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	AGRARIAN PARTY

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The Agrarian Party was, as its name suggests, based around rural voters. Most of its policies changed considerably over the nearly fifty years it existed, passing through four basic phases - socialist conservatism, protectionist conservatism, protectionist environmentalism, and back to protectionist conservatism. The one thing that did stay with the party throughout its history was its so-called "rural utopianism", a pastoralist belief in the superority of the countryside over the "crowded, noisy, crime-ridden cities". This is sometimes cited as an early form of environmentalism, although not all scholars agree with this description. The Agrarians were generally sentimental about "simple, idyllic life" that they claim existed before the industrial revolution.

Colour and Emblem

The official colour of the Advancement Party was brown, representing the soil. Its official symbol was a scythe.

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The party's name in Lendian was "lo Partido Agriciano".

Quote

"The backbone of any country and any economy is agriculture. It is critical not only that the government support the farming sector, but that it learn the many lessons about hard work, diligence, and honesty that farmers have to offer."

History of the Party

The Agrarian Party was founded by the Neonian Agricultural Association, a consortium of farmers in Neonia and eastern Paspalhis. Established in 232 AP, it predicted that "within a few years, the Agrarian Party will have captured the rural vote in its entirity, leaving the other parties to their urban electorate". The party set out a policy platform that combined left-wing economics, conservative social views, and a pastoralist focus on the supposed virtues of country life over urban life.

The party performed poorly in the 235 AP general elections, gaining only 0.6% of the vote and no Council seats. Only the tiny Eugenics Party and Segregationist Party fared worse. The Agrarians did, however, meet with some modest successes at the local level, gaining positions in a number of rural districts.

In the 240 AP elections, the party's vote collapsed further to 0.3%, with many supporters realising that the party had little chance of success. Many of those who supported the Agrarian Party's conservative, pastoralist outlook began to follow the more broadly-based Conservative Party, which was meeting with much more success. Many of the remaining party members blamed the group's failure on its semi-socialist politics, which were not in keeping with the views of most farmers. The policies had been largely a product of the party's founding leader, and were based around desire for land reform, ending the power of wealthy land-owners over ordinary farmers. However, many of the desired improvements had already been brought about - firstly, the power of land-owners had been reduced by change in tenancy laws, and secondly, the mass revocation of many noble titles by the Imperial Council in the 220's saw much of the land fall into state ownership in any case, later to be sold to its tenant farmers. As such, the reformist policies of the Agrarians were considered obsolete, and rapidly growing more so.

In 243 AP, the Agrarians abandoned their focus on completing what little reform had yet to be accomplished, and began to turn their attention towards other ideologies. Under these new ideas, the Agrarians put forward a platform which supported "state protection of industry and commerce for the betterment of all", telling people that the state should promote and protect wealth but not attempt to own it. In particular, the Agrarians sought to establish a strongly protectionist climate, shielding local industry from foreign competition. The Agrarians described their economic views as "government support of private enterprise" - this was a rejection of communist-style state ownership and central planning, but also of market forces and laissez-faire. In the previous century, these protectionist ideas had been dominant in the Empire, but had gradually fallen out of favour (something helped considerably by the rise to prominence of the Liberal Party). By the time the views were adopted by the Agrarians, only the Conservative Party and the Isolationist Party were seriously supporting them.

In the elections of 245 AP, the Agrarian Party again failed to gain the support it had hoped for, gaining 0.2% of the vote. The party's leadership came under strong criticism for its performance, but also problematic for the party was a lack of differentiation between it and other groups. The Agrarians' economic and social policies were already being promoted by the more noticable Conservative Party, leaving the Agrarians with rural idealism as their only defining feature.

In the 250 AP and 255 AP elections, the Agrarian Party gained approximately 0.1% of the vote, and protracted leadership disputes broke out. In 258 AP, a faction came to power that put even greater emphasis on the party's rural utopianism, particularly on "preserving the countryside from the destruction wrought by industrialization and development". The party's policies became sharply anti-industry, advocating "an end to the rule of the corporations and a renewed focus on agriculture and small business". Some academics see the Agrarian Party as the beginnings of Lendosa's environmentalist and anti-globalization movements, although others would place the Utopian Party in this role. Ironically, most of the drive for "environmental utopia" in the Lendosan countryside was created by city-dwellers, particularly the young, professional middle class.

Despite this newfound policy platform, the Agrarian Party's poor organization prevented the group from improving its electoral performance in 260 AP. Shortly after the elections, a faction of the party began to express displeasure with the new direction, complaining that the party was loosing its "farming roots" and becoming "a vehicle for the urban middle class to indulge their skewed idea of rural life". In 262 AP, this faction came to power, mostly as a result of the urban environmentalists loosing interest in the party due to its poor electoral performance. Many environmentalists from the Agrarian Party switched to the newly-founded Ecological Party, which better suited their views. Agrarian policy returned to something similar to what it had been the previous decade.

Unfortunately for the Agrarian Party, however, this simply meant a return to the same problem - a lack of distinguishing features. Most people supporting the anti-industry, anti-corporation stance of the party were more drawn to the Ecological Party or the Utopian Party, while most people supporting the social conservatism of the party chose to support groups like the Nationalist Party (and, as its conservatism gradually increased, the Imperial Party). In the elections of 265 AP, the Agrarians failed to lift their vote count.

The ongoing failure of the party to win any seats caused many prominent members to drop out, which further compounded the Agrarians' worries. Successive challenges to the leadership were also damaging. In the 270 AP elections, the party's performance was dismal, and in the 275 AP elections, its support had dropped to the point where it was almost non-existant. A year later, in 276 AP, the leadership of the party finally decided to dismantle the group, leaving its few members to join other parties (or abandon politics) as they wished.

List of Leaders

• Frederico Algaravo (232 - 243)
• Jamio Mensedro (243 - 256)
• Prospero Ferano (256 - 257)
• Rudolfo Caldo (257 - 258)
• Tero Balamino (258 - 262)
• Diego Tandafi (262 - 268)
• Miguel Ensto (268)
• Piro Turilaste (268 - 271)
• Deneso Leon (271 - 276)