Museum of the Empire, Eveari, Ananto

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Republican Kalistan
1921 CE - 5147 CE


President of the Republic Ana Barajas who died in Statrica while battling Imperialism

Before returning to Empire, Kalistan enjoyed a long and very robust tradition of Republicanism. it can be argued that Kalistan has spent more of its history as a republic than as an Empire, all told. Accordingly, it would be impossible to detail the history of more than 3200 years of Kalistani History in one exhibit, especially since the details of that history can either be covered more effectively elsewhere, or are simply no longer relevant. Who really cares which Party was in control of the Government in 3805? Nobody is asking that question today. More importantly than the electoral minutia which only matters to democracy historians are the general themes of the Republican Period which still very much influence our lives today, because they formed the basis of the Kalistani National Character, and therefore also, the character of its people.

The Kalistani Republic was frequently a multi-party affair. Two defining characteristics of the Republic Period carried throughout the entire period, and more or less still define the Kalistani national Character to this date: Robust Civil Libertarianism and Unflinching anti-fascism. Whatever else the Second Republic was, regardless of the multitude of interruptions and civil disturbances and seizures of government, Kalistan was always defined by these two features.

Civil Libertarianism
Kalistan has always been defiantly staunchly libertarian in its approach to the rights of Kalistani citizens. Kalistan has been counted among the most open nations of Terra in drug laws, sexual liberation, sex and gender equality and freedom from oppressive state apparatuses. This last one if most important because the major source of civil disorder in Kalistani society has almost always come from the corners of political sentiment which sought to impose oppression from above, who sought to use democracy and republican institutions to crush the freedoms of the people, and against whom, while Kalistan remained a democratic republic, the people of the nation were utterly powerless.

An informed and active citizenry is said to be necessary as a safeguard against those who wish to impose a narrow normative view upon the Nation. Bigots who hate foreigners, self-righteous religious types who hate freedom of reproductive choice, or law and order types who hate personal ownership of firearms and use of drugs, not to mention those liberties one normally thinks of as civil in nature, always found lapses in vigilance among the population of Republican Kalistan to be attractive opportunities to enforce their narrow view of the proper relationship of the State to Society upon everyone else. As a result, though Kalistan is defined by its support for Civil Libertarianism, repeatedly over and over, minority political actors were able to exploit flaws in Republicanism to seize control of the Government and use it as a weapon against the very people it was supposed to be legislating for. Consequently a commitment to civil liberties was hard to maintain with the Republic, because the Republic was often the tool used to deny people their civil liberties.

Luckily generations of staunch civil libertarians of countless political parties always rose in response and pushed back against those who wanted to use the state to limit the liberties of Kalistan. The Socialist Party was key in this due to its long history in government, but we cannot forget the world of other libertarian parties in Republican Kalistan's history, like the Rights and Freedom Party, the Agrarian Party, and the Democratic Party who all played vital roles in protecting the civil liberties of Kalistani Citizens. We also have to look at the institutions which arose during the republican period, including the Brethrenist movement, numerous socio-economic organizations, the music industry, Radio Kaliburg, and the print media, led by the still operational Kalistani Republic who served as vital weapons of liberty during the Republican Period.

Anti-Fascism
Hand in Hand with civil libertarianism is the strong anti-fascist, left of center political ideology within Kalistan. It was not merely the constant undermining of any attempts at developing a police state in Kalistan, but also a commitment to ideological, cultural, and socio-economic pluralism that characterized the Republic during this period. More than most nations, Kalistan has long recognized its history as a nation of immigrants. Every single cultural tradition that exists in Kalistan today came from somewhere else: Whether it be the languages we speak (Vrassan from Luthori, Egelian from Gaduridos, and even Redn from Artania and Valruzia that finds its roots in northern Majatra) or our music (the Kalistani Music Industry was patterned after the model developed by Valruzians), our clothes and style and fashion (borrowed largely from Lourenne) to the various communities (discrete communities and traditions hail from every continent in Terra) all of these things go to make Kalistani society about as pluralist as they come, so much so that the idea of Kalistan as a nation-state is almost rendered ridiculous, because in every instance we may ask "Who's Nation?"

This sort of pluralism, added to political pluralism of the Republican period, where Parties could range from revolutionary socialist on the left, to SPoK and agrarian movements in the center left, to moderate conservatives and National parties on the center right, all participated as long as they respected the notion that Kalistan was a nation that was unified not by a specific and exclusive identity, be it political or cultural, but was a nation where tradition and institutions were respected and uplifted. Kalistan is a nation of its institutions, and those institutions were designed to resist the homogenizing force of fascism, where only one thing was acceptable and any deviation represented weakness.

In Republican Kalistan, deviation from the hegemonic thing was seen as a strength. Fascists might temporarily rise through manipulation of the election system: That was a fairly frequent instance in Kalistan, because the mechanism for elections itself was flawed. But there was always a method to push back against the Fascists, to foil the plans of the political entrepreneurs that manipulated Kalistan's Republican institutions, and to utterly frustrate those who selfishly and maliciously sought to transform Kalistan from a free, pluralist society into an authoritarian's paradise. The people themselves played a key role in this, and more than five times, stood with the forces of freedom in armed conflict against fascism during the Republican period.

Ultimately it became clear to everyone that Kalistan was utterly hostile to the very notion of fascism, either at home or internationally, and with the rise of the Empire and the abolition of the Republic, there was no longer any method for fascists to seize the government in Kalistan any longer. One could say that the abolition of the Republic was in fact a reaction to fascist parties and what became termed "ephemeral Parties" who seized the government through electoral manipulation for a short time, deliberately damaged the society and its institutions and then faded back into the population, all because they wanted Kalistan to be a certain way that it was not destined to be: The abolition of the Republic and the institution of the Single Party Law denied them the tools they needed to conduct this sort of destruction in Kalistan. And the people are better off for it because now they do not have to remain on guard for constant and unrelenting fascist incursion into Kalistan's politics.

Today, Kalistan remains as vibrant and pluralistic a nation and society as it has ever been, and fascists are denied the ability to take advantage of that.