 1920, war correspondent turned Republican public intellectual Howard Lovecraft would soon sour on Harding and begin to drift into the Independence camp. HP Lovecraft, the man who would eventually embrace the Independence reforms so thoroughly that he would remake the party itself in his image...
Any questions are welcome 😅
The Independence Party is commonly described as the beneficiary of an almost inevitable meteoric rise, a sign of the times by which to conquer, but this is a comforting mask applied with hindsight over a roiling and tumultuous electoral force, a churning undertow born out of New York and New England and unleashed like a tide over the nation.
Originally founded to serve as an progressive electoral vehicle for William Randolph Hearst's successful New York mayoral run, the later success of the party in the 1907 Massachusetts gubernatorial race marked a turning point, transforming a New York party overnight into a potential national force and validating Hearst's heartfelt belief that he was destined for the presidency. Theodore Roosevelt had other ideas- after 8 years in the vice presidency he was still smarting over being dismissed as the 1904 Republican candidate in favor of Charles Fairbanks.
With the nation groaning under the weight of the Fairbanks presidency but the party establishment unwilling to budge, the progressive Republicans decided to bolt the party under Roosevelt's banner. Although there was talk in the early days of forming their own party, it was eventually decided that splitting the progressive vote between multiple parties would only doom both of them to collapse. It was decided, the progressive exodus changed their registration to the Independence Party, and Hearst suddenly had a competing center of power to contend with. Threatening to withdraw financial support would net him the nomination in the end, but the Independence Party was not yet ripe, with the 1908 election narrowly going to Bryan.
Though he would remain powerful within the party, Hearst would never again regain the sheer control he had in the beginning even as Bryan went on to win reelection over scattered Republican opposition. The Battle of Norfolk and the outbreak of World War I would severely tax the Bryan administration, with a surge of Independence Party candidates winning in the midterms. Roosevelt would decline to run himself as a condition for securing Hearst's support behind Beekman Winthrop as an inoffensive consensus candidate. The Independents would become vocal proponents of the war, with the US entering it a full year early.
Winthrop would serve two terms, combining Hearst's focus on urban renewal with Roosevelt's New Nationalism and the cutting edge of rational progressive policies.
The Independence party would declare itself the champion of defense and social spending, the friend of labor, and the executors of a rational policy to bring the nation into the new century and would nominate Leonard Wood to carry the banner forward in 1924. It would prove a rout, with Warren G. Harding winning the presidency on a tide of voters alarmed at the pace of change under Winthrop and seduced by the siren song of a "return to normalcy".
Although the party would retain enough of a place in congress to prevent the outright elimination of their policy gains, with the benefit of hindsight the most crucial development for the party that year was happening outside of it- first elected in 1920, war correspondent turned Republican public intellectual Howard Lovecraft would soon sour on Harding and begin to drift into the Independence camp. HP Lovecraft, the man who would eventually embrace the Independence reforms so thoroughly that he would remake the party itself in his image...
Any questions are welcome 😅
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For the US
United Labor Party: Founded as an alliance of labor movements in the 1880s, the ULP rose to prominence after successfully electing Henry George as Mayor of New York in 1886. The party soon became dominated by George's acolytes, and adopted his views as its platform while attracting disattisfied greenbackers and bimetallists with its support for inflation. George ultimately became the first ULP President, serving from 1892 to his death in 1897. The ULP continues to combine support for a single tax and loose monetary policy with a laissez-faire approach to social policy and a pacifist foreign policy.
Efficiency Party: Founded as a backlash to the rise of the ULP, the Efficiency Party endorses a pro-business line under the guise of scientific management in both commerce and government.
Agrarian Party: Emerging from the back-to-the-land movement of the 1960s, the Agrarian Policy combines support for environmentalism with skepticism towards capitalism and urban living. Caricartured as a lifestyle movement for privileged beatniks, the Agrarian Party has historically had trouble garnering support outside of New England and the Pacific Northwest.
American Party: Formed in the 1930s to appeal to prohibitionists left politically homeless after the collapse of the Democratic Party, the American Party gained strength after WWII as the only major party to oppose integration. After dropping explicitly racist rhetoric in the 1970s, the AP has focused on a defense of "traditional values" more broadly construed, particularly with regard to nontraditional sexual relationships and immigration.
United Labor Party: Founded as an alliance of labor movements in the 1880s, the ULP rose to prominence after successfully electing Henry George as Mayor of New York in 1886. The party soon became dominated by George's acolytes, and adopted his views as its platform while attracting disattisfied greenbackers and bimetallists with its support for inflation. George ultimately became the first ULP President, serving from 1892 to his death in 1897. The ULP continues to combine support for a single tax and loose monetary policy with a laissez-faire approach to social policy and a pacifist foreign policy.
Efficiency Party: Founded as a backlash to the rise of the ULP, the Efficiency Party endorses a pro-business line under the guise of scientific management in both commerce and government.
Agrarian Party: Emerging from the back-to-the-land movement of the 1960s, the Agrarian Policy combines support for environmentalism with skepticism towards capitalism and urban living. Caricartured as a lifestyle movement for privileged beatniks, the Agrarian Party has historically had trouble garnering support outside of New England and the Pacific Northwest.
American Party: Formed in the 1930s to appeal to prohibitionists left politically homeless after the collapse of the Democratic Party, the American Party gained strength after WWII as the only major party to oppose integration. After dropping explicitly racist rhetoric in the 1970s, the AP has focused on a defense of "traditional values" more broadly construed, particularly with regard to nontraditional sexual relationships and immigration.
For Canada:
Technocratic Party: Strongest in British Columbia and popular with voters of a scientific bent, the Technocratic Party advocates leadership by scientists and engineers, and government intervention in the economy to balance supply and demand.
Social Credit Party: Strongest in Alberta, popular with left-wingers for its advocation of printing money in response to recessions, but has been accoused of harboring a conspiratorial and anti-Semitic element.
Unparty: Heavily influenced by the Objectivist movement, it's members believe that the state is inherently illegitimate, and refuse to accept a salary once elected or vote for any measures other than those that reduce government power.
Technocratic Party: Strongest in British Columbia and popular with voters of a scientific bent, the Technocratic Party advocates leadership by scientists and engineers, and government intervention in the economy to balance supply and demand.
Social Credit Party: Strongest in Alberta, popular with left-wingers for its advocation of printing money in response to recessions, but has been accoused of harboring a conspiratorial and anti-Semitic element.
Unparty: Heavily influenced by the Objectivist movement, it's members believe that the state is inherently illegitimate, and refuse to accept a salary once elected or vote for any measures other than those that reduce government power.
I was wondering what French politics under a surviving Restauration Monarchy (main-line Bourbons rather than a July Monarchy, say Charles X isn't an idiot or Henri V gets Chateaubriand as a tutor) would be/develop? Would it be something like the US or Britain where you have two main blocs (Republican/Democrat or Whig/Tory), or would it be more like the current political situation in France where you have multiple major and minor parties?
I think that would depend in part on the electoral system that's used.
I've finished the TL but am considering expanding it with a series of separate TL's that can be read independently or as part of the same cohesive universe. I can't decide whether to give each their own thread or just demarcate them clearly in a single thread. I put up a poll if anyone wants to get their two cents in. So far one would involve a very occult inclined Greece (and the related political system) while the other would revolve around the evolution of the American school of egoist anarchism into an analogue of the Libertarians.
Here's a little number I came up with inspired by a recent thread by @Strategos' Risk!
- The Progressive-Farmer-Labor Party is the largest American political party almost by default, itself a testament to the resistance of American leftism to the electoral fracturing that consumed the right. Originally formed as a coalition between progressive Democrats and Republicans in the face of the conservative party machines of the early 20th century, the gradual disintegration of those parties would see the Progressives reach out to the Socialist Party to form a single diverse tendency platform to properly overcome the ravages of the Great Depression, creating the PFLP in the process.
- The Liberal Republican Party is the primary opposition party east of the Mississippi and north of the Mason-Dixon. Having reached the point of live-and-let-live with the PFLP's End Poverty in America campaign, the Liberals still firmly oppose other increases in government spending and interference in the economy. Though wary of some of the Socialist-driven relaxing of morality laws the Liberals are considered centrist on social issues within the context of American conservatism.
- The Popular Democratic Party is the party of the Solid South. Originally allied with the PFLP over the economic aspects of the EPA, the alliance broke down over the issue of Civil Rights legislation and the conservative remnant of the southern Democrats reconstituted into the Popular Democrats in 1948 under the leadership of Strom Thurmond. Far more comfortable with economic intervention than either the Liberals or the Radicals, the Populists are the most socially conservative of the three opposition parties. Though largely unable to win the presidency, the Populists have a consistently large bastion in the Senate
- The Radical Republican Party split from the liberals in the 1960s over disagreements within the Republican party between the Rockefeller and Goldwater factions. Though the Radicals and the Liberals share common ground on opposing government expansion, the Radicals are far more libertarian on the issue, actively favoring the complete dismantling of the EPA. At the very least this libertarianism carries over into social issues, though they favor treating drug prohibition and Civil Rights as state rather than federal matters.
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Roundels for the Theodemocrats and Socialists are blue-teal-blue and red-black-red, respectively.
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I happened to see this map the other day and wanted to do something with it 🤔 To start, avoiding the assassination of RFK simultaneously creates divisions in the Democratic Party even as Kennedy is able to chip away at Nixon's margins, creating a situation where George Wallace's plan to force a contingent election actually succeeds. With a more successful American Independent Party in the aftermath and a resulting wave of changes to party registration Nixon still wins out in the contingent election, though Wallace and the AIP has found a strategy that won't win them the presidency but will successfully hold the country hostage every four years.
Of course the Republicans and the Democrats aren't having it and, confident enough that one or the other will always win the popular vote join forces to pass the Bayh-Cellar Amendment in 1971 abolishing the electoral college. So much for the Independents grand strategy. Ironically this further solidifies the South behind the AIP as they shift from procedural maneuvering during presidential elections to devoting themselves wholesale to obstructionism in the House and Senate. Meanwhile the establishment parties move closer to one another on policy as a consequence of their bid to constrain the AIP.
This state of affairs doesn't sit well with many who argued that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans even attempt to pursue policies outside of the narrow consensus that exists between them for fear of creating a space for the expansion of the Independents. While this dissatisfaction is gradually capitalized on by the AIP as it tries to shift its public perception from being a "Southern interests" party to a broader "states rights conservative" one, other groups take advantage as well, most notably John Anderson and the Reform Party.
Founded by Anderson and other dissidents of the political establishment in 1980, the relative success of Anderson's campaign is commonly seen as the true beginning of the end for the Democratic and Republican parties as their bland strain of consensus politics gives way on the right to the AIP obsessed with states rights and law and order and on the left to a Reform party willing to go further on the issues of civil rights, environmentalism and electoral reform. Although Anderson doesn't win in 1980, Ross Perot's victory in 1992 marks the solidification of a new two-party system.
By the modern day, the Independents can be broadly characterized as socially conservative, favor devolution of powers to the states and oppose foreign interventionism and various proposed electoral reforms and constitutional amendments. Reform is socially liberal but also pro-business as a path to fostering innovation and favors an internationalist foreign policy while opposing the draft. Although remnants of the Republicans and Democrats cling on here and there they don't amount to much these days.
I don't know who Wallace was, but going off the year and the locations I'm not getting the best vibes.
To be fair he recanted his segregationism before he died but it took being shot in the spine in 76.
Thesis: A more successful Social Credit Party could have united the issues of western alienation and Francophone rights to hotwire the Canadian political system before the midcentury political realignment within Quebec, creating a diverse tendency socially conservative devolutionary political movement.
Based on a random idea I had over in the flag thread* I came up with another party system inspired by the capitalism/socialism/distributism political triad.
- The Republican Party stays just as pro-business as ever, having shed most of its liberals and progressives in the wake of an alternate Progressive era and World War I.
- The Socialist Party has taken a page out of Germany's book, adopting councilism instead of the Bolshevism they turned to OTL.
- The Commonwealth Party is the most divergent, the result of a scenario where the individualist anarchist strain in the US** survives to run head first into a progressive movement that takes to Georgism more readily. The third pillar of the party is distributism that grows in popularity among the world's Catholics as a reaction against industrial capitalism and council communism.
**Which historically favored mutualism.
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I made a couple of modifications to this party system over in my main thread. The New Progressives are now the Equal Rights Party (named after and billed as the successor to several 19th century parties of that name as well as the mantle of the various Progressive Parties) and Radio Free America always struck me as uninspired, so I renamed it the Subversive Party after the group in the novella Trample an Empire Down that sets out to topple the status quo for excitement and beer money. I also settled on my 2020 candidates! From left to right the Establishment party candidates are:Have the party system for the 2020 election in my Power Without Knowledge timeline!
- Socialist Party- The Senator, Mike Gravel
- Equal Rights Party- The Prosecutor, Zephyr Teachout
- New Federalist Party- The Reformer, Thomas Friedman
- Freedom Party- The CEO*, Elizabeth Holmes
- America First Party- The President, Pat Buchanan
*of Macondo Technologies
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What if Greco-Roman but too much
Laconia Party: Holds Sparta up as the ideal that society should aspire to, offer universal employment through the lifetime conscription of every male citizen with all non-military positions necessary to keep the country functioning taken by women.
Olive Branch Society: Holds Athens as the ideal society, advocate for direct democratic participation in all political decisions by the citizens
Laconia Party: Holds Sparta up as the ideal that society should aspire to, offer universal employment through the lifetime conscription of every male citizen with all non-military positions necessary to keep the country functioning taken by women.
Lacono-Luddite: The primitivist wing of the party, believe that the human spirit has to be refined without the intrusion of modern technology. Society should exactly mirror Sparta
Techno-Laconian: Advocate for transhumanism, believe that through gene editing, robotic augmentation and eugenics a stronger race of warriors can be created
Olive Branch Society: Holds Athens as the ideal society, advocate for direct democratic participation in all political decisions by the citizens
Optimates: Take a narrow view on the term citizen, only citizens with property and an education (with particular focus on philosophy and rhetoric) should be allowed to participate in politics
Popularies: Embrace a broader view on who should be allowed to participate in elections
Daughters of Otrera: An all-woman political party, advocates for a female dominated society. Largest party by size (mostly because they count all women as members) but also the most fractious
Daughters of Circe: Men should still be allowed to exist but should be sequestered for the benefit of society and themselves
Daughters of Athena: Basically a branch of the Olive Branch Society, but explicitly gynocratic
Daughters of Aphrodite Areia: Basically a branch of the Laconia Party (with close ties to the Techno-Laconians), but explicitly gynocratic
Sisters of Artemis: Advocate for a life separate from men, don't really care what they end up doing
Daughters of the Fates: The most 'liberal' branch of the Otreriad. Perfectly willing to let men hold high titles of power, so long as the power lies with them
Dikaiosune League: Seek to build a society that precisely replicates Plato's Republic
Children of Dionysus: Not really a political party so much as a drunken vigilante organization that occasionally rips apart the rich and powerful in a drunken fury
Deleted member 139407
Out of Many, One: An Alternate Party System of the United States:
*Subtle POD drop right here
- National Union Party - The NUP is the largest party in the United States and has been the de-facto leader in nearly all branches of government since the 1860s barring a fair few of presidencies and congressional leaderships from opposing parties. The party, itself, dates back to the American Civil War formerly known as the Republican Party. After the death of presidents Lincoln and Dickinson*, however, the name change would stay permanent through the presidencies of Grant, Colfax, and Bristow. The party evolved to include pro-Union Democrats and eventually grew to be a big-tent party encompassing a wide swath of ideologies from ardent social and fiscal conservatives to a handful of "popular bi-metalists" from Colorado. However, come to the modern day, the Party has consolidated its big tent to social liberal-centre and economically liberal-conservative positions. Currently, the Executive Office is occupied by the party's dominant faction - the New Unionists which emphasize economic conservatism and social liberalism. In Congress, the Party holds nearly 300 seats in the House. It should be added that this follows a loss of 20 seats in the recent Congressional elections.
- New Democratic Party - The NDP follows the NUP as the second largest party in Congress with 75 seats in Congress. The party was founded out of the secession of the America First Caucus from the NUP in the late 1950s and its subsequent reorganization to the NDP in the early 1960s. Many of those in the America First Caucus, led prominently by governor Richard Russell, found that since the end of the presidency of Walter Reuther, the NUP was aiming to shift socially in an appeal to CLP voters. While there have been numerous times where the NDP have made it to the runoff election against the NUP, no NDP member has made it to the presidency. However, some NDP endorsed candidates have ascended to the Presidency including the nonpartisan conservative John B. Connally who had formed his own ill-fated political party, the National Independent Party at the end of his term. The NDP has maintained its staunch fiscal and social conservatism since its formation.
- Constitutional Labor Party - The CLP is the second youngest party in the United States of America and was the premier opposition party to the NUP throughout the early to mid-20th century until the rise of the New Democratic Party and the Connally presidency. The party was formed after the split of the populist People's Party in the 1890s and the consolidation of its labor elements with the Union Labor and Readjuster parties to form the CLP. The most formidable President from the CLP was Walter Reuther who was elected after the failures of President George Marshall during the Great Famine of the 1950s. His official "American Laborer's Manifesto" and personal ideology revolutionized the agriculture sector with the forming of the American Agricultural Authority (AAA) and setting the groundwork for notable advancements in civil rights in America. However, recently, the party has gone down a social conservative route on issues like immigration, abortion, LGBTQ rights, and healthcare reform. It currently holds 35 seats in the House.
- American People's Reform Party - The APRP is the youngest federal-level party as it was only founded in the wake of the Y2K Bust and the revived Populist Movement. Officially, unlike all the other parties listed, the Party was formed outside of existing parties and saw no major incumbent defections from existing parties or nonpartisans represented in Congress. The party has been described as populist, libertarian, new-age laborist, democratic socialist (sparingly) and communist (disparagingly amongst far-right and NDP circles). The specific ideology can be described as economically left and socially libertarian. No APRP nominee has made it to the runoff, but most members will tell you that this will be their year to do so. If current polling is to be taken as fact, the 2023 presidential election may well be their year. However, the party only has 23 seats in Congress, so any chance of a full blown Reform agenda being passed is slim.
- It should be important to mention that there are a number of Nonpartisan officials in both the national and statewide legislatures. The ideologies of them are not unanimous and can be traced back to various parties on the Congressional and statewide level. However, the six nonpartisan House members can be found voting with the NDP, the CLP and the NUP. Currently, four of the nonpartisan House members are in the top 10 most wealthy members of Congress. The other two were insurgent campaigns mainly in metro areas to unseat unpopular incumbents from the CLP and NUP, respectively.
*Subtle POD drop right here
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