Federal Humanist Party 1708 General Election Campaign (Nouvelle Alexandrie)

Campaign and platform of the Federal Humanist Party in the general election of 1708 AN, held in Nouvelle Alexandrie following the collapse of the SDLA administration in office since 1703 AN.

Overview

Federal Humanist Party in the 1708 General Election

Heading	Text
Ticket
Co-Archons	Gerhardt Eugen Seydlitz Felipe de Almagro
Nominee for President of the Government	Felipe de Almagro
Candidate List	619 candidates
Values
Administration	Technocratic meritocracy
Economy	Free trade globalism
Foreign affairs	Hegemonic consolidation
Society	Moderate conservative

Manifesto

Constitutional Settlement

The Federal Humanist Party remains firmly committed to the institution of the monarchy, as the guarantor of the rights and liberties promulgated through the Proclamation of Punta Santiago. The Federal Humanist Party remains committed to this constitutional settlement, the fundamental melding of institutional cohesion and democratic consensus which lies at the heart of the Federation.

The Federal Humanist Party asserts that the Human Supremacy on Micras shall be upheld and advanced by recognising and defending the rights of all loyal citizens of this Federation.

Defence & Security Policy

Within one-hundred days of a Federal Humanist Party ministry being appointed by His Majesty, a general offensive shall be commenced against the Vanic Insurgency on Lyrica. In cooperation with Hurmu and with our Raspur Pact allies, the entirety of Lyrica shall be scoured from south to north and all vestiges of resistance quashed. For those who have taken up arms against the Crown, no mercy shall be shown. The choice awaiting those who still cling to the diabolical Vanic faith is clear – to perish under arms or to depart these lands.

All community self-defence groups established during the Vanic Insurgency in North Lyrica and South Lyrica shall be inducted into the Federal Guards Service as Home Guard Regiments, provided that they take an oath of allegiance to His Majesty. Augustus Strong shall be appointed Colonel-in-Chief to the Home Guard Regiments of Lyrica.

Every region of the Federation shall be permitted the right to raise Home Guard Regiments affiliated to the Federal Guards Service. Registered gun-owners, as a condition of their licences, shall be expected to associate with the nearest Home Guard Regiment of their region, to be known to them, and to be available for four hours of firearms training and discipline by the Home Guard Regiments per week. An appropriate stipend will be paid to those who associate themselves to the Home Guard Regiments for the hours in which they are on duty.

A Federal Humanist Party ministry will continue the programme of naval shipbuilding and fleet expansion inherited from previous governments. Our Federation has holdings on three continents, and the islands in-between, with the sea as our centre of gravity. Securing the sea-lanes is key to our survival and prosperity. Our ambitious fleet programme will see 158 surface vessels, and 80 submarines launched by 1715. Naval expansion will guarantee full order books for our shipyards for years to come. Not just ESB Susa and the Pontecorvo Firm and their workforces, but all those involved in the supply chain will benefit.

It shall be the policy of any ministry headed by the Federal Humanist Party to eradicate the last vestiges of Bassarid piracy from the Near Abroad of Nouvelle Alexandrie.

Economic Policy

We will encourage the growth of Chambers of Guilds and Corporations in our major cities as a venue through which the leaders of our industries and organised labour can engage in useful dialogue and strategic level coordination.

The Pan-Euran Highway will be revived by any ministry headed by the Federal Humanist Party. By reactivating the core mechanisms of the New Prosperity Plan we propose to finance simultaneous advances by funding the proposed northern, central, and southern routes of the Highway that have been previously entertained.

The Federal Humanist Party would propose that any ministry it heads or supports would introduce Regional Industrial Arbitration Boards. These boards would oblige trade unions to negotiate collectively with the key industrial concerns and regional administrations, so as to ensure that bargains struck remain best suited to the local level, regional governments retain relevancy, and trade unions are prevented from becoming all-powerful extra-parliamentary concerns.

Upon the appointment of a ministry headed by the Federal Humanist Party, every municipality will be directed to establish a Labour Exchange. Regions and States will be obliged to ensure that Labour Exchanges in their jurisdictions are confederated and maintain visibility of vacancies and workers within their collective area. Corporations domiciled in Nouvelle Alexandrie shall receive a five percent tax break if they give first refusal on job vacancies to citizens registered with the Labour Exchange.

Corporations registered in Nouvelle Alexandrie shall be offered a further five percent tax break if they ensure that four year apprenticeships, offered exclusively to citizens aged sixteen to twenty-five in possession of a High School Diploma, constitute a quarter of the total pay roll.

Any corporation employing more than eighty thousand citizens of Nouvelle Alexandrie may apply for a five percent tax rebate provided that they are either wholly domiciled and headquartered in Nouvelle Alexandrie or pay taxes to the Federal Government on profits earned in Nouvelle Alexandrie at the same rate as domiciled companies.

Education Policy

In each region of the Federation, the Federal Humanist Party proposes to establish a Grand Institute for each of the following specialist areas of study:

• science and engineering
• humanities
• business
• public policy, administration, and the political sciences

Enrolment in a Grand Institute will be open to all citizens aged between sixteen and eighteen years of age who score 90% or higher in competitive written and oral exams conducted by the Federal Government and who pass an examination of their mental, physical, and genetic health. Those who meet the enrolment criteria will then be subject to a further competitive examination conducted by the Grand Institute itself, appropriate to its area of specialism, from which the top 1% percent will be called forth and offered a place at the Grand Institute.

Tuition costs for the students of the Grand Institutes will be met by the regions, with a means-tested bursary to cover the living costs of any student whose parents earn less than 40,000 ecus per annum as a combined income.

Grand Institutes will provide a four year education in their area of specialism, culminating in the award of a Superior Diploma. Graduates of the Grand Institutes must complete a minimum of four years of public service in the regional governments or the Federal Forces before they return to the Grand Institutes for a further four years of study so as to attain their Master Doctorates. On attaining their Master Doctorates the successful graduates shall be eligible to join the Higher Cadres of the Federal Civil Service.

At their discretion, regional administrations will be encouraged to establish Superior Preparatory Schools for children aged twelve to sixteen so that those individuals, irrespective of background, who are identified through competitive examination as being of superior intellectual attainment are prioritised for a developed education preparatory for entering into the competitive examination process for gaining placement with the Grand Institutes. Superior Preparatory Schools may issue bronze, silver and gold baccalaureates, with the bronze baccalaureate being understood to be equivalent to a passing grade of the regular high school diplomas and the silver and gold accordingly to be more prestigious in turn. In each regional municipality the most promising twenty-five percent of children in each cohort at the age of twelve, identified through competitive examination, should be called forward to a placement at a Superior Preparatory School.

The Federal Humanist Party will not countenance the false egalitarianism of universalised mediocrity but will instead show ruthless favour to proven merit and demonstrable talent, irrespective of a citizen's circumstances at birth.

The Federal Humanist Party would also strongly encourage the major corporations of Nouvelle Alexandrie to establish Grand Institutes of their own and to contribute to the improvement of the citizenry, and their own potential workforces, thereby. Favourable tax breaks for any corporation establishing a Grand Institute should be actively considered by regional administrations and the Federal Government.

Foreign Policy

The Federal Humanist Party remains committed to Nouvelle Alexandrie's membership of the Raspur Pact. A ministry headed by the Federal Humanist Party would encourage all nations within its sphere of influence to respect the domestic rule of law and the prevailing international order, of which the Raspur Pact is the pre-eminent architect. Nations that abide by these requirements and which remain in the good graces of His Majesty shall be cordially encouraged to seek membership of the Raspur Pact so as to further enhance the collective security and prosperity of all nations.

The Federal Humanist Party defines the sphere of influence of Nouvelle Alexandrie as being a primarily oceanic zone of convergence between the continents of Apollonia, Eura, and Keltia. In Apollonia, the Strait of Pearls, the O'Rear Strait, the Pond Strait, and Herrin Bay. In Eura, the Dyre Straits, the Gulf of Aqaba, the Orange Sea, and the eastern portions of the Raynor Sea. In Keltia, the Captive Sea, the Skerry Isles, and the Sea of Storms. Lake Cherusken is also considered to be a body of water that falls under the influence of His Majesty's Federation.

Within the above defined sphere of influence, otherwise to be known as the Near Abroad of Nouvelle Alexandrie, any ministry headed by the Federal Humanist Party will work to promote good governance, free trade, respect for the rule of law, observation of international norms of behaviour, and a general condition of friendship and amity between all realms and peoples.

It shall be the policy of the Federal Humanist Party, under any ministry it heads, to appoint consuls to all port cities in the Near Aboard of Nouvelle Alexandrie, and to schedule regular friendship visits to those ports by the ships of the Federal Navy.

Any ministry headed by the Federal Humanist Party shall pay special attention to reconstruction and stabilisation efforts in Hurmu and the Dark Berry Isles.

Our strategic partnerships with Natopia and Constancia shall be further strengthened. Nouvelle Alexandrie should focus upon the Euran Economic Union as the vehicle of partnership with Constancia and the other Euran allies of the Raspur Pact.

The Community of Goldfield, whilst properly falling outside the defined Near Abroad of Nouvelle Alexandrie, can still be supported as a mechanism for the reinsurance and stabilisation of Ransenar and Western Natopia on the continents of Benacia and Cibola respectively.

It shall be a matter of policy for any ministry headed by the Federal Humanist Party that the Strait of Haifa shall be internationalised, opened up for unimpeded maritime commerce, and cleared of all forms of piracy and illegality, especially where of Bassarid origin.

Housing Policy

Whilst the Federal Humanist Party considers the right of home ownership to be sacrosanct, it will benefit neither the home owner, the prospective buyer, nor the national community if we allow our housing stock to become an asset bubble that devours wealth which might be more productively invested elsewhere. To this end the mortgage lending practices of our financial institutions shall be investigated by a Government appointed ombudsmen. We do not wish to see our citizens sold mortgages that are beyond their means and shall take steps to prevent this practice from distorting the market.

The Federal Humanist Party will nonetheless continue to expand the construction of housing and allowing individuals in government-run housing projects to become a part of an ownership society by buying their property.

If over the next year the demand for housing continues to exceed supply in the cities, the Federal Humanist Party will mandate the Federal Government to work with State and Regional Authorities to establish new satellite communities, utilising prefabricated buildings and requisitioned land, to relieve the immediate burden, and appoint a Crown Commission for the creation of new Chartered Cities, with integrated transportation and utility plans at the municipal level.

Regional administrations and the state authorities beneath them are expected to be proactive in implementing their own solutions to housing shortfalls in their territorial jurisdictions. The Federation is sufficiently vast that the excuse of overcrowding in a few key cities can no longer be seriously entertained.

Law and Order Policy

The Federal Gendarmerie shall be better organised. A commandant-general shall be appointed and a board of commissioners to support him also. In each region a Board of Inspection shall be constituted to oversee the actions of the Federal Gendarmerie. Each state shall maintain, as a minimum, one regiment of gendarmes (1,200 men). A commandant for each region shall be appointed, with the obligation to raise a commissariat regiment and an inspectorate regiment to support the regiments of gendarmes within his area of operations. The federal gendarmes will liaise as appropriate with the regional, state, and municipal administrations, but shall remain in subordination to the Federal Government.

State administrations shall be reminded of their obligations to appoint qualified magistrates for the municipalities in their territorial jurisdictions. These magistrates must be sober, honest, literate, of good character, and without criminal convictions or moral blemishes upon their character. Magistrates should be expected to try the majority of civil and criminal cases brought in their jurisdictions, particularly where they relate to the enforcement of state and regional statutes and by-laws.

Regional administrations should appoint circuit judges, again to be sober, honest, literate, of good character, and without criminal convictions or moral blemishes upon their character. The primary duties of a circuit judge are to hear the appeals brought against the judgements of magistrates, to conduct inspections of the magistrates, disciplining and dismissing where appropriate, and to authorise the transfer of prisoners into federal custody where necessary and appropriate.

A ministry headed by the Federal Humanist Party will undertake to regularise the federal judiciary and to establish citadels of justice, housing a federal courthouse and maximum security prison for each region and federal district of the Federation, so that justice may be more efficiently and swiftly served.