Nova Anglican Government and Politics
The outside of the Nova Anglican Parliament building, complete with the guardian lions
So you've heard about how Nova Anglicana came to be, and a little about what kinds of people live there. But how is Nova Anglicana run? Given the circumstances of its founding, its official religion, and the fact that two-thirds of its residents profess some form of Anglicanism, is Nova Anglicana an Anglican theocracy? By no means! Let's dive in.
Nova Anglicana is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, and a unitary parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy. So what does that mean? Well, a parliamentary democracy is a kind of government where the executive, the person responsible for carrying out the laws and day-to-day functions of the legislature, is elected by the legislature, who in turn are elected by the people. It usually has a Prime Minister as the head of government, instead of a President. Additionally, in a parliamentary system, the head of government, the executive, is different than the head of state, the person who represents that country on the world stage. This is where the "Commonwealth of Nations" and "constitutional monarchy" bits come in.
You see, as a former part of Canada (and therefore the British Empire), and given its faith, Nova Anglicana has Her Majesty, Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom, Nova Anglicana, and Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, to use her full title, as its head of state. What does this mean in practice? Occasionally, Liz will make a state visit to Nova Anglicana; otherwise, there is a Governor-General who acts as a stand-in for Her Majesty on various state occasions. Because this is a constitutional monarchy, the Queen holds very little actual power and actually exercises next to none. For Americans who have immigrated to the country, having a Queen takes a bit of getting used to, given the Revolution, but one adjusts in time, and Queen Elizabeth is seen as a sort of beloved grandmother to the country.
So if there's no president, and Queen Elizabeth doesn't really do anything, who runs the country? Nova Anglicana has a legislative branch, like Congress, called the Nova Anglican Parliament, that makes laws for the country and from which the Prime Minister is drawn. The lower house is called the House of Deputies, and the upper house, the Senate. The Prime Minister is elected by his/her colleagues in the House of Deputies, and must receive more "aye" votes than "no" votes to be elected. Once elected, he/she must go about selecting fellow members of Parliament to serve as Cabinet Ministers, or heads of the various government departments. The Prime Minister and the Ministers of the various departments are collectively referred to as "the (insert name of Prime Minister) government." Those who vote against the Prime Minister are collectively referred to as "the opposition" and there is usually a designated "Leader of the Opposition". To keep the government honest, the Leader of the Opposition and the Prime Minister engage in "Prime Minister's Questions" (PMQs), a sort of televised weekly debate where the Leader of the Opposition forces the Prime Minister to defend his/her government's actions.
The House of Deputies proposes any legislation that it deems necessary for the execution of its duties and, after careful study in committee, votes on it as a body. A simple majority is required for passage. After a bill passes the House of Deputies, it goes to the Senate. The Senate has the power to approve, reject, or revise legislation from the House of Deputies. If the bill is approved, the Governor-General signs the bill and it becomes law. If the bill is rejected, it is dead unless a 3/5 majority of the House of Deputies votes to override the rejection. If the bill is revised, then the House of Deputies must vote in favor of the revised bill, or it is dead.
The Senate's main duties, besides voting on legislation (they do not propose bills), are to approve or reject of Supreme Court nominees, ambassadors, and other various sub-Cabinet officials of the government. All Parliamentary committee meetings, PMQs, and proceedings on the floors of both houses are broadcast on PPAN (Parliamentary Public Access Network), a publicly-owned corporation. They are also recorded and the recordings subject to open-records laws.
The judicial branch of Nova Anglicana is composed of municipal courts, regional (multiple municipalities) courts, provincial courts, and the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court consists of five members, chosen to serve for lifelong terms, and holds the power of judicial review.
Nova Anglicana has five provinces, each of which have their own House of Deputies that governs the province. The various provinces have authority to make laws and collect taxes in their respective territories, though since Nova Anglicana is a "unitary" state, Parliament has the power to give to or take away power from the provincial governments, or even abolish them, though it rarely exercises any of those powers. Nova Anglicana also has local government, which is usually a mayor/council system, with the mayor serving as the executive and the council as the legislature.
Elections in Nova Anglicana
So how are Parliament and the provincial governments elected? To elect the House of Deputies, both nationally and provincially, Nova Anglicana has a system called mixed-member proportional representation, or MMP. MMP is sort of a hybrid of a full-on proportional representation system and a US-style election system. Half the Deputies are elected from electoral districts, with the most votes winning (minimum threshold is 35%). The other half are elected by proportional representation. When any non-incarcerated Nova Anglican citizen 18 years or older goes into the voting booth, they will have two boxes to check: the first is the candidate for their electoral district they wish to select, and the second is the political party they wish to vote for on a nationwide level. Many times these are the same, but not always. You may vote for a candidate and not a party, or a party and not a candidate if you wish; the former is more common than the latter, but most people fill out both.
The second vote, the nationwide political party vote, is then tallied to see how many seats each party should get. For example, if Party A wins 40% of the vote, Party B wins 35% of the vote, and Party C wins 25% of the vote, then they should get 40%, 35%, and 25% of the seats, respectively. Election officials look at the number of electoral districts each party won, then add proportional seats until the number of seats equals the percentage of the vote that party won. There is a minimum threshold of 2% of the vote for a party to get any proportional seats. Sometimes, parties will win more electoral district(s) than their proportional vote suggests they should get; for example, a regionally based party that wins seats in one area, but is unpopular nationwide. In that case, the size of the House of Deputies is expanded by however many "extra" seats that party won. See this video for a quick explanation of MMP. Deputies are eligible to serve up to six three-year terms.
The Senate, which has 25 members, is elected differently. Five senators are elected from each province. Each political party nominates a number of candidates to be on the ballot. Voters rank their preferred candidates in order. If one or more candidates meets the electoral threshold of 20% of the vote (100%/5 senators), they are immediately elected. If no candidate meets the threshold, then the candidate with the least number of first-ranked votes is eliminated, and those voters' votes move to their second choice. This repeats until five candidates have met the threshold. There is no requirement to rank all the candidates in order (if every political party nominates the maximum five candidates, then there can be over thirty candidates in some areas, though every party usually doesn't), and most people don't, but some do. This system was put in place to elect multiple candidates at a time, while reducing "wasted" votes and allowing voters to express multiple preferences. For an explanation of Single Transferable Vote, as this system is called, see this video. Senators are eligible to serve up to two six-year terms.
Political Parties of Nova Anglicana
One of the strongest principles in Nova Anglican politics is Christian democracy. Christian democracy is the idea that modern democratic values and traditional Christian values can co-exist in the political sphere and that using ideas from both traditions uplifts all. It incorporates ideas from conservatism, liberalism, and social democracy, and so scrambles some traditional ideas of politics. Most parties in Nova Anglicana profess some level of commitment to Christian democracy.
There are two dominant major parties in Nova Anglicana, which usually hold 70% or more of the seats in Parliament combined.
Progressive Justice Party: The Progressive Justice Party, or PJP, is the liberal or progressive wing of the movement that founded Nova Anglicana. They have governed the country, either as a majority or in coalition, for much of the country's history. The PJP is a big-tent party, ranging from individuals who would see themselves as moderates, to liberals/progressives, the "Christian left", and even some folks who are social democratic in outlook. As such, no one wing of the party is dominant, and compromise is inevitable. Some of their strongest commitments, however, are to foreign aid, a rehabilitative model of incarceration, free trade, immigration, soft power, and a living wage. Most members of the party support same-sex marriage and are openly Christian. They also support a universal single-payer healthcare model and are big proponents of infrastructure. They would be centre to centre-left on the political spectrum.
People's Party: The Nova Anglican People's Party is the conservative wing of the movement that founded Nova Anglicana. They are similar to what many people think of when they think "Christian right" or "religious right". They combine a commitment to social conservatism with a preference for lower government spending and taxation. They are pro-military and favor limiting immigration and privatizing state-run enterprises. They have recently turned towards protectionism, though they have their fair share of free traders. They range from European-style moderate conseratives, to Bob Dole/Jack Kemp who are socially moderate and focused on fiscal responsibility, to George Bush-style "compassionate conservatives" who support the military, to "movement conservative" zealot types like Ted Cruz. They would be centre-right to right-wing on the political spectrum.
There are four non-dominant major parties in Nova Anglicana, which are always represented in Parliament, but usually hold fewer than 30% of the seats.
Stewardship Party: Their commitment to Christian democracy can be seen in the name, "Stewardship", referring to Genesis and God entrusting humans with the world. We are supposed to take care of the world until Christ's return. Thus, the Stewardship Party is a broadly environmentalist party united in its commitment to clean water, clean air, and clean energy. They are also opponents of environmental racism and win significant support from First Nations/Indigenous people for making advocacy of their interests a key part of their platform. Historically very close with the PJP. If you see environmentalism and think, "Oh, great. Jill Stein-style conspiracies about cell phones and vaccines", think again. They are supportive of all types of science and much closer to Green Parties in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, or European countries, which are part of the political mainstream. They would be centre to centre-left on the political spectrum.
Liberal Secularists: As you might expect from the name, they are the party in Nova Anglicana that diverges most sharply from Christian democracy and Nova Anglicana's religiosity. They are united by a commitment to secularism in government, scientific advancement, comprehensive sex education, and free university. Other than that, they're a big-tent party. They range from garden-variety secularists who want to get rid of the official religion, to French-style supporters of laïcité who want a complete banishment of religious symbols and religion from the public square. On economics, they range from nearly libertarians to socialists. It is not only non-religious individuals who support this party, but also members of minority religions such as Judaism and mainstream religious individuals uncomfortable with the level of public religion in the country.
Libertarian Party: They're libertarians, so their commitment is to more freedom. To quote from a popular libertarian trope, they want "gay married couples to be able to protect their marijuana plants with guns". They support same-sex marriage, drug legalisation or decriminalisation (not just marijuana), few restrictions on gun ownership, low and/or flat taxes, balanced budgets, few regulations, and devolution of authority from Parliament to the provinces and local governments. It is this last stance that wins them consistent support in the province of Quebec, always eager to govern their own affairs. Justin Amash and Gary Johnson are prominent libertarian or libertarian-leaning comparisons. They would be centre-right to right-wing on the political spectrum.
National Party: The Nova Anglican National Party, to use its full name, is a right-wing split from the People's Party, formed when a former PP Senator lost the leadership election. The National Party can be classified as right-wing populist and lies on the right-wing to far-right side of the spectrum. They are vehemently anti-immigration, including deportation, and anti-welfare spending, while being pro-military, pro-police, and pro-free market. They are also pro-tariff and support incentives for domestic manufacturing. Severely socially conservative too. Think Trumpism and points right, without being actual fascists.
There are also several minor parties in Nova Anglicana. Minor parties usually are only represented at the provincial or local level.
Equality: This is a coalition of leftists, feminists, social progressives, and LGBTQ+ people. They try to represent LGBTQ+ interests and women's interests, as well as promote social democracy. They are pro-choice, pro-family leave, pro-immigration, and want stronger non-discrimination laws. Think Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Centre-left to left-wing on the political spectrum.
Democracy: This is a single-issue party that advocates abolishing the Senate and moving to a full-on proportional representation system. They believe it would be a fairer election system and a more efficient government.
Socialist Workers' Party: This is a party aligned with Trotskyism. They support worldwide socialist revolution, the unity of the working class around the world, and mass action, especially through unions, to cripple capitalism and bring it down. Compare any number of small socialist/communist parties.
Newfoundland Independence Party: What it says on the tin. They want a separate and independent Newfoundland, based on shared Newfoundland culture and identity. Anti-immigration. Kind of like Texas secessionists.
Dominionist Party: Fringe far-right party that supports religious tests for public office, a government run completely on "Biblical values", and a role for religious officials in the government.
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