Calâseșism

Calâseșism, or Caliseshism, is a political ideology created by King Nicolae I Vladislav Bogdan Calâseș of Nova Caradia and has become the guiding ideology of the most influential political party in the republic, the Unită Caradia party. The ideology was popularised in a series of essays written by King Nicolae upon his return to Nova Caradian politics in 1691 known as Ordinea, Coroane și Libertatea, which advocated expanded involvement of the monarchy in republican government through the increased power of a federal judicial system.

Policy

Calâseșism organises itself along typical Semi-Presidential Republican lines for government, including what is the current government of Nova Caradia that consists of an elected head of state, an appointed head of government, and an elected representative legislature. Beyond this, Calâseșism also calls for a federal court, which is to preside over the actions of the legislature and the heads of state and government, hearing potential challenges and ruling on them. Calâseșism advocates for this supreme court to be headed by a hereditary monarch, with the remaining judiciaries being split between appointment by the head of state and legislature, and elected by popular vote.

To this end, Calâseșism calls for a simultaneous monarchical and republican government, with the republican branch of this government being the much more important of the two. In a Calâseșist government, the monarch’s purpose is to “provide the sage advice and well-thought out judicial opinions that only one who’s entire life purpose has been directed to the study of and activity in politics can provide; the monarch would not be merely a figurehead, but would neither become a tyrant or supplant the president, rather directing their full life of experience and training to the better execution of the government”. The Calâseșist monarch would not only serve as the Supreme Judiciary, but also as chief advisor to the heads of state and government, and would be given permission to sit in on and advise meetings of the legislature, with their opinion being “sought after and respected, though not necessarily obeyed”.

In terms of foreign policy, Calâseșism aligns with the very popular sentiment in Nova Caradia upon the ideology's first introduction that was generalised as a willingness for cooperation, but an opposition to coordinated threats. Specifically, Calâseșism is against military blocs on the basis that the centralisation of national militaries pose an existential threat to smaller or neutral states that do not have the personal strength or foreign backing to stand up to a challenge from such alliances. However, Calâseșism does promote a "network of friendship", and personal national friendships as well as looser international organisation like the MTO that have less control over their members and, in the view of Calâseșists, promote international peace.

Culturally, the monarch of a nation is intended to serve as its cultural focal point, though not necessarily its leader. Essentially, official actions taken by the government in a Calâseșist nation are done “in the name of the monarch”, and the monarch is regarded as the nation’s “spiritual” head, though Calâseșism is careful to ensure that in the ideology, the monarch is not a true direct authority, but has a primary purpose in being a centripetal factor in the community, which the ideology sees as a necessity because it also encourages more multicultural acceptance. The ideology holds that all people who live in the state have a common duty to the state, and that the government should do what it can to be inclusive to any who may have the potential to become productive members of the community. Because of this, Calâseșism fights for minorities in order to enforce equality for all productive members of the state.

Pushback

In Nova Caradia, the ideology of Calâseșism was adopted by the Unită Caradia party, which presented an issue when Unită Caradia’s partners in its coalition government, the Partid Conservator Național and Alianță Liberală, became decidedly against Calâseșism, citing mainly a fear that the monarchy would reassume control over the state as had happened in the old Duchy. Unită Caradia, however, welcomed the pushback from these parties, because, according to President Pândi Procescu, “The response of our partner parties to our political ideology confirms a good thing to me, that Caradians no longer wish to return to totalitarianism. Calâseșists do not wish for a totalitarian government, and we believe that we can compromise with our partners, and rely on their disagreement about the role of the monarchy to prevent Unită Caradia from becoming radicalised.”