Politics of FPH

The politics of FPH take place with the framework of a leaderial system with usually semi-annual elections. While no written constitution exists anymore, any disputes can be solved by ritual combat or bribes so the system works well.
==FPH Government==
 
While an all-Templar vote has always been the agreed-upon method of legislation in the Clan, the Leader is the ultimate executive and judicial power. As the Clan is a theocracy, every decision must be made according to the tenets of Hippoism.
Admins, especially those pesky root admins, have always been important in FPH politics as un-removable maintainers of the Forums. At times, Admins were prohibited from running for Leader, as so much power can make a dude go crazy.
==International relations==
The Clan is in a precarious and not always clear position in the Canada-Penguin conflict. The clan's main international rival is Norway, with its unjustified claims on Bouvetoya and what not. The Clan also has a royal marriage with North Korea and enjoys military access through Auvergne. The Clan's relations with Leeds are complicated.
Some positions in the FPH government come with claims to viceroyalty of India and the crowns of Bohemia, Swabia and Jerusalem, for reasons murky but certainly legit.
==Political history of FPH==
===Early development===
At the Clan's inception, Martin (PBUH) was the Leader. His political ideas and programs, known as Martínismo, represent an early form of Elitism.
The central ideas of the no-nonsense Martínismo were ruthless policing of off-topic posts on the forums, regular purges of people who were not playing AoM, and earnest inter-clan diplomacy. While Martínismo may seem cold and harsh to contemporary sissies, let's see how you'd propose to run a gaming clan full of 14 year olds in the year of our lord 2002
Martin's selected moderators, at the time each with their individual forum, became an entrenched elite which carried over to the Veggie administration.
===The n00d-m0d divide===
A growing dissatisfaction with moderators having power over ordinary templars lead to the birth of n00dism and the n00d-m0d war. After the rebellion, n00ds entered electoral politics, starting 2003. While an outspoken and visible faction, the n00ds would never seize power until late aughties, however.
Despite their lack of electoral success, n00dists influenced FPH leadership in many ways; as winning their votes was often necessary to win elections, this favoured moderate Leaders, such as frop and Hal, who instituted many democratic policies such as mod elections.
===Nash-Pascalism===
Nash-Pascalism is a political ideology founded when a man named David Nash seized a small island because Indians, working on behalf of an association he called the Blue Tulip Party.http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/man-seize-governors-island-article-1.643411. Pascal immediately endorsed Nash's policy and set out to follow him, enjoying early success as he conquered his own officehttp://www.flyingpurplehippos.org/index.php?showtopic=3641&p=156535.
As Pascal was a popular figure in the Clan and a serious contender for Leader, Nash-Pascalism became an important movement. However, people often expressed confusion over what its core beliefs were; while Pascal claimed he represented the n00ds, prominent n00dists derided him as a hardline m0dhttp://www.flyingpurplehippos.org/index.php?showtopic=3672. The only undisputed idea of Nash-Pascalism was conquest of more and more land because Indians. Professor Seymour Butz, a politologist at UoB, has famously remarked that "Nash-Pascalism to FPH is what global Jihad is to Islam".
===Heroic partisan politics===
Pascal's BTP was the first established party in FPH politics; before the December 2004 Elections several more sprung up, most notably the Ninja Partyhttp://www.flyingpurplehippos.org/index.php?showtopic=3650 and the NNAhttp://www.flyingpurplehippos.org/index.php?showtopic=3703.
Over time, several prominent n00ds and associates such as Raider, Darkflame and Shusky started expressing more and more elitist sentiments, bringing them to conflict with the original NNA. Parties founded in this new elitist environment, such as The Establishment, frequently clashed with the NNA in what were some of the most heated photoshop battles in the Clan's history. Violence occasionally broke out and the divide continued to shape FPH politics until 2010, when Theias of NNA and Shusky of elitists were elected co-leaders.
===The n00d-m0d synthesis and monarchist tendencies===
As the number of active Templars dwindled, the n00dist idea of more power to all Templars and the elitist idea of all power to a small group kind of stopped to be mutually exclusive, resulting in a more chill era; the parties gradually diminished.
To compensate for their power diminishing, many Leaders from 2010 onwards started calling themselves Kings or Emperors; some even tried to do away with elections altogether, such as in the Reich and Empirette period. This has given rise to republican factions such as the Bouvetoyan Republican Army.
==References==