A Reflection on Roskanan Politics - (wip)

[VoxApocrypha]

A Reflection on Roskanan Politics
By Professor Adran from RNU

Published by with the Roskanan Literary League, Roskanan Office for Political Enfranchisement, and the Luis And Daul Literary Company
In cooperation with the Roskanan National University and the Roskanan Ultranationalist Party

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Section 1.

 It would be no secret to state plainly that Roskana as a country has experienced intense shifts in its fortunes in the past sixty odd years.
This plainly obvious fact has colored that period of time, but particular the past forty years are the most important for the sake of Roskanan political development since the emergence of the Tsardom all those centuries ago when the last Veraki queen was thrown down the steps of the Ziggurat. In the time since many have taken to calling the prior history of Roskana a falsity and fabrication created by generations of Tsars seeking to instill a sort of national narrative of infalibility, and as well, further obfuscated by efforts made by the modern Republic dominated government that rose after the collapse of the previously Executive Foremost government of the Tsars. 

 When we examine the last Tsar, we do it from a lense largely fabricated by the Republican government of which overtook him and exiled him to Razgrina - rightly so, his actions were disgusting and outright destroyed a number of social norms and traditions in the pursuit of power and wealth. But this lense was fashioned as well with the subtle intention of establishing that the Tsardom itself and its style of governance was objectively wrong and unsuitable to the new world, built largely on the precedent that this Tsar, the 'Final Tsar' as they're typically called, was evil. And inarguably they were, their actions demonstrate such and their supporters were rightly hung. But the actions of prior Tsarist governments are often not considered in political debates nor are they often included in historical teachings. 

 These prior Tsar's were not themselves ostensibly authoritarians and Roskana has always, despite what many will say, been a bastion of relative liberty even though it maintained much of its unity through campaigns of cultural assimilation that could often be described as 'grossly overreaching' on many occassions. The phenomenon of 'Roskanification' was coined specifically for the actions of the last Tsar as they sought to incorporate Marrlan and Maiz into the greater whole of Roskana through many forceful methods, prompting much of that rebellion. As well the consolidation of power in such a manner is relatively unheard of in Roskanan history. While dictatorial Tsar's have existed and often left legacies mirred in bloodshed there have always been several institutions to which Tsar's have been obligated by the First Constitution to uphold for the sake of internal coherency and cohesion. 

 Republicanism is not new to Roskana nor has it arisen recently. What has arisen is a departure from the typical mold of a 'Roskanan Republic', in which the powers of the executive branch are curtailed and yet expanded under a system of which places much of the authority that would rest primarily with a Tsar, with a President and Vice President, in a model of which is more closely affiliated with Amalian democracy than it is Roskanan Republicanism. As well, much of the authority that would otherwise be heavily invested into the Tsar and his cabinet of Councilarians has been given instead to the Diamid, to which the effects are.. arguably good, and arguably bad. To call the government of the past 30 years anything short of a bold experiment would be a lie, for it is the most adventurous action of any Roskanan administration in history after the death of the Veraki queen. 

 Section 2.

 To help readers understand the concept of Roskanan Republicanism, I'll divert for a moment to explain the concept in full: 
Roskanan Republicanism is a style of internalized Federal Republicanism of which is largely subservient to the Tsar and their overall Executive powers, leaving the Republican largely a body of internal management and not one of external political projection or power. It's responsibilities and powers rested and were vested primarily in performing a set series of duties, to which were not terribly different from the modern duties of the current administration, but much less broad in their scope because of their limitations.

 Those being, firstly to defend the constitutional civil, economic and political liberties afforded to a citizen of Roskana - which constituted anyone born within Roskanan borders or who had immigrated and integrated with Roskana proper.

Secondly, their duties were to provide the internal political framework to represent the incorporated territories and 'integrated members' of the Tsardom, which included both the states, and the nations of which resided in the overall constitutional monarchist federation that the Tsardom was nominally composed of.

Thirdly, to provide a stable base from which the Roskanan public could vote in representatives and as well, bring their issues to the Tsar in a legal manner, but as well to create a framework from which internal problems could be addressed. 

Fourthly, to write treaties and to negotiate them via relay with the Tsar, and foreign states, with the Tsar overall being able to set the direction of foreign entanglement and policy as they deemed fit, but the Republic held economic sway over the Tsar and created the necessary foundation to ensure that the Tsar would keep the concerns of the nation itself at heart rather than any sort of personal fixation on legacy. This was to a point actively enforced by the 'Double Edged Sword' principle, of which saw the Office of the Guard both enforce procedure and maintain the cycle of order and anti-corruption activities within the Tsardom. 

 The Tsar was policed by the Guard, the Republic by the Guard, ultimately as well the guard viciously policed itself - having what is probably the single highest body count of inter-service executions and arrests of any Roskanan organization prior to the Overthrow. The Tsar's power was ultimately in contrast, fixated upon setting the overall goal of national policy, and as well, setting the course of Roskana's international diplomacy. As well, they and their Councilarians would be able to more or less directly set the direction of national policy. The Legal system at the time did not have a supreme authority and thus wasn't ever really represented - states were typicall in charge of their own law and any sort of law enforcement fell only to either one of two national policing agencies, and then the individual security forces and policing elements of the constitutent states of the Tsardom. 

 All of this was governed by a centuries old constitution you can still find and read in meuseums to this day. 

 To explain now why this is important, and as well - why the last Tsar was a unlucky singleton out of a history of relatively successful Tsars, we have to look at what that Tsar did that sets him apart.
To which there are a lot of actions, but we will start with the simplest. In the 1880s the cycle began in earnest, but we must understand that the framework was inadvertently set up by the Tsar before them, with the 'Dracon Decree' of which dramatically limited the power of the Office of the Guard, to which wasn't as heavily protected by other institutions or the constitution. 

 Corrupting elements within the Councilarians, of which would become the Oligarchs later on, had spearheaded the endeavor to first limit the power of the primary force that would defeat them in any sort of power struggle, to which they effectively managed to abuse a number of legal oversights and loopholes within both the Republic and the Executive power structures to basically nueuter the Guard. These Councilarians then pushed non-cooperative members of the Council off, and entered league with the Tsar of which used blackmail as a tool to control these men, and as well, the threat of assassination. 

 They would begin the process of weakening the republic by first using legal loopholes via representatives in the national assembly, or the Diamid as it is often called at this time, to expand and create openings while closing avenues of prevention or otherwise finding means from which they could hinder the effective capability of non-supportive members of the Republic, whilst growing their power base. They used this to start chipping away at the constitution as well, and eventually did away entirely with the Office of the Guard within the first decade, leading up to 1890s. 

 They began to as well form alliances within the economy on a larger scale, and to directly buy up large amounts of industry after a decree made much of what had previously been critical state industries into private companies, effectively creating the circumstances with which the Oligarchs would be in control of the national economy and formed a number of exploitative and powerful corporations that abused many aspects of common law, directly effecting both the economic output of Roskana, and the quality of life for the average Roskanan, to which began to the build up of public resentment in earnest - various political actions before had built a lot of Ill will, but this was the tipping point where it began to snowball, slowly at first but it'd pick up energy quickly once it reached critical mass. 

 The first attempt at Roskanification could arguably be called a failure - Kiralia rebelled not long after the Overthrow happened, and prior terrorism and seperatist sentiments had existed for decades before, cooling off only to reignite as their political liberties were taken and then later, their economic power. They had otherwise been loyal enough to be relied upon to remain in the Tsardom, but had been pushed away as their culture was attacked. This could be said to have happened as well in Marrlan. The case of Maiz was more or less a different beast, as Maiz was a rural region with few cities and in truth, likely where the importation of Amalian values of democracy came from, and spread to Marrlan and to the rest of Roskana in the years leading up to the Overthrow. Maiz being called a Colony was often in truth, an accurate statement - the nation existed largely as a agricultural domain of the Tsardom, the Breadbasket, or as it was called before 'Ven Panemus Maiza', meaning 'Holder of Corn Bread' in Escanti/Rosark. 

 The first massacre in Marrlan and the violent crackdowns against the Oligarchs and later, the anti-Oligarch demonstrations and riots against the dissolution of the First Constitution created the condidtions for the overthrow. It would take only a single proper mass-murder by a loyalist Army under the Tsar to trigger a Tsardom wide uprising that would see the end of a corrupt regime, and its replacement with a less corrupt, definitively less authoritarian and indeed overall kinder regime with a far more robust constitution - but as well, this came with its own problems. 

 The Modern Republic is a system of which is built on more Amalian based models than it is on Roskanan ones. It is the great experiment, a endeavor within a civilization to create something better. 
Power is not centralized and rested in the hands primarily of two heavily powerful organizations that operate two separate aspects of the nation, the Internal and the External respectively, but instead the Republic *IS* the national government in its whole, and incorporates as well the Executive and the Judicial into its legal framework, creating a system of Checks and Balances that effectively ensure that no one organization or arm of the state has too much power, and that it cannot supercede that of the others. 

And it has worked incredibly well in doing a number of things. 
Of which the most important, is the preservation of civil liberties and political liberties, as well as the refoundation of the economic liberty that previously enabled Roskana to be the power it used to be.
As well the justice system is now more robust and effective, and as well capable of prosecuting politicians a lot more effectively than it used to be, which has helped to handle the issue of corruption, to which plagued Tsarist states until the Overthrow happened. Civil liberty is stronger than ever, same with political freedoms. 

 But with the overthrow there has been a sort of notable societal sluggishness to truly adapt to the reality around it. 
There's been little true innovation within Roskana proper itself, instead its child state of Marrlan has engaged in the majority of that and the inventions both military and civilian trickle in through Marrlanian companies or Roskanan inventors returning from Marrlan to spread it as a means of engaging in proper business, and year by year voter participation markedly is both low, and fluctuates substantially. 

Section 3.