Politics of Piznia

The Piznian Empire is a federal semi-constitutional monarchy ruled by the Emperor of Piznia. Although the nation has many political parties, its state policies remain rather authoritarian. The Chancellor and Government are appointed by the Emperor, but legislation must be approved by the Hous der Mitte, a chamber elected proportionally by universal male suffrage, and the Hous der Fürstein, consisting of the princes or their representatives from each of the states. While the Hous der Mitte is far from a rubber-stamp institution, and has become increasingly vocal and assertive over the past thirty years, it is not yet strong enough that it can actually bring down a Government. The relative weakness of the Hous der Mitte has meant that a wide range of political activist pressure groups have sprung up, attempting to push forward a range of economic, political and sectional causes.

In addition, the various states of the Reich have considerable autonomy and influence over local matters, including education, law enforcement and arts patronage, with them even being able to influence federal legislation over the Hous der Fürstein. While many of the smaller states have extremely liberal constitutions, the unequal Estate-based electoral system for the Piznian Landtag also remains a bone of contention.

Despite its authoritarian nature, the Piznian political system is favorable to multi-party politics; each party represents some part of the Kaiserreich's general population, and in these troubled times, each one can appeal to the common citizen and gain power.

## Piznian Parties

### Piznian International Organization

Ideology: Communist

Policies:

* Protectionism
* Planned Economy
* Atheism
* Full citizenship
* Jingoism

### Social Worker's Party

Ideology: Socialist

Policies:

* Free trade
* Planned economy
* Secularism
* Full citizenship
* Anti-military

### Social Democratic Party

Ideology: Progressive

Policies:

* Free trade
* Planned economy
* Secularism
* Full citizenship

* Pro-military

### National Liberal Party

Ideology: Liberal

Policies:

* Free trade
* Laissez-faire
* Pluralism
* Limited citizenship
* Jingoism

Created on 17th November 1866, the **NLP** (*National Liberal Party*) once was a foundation on which Bismarck built his government – but after the Iron Chancellor made his “conservative turn”, the party's influence started to wane. During the Weltkrieg, the once powerful NLP didn’t have much influence in a Reichstag dominated by the centre-left, and when the DVLP was created for a moment it seemed that the party would simply be swallowed by von Tirpitz's movement, which aimed for a complete unification of German right under the proud Admirals banner. It would probably have happened, had it not been for one man – Gustav Stresemann. Stresemann’s NLP did not actively oppose the Ludendorff dictatorship, but was also aware that it would not last for long. After Ludendorff's downfall the party entered the DVLP led coalition, becoming the third biggest party with the second most seats in the Reichstag.

During von Tirpitz’ tenure as chancellor, the Nationalliberale Partei supported German colonialism, especially in Africa and Asia, expanding the military (especially the navy), liberal economic policies of the government, moderate expansions of social welfare system, and became champion of German industry. NLP criticized agricultural subsidies, pushed for a more peaceful foreign policy (because of Stresemann’s attempts German-Russian relations greatly improved, which opened up Russian market to German companies), and remained ambiguous on the matter of possible political liberalization.

Indeed, because of Stresemann the party flourished, and because of his demise it began to wither. A short leadership by his successor, Dingeldey, led the NLP to the worst electoral result in the party’s history. He was not able to secure a place for the party in the DkP-DRP-Zentrum alliance. Industry giants and other wealthy supporters began looking for a new champion of their interests, and some of the more common members joined other parties. The party could only secure around 20 seats in the 1932 election and isn’t a part of any major coalition.

After the failure in the elections, Dingeldey resigned as chairman of the NLP, eventually being replaced by the Reichsbank President Hjalmar Schacht. Julius Curtius has been chosen as the new chancellor option of the party, him trying to go in a completely different direction from Stresemann, focusing on trying to reform Mitteleuropa in a more fair economic union, and expanding it into the rest of Europe. He sees the ‘attractive’ union as a way to shackle other economies to the German one, furthering Germany by promoting European peace and enlarging its market.

### Center Party

Ideology: Conservative

Policies:

* Protectionism
* Laissez-faire
* Moralism
* Limited citizenship
* Anti-military

### Piznian Conservative Party

Ideology: Conservative

Policies:

* Protectionism
* Interventionism
* State religion
* Residence
* Jingoism

### Piznian Imperial Party

Ideology: Reactionary

Policies:

* Protectionism
* State capitalism
* State religion
* Residency
* Jingoism

### Piznian National Party

Ideology: Authoritarian

Policies:

* Protectionism
* State capitalism
* Moralism
* Residency
* Jingoism

## Piznian Elections

### 1950

SDP-110

NLP-87

ZP-91

PKP-58

PIP-51