National Pact (Urcea)

The National Pact is the second largest political party in the Apostolic Kingdom of Urcea, and the oldest. Though the party has been described as a large coalition by some, it is one of the strongest advocate for continuing the traditional constitutional balance in Urcea, which it played a large role in founding, and the party describes itself as Crown Liberal and as the historical champion of the Concilium Daoni. Its economic policy is somewhat to the right of the traditional mainstream system and has, since the end of the 20th century, trended more towards a laissez faire position. Though the party was traditionally suspicious of foreign entanglements, during the Procuratorship of James Dynan the party supported a relatively limited intervention in Crona that laid the foundation for The Deluge.

History
The National Pact was officially formed on January 19th, 1791, in Urceopolis, as the "National Pact for the Settlement of the Constitution", as a loose association of faction leaders of the Concilium Daoni in the period before political parties. The National Pact initially was made up of Kilikas Enlightenment-influenced liberal privilegiata, supporters of the powers of the Daoni over that of the King, moderate reformers, and a small faction of nationalists and other compatible Delegates from the Daoni. Some of these factions had existed since the beginning of the War of the Caroline Succession some forty years prior. Together, these disparate groups formed the cohesive ideology of Crown Liberalism, the guiding philosophy of the National Pact.

Rather than following the lead of some other foreign-influenced factions and Delegates, the members of the National Pact considered themselves loyal subjects of the Apostolic King of Urcea, and that they abhorred revolution or disloyalty. Instead, the Pact sought gradual reform within existing institutions. Throughout the 19th century's constitutional settlements, the National Pact scored many key victories for the power of the Concilium Daoni, and thus the common people in general, in relation to the King. During this time, in which the party was unofficially known as the Party of Order, the Pact coalesced from a loose coalition into a more unified and disciplined political organization with a clear ideology of modernization and industrialization with liberalization, and the party was lead by the privilegiata. The Party of Order era saw the National Pact support the King against more revolutionary types during the latter half of the 19th Century, a period in which they controlled substantial Daoni majorities. The so-called Party of Order also won elections for all of Urcea's seats in the Imperial Diet during the period. The 19th century included the period of enmity now referred to by historians as the Recess of the Julii, which lead to the National Pact practicing political abstentionism in the Diet.

Initially tepidly supporting the Crown Regency of Gréagóir FitzRex, the Pact quickly embraced restoration of the normal order and supported King Patrick III's efforts to that end. The Pact won many of the by-elections upon the restoration in 1902 and was compelled by the King to form a national unity government with its first major rival, the Commonwealth Union. However, controversies such as The Enabling divided the Pact as it lost the support of the Ionian Plateau and was embroiled in scandal.

By the first full election after the restoration in 1905, the Pact found itself in a Daoni minority for the first time in decades. The National Democratic Party, which was more progressive on social reforms and had an economic policy in line with newly-formed Catholic teaching, went on to find major success until the Second Great War, in which the Pact managed to regain power. Since the conclusion of the Great War, the National Pact has taken an increasingly neoliberal economic philosophy, a change that lead to the fracturing of the party as a minority broke off and formed separate parties, which sought to pursue Urcea's "traditional Crown Liberalism". During much of the 20th century and early 21st century, the Pact and the National Democratic Party were the largest two parties and often formed the Daoni majorities and elect the Procurator. The National Democratic Party ceased to exist as a consequence of the 2015 Urcean political realignment, leaving the Pact as the nation's largest party. As a part of the realignment, during the lengthy Procuratorship of James Dynan, the party began to take on an activist approach to foreign policy, with support for The Deluge part of the Pact's official platform. The Pact retains its proud identity as "Crown Liberal", although the meaning of the term has become greatly debated with the advent of its neoliberal laissez-faire approaches to economics. Many of the party's leading supporters of The Deluge departed the party and joined the Solidarity Party in the early 2020s. This move, the cost of the Final War of the Deluge, and the growing authority of the Apostolic King of Urcea meant that many party leaders have begun to shift thier views against foreign entanglements abroad.

Ideology and Policies
The National Pact was founded in the 1790s as a Crown Liberal political organization, a somewhat more moderate version of other contemporary liberal movements.

Constitutional policy
The National Pact argues for strict adherence to the system of laws, customs, and institutions known as the Constitution of Urcea, arguing that the democratic institutions under the Apostolic King of Urcea is Urcea's fundamental "great idea" and that the system must be maintained, including the current distribution of executive powers among the Procurator and Chancellor and Temporary President. The Pact views itself as largely responsible for the Constitution and the party's central philosophical tenet is its maintenance, both against explicit changes to it as well as what it views as implicit "usurpations" by any one part of the Constitutional system. The Pact believes in strong, but separated and balanced, parts of the Government of Urcea, a position which traditionally meant limitation of the powers of the Apostolic King but also increasingly has meant opposing the growth of the powers of the Concilium Daoni as advocated for by the Solidarity Party.

Many pundits and analysts in the 2030s have observed that the National Pact's adherence to a strict constitutional order has put it in a politically untenable position, as it explicitly opposes an expansion of the powers of the legislature while implicitly opposing the expansion of the authority of the Apostolic King of Urcea, functionally giving the party no clear constituency beyond the office of Procurator. This politcal position, as well as the administrations of both James Dynan and Bridget Farrell, have increasingly associated the Pact with the Procuratorship.

The modern National Pact has faced division on the monarch and particularly the reign of Riordan VIII as it relates to his power in his overseas domains. Due to the King's and monarchy's popularity, the party has tred carefully. Though traditionalists have decried the King's "excesses", the mainstream of the party has adopted the concession that, according to its 2030 platform, the "Kings of the twentieth century...may have receded too much from their proper role in government...requiring a robust course correction to restore the proper working balance of the constitution".

Economic policy
Members of the National Pact believe that free markets and individual achievement are the primary factors behind economic prosperity. Despite pledges to roll back government spending, National Pact administrations have, since the late 1980s, sustained previous levels of government spending. The modern National Pact advocates the theory of supply side economics, which holds that lower tax rates increase economic growth. Many party members oppose higher tax rates for higher earners, which they believe are unfairly targeted at those who create jobs and wealth. They believe private spending is more efficient than government spending. Pact lawmakers have also sought to limit funding for tax enforcement and tax collection. Inversely, the National Pact has put forward several proposals to create a "universal" tax scheme, as they believe the differences in tax structures between provinces, states, and crownlands inhibits the growth of free enterprise and creates confusion for business owners. The National Pact believes, to the extent possible, that the middle class and small business owners are drivers of the economy and must be empowered, both through low taxes and reduced regulation, to ensure national prosperity.

Members of the National Pact believe individuals should take responsibility for their own circumstances. They also believe the private sector is more effective in helping the poor through charity than the government is through welfare programs and that social assistance programs often cause government dependency. Specifically, the Pact aims to increase the "range and scope" of Catholic charity programs while reducing public programs for the same purpose via a policy known as "National-Church Partnership".

History
Historically, the National Pact did not have an official economic platform as it was a political club aimed at increasing the breadth and depth of the Constitution of Urcea. Within the Pact, many factions formed during the 19th and early 20th centuries with radically different views on economics. The Pact's first platform, adopted in 1840, included a small section on increasing the economic productivity of the nation, but it largely included language urging the implementation of tariffs against members of the Holy Levantine Empire (in keeping with the Recess of the Julii) and creation of a more robust national railroad system. Only after the Second Great War did economic considerations enter seriously into the Pact's philosophy, as it began to softly reject the language in Quadragesimo anno as outmoded and "without scientific precedent" while still "lauding the intentions of the Pope" to call for a just economic system. The transformation was gradual, as the mainstream economic classical liberal position did not become the majority position until the party's 1980 platform.

Foreign Policy - the "Constitution Abroad"
Historically, the National Pact was suspicious of foreign entanglements, especially commitments of Urcea to support monarchical or Catholic institutions abroad. These entanglements were viewed as threats to the Constitution, "tipping the scales" in favor of the Monarch. In this respect, the party's position has been described as that of the "Constitution Abroad" - it is not, in principle, opposed to Urcea being involved on the world stage, but these involvements must necessarily empower local people friendly to Urcea rather than directly engage the Julian dynasty in foreign governments in any respect. Due to the widespread popularity of both the monarchy and dynasty, many Pact writers have concluded their involvement abroad as "an inevitability", and accordingly preserving Urcea's diplomatic aloofness is "at the heart of the constitution. During the Occidental Cold War, the Pact became generally supportive of efforts to suppress Caphiria and support the Levantine Union. The Pact perceived Caphiria as a threat to the fundamentally Levantine way of life and inclusive shared commonwealth values, while viewing little possible threat to the constitutional order in doing so.

Toward the end of the 20th century, some National Pact leaders and officials began to loosen their stance on committed foreign engagements, most notably including James Dynan. Dynan's leadership saw Urcea engage fully with the Deluge. These policies were popular with the general electorate but largely unpopular within the party's traditional ideological base, though they were supported by a small minority of hawks within the party. Many Pact members observed that the traditional fears regarding the "Constitution Abroad" under the Dynan administration were realized as King Riordan VIII became geopolitically important as an individual actor in Crona following the Deluge. With the formation of the Solidarity Party and loss of the party's foreign policy hawks to that party, as well as the costs and constitutional concerns raised by the Final War of the Deluge, many journalists have observed that the National Pact is shifting back to its traditionally suspicious foreign policy.