Interest Groups
Vanilla Victoria 3 seeks to represent interest groups with a handful of large interest groups representing different segments of the population. We seek to make that system more historical and dynamic by splitting these up into a variety of interest groups. In the Better Politics Mod there are two categories of Interest Groups:
- Institutional Interest Groups (INGs): feature gray icons and represent the foundational institutions and classes of your society, bureaucrats, landowners, etc.
- Ideological Interest Groups (IDGs): feature colorful icons and represent major ideological currents, these get stronger with high radicalism and a dynamic government
To begin let's start with the first group
"No hard and fast rule can be laid down as to where our legislation shall stop in interfering between man and man, between interest and interest." -Theodore Roosevelt, 1901
These groups represent institutions, and so are not inherently tied to one ideological current, and their alignment in parties may shift throughout the game to to technology, laws, and changes in leadership. From left to right there is:
- Church Interests - very close to the vanilla devout IG, this group represents the interests of the clergy, the most devout and moralists in your population, they are strongest in countries with church run institutions. Generally they lean conservative but become foundational in liberal and agrarian parties depending on leadership
- Village Interests - this group represents the broader non aristocratic elements of the rural areas of your country. This includes peasantry, farmers, and most pops that are working in rural buildings such as farms. Their alignment can swing wildly depending on the law and ideological situation in a country, swinging from being defenders of traditional agriculture, to outright socialists. A powerful Village Interests IG will often break off to join an agrarian party in liberal democracies.
- Bureaucratic Interests - this group represents the masses of bureaucrats and clerks in your government run buildings and administrations, on a deeper level it represents the establishment political machines lead by seasoned bureaucrats to entrench their own power. They generally are moderate but lean towards the dominant political currents in a government. Can grow very powerful in modern authoritarian and oligarchical states.
- Aristocratic Interests - a non-ideological power bloc representing the interests of traditionally powerful families. Generally committed to preserving their power, which leads them to be generally very conservative and traditionalist in any situation. Generally extremely powerful in traditional absolute monarchies, displacing their power through land reform and economic development will be the main way to reduce their power.
- Business Interests - an interest group representing the interests of industrial capital, this group will be dominated by capitalists as well as other wealthy pops employed in factories and will grow much stronger as a nation industrializes. Can shift ideologically but will almost always be in favor of low government interventionism and free trade. Generally opposed to trade unions.
- Professional Interests - a largely urban power bloc representing the interests of professionals and merchants. Typically organized into professional associations, craft unions, traditional guilds, and informal cartels, these groups fear encroachment from big businesses and from the masses of laborers. Can lean liberal or conservative, but are generally protectionist and in favor of restrictions on migration.
- Military Interests - this interest group represents the interests of the officer class as well as those capitalizing off of arms production. Generally jingoistic and in favor of expanding the influence of the armed forces over civilian government.
IDGs represent the ideological movements of your country, these are tied to a wide set of ideologies and form the foundations of many political parties. These gain greater attraction in times of low political rigidity (see Mechanics) and radicalism. They generally have more ideologies built in than INGs and have a more limited set of possible leader ideologies, often deferring to a moderate leader who follows the default IG ideologies. Here we will go over the current IDGs in groups starting with the right.
"That which is best about conservatism, that which, though it cannot be expressed in detail, inspires reverence in all, is the inevitable." -Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841
- Reactionaries - a broad tent of those who want to go back to the good old days, who unlike niche interest groups elevate their nostalgia to a general politics. The specifics of what they want depends on what the good old days were like (or seemed to be) in each particular country. Subsections of this group include monarchic absolutists, religious moralists, or even wealthy peasants.
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Conservatives - these are the broad set of people who want to preserve the status quo, while situationally advancing or rolling back reforms in response to social crises. Since this is not a unified ideology, conservatives can be rife with internal conflicts, for instance, between those who support libertarianism vs. social paternalism, particularism vs. nationalism, or secularism vs. religious moralism.
- Can later develop into Paternal Conservatives who support limited labor and welfare reforms.
- Fascists - An extreme-right ideology, fascism is difficult to define in specific terms. Generally characterized by national chauvinism, a reverence of the state, and a rabid hostility to any Left-wing or perceived foreign elements, it is just as much inundated with contradictions -- while fascists often espouse deeply traditional values, they also glorify the efficiency of modern industry and war. This strange coupling of traditionalism with modernity is part of what sets e.g. clerical fascism apart from traditional moralism, and Italian Futurism apart from socialism.
"Define it as we may, faith in progress has been the mainspring of liberalism in all its schools and branches." -John Morley, 1908
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Radical Liberals - this group takes the ideals of their moderate cousins to their logical end. They agitate for full democracy and social egalitarianism, resorting to revolutionary means where official politics is impossible. As such, they may overlap with socialists early on, though they would grow more moderate over time. Examples include the French Radicals, the 1848 revolutionaries, American Radical Republicans, and Sun Yat-sen's KMT.
- Can later evolve into non-revolutionary Progressive Liberals in established democracies.
- Moderate Liberals - classical liberals who wish to reform the state to embrace Englightenment ideals. They usually advocate for laissez-faire economics and civil rights, within a strong nation-state separate from traditional power structures. Examples include the British Whigs, American Republicans, and Russian Kadets.
- Market Liberals - this IDG splits from the moderate liberals later on (see Journal Entries), and are liberals that prioritize laissez-faire economics over liberalization in other spheres of society. Examples include the British Peelites and the early American Republicans.
- National Liberals - this IDG also splits from moderate liberals in a JE and are conservative liberals that prioritize national unity with a strong state and a strong military. Examples include the German National Liberals, French Bonapartists, American War Democrats, and Japanese Imperialists.
"Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. WORKING MEN OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!" -Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 1848
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Anarchists - socialists that believe in the immediate abolition of the state. Varied in specific beliefs, anarchists usually follow the tradition of Proudhon and Bakunin against other types of socialism, attempting to form non-hierarchical labor alliances seeking to either outgrow the state or overthrow it in one fell swoop.
- Will almost never participate in electoralism outside of council republics.
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Independent Socialists - Socialism, or Social Democracy, refers to the broad tradition of leftists that opposed the anarchists in the First International. Specific tendencies can vary greatly, for instance, between the mass movement of the British Chartists, the secret societies of the Blanquists, the parliamentary politics of Lassalleans, and the scientific socialism of Marxists.
- This IDG will disappear after the split between reformists and revolutionists.
- Reformist Socialists - Reformist Socialists vary in their commitment to reformism and socialism. On the radical end, such as the French Possibilists and the German USPD, are those who prioritize reforms in the present while holding revolution as a long-term goal. In the middle are those who believe that socialism can be attained by reforms alone, such as Eduard Bernstein's faction in the SPD. Finally, on the right wing are those who want to strike a compromise betwen capitalism and socialism, eventually becoming what we know as social democracy today.
- Revolutionist Socialists - Revolutionist Socialists, the progenitors to later Communists, believe that an international dictatorship of the proletariat is the only way to achieve socialism. To them, the struggle for reforms is one component of class struggle, as a means of building the revolutionary consciousness necessary to win political power. Usually, revolutionists also cohere around a mass party as a repository for political experience. Examples include the early German SPD, the German Spartacists, and the Russian Bolsheviks.
"This is not a contest between persons. The humblest citizen in all the land, when clad in the armor of a righteous cause, is stronger than all the hosts of error." -William Jennings Bryan, 1896
- Trade Unionists - a unique group that centers their activity on trade unions rather than parties or the government, coordinating strikes and collective bargaining to maintain workers' power against employers. Typically eschewing political goals for economic ones, they become an institutional interest group if trade unions are legalized.
- Agrarian Populists - this IDG does not come from a single tradition, and composition can vary greatly even within one country. Generally, they oppose established landowners in favor of egalitarian land use; moderate populists seek local autonomy and tax reform, whereas more radical ones advocate for social revolution. How they swing ideologically is based on historical factors and the progress of certain ideological movements like Agrarian Socialism (see Journal Entries). Examples include the Russian Narodniks and the American Populist Party.