Commonwealth Union (Urcea)
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Commonwealth Union | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1903 |
| Preceded by | FitzRexist faction (1895-1903) |
| Headquarters | 698 Impireachtor Street, Urceopolis, Urcea |
| Ideology | Centrism
|
| Religion | Catholic Church |
| Colors | Teal |
The Commonwealth Union was the second largest political party in the Apostolic Kingdom of Urcea during its existence. The Commonwealth Union's main opponent in Urcea was the older National Pact.
The party originated as moderate supporters of the program of Gréagóir FitzRex during the latter portion of the Red Interregnum, beginning as an institutional reformist (with respect to voting) and technocratic party, positions it held until the Second Great War. The party was not republican during this period, but held individual monarchs in suspicion. During and after the war, the party is viewed as reconciling itself to the Monarchy and redeveloping its historic political positions within the context of organicism. As opposed to the National Pact, the Commonwealth Union began to espouse a more distributist economic policy and also believed in a more active foreign policy outside the Levantine Union. After the Great War, the party largely became supporters of the status quo and became a big tent party in opposition to the economic liberalism of the National Pact. Fissures began to form in the party following the rise of Michael Witte, splitting the party into "big tent centrist" faction, the left-wing "Urcean mode Marxists" party, and the Wittonian Socialist faction. The party dissolved as part of the 2015 Urcean political realignment and is considered to have been legally succeeded by the Union for National Solidarity founded by the Wittonian faction.
History
The Commonwealth Union had its roots as "FitzRex's Men", a loose coalition of members of the Conshilía Daoni elected in 1895 who aligned themselves with the reform efforts of Gréagóir FitzRex. This faction consisted of a wide variety of ideologies, including technocrats, non-monarchist illiberals including various authoritarians and proto-fascists, anti-clerics, and socialists, both moderate and radical.
The founding members of the Union specifically would emerge out of the pro-peace, pro-reconciliation elements of the ruling majority coalition, and it would soon be defined by its opposition to more radical socialist efforts to establish a Urcean Republic. At the end of the conflict, though most FitzRex loyalists were ejected from positions of power, the core of what would become the Commonwealth Union - a group of twenty "approved" (i.e. compatible with the restoration) members were left in place, and the "Approved Twenty" began the process of building a political apparatus between 1902 and 1905. The "Approved Twenty" established the Commonwealth Union on 29 December 1902. The Twenty-led party established three basic tenets that they supported: 1. Resistance to any effort to reestablish the system of social class in any form; 2. The maintenance of the guild system as a check against both radical socialist revolutionary class relations as well as the more liberal economic principals of the National Pact; 3. National conciliation and moderate treatment of all but the most ardent FitzRex allies. Generally speaking, the party also supported the maintenance of as many of the FitzRexist reforms that could be integrated into a monarchical structure as possible; in these respects, the early party found an unlikely ally in Patrick III, whose Constitutional Settlement Act of 1902 was eagerly supported by members of the Union.
The party would go on to win control of the Daoni in 1905 and not surrender it until 1930, and it hold it again from 1950 to 2020 with only fifteen years of National Pact control in between.