Collectivism
Collectivism is a ese and Cairan religious, social, and political doctrine that emerged during the Industrial Revolution in Messenia, with interlinks to early modern trade unionism, and forms part of the wider movement of Syndicalism. The ideology is primarily concerned with reforming society to erase the effects of capitalism, in particular stark social inequalities, by implementing collectivisation of the means of production and ending private property, using a labour theory of value, and creating a bottom-up respopular system. Collectivism principally derives from the application of egalitarianism to politics and economics, as theorised by Pierre Disault with his later works on the respopulus, and Utilitarianism; it can be classified as an extreme evolution of one of the original branches of Savamese Radicalism. Although its core political message has its roots in egalitarianism and the Reformation, Collectivism's emphasis on the power of the masses and collective action has paradoxically led its religious aspects to drift back toward Orthodox practices, where more emphasis is placed upon the collective rituals of cairon channeling. Nonetheless the radical reorganisation of the argan as preached by Collectivists is incompatible with Orthodoxist praxis.
Collectivism is generally perceived as a subversive ideology within the Cairan world, especially following the influence of thinkers Léonie-Sylvie Bassorelle and Maxime Juteaux who radicalised the movement in the 1870s-1880s, and the political experiments conducted in the Seranias up to the mid-twentieth century, including the Felician insurgency (1910s-30s). Mainstream Reformer intellectuals (especially liberals) view collectivists as problematic extremists proposing a subversive toppling of the established order. As a result, collectivists have often been at the margin of politics and often suffered persecutions. For example, collectivism is still regularly censored in Savam. Collectivism is under a sentence of heresy issued by the Orthodoxist clergy in 1887.
Political principles
Politically, Collectivism advocates a corporatist utilitarian and meritocratic society where the masses exercise direct political (the true respopulus) and economic power, with no distinction of social classes whatsoever, within a lightweight voluntary state structure based on technocratic meritocracy and free association federalism; the interest of the many is paramount in all decisions. The three pillars of the collectivist society are the house or guild, the argan, and the state.
A person's house or guild is a professional group (a corporation; the term syndicate is also used) to which everyone has to belong, similarly to earlier trade guilds or modern trade unions. When someone changes job, or rise in the meritocratic ladder, they will also join a new house. Houses are divided in local chapters that form the workers base of every firm, co-operative, or administration. While there is officially a unique argan encompassing all members of society, it is highly decentralised and autonomist (that is, regular faithful are able to direct worship, a principle also found in Darnelism). The state is an important actor in society but is viewed as a collective association of people's houses which maintain large autonomous functions: bureaucracy is kept to the necessary minimum for a so-called quasi-night-watchman state. In each of the three pillars, the people hold the ultimate authority through their vote.
In collectivist society, each person is expected to work toward the bettering of the lives of the faithful, and to put the interest of society above their own or those of individuals; the natural hierarchy of society as defended by the Orthodoxy is rejected. The societal organisation aims at providing a decent job to everyone (and hence good living standards), according to their capabilities, and allowing social mobility on meritocratic principles through education and experience. Such an efficiently functioning utilitarian society is believed to be the best way to restore cairon on both collective and individual levels and maintain respopulus.
Corporations/Houses
Argan
- The argan is organised similarly, with the Holy Mother and clergy subject to the people's scrutiny.
Respopulus
Collectivists advocate universal suffrage and unhindered social mobility, in opposition to the classical liberal respublic or even the radical principles of the modern enlightened respublic.
Syndicalism
Owning to its foundation during the industrialisation of Messenia, collectivism has a strong emphasis on the role of industry in society. Indeed, a successful collectivist society cannot be build without a successful industry; collectivism encourages the development of industry and increase of goods production, as well as some degree of technical innovation. Being entirely syndicalist, Collectivists see no place for private investments in the industry; however, in a collectivist society a market exists in which socially owned enterprises and factories compete, and a form of currency still exists. Collectivism still recognises the notion of private property as personal property, but its adherents believe that bodies such as factories should not be the property of any particular individuals or small group of individuals (e.g. shareholders); as a result, even though there is a complex management structure in such factories and other corporations, "dividends" are paid back to all workers directly, proportionality to their contribution in the factory's output. In effect, large enterprise function as co-operatives.
Money is replaced by labour vouchers which value are determined by the difficulty and time of workers' labour (the Labour theory of value). Labour vouchers are exchanged on a market to purchase goods and services; workers are able to consume the same amount of goods as according to their contributions. As such, the distribution of goods is not free as may be advocated in some other Syndicalist systems. This system resembles the economic paradigm advocated by Latourism, however the value of labour vouchers and organisation of the market system would be made as such as personal wealth would not be able to emerge as technically possible in Latourism where highly skilled workers may achieve very high degree of "income" (under Collectivism a high-skilled labourer would still be able to obtain more goods than a non-skilled one).
The State
Unlike the various forms of resnullianism, collectivism does not seek to abolish the state. The collectivist state however is largely unrecognisable from the current form of the modern Messenian state. It is based on the principle of non-coercive association between houses/corporations of workers and is staked with the role of a so-called "night-watchmen": collective security and law enforcement, justice, and the application of fair and balanced relations between the components of society. In effect, it should be possible for a corporate group to "secede" from the state with no repercussions. Most collectivists thinkers believed that a minimal state was inevitable to provide a framework in which to organise society and protect it from external or internal threats; indeed, preventing one house or co-operative from gaining too much power over others was deemed to be a necessary regulative power.
Since there is no money per se, the notion of tax does not exist under collectivism. To finance itself the state collects some of the industrial "dividends" generated by society. Collectivists are generally supportive of free trade, as it can help increase a country's goods output and ensure that there are no underused capacity or jobless people; the state is there to ensure that trade remains free.
Collectivism was heavily influenced (and vice versa) by the early unionist movements in the nascent industries of north-eastern Messenia, and its ideal state structure has parallels to the "ideal factory", where a technocratic structure manages the state on a daily basis but has to consult the people (the workers in the factory analogy) regularly and can be superseded or overthrown at any moment by the latter. Scholars have drawn parallels between the collectivist governmental organisation and the Ascesian Pattern Fiefdom system.
Collectivism today
Following the repression of the Felician insurgency, collectivism has declined in the Savamese sphere. A 1935 chancellery decree led to the expulsion of all collectivist communities from West and East Felicia and a large number of their most radicalised members were interned in Savam proper for many years. A few insurgents managed to escape capture and hid into the West Felician wilderness, conducting a low-scale guerrilla campaign against the authorities for up to 20 years well into the 1950s. However, given that no collectivist communities remained in the area, those rogue groups were not able to sustainably maintain their ranks and they dwindled down to extinction as they lost members to ageing and counter-guerrilla operations.
The southern Serania vice-principality of Grand-Sud had been excepted from the troubles of the Felician Insurgency, notably because the number of collectivist settlements there remained small, and there was much less interest in this colony in the first half of the twentieth Century than in Felicia. Following 1935 an estimated 20,000 collectivists moved from the Felicias to Grand-Sud, which was not concerned by the expulsion decree. The leaders of the local collectivist communities, chiefly represented by Holy Mother Ginette Metso from the League of the Pious Southern Exemplars settlements, approached the Imperial government with a proposal to sign a deal that would allow them to continue their lifestyle while complying with demands for security. Several leaders of the incoming Felician migrants were also involved in this process, pledging that they would accept compromise in other to support peaceful coexistence.
The comte de Dolignac was sent as a plenipotentiary representative of the Imperial government to Bonne-Mère, Grand-Sud's principal city, where negotiations took place in 1936 with the collectivists. Several weeks of talks resulted in the so-called Accords de Bonne-Mère, which still govern the relationship between collectivist settlers in southern Serania and the Savamese government. As concessions to the imperial authorities, the Collectivists agreed to pledge loyalty to the Emperor and renounce any claim to sovereignty, to submit to the Savamese judiciary, to allow periodic inspection of their communities, and to give up proselytising. In exchange, they were guaranteed religious and education freedom, allowed to keep their arms (within some limits), and were recognised settlement and mining rights in a extended area of the vice-principality.
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As of the late 2010s, census data show that approx. 270,000 people live in collectivist settlements in Grand-Sud; or about 4.3% of the population. They are mostly found in the north-eastern mountain range of the XXX (a range of the Southern Belt Chain), where the communities are engaged in mining and metalworking operations. A small numbers of agrarian collectivist communities are settled in Grand-Sud's western coastal regions, which remain largely underdeveloped.
- Autonomous collectivist communities involved mostly in mining business in the eastern mountains.
- Issues of competition with polyindustrials and corporate miners that want to develop the mining areas they exploit: instances of violence and mass expulsions of some communities, but also some legal wins for them too -- complex relationship throughout, potential of a few corruption scandals