| Social Liberal Party | |
 | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | SLP |
| Chairman | William Krosby |
| Vice-chairman | Percival E. Galahad |
| Founded | October 21, 2012 April 23, 2011 as LDP |
| Disbanded | June 6, 2015 |
| Color | ██ pink ██ blue |
| Ideology | |
| Ideology | Social liberalism, Social progressivism, Cultural liberalism |
| Spectrum | Centre-left |
| Lovian Politics | |
| Predecessor | LDP, LAP, LA |
| Close to | CPL.nm, UL, LF |
| Far from | RTP, UNS |
| MOTCs | 8 / 100 |
| Members | |
The Social Liberal Party, abbreviated to SLP, was a major Lovian political party founded on October 21, 2012 after the merger of the Liberal Democratic Party, Liberal Arts Party, and Lovian Alliance. It disbanded on June 6, 2015, due to internal disagreement over policies. The SLP was known as a reformer in Lovian society and is quite influential in Congress. The predecessors of the party were very involved in the drafting and passing of both the 2011 State Reform and 2012 Judicial Reform. The SLP's former chairman, William Krosby, is a two term Governor of Kings. Social liberalism was the core ideology of the SLP, with economic viewpoints ranging from centrism to democratic socialism, and support for social and cultural tolerance and freedom. SLP's major allies were leftist parties, including United Left and the Green Party; however, the SLP embraced cooperation with all political parties across the spectrum.
The SLP's chairman was William Krosby and its vice-chairman was Percival E. Galahad. Both leaders had been in their positions since the party's founding. Other important party members included Harold Freeman, the director of campaigning, Lucy Austira, the director of finance, and Lars Washington, the director of cooperation, as well as James Torres, once Minister of Health of the Ilava I Government. However, the SLP's main governing body did not lie only in the hands of these important members, and instead in the party congress, which consisted of representatives from each of the states of Lovia as well as the current MOTCs. Most party decisions were made through democratic voting in the SLP's congress, but the day to day operations of the party were mostly ran by the directors and chairmen.
History[]
The Social Liberal Party, while being founded relatively recently in real time, had a long history. Before the founding of the SLP, the Liberal Democratic Party was a very influential party, with a high number of seats in both the 2011 Second Congress and the 2012 First Congress. The LDP itself had been founded by a merger, that time between the Liberal Union, a moderate classical liberal party descended from the original Liberal Democrats, and the Lovian Democratic Party, a centrist, republican party. Thus, the SLP contained some of the founding members of the Liberal Democrats; however, due to the founding of other right-wing parties, the SLP drifted left. As a result, many right-leaning members left for other parties, including Positive Lovia and the Conservative Nationalist Party.
The party was was officially founded on October 21, 2012 after a merger between the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the Liberal Arts Party (LAP), and the Lovian Alliance (LA). The process of merger began just after the end of the 2012 State elections, where LDP chairman William Krosby was re-elected Governor of Kings. On October 15, the LAP and LA approached in the LDP in interest of creating a unified party based on social liberalism, a shared ideology between the three parties. After deliberation, the LDP leadership agreed that a merger would be in their best interests. After a name change and rebranding, the new party began activities on October 21.
The SLP completed the process of merger between the three former parties and drafting a logo and a ideological platform on November 1, 2012. The SLP had a rather inactive term in 2013, receiving twelve seats, one of which later resigned from the party, and standing down in state elections. Due to Krosby's year-long sabbatical, the party went on hiatus in 2014, only receiving four seats, but returned to stand in 2015, where it ran on a platform of centralization and moderation. It received eight seats in the 2015 Congress, among a legislature with a majority of leftists.
As soon as the 2015 term of office opened, the SLP declared support for communist candidate Anna Maria Whithdonck-Malsky as Prime Minister, a surprise to right-leaning supporters of the party. Party leader Krosby explained that the party had been drifting leftward for a long time, and declared that he agreed with Whithdonck-Malsky that the ultimate goal of government in Lovia should be to establish democratic socialism. This caused some internal turmoil within the party, and a number of members who disagreed with this goal quit the party; however, no MOTCs left the party. SLP continued to provide complete support for Whithdonck-Malsky, and was included in two positions in the left-wing Whithdonck-Malsky I Government, which the party spokesman stated the team of Congresspeople were very satisfied with and were "looking forward to a productive term working with the new Prime Minister."
Shortly after the fall of the left-wing government due to the rebellion of moderate MOTCs to support a more centrist tax proposal, several party members expressed their dissatisfaction with the increasing left-wing turn of the party. An extraordinary party congress was called on June 5 and 6, in which party leader Krosby announced that he was leaving the party to join the Communist Party of Lovia (neo-marxist), now identifying as a market socialist, and with several centrist MOTCs desiring to leave the party, a majority elected to dissolve the party, describing it as too ideologically divided to remain functional. Two MOTCs joined CPL.nm, two joined United Left, three joined Lovian Future, and the last joined the Green Party.
Politics[]
The Social Liberal Party was once regarded to be a centrist party by Lovians, though it often was regarded as left-leaning. Social liberalism was the core of the SLP's platform, supporting government interference to enforce social justice in most spheres of society, along with support for cultural diversity and acceptance. While social liberalism has been part of the platform of other parties, including the SLP's predecessors, it had never been such a core idea in a Lovian party until the formation of the SLP. The SLP gradually drifted leftward after its formation, though it remained officially centrist until a revision of its platform just after elections in 2015 redefined it as primarily leftist, but accepting a wide variety of views ranging from socialism to centrism.
Party image[]
The Social Liberal Party mostly inherited its image from its largest and most active predecessor party, the Liberal Democratic Party. Thus, the SLP was known as a reformer and a compromiser both to citizens and to other parties. It was known for promoting a moderate leftist view in Lovian politics. The SLP wanted to establish a balance between the more powerful ideologies in the country. Towards the end of its existence, the SLP drifted leftward and earned a more socialist view in the eyes of the people, especially after their strong and early support of Anna Maria Whithdonck-Malsky as Prime Minister.
Symbolism[]
The Social Liberal Party had two official colors: Dark pink, the primary color, and blue, the secondary color. Other than that, the party only had one symbol: a primary logo involving stripes of the official colors and white and the letters "SLP". SLP generally did not focus on symbolism when campaigning.
Administration[]
William Krosby, SLP chairman
The administration of the Social Liberal Party was rather complex. Five high-ranking members of the party ran the day-to-day operations, which included the making of announcements, organization of the various functions, and leading the party in Congress. These are the chairman, William Krosby, the vice-chairman, Percival E. Galahad, the Director of Finance, Lucy Austira, the Director of Campaigning, Harold Freeman, and the Director of Cooperation, Lars Washington. The more important decisions of the party, including those relating to the makeup of the leadership of the party and the ideology of the party, were managed by a Party Congress, which consisted of representatives from each of the states of Lovia. This congress met between twice and six times per year to vote on issues relating to the party.
Party Congress[]
The Party Congress of the Social Liberal Party consisted of a variable number of representatives from the states of Lovia. There are fifty members in total, including all MOTCs and several elected members. The Congress was rather factional, especially towards the end of the party's life. Socialist, moderate leftist, and centrist views were all represented within the Congress, helping to establish a platform that could be agreed on. The Party Congress is a side function of its members, who have other more primary jobs, as it only meets for a short time between two and six times per year. The last Party Congress was on June 5 to June 6, 2015.
Ideology[]
Main article: Social Liberal Party/Platform.
The Social Liberal Party stood for a leftist view on economics and a progressive view on social issues, and had maintained the social aspects of the platforms of its predecessors, the Liberal Democratic Party, Liberal Arts Party, and Lovian Alliance, despite drifting much further leftward in views on the economy. The SLP strongly supported progressive taxation and was in favor of strong government involvement in order to create a healthy economy. Many party members viewed capitalism as an inherently unequal system and support a peaceful transition to democratic socialism. When it came to social issues, the party was very libertarian, supporting equality for LGBT people and support for legal abortions, euthanasia, et cetera.
Members[]
There were several important members of the party. This list includes all MOTCs and other important members, and marks all MOTCs by their years in Congress either for the SLP or by one of its three predecessor parties.
- William Krosby (2011-2012 MOTC, Speaker of the Congress, Chairman)
- Percival E. Galahad (2011-2012 MOTC, Minister of Finance, Vice-chairman)
- Harold Freeman (2011-2012 MOTC, Director of Campaigning)
- Lars Washington (2011-2012 MOTC, Director of Cooperation)
- Lucy Austira (2012 MOTC, Director of Finance)
- James Torres (2012 MOTC, Minister of Health)
- Sawyer Hillbilly (2011-2012 MOTC)
- Samantha Brown (2011-2012 MOTC)
- Maggie Bell (2011-2012 MOTC)
- Jake Kubrick (2011-2012 MOTC)
- Elisabeth Toutel (2011-2012 MOTC)
- Marlene Torres-Banks (2012 MOTC)
- Anthony Day (2012 MOTC)
- Petr Gambrin (2012 MOTC)