Mechyrdian Senate

The Mechyrdian Senate is the legislative body of the Empire of Mechyrdia. It is made up of two camerae: the Relmiraþ, made up of a constant number of senators per sector, and the Relmitah, weighted by sector population.

Parties

There are nine parties currently represented in the Relmitah and Relmiraþ:

Color and Logo Name Translated Name Platform
Government

Light blue (#77BBFF)

Parti Freiheti Freedom Party

The Freedom Party is the largest party in the Senate. A right-wing populist party headed by Chancellor Basileiów, they believe in putting the interests of the Mechyrdian people first in Mechyrdian policy-making. In the 250 Senate election, the Freedom Party displaced the Imperials as the main right-wing party in the Mechyrdian imperial government.

The party currently has two main factions: the majority isolationist faction that opposes Mechyrdian intervention into foreign wars, and the minority interventionist faction that supports expansion of Mechyrdian diplomatic influence into other universes.

Light gold (#FFDD77)

Parti Hvegas Whig Party

The Whigs are one of the longest-running parties in the Mechyrdian Senate. They were founded in 127 UC, eleven years before the invasion of the Arkant Horde. Having been consistently the third most popular party in the Senate during the Sixth Party System, the Whigs fractured and some of its members split off into the Liberal Party during the 250 UC Senate elections, in order to protest the Whig Party joining the Basileiów coalition.

The market liberal party in the Senate, the Whigs also support deregulation of the economy, however they are more socially liberal than the Freedom Party.

Dark blue (#336699)

Parti Ciarstuolic Imperial Party The Imperial Party is the social and national conservative party. Their power base used to be the aristocrats of the early Mechyrdian democracy, having opposed expansion of business and urban settlements, but party leadership refocused their support to the growing bourgeoisie later on in their history. This resulted in the formation of the Royalist Party, the fringe aristocratic monarchists in the Senate.

Bright red (#FF6666)

Katosras People's Party

The Tylan People's Party is the other conservative party, focusing on the Tylans of the galactic east of the Empire, known collectively and politically as the Tylan Republic. Their main power base consists of the devoutly religious Tylans, who still have their psychic powers after the Fulkreyksk occupation of Tyla attempted to genetically engineer Tylans to lose their psychic abilities two millennia ago.

These psychic powers are necessary to feel the presence of the Tylan pantheon, which is manifest in the Veil by the Tylans' devotion over the past few millennia. It is this pantheon that guides Tylan society, hence why the Tylans who have psychic powers are more moralistic in their political beliefs.

Opposition

Dark red (#CC0000)

Proletaras Lew Workers' Left The Workers' Left is the radical socialist party. Less of a legitimate political party and more of a front for a militant group, they support the idea of collectivizing industry by force and waging a revolutionary conquest of the galaxy. They also deny the war crimes and genocides committed by the Ilkhan Commune during the Great Galactic War.

Water blue (#3399FF)

Moashtasras Republican Party

The Republicans (no relation to the previous party of the same name) are the left-wing Tylan progressive party. Their ideology is similar to that of the Democratic Union, albeit better described as revolutionary liberalism than as social democracy. Their primary voter-base consists of the Tylans whose ancestors have lost their psychic powers due to Fulkreyksk forced genetic engineering.

These non-psychic Tylans don't have any connection to their pantheon, so they don't feel the same moral guidance that psychic Tylans feel.

Pale pink (#FFCCCC)

Unió Democratic Democratic Union

The Democratic Union is the social democratic party, believing in social progressivism and regulating the market ostensibly in support of the working class. They're the most popular opposition party within the Senate, being part of the majority coalition in the Relmitah.

The Democratic Union is split into four factions:

  • Senate Progressive Caucus (Senatini Prógressiwas Cauc): socially progressive, corporatist economics
  • Business and Trade Coalition (Mercaciós et Tradi Cóalició): socially libertine, fiscally moderate and pro-business
  • Orléanistes: represent interests of union workers, small businesses, and the descendants of the House of Orléans; socially conservative, anti-regulation and anti-trust
  • Sot Eskadro (soQ 'eskadro): radical progressive demagogues, economic policy derived from Modern Monetary Theory

Orange (#FFBB77)

Parti Liberalas Liberal Party

The Liberals are the left-wing liberal party, having split off from the original Whig Party after the latter joined the Freedom Party in a coalition. They are now described as an in-between of the Democratic Union and the Whigs, believing in a somewhat-regulated market with a focus on social, sexual, and racial liberation.

Supporters of the Whigs, the Freedom Party, or the Imperial Party frequently call the Liberals, especially their current leader Roman von Mente Erudita, traitors to the Mechyrdian people.

Dark gray (#555555)

Parti Regalistas Royalist Party The Royalists are the fringe aristocratic-monarchist party, seeking to return to the values of early Mechyrdia under Emperor Nicólei's rule. Members of the party often disagree with one another about what exactly doing so would entail.
Historical (Defunct)

Mechyrdian gold (#FFCC33)

Ciarstuolica Democratica Imperial Democrats The dominant party of the First Party System (10-138 UC), lasting between Ciar Nicólei's founding of democracy and the invasion of the Arkant Horde. A big-tent party, the Imperial Democrats represented both individual liberty and the maintenance of the imperial democracy.

Tylan blood-blue (#3366CC)

Moashtasras Republican Party The less-dominant party of the First Party System, lasting between Ciar Nicólei's founding of democracy and the invasion of the Arkant Horde. Representing the interests of the Tylan nation and their Republic within the Empire, the Moashtasras were much more often a coalition partner of the Imperial Democrats than an opponent. They have no relation with the modern party of the same name.

Green (#33CC44)

Parti Panpopulas All-Peoples' Party The left-wing progressive party of the Second Party System (144-156 UC), which supported economic intervention in favor of the working class, as well as the expansion of government and shrinking-back of democracy. After the Ferthlon Insurrection, the All-People's Party would be made illegal for supporting the Ferthlon rebels.

Brick red (#CC6666)

Reformació Democratic Democratic Reform The left-wing progressive party of the Third Party System (160-181 UC) and the Fourth Party System (181-212 UC). Under close watch by Mechyrdian law enforcement due to suspected ties to Ferthlon rebel remnants, they supported government reform of the economy; the party enjoyed massive popularity right after the Stock Market Crash, but slowly lost its grip over Mechyrdian politics, finally splitting into the moderate Democratic Union and radical Proletarian Left parties with the start of the Great Galactic War against the Ilkhan Commune.

Election system

Sector governments choose how their constituents' votes translate into seats in the senate; the three options that sectors use are winner-takes-all, proportional representation, and modus Orelius, the latter introduced to Mechyrdia by Olympian populist Titus Orelius (née Aurelius) Cotta. It is not required for sectors to choose one of those three; indeed, the imperial government grants sector governments the liberty to send electors however they want.

Sectors' apportionment of seats

The Relmiraþ, with its equal representation of sectors, still has a constant number of senators. The way senators are apportioned is by dividing the number of seats in the Relmiraþ (currently 640) by the number of sectors (currently 21), rounding down the result to get its current value of 30, then apportioning that many seats to each sector. Mechyrd, the capital district, gets all remaining seats (currently 10).

The Relmitah, on the other hand, starts by apportioning one seat to each sector. Then a divisor method is used to assign the remaining seats; each sector's quotient is calculated as P / s (same as the Adams method for apportioning seats), where P is the sector's population, and s is the number of seats currently assigned to the sector. Assigning one seat to each sector at the start has the dual-advantage of avoiding division by zero when calculating the quotient, as well as assuring that no sector gets left out of the Relmitah.

Legislative system

The way that legislation makes its way across the Senate and Chancellery is that first it must be reviewed, discussed, and approved by both houses of the Senate. The discussion is directed by the Chancellor, after which the bill is voted on.

The Chancellor's veto is not a death knell for legislation, as the Senate can still pass vetoed legislature with a 75% majority in both houses.

Composition

The Relmitah (number of senators proportional to population)

The Relmiraþ (constant number of senators per sector)

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