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Puertegan Path to Socialism (camino al socialismo de Puertego) is a Marxist revisionist socialist ideology based around a set of political theories and policies advocated for by the dominant party of Puertego the Puertegan White Flag communist Party that are seen by their proponents as representing Marxism–Leninism but adapted and reformed to best serve Puertego for the modern circumstances it finds itself in. Most people consider the largest modern proponent of this ideology to be the current president of Puertego Matthias Torres, the primary principles advocated by him for the ideology are an opening of the formally state controlled economy to the rest of the world, a strong central government to help oversee this transition and to maintain public order during this transition, and the protecting of Puertegan culture and traditions in society.

History

The name of the ideology was first coined by Erik Alférez the founder of the Puertegan White Flag Communist Party and first president of Puertego who called it "the only way I can see Puertego having a future on the world stage". Since that time however the ideology has branched out massively from Alférez's original vision which was focused largely on social and political reforms and only had minor plans for economic reforms to prevent the economy from collapsing however Alférez did not live long enough to enshrine this aspect of the ideology into law as he died from a stroke after only 3 months in office, Victor Sanhueza the man who succeeded him had a very different view of the ideology and focused largely on preserving tradition and morality in Puertego while also building up a powerful and authoritarian government, he embarked on more economic reforms than Alférez before him such as allowing investment into state run industries and the reduction of the countries enormous tariffs but still kept the economy under strict state control with almost all of it being operated under something resembling state capitalism. The Sanhueza regime was one marked by extreme repression and brutality with almost any civil liberty the constitution gave the people going completely ignored by the government with censorship and massacres being common, on top of this while his reforms allowed the economy to begin growing once again the central planning left much of the countries resources going to the industrial sector meaning that a strict rationing system of everything from food to electricity and water. He also did nothing as corruption ran rampant in the government sowing the seeds for the problem it would become in Puertego later. The economy grew in Puertego but the average Puertegan saw almost no benefit with wages remaining stagnant and social programs being cut in the name of austerity meaning that they had the lowest living standard in all of Sarpedon and one of the lowest in the world, Sanhueza attempted to distract from this by drumming up support for nationalist and irredentist sentiment however this plummeted relations with Puertego's neighboring countries and once Sanhueza announced that he would oversee Puertegan development of nuclear weapons the National Assembly who he primarily appointed members for voted unanimously to impeach him after 6 years of rule, though he was officially given amnesty for his actions Sanhueza was shortly after his impeachment executed regardless. After Sanhueza's execution in 2008 Matthias Torres was voted in as president and primarily focused on economic reforms for the ideology creating Special Investment Zones, supporting free trade, and completely scrapping price controls in order to continue growing the economy resulting in a previously unheard of 14% GDP growth in his first year in office, additionally Torres got rid of the previous constitution violating laws of Sanhueza's regime however still introduced laws to replace them which violate constitutional liberties in less blatant ways.

Modern Day Applications

Socialist Market Economy

One of the primary modern-day features of the Puertegan Path to Socialism is what its followers deem a socialist market economy in which the state allows for capitalist institutions to form and exist for a time in order to establish the means of production to seize for a proper socialist government to come about, this is seen in Puertego with the creation of the SIZs and the generous perks given to foreign and domestic investors in the economy such as tax shelters, subsides, and introductory corporate tax rates. The Puertegan government also allowed for limited property rights in the country with it allowing people to rent land from the government in order to establish businesses instead of outright buying it however Puertego also has some of the strongest intellectual property rights in the world enshrined into law. This program initially started with only the most minor reforms possible under Alférez with a lot of central planning still put in place and under Sanhueza much central planning stayed though foreign investment in government owned industries was allowed and encouraged. Only recently under president Torres has the level of central planning in the economy been significantly lowered and a more market oriented economy be allowed to exist.

There has been much criticism of the socialist market economy from all over the political spectrum with many economic leftists claiming that the government is catering too much to foreign corporations and has done little to actually improve the lives of regular Puertegan workers citing low wages and poor working and living conditions as an example of this while economic rightists claim that the Puertegan system is based on corruption and is a massive distortion of the free market due to their perks offered in SIZs almost exclusively benefiting large corporations while leaving many small and medium businesses unable to compete in the market due to the dominance of large companies. However, despite these complaints the Puertegan government has shown little signs that it plans to stop or largely change the direction it is going with its economic policy and seems to be set on doubling down on it instead. Both sides have also called the system under Torres an oligarchy due to most of the new upper class in Puertego made rich from the economic reforms have been members of the White Flag Communist Party.

State Power

The Puertegan way to socialism has always been an explicitly authoritarian and centralized ideology with Alférez stating "While we must learn from the mistakes of the last two administrations and not dip towards totalitarianism we must also not allow to the people to be able to completely stop the progress of our nation", in the early days of the ideology under Alférez public protest and free discourse was encouraged though there was limits placed on them, this changed under Sanhueza who cracked down on constitutionally guaranteed rights breaking up protests with often lethal force and detaining critics of the regime without any charges. This way of ruling sparked massive protests from the population during the last months of Sanhueza's reign with them providing an easy position for Torres to campaign on claiming he would restore civil liberties to the people. When Torres came to power he officially repealed the laws allowing the government to crack down on people's civil liberties and rights but over his rule of the country he's had laws implemented to allow him to once again undermine people's liberties such as their freedoms of speech and assembly as well as weaken any institutions that could have proven powerful such as the media, unions, and students.

Social and Cultural Views