New Consensus
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New Consensus: A Plan for Nouvelle Alexandrie is a book written by Federal Consensus Party prominents Alfons Dandela (SAN), Pedro Albaraz (ALD), and Hastu Hualla Surichaqui (WEC). The book is an evolution of the Common Sense Principles that founded the party.
The term "New Consensus" refers to the ideas than Dandela announced in 1715 AN, to create a new ideology for the Federal Consensus Party, in particular in regards to the more moderate ideals of devolution and constitutional reform.
The ideology of New Consensus centers around five themes:
- An innovative, open market economy;
- Civil rights and democracy;
- Top-class public services;
- Strong international cooperation;
- A new era of building.
Under Dandela, the idea to remove the Chamber of Peers was removed from the goals of the party. Instead, the 'New Consensus' wants to reform the Chamber to remove hereditary peers, and introduce term limits of 15 years for every peer. Also, gun rights were scrapped, and instead, the FCP is now pro-gun control.
Much of the book formed the basis of the 1718 General Election Campaign.
Background
The New Consensus ideology took shape after the disastrous defeat in the New Alexandrian general election of 1713. Noticing the declining popularity for the Common Sense Principles, Alfons Dandela started writing a new campaign manifesto. In 1715 AN, he announced the launching of the New Consensus manifesto, by introducing his '10 Pledges':
- Creating a new 'Charter of Rights' to ensure social and economic rights and freedoms;
- Investing in small businesses and jobs in the public sector;
- Equalising spending in school districts;
- Investing in teacher training and certification, empowering the teachers;
- Collaborating in the public-private sectors to create new healthcare capabilities;
- Reforming taxes to lower burdens on individuals and ensuring businesses pay their fair share;
- Creating new devolution agreements to move Police, Culture, and Environment to the administrative divisions;
- Investing in housing and civil works, and promoting sustainable architecture;
- Creating new avenues for e-government to give citizens more access to policy and governments;
- Investing in the Raspur Pact to promote mutual defence and free trade.
These pledges were included in the book, along with the new themes.
New Consensus
An innovative market economy
The book includes a number of measures to complete the vision of a market economy that is innovative and open. Some of the most important measures include:
- A New start-up grant;
- Regional economic plans, identifying key industries and growth opportunities;
- Extensively expanding the public sector, emphasising the tax collection service and public administration;
- New funding and public-private partnerships for infrastructure development;
- Lowering income taxes and increasing capital-gains taxes;
- New grants for organic farming and circular agriculture;
- Special grants for IT, biobased products, and energy research & development;
- Implementing e-commerce in the postal service and retail;
- Expanding broadband services across the nation.
Civil Rights and Democracy
The book includes a number of measures to strengthen civil rights and freedoms and improve democratic systems:
- Creating a new Charter of Rights, with new social, economic, and political rights and freedoms;
- Devolving many responsibilities to Regions, including police, culture, roads, and railways;
- Creating more applications of e-government;
- Investing in political education with new public campaigns;
- Reforming gun control law, to lower violent crime;
- An extensive program to expand the police, parole services, and intelligence community;
- The creation of a fiscal police service;
- New services and rights for victims and witnesses;
- Strengthening legal aid by lowering court fees and giving access to pro bono lawyers;
- Reforming the Chamber of Peers with extensive new rules and regulations;
- Having a chosen President of the Government;
- Creating a new Youth Cortes;
- Establishing new public consultations, committee hearings, and other civil participation mechanisms.
Top-class public services
The book has multiple measures to protect healthcare and education, making them among the top of the world:
- Creating local healthcare business plans;
- Creating joint R&D centres for health sciences;
- New grants for dentistry, optometry, and revalidation services;
- New collaboration agreements between GPs and hospital with joint training programs and shared medical records;
- Increasing taxation on tobacco, introducing a tax on sugar, and setting limits on salt, sugars, and fat;
- Removing mould from damp houses, and giving grants for air quality to households;
- Investing in traffic safety for pedestrians and cyclists.
- Investing in medical technology and new treatments, promoting electronic health records and creating new medical innovation hubs.
- Investing in medical education through continuous learning by healthcare professionals.
- Equalising spending in school districts;
- New grants for comprehensive teacher training;
- Creating new tutoring programs;
- Giving children a rich school day with mandatory sports, music, drama, and dance;
- Creating new language classes and promoting reading skills, as well as funding homework support;
- Making all schools accessible;
- Investing in science, with new funding for universities and research facilities and new sector plans;
- Promoting open science access with a national repository.
- Creating a National History Canon and making it available in every library;
- New grants for art, culture, and heritage;
- Building new courthouses and establishing new adjudication procedures;
- Using e-government in library access, public utilities use, and urban planning applications.
Strong international cooperation
The book includes measures to strengthen the international community and promote the membership of the Micras Treaty Organization and Raspur Pact:
- Sign the Convention on Civil Aviation;
- Establishing new cooperative programs for data sharing in national defense, crime, and anti-terrorism with Raspur Pact allies;
- Expanding the Economic Cooperation Sub-comission and establishing an international trade fleet;
- Developing new trade ports and other infrastructure;
- Signing new free trade agreements, including with the Bassarid Empire;
- Making FTAs more transparent with strong rules and limitations;
- Investing in democratic stability by expanding the MTO Court;
- Investing in diplomatic services.
A new era of building
The book includes multiple measures to address the issues of housing and infrastructure:
- Building more than 1 million houses and implement mandatory construction targets;
- Making neighborhoods connected and accessible through proper transit connections and pedestrian and cyclist safety measures;
- Gentrifying old neighborhoods with emphasis of business and culture;
- Decarbonizing households by removing gas boilers and stoves and and heat pumps;
- Creating grants for micro-generation;
- Investing in insulation old homes with mandatory efficiency standards;
- Introducing a transfer tax for investors;
- Creating new neighborhoods by expanding existing cities and creating neighborhood plans;
- Promoting mixed-use development and zoning overlay districts;
- Building new railways, specifically local lines;
- Building roads, including bypasses and new rural and local connections;
- Removing roadside parking spaces and replacing them by park & ride locations;
- Developing a road safety plans, including traffic calming measures;
- Building new airports, most importantly those on the Islands;
- Decreasing taxes on domestic air travel, while increasing taxes on international airlanes.
- Building new metro and trams;
- Opening new bus lines and creating bus rapid transit (BRT) lines;
- Investing in maritime technology and shore facilities;
- Creating grants for sustainable fishing and maritime businesses;
- Rapidly expanding renewable energy production with new offshore wind parks, solar parks, and nuclear plants;
- Expanding recycling processes and reforming waste separation;
- Investing in international transport links.
Other ideals
The book concludes with several smaller measures that focus on Diversity, Media, and Finance:
- Maintaining family planning rights including abortion and self-determination;
- Combatting domestic abuse with new services and regulations;
- Closing the wage gap;
- Creating special discrimination coordinators for police and armed forces;
- Issuing fines to businesses and employers caught discriminating;
- Implementing diversity and inclusion programs in recruitment and retention, mentorships, and leadership development;
- Creating restorative justice programs;
- Protecting same-sex rights such as marriage and adoption;
- Expanding sexual education in schools to include gender and sexuality;
- Establish special prevention programs for LGBTI+ people;
- Creating mental health services for LGBTI+ people;
- Implementing anti-bullying programs in schools and work spaces;
- Creating grants for cultural programs and documentaries on TV and radio;
- Promoting joint production of programming, sharing of technical infrastructure, and a shared code of conduct;
- Funding new multi-language content;
- Supporting regional television and radio channels, and integrating them into national networks;
- Creating a national content exchange program;
- Creating a new fund for investigative and local journalism;
- Maintaining the independence of the press;
- Combating hate speech and misinformation in media outlets;
- Protecting whistleblowers with new regulations about anonymity;
- Strengthening competition in media technology and services;
- Making mandatory regulations about algorithms for transparency, detailed explanations, and investigation;
- Creating a mandatory public database about paid, target group oriented, online political recruitment ads;
- Making information about advertisers mandatory for social media companies;
- Implementing fiscal discipline measures;
- Lowering national debt including by restructuring and extending the maturity;
- Investigating allegations or corruption or misuse of public funds;
- Lowering national taxes and allowing regions and municipalities space to adjust their own taxes;
- Establishing regular audits and public reporting of financial data;
- Discouraging debt financing less attractive for households and businesses;
- Mandating regular evaluation of government expenditure by the Cortes Federales;
- Establishing new collaborations between the government and Cortes;
- Establish new forums and consultations with civil society organizations.
