Shaftonist-Republican Alliance

The Shaftonist-Republican Alliance is a big-tent caucus in the Kiravian Stanora broadly united by a shared belief in a market-driven mixed economy, economic growth and development, Shaftonist philosophy and political theory, and pragmatism. Formed by a merger of three opposition caucuses during Kirosocialism, the SRA and its allies defeated the Kirosocialists in 21185 and undertook a program of political and economic reform that allowed for explosive economic growth and the resurgence of Kiravia as an international power. The Shaftonist-Republicans have remained the governing caucus uninterrupted since 21185, and have led the pro-administration camp in support of the past four Prime Executives: Kólsylvar, Rénkédar, Mérovin, and Candrin.

Antecedents
The Shaftonist-Republican Alliance traces its heritage to the Renaissance Party, which emerged during the political tumult of the Colour Wars and the Mercantile Collapse. Basing its platform on Shaftonist political theory, the Renaissance Party believed that the path to national renewal for Kiravia... They fought to break the rule of both coastal-metropolitan mercantile oligarchs and the traditional landowning aristocracy, which they accused of having subverted the kéarita ("commonwealth, republic") established during the Republican Revolution and imposing a royan ("dominion"). At the same time, they were just as vehemently opposed to the schemes of the Bartists and the proto-Kirosocialists who sought to fix the nation's problems through top-down social and economic engineering, and against the Westernizers, who embraced Occidental culture.

Contemporary (21206-present)
Beginning in 21205, a number of factors combined to undermine the SRA's long-dominant position in Kiravian politics. Structurally speaking, the trend of substantial economic growth engendered by SRA policies sustained since the 21180s began to level off, weakening the caucus's rhetorical angle as the party of growth and leading many Kiravians to question their hitherto enthusiastic embrace of market liberalism. Internally, partially as a response to the rise of the Caucus of Justice's reformist wing and the CSU's centrist Christian democratic wing, the caucus' member parties became increasingly identified (and identified themselves) with economic liberalism at the expense of its historically values-grounded Shaftonist identity. As these competing factions began to offer middle-class voters suitably familiar ordoliberal fiscal policies, many state parties and politicians with prominent national profiles shifted toward a more strongly stance.

While SRA control of state legislatures and its share of Federal Stanora seats had been in gradual decline for about a decade, two events cemented the caucus' deposition as the nationwide ruling party. The first was the Constitutional Protection Agency leaks scandal of mid-21205 which revealed an extensive record of electoral, campaign finance, and other legal violations by SRA, CSU, and DDF officials, including members of the Stanora, state politicians, and state party staff. This scandal precipitated the resignation of 19 SRA Delegates, including Chancellor Sārden Ēvūrverd, and forced the caucus to enter into a coalition with the Caucus of Justice and Coscivian National Congress. The Ixnay Economic Crash of 21206 ahead of that year's federal elections proved a crippling blow to the caucus by igniting popular opposition to its internationalist and more recently pronounced neoliberal leanings, allowing other caucuss to attack its historic closeness to the financial industry and multinational business, and heightening interest in through the Authentic Living Movement.

These factors propelled CSU, CoJ, CNC, and even Levantian Union Party candidates upward in the polls at the SRA's expense, resulting in a CSU-CR-Agrarian "Lime coalition" minority government and ending the SRA's decades-long position as the largest and leading faction in the Stanora. While in opposition, the SRA has opposed the minority coalition's legislative agenda, while continuing (along with elements of the CoJ and CNC) to lead the pro-administration camp in support of Prime Executive Andrus Candrin.

Platform
The SRA is a caucus. Many Shaftonist-Republican politicians, activists, and journalists have advanced the idea that the caucus represents an authentic ideology that draws on a variety of traditions, including Shaftonist political thought, the Fiannrian liberal tradition of the Kilikas Enlightenment, Neo-Urcean democracy,, and (in foreign policy) the school of thought dominant among international relations scholars in Kiravia and Burgundie. In practice, however, and especially since 21200, the SRA has positioned itself as a non-ideological force of the political mainstream, and is generally perceived as such by the public. This broad-church approach has allowed the caucus to incorporate a wide range of different state parties, such as small-government pro-business parties, parties representing various ethnosocial group interests, and conservative and centrist "parties of power" holding long-term electoral dominance in their states.

Economic Policy
The primary policy goal uniting Shaftonist-Republicans is fostering economic growth and development using market liberal and ordoliberal policies. Shaftonist-Republicans support a generally free market and believe in the ability of the capitalist economic order to increase standards of living and provide long-term prosperity, but believe that government management of the economy through targeted and nuanced policies is also important to ensure that the market performs as close to its theoretical potential as possible, especially in the context of development. The early Shaftonist-Republican platform was designed to repair the damage done to the Kiravian economy by decades of Kirosocialist rule characterised by state participation in the market (through nationalisation, state enterprises, and state interests in private firms), heavy regulation, protectionism, and high taxation to support extensive (and according to Shaftonist-Republicans, excessive) government services, spending, and subsidies.

Contemporary political analysts typically identify three main "wings" within the SRA with different approaches to economic policy:


 * Conservative SRs take a more approach toward economic policy that continues the caucus' initial policies under the Kólsylvar and Rénkédar administrations to manage the transition away from Kirosocialism. The Conservatives embrace the use of, , subsidies, among other means, to sustain high growth rates, strengthen international competitiveness, and maximise exports. The Conservatives take a technocratic and corporatist approach to regulatory planning, and have close ties with the Kiravian Economic Executive bureaucracy and . Members of the caucus' , , , and  tendencies are most likely to be classified as Conservative SRs.


 * Liberal SRs adhere more closely to, believing that the Clarendonomics policies of the post-Kirosocialist transition period are no longer appropriate in a "mature" market economy. They support , trade liberalisation, cutting regulations and the regulatory bureaucracy, stronger , and creating a more seamless internal market by harmonising tax and regulatory policies among the federal subjects. Liberal SRs have strong ties with the financial industry and a constellation of policy think-tanks. Liberal SRs are most often associated with , , and ideology.


 * Reform SRs join the Liberals in their opposition to technocratic economic planning by the federal government, but seek to balance and synthesise economic liberalisation with other priorities such as, , addressing regional disparities in economic development, and cultural integrity. Reformists champion and devolution of domestic economic policy to lower levels of government, policies favourable to small and medium enterprises, public-private partnerships and . Primarily mainstream Shaftonist democrats, Reform SRs may also be identified with , , , and.

-Development and subsidies to high-tech industry, investment- -Contemporary ordoliberalism-

Foreign Policy
Shaftonist-Republicans were responsible for ending the isolationism favoured by the Kirosocialist régime and opening diplomatic and commercial relations with the world at large. The most consistent themes in Shaftonist-Republican foreign policy are economically-focused, with key goals such as attracting foreign investment, seeking foreign markets for Kiravian goods and services, and obtaining favourable trade access to commodities of high strategic value (e.g. ). In order to gain the favour of wealthy Western commercial powers, earlier Prime Executives of a Political Shaftonist persuasion, such as Rénkédar and Mérovin, conformed to prevailing Western-based norms by joining (or re-joining) and increasing engagement with many, adopting liberal-internationalist language and rhetoric in its communications, and supporting  and. However, attitudes within the caucus began to shift after the post-Kirosocialist economic transition had been completed in the coastal states, in response to a resurgence of anti-Western sentiment across Kiravian society and political backlash against the SRA in less-developed regions. With the election of Prime Executive Svanirren, a veteran of the Kiravian diplomatic corps which had remained a bastion of dissenting strategic views, the caucus supported Svanirren's agenda of strategic ādbrāvartakor ("reassertion") in foreign affairs, which involved a more muscular military and diplomatic stance and a somewhat more counter-hegemonic disposition in geopolitics. The caucus has subsequently backed the thalassocratic, expansionist, and interventionist foreign policy direction pursued by Prime Executive Candrin.

The SRA has historically maintained a cautious, though not expressly hostile, attitude towards regional or continental integration projects, generally supporting arrangements that allow Kiravia to access the economic benefits of such initiatives while firmly rejecting political integration. While there has been a minority Levantophile movement within the caucus open to some form of closer association between Kiravia and the Levantian Union, it has become somewhat muted and diminished with the advent of the Deluge and the re-orientation of Kiravian attention toward the Crona-Atrassic region. The platform of the Levantian Union Party, unaffiliated with the SRA in any way, combines traditional SRA policy positions with a strong pro-LU agenda. There also exists a significant pro-Caphirian current in the SRA which has ties to outside groups such as the Society for Capitalist Preservation.

A number of different foreign policy schools of thought coëxist and overlap in the SRA and its associated organisations, including, , "Coscivian internationalism", liberal internationalism, conservative internationalism, and [Third Positionism or whatever].

Social Platform
In a Kiravian context, the SRA as a whole is seen as moderate on social and cultural issues, though many individual members and member-parties position themselves as strong or strong. Traditionally, the SRA overall has been less inclined towards legislating personal morality than the Caritist Social Union, and less inclined towards legislating culture and identity than the Coscivian National Congress. Nonetheless, it has positioned itself as a defender of the social order, and is perceived as upholding a civic morality grounded in Shaftonist-Abrahamic values and a middle-class mentality. It is socially conservative by Western standards, and rejects the very concept of on Shaftonist philosophical grounds. Because most aspects of and  are the purview of state governments rather than the federal government, the federal caucus itself has few official positions on social issues. As there is a strong trans-partisan conservative consensus in Kiravia on issues such as reproductive bioethics, sexual orientation, and gender identity that are more contentious in Western countries, the SRA platform does not expressly address these issues.

Since the separation of the Union of Democrats & Independents, which removed many of the more latitudinarian elements from the SRA, the caucus has settled into a more thoroughly conservative ethos.

Since its founding as the Renaissance Party, the SRA has consistently supported dhiambrikorisēn ("nondistinctionism"), the idea that the various Coscivian ethnosocial groups (tuva) and analogous minority communities should not have any corporate status before the law, and that the government should generally not identify or classify persons according to their tuva, ethnicity, caste, clan, tribe, lineage, or sect.

On, the Renaissance Party was instrumental in ending Kirosocialist suppression of regional and ethnic Coscivian vernacular languages and Gaelic. The SRA has traced a middle path between monolingualism and multilingualism, supporting the continued use of Kiravic Coscivian as a nationwide lingua franca for inter-ethnic communication, business, and federal administration, while also expanding language access and welcoming the use of non-Kiravic vernaculars. However, within the caucus there are some who seek greater formalised status for the major vernacular languages at the federal level.

Support Base
The SRA draws support from a wide cross-section of Kiravian society, and from the fall of Kirosocialism until the 21206 Kiravian federal election was considered by many to be Kiravia's. Its most consistent and enthusiastic base of support is the metropolitan white-collar workforce and business class living in the highly developed states of the Eastern Seaboard, the West Coast, Devalōmara, the Castalan colonies, and Avalonica.

In recent years, other caucuses have eroded the SRA's dominance by building inroads with its metropolitan middle-class base. An extensive study commissioned by the Shafronist-Republican Interstate analysing the evolving geographic dimensions of voting patterns in metropolitan areas found that since 21195 CSU-affiliated parties have become much more competitive in inner-ring suburbs and satellite cities that had previously been reliably Shaftonist-Republican. It also found that while parties in the reformist wing of the Caucus of Justice had begun to perform well (particularly in state and local elections) in many exurban areas - the strongest and most consistent areas of SRA support - this success appears to be transitional, with support for SRA parties increasing as land development progresses.

Although generally seen as a metropolitan-oriented party, the SRA does have a significant rural constituency in northern coastal states and in the overseas colonies. Candidates pledged to the SRA typically draw more rural votes in federal elections than candidates from state-level SRA affiliate parties do in state and local elections.

SRA voters tend to have higher incomes, higher rates of educational attainment, higher property values, and longer lifespans than the national average. SRA supporters have an average rate of religious participation close to the national median (though it is worth noting that the Kiravian median is quite high), and their distribution among religious denominations is rather representative of the population as a whole. A study found that members of SRA-affiliated parties have the highest levels of access to and use of information technology of any caucus save the Direct Democratic Front.

Structure and Associated Organisations
Like the other caucuss, the Shaftonist-Republican Alliance does not, strictly speaking, exist outside of the Stanora Hall or have any legal identity beyond its recognition as a caucus for the purposes of Stanoral procedure. Like other caucuss, it does not enjoy and cannot hold money, own property, or employ staff in its own right; nor can it fund or participate in electoral campaigns. In order to approximate the usual functions of a national-level political party, the SRA relies upon an associated network of other organisations that are themselves subject to strict regulations regarding which activities they can undertake, how they can be funded, and how they can coordinate with one another.

Caucus Governance
At the beginning of each legislative term, all Delegates sitting in the SRA group elect a Chairman to serve as its leader and primary spokesman.


 * Steering Committee - Chaired by the Chairman, responsible for legislative management, day-to-day administration of the caucus, liaising with supportive groups outside of the Stanora and with interparliamentary organisations, relations with other caucuss and with the Stanoral leadership, and selecting the Whip. Comprises the Chairman, Secretary-General, Whip, and...


 * Policy Committee (Politburo) Chaired by the Secretary-General, the Policy Committee develops the caucus's platform, charts its legislative priorities, and nominates Delegates for assignment to Stanoral committees. Also responsible for liaising with the SRA Interstate Conference, state affiliate leaders, and SRA-aligned policy think-tanks; as well as for party-to-party relations with foreign parties and . Comprises the Secretary-General, Chairman, ranking SRA members of standing Stanoral committees, and three members chosen by the Steering Committee.
 * Shaftonist-Republican Interstate Conference - Annual meeting of state-level parties supportive of the caucus, including those that do not have any elected Delegates sitting with the caucus during the given legislative term, as well as independent state-level politicians that sympathise with the SRA platform. Member parties of the SRIC are often referred to as the SRA's "state chapters" or "state affiliates".


 * Stesixorus R.V.D. Istrovin Foundation - Independent foundation endowed by Valēka shipwright Stesixorus Istrovin to build and maintain a headquarters for "the caucus or faction of our federal Legislature best representing the ideals of Shaftonist democracy." The foundation provides office space for the caucus's loaned staff, policy advisors, and the SRIC at its building in downtown Kartika. It finances itself through its initial endowment, private donations, and renting out parts of the building for conferences and events (usually with some relation to politics).

Membership
Associated Non-Party Groups