Mireism

Mireism is the political system of Sokoku, as well as the political and economic philosophy as formulated by the stateswoman Chika Mirei om which it is based. It is characterised by elements of a planned economy and strong anti-colonial and anti-mercantilist stance. As a political system, Mireism has been limited to Sokoku, but as an ideology it has been influential in many post-colonial nations rejecting a free market capitalist or orderist system.

History

Mireism has been formulated as a political and economic philosophy by the Sokokan stateswoman Chika Mirei. During her lifetime, she developed the philosphy while applying it to the federal government of the expanding post-colonial nation of Sokoku. As such, the philosophy is based on and adapted to the political system that gradually developed in Sokoku. This in contrast to most other political philosophies that were formulated as a political theory before getting applied in state government.

There is no single, definitive publication formulating the exact principles of Mireism, but a gathering of scientific publications by Chika Mirei published between 7606 and 7660. The main works also include two versions of the Constitution of Sokoku from 7609 and 7643, as well as a more extensive theoretical publication "The justification of the state" from 7654.

During her lifetime, the philosophy was usually called pembenaran or seitouka, in Hallisian often refered to as "the pembenaran state". The term "Mireists" as followers of Chika Mirei's philosophy was applied to a more informal group of parlementarians preparing the 7643 Constitution of Sokoku. Other factions included Chinenists and Satoists, but with the new constitution of 7643 Mireism became the dominant ideology. It was only after her death in 7666 that Mireism as a term was starting to get used for Sokoku's structure of federal and state government as a philosophy that could be applied outside Sokoku as well.

In language

Grammatically speaking, the correct term would actually be Mireiism since a follower of Mirei's philosophy would be called a Mirei-ist but in the Hallisian language this spelling was never used. In some other languages the double -ii- is in use, like in Wortsproke. Since the Hallisian pronunciation of Mirei has more of a diphtong at the end (MEE-ray) the correct pronunciation of Mireism still is MEE-ray-ism despite it only being written with one -i-.

Basic philosophy

Mireism combines elements of Socialism, Orderism, free market capitalism, traditional non-aristocratic government of the region and even Orkanan society and economics.

Human interests at the center

The philosophy has been labelled "true socialism" as well, since it puts social values and the human scale central in its tenets. This opposed to many other political philosophies that are based on the way the economy is functioning. According to Chika Mirei, economy is a tool and not a goal. She has even called free market economy a "self fulfilling prophecy" and Orderist economy "a technocratic religion with energy as its new deity".

Mireism includes bottom-up elements like the extended family as a basis for society with economic and individual freedom. At a local level, participative and representative democracy are commonplace. This aspect has been imported from Orkanan style of government, but was present in the more tribal structures of many native populations even before colonial times, where the extended family or village tribe were the main element in society. A lot of decision making that affects social life of the community and the individual can and should be made at a very local level, where the individual should be included in the process and be able to affect the outcome.

Ecological boundaries

Beside the social sustainability, where society should not over-ask the capacity of the community and individuals, an important aspect of Mireism are the ecological boundaries. Society as a whole can not survive if the ecosystem of which it is a part of is slowly degrading. This applies to factors as raw material and energy but also soil resource supplies and biodiversity. Society should contribute to vital ecosystems, not develop at the cost of it.

Mireist government

Since the ideology started as an anti-colonial philosophy, Chika Mirei put a lot of effort in defining the role of the nation state and its government when it comes to social and ecological aspects. Here she took inspiration from the Tsuki Integrality, where the domination on a single but vital aspect of social and economic life - in this case trade and the transportation of goods - was enough to build an interlinked and common government at a very limited scale, resulting in large regional and individual freedom. Mireism abandoned the idea of a large government planning all aspects of life, like Orderism tend to do. It also sets itself aside from Socialism which is seen as an economic theory leading to a large government apparatus by default.

The role of the state in a Mireist system thus is the allocation of resources for the benefit of the many. This is where the social and ecological aspects overlap and can be influenced by government intervention. Resources as formulated by Chika Mirei can be in the form of raw material, financing or intellectual property; the latter mainly through state owned patents, research and education of the labour force. Unlike most other planned economies, production and services are almost exclusively privately owned, often in the form of extended families (guilds) and cooperatives. In key industries and services, the state allocates production through public tenders towards the cheapest suppliers meeting the social, environmental and safety standards set for society as a whole.

This make the philosophy and system opposite to free market capitalism, where externalising economic costs and negative side effects for society as a whole are the main ways to lower manufacturing costs, thus being competitive on price alone. In the Mireist system, these costs are internalised in order to avoid that a tax collective would have to balance out for the single-focus approach of profit driven companies. On the other hand, the state does not control the means of production, nor does it own and operate large (basic) industries or even essential services like waterworks or healthcare.

Meritocracy and leadership

The meritocratic nature of traditional Kakuri local government has been translated towards the state and federal level. So Mireism combines a large influence for the individual on lower levels of societal structures and government, but becomes increasingly indirect and meritocratic at higher levels of government. In contrast to other meritocratic and technocratic systems, Mireist leadership is mainly inspirational and a "let them be" style. Leadership provides the necessary tools, information and resources, empowering creativity and self-motivation. Through assessments, financial compensation and continued license to produce or provide, accountability is established. As a result, Mireist leadership is often of a charismatic character, which can have consequences as well.

Political system

Even though Mireism tries to set itself apart from Socialist and Orderist systems, it is by definition technocratic. While democratic participation is very high at the local level, at the state level the democratic element is so indirect that it becomes autocratic. Allocation of resources is the key task of the government, which most often happens through open tenders. As such, Mireist government has nearly monopolised the license to produce and to a lesser extent the license to provide. The economic system is heavily controlled this way, in order to safeguard social and ecological interests.

Application in Sokoku

Adult members of an extended family have voting rights on all matters of the family, including economic enterprise and the allocation of common (joint) funds. The head of the extended family or guild or a deputy represents the unit's interest in the local territorial government. At this level, all tax payers within the extended family have a right to vote for city or county representatives and budget allocation. This part of societal and government structure shows a lot of parallells with traditional Orkanan government, especially in the Mellanhand tradition.

The political culture of Sokoku is therefore extremely bottom-up, where the emphasis lies on local self determination and cooperative involvement (organizational self management). This is combined with a more meritocratic approach for public office. Local clans, co-ops and extended families elect representatives into local government, where the local executives then elect regional representation. Through these indirect elections, the level of representative democracy becomes less and less the higher up in the hierarchy of public office. There are no political parties actively represented in any office.

The federal parliament forms the legislative. It has 147 members, of which 144 are appointed through indirect elections in districts roughly the same size in population. Parliament works in 12 general committees, one for each executive Secretariat, with 8-16 members each. Parliament is also organised into 12 regional groups, which function as parliamentary factions. Within these groups, information from the committees is shared in order to prepare for upcoming voting procedures. Usually a regional group votes unanimously as one bloc, but this is not a requirement. For the smaller states, there is only one regional group gathering their representation. But large states like Shuuen and Nelyasyat & Ayawantin have more groups, which leads to some sort of political culture between the regional groups. Some are more progressive, some more traditional, but the groups from smaller states are mixed and vote according to regional interests.

Each state appoints one member into the Federal Council (apart from Nelyasyat and Ayatawantin who can appoint two council members) that forms the backbone of the executive cabinet. Each secretary-general is heading a Federal Secretariat, of which there are 16 at the moment.

Society

Even though Mireism advocates the human scale as its core tenet, this human scale is formulated mainly on a level of a collectivist community. This reflects the region's historical social structures, where extended families are the main element in village life. Within a social framework of a village, a tribe, a clan or an extended family, the individual is supposed to get room for self development and self expression in order to find his or her role within the collective or the community. The collective provides shelter, means of education, social security, nourishment and a social context. The self organisation of the local collective, including individual and collective ownership, as well as creativity and ingenuity, are the basic level of Mireist society in Sokoku, where the government does not interfere unless absolutely necessary.

Where most political theories and ideologies focus on the economic realm, Mireism instead focuses on human and cultural development. Economy is a tool, not a purpose. People work to be able to live, not the other way around. The whole political system is aimed at the quality of life and self realisation of its citizens.

Education

In contrast to most Anarian societies, where education has been outsourced to the educational system, the Mireist state enables the local communities to engage in the education of the established curriculum. Sokoku has a strong tradition of local home schooling within their clan or guild, but most often the local community operates schools for basic education themselves. Children aged 6 to 12 get a general education within their own clan, where clan or guild members serve as teachers. Since the foundation of the federation, the content of the curriculum for these 6-12 year olds has become more uniform and adapted to Sokoku's society system. Apart from guaranteeing basic skills that every citizen should have, like literacy, mathematics and humanities, it is mainly aimed at finding out about and developing those skills that fit the individual within the context of society.

About 50-80% of the pupils (depending on the region) will follow vocational training within their own guild. This usually is a specific training for the trade of the guild or clan. About 10% of the children will get selected for a higher level education outside their own clan. Examples of this higher education are preparatory scientific, accountancy, sports, leadership and religious training. Children who show The Gift will automatically be transferred to one of the educational facilities of a Guso congregation. The remaining group of 10-30% of the children will not receive any education at all, or will have to apply for an education outside their own clan of guild. These shifts between clans and guilds are generally seen as a way to redistribute skills and ambitions in a more efficient way than to force these children to continue a career within their own guild.

Schools of higher level education tend to be more open for talents from other clans, castes or guilds. But even here, there is a strong guild style tradition with knowledge and skills being handed over from generation to generation. Performing arts, religion and science are generally considered the most appealing areas of education, closely followed by produced arts and engineering. This higher education is aimed at children aged 12 to 16-18, depending on the type of education.

In order to continue education on an academic or university level, one needs to be invited by one of the colleges. In certain clans it is easier to get invited, but for outsiders the lack of a social or educational network within the academic society can be an impassable threshold. It is however quite commonplace that people outside the academic clans get invited at a later age instead, between 25 and 35.

Economy

According to Chika Mirei there is no real difference between an energy based currency and a fiat based one, since both can be expressed as functions of each others: a certain amount of valuable material can be exchanged for a certain amount of energy, and vice versa, through any (arbitrary) exchange rate. A resulting difference is the definition of wealth in Mireism, which isn't based on economic value but on social ones, more akin welfare. Where Orderism sees societal progress in the form of arts and culture as a symptom of a healthy communal system on an energy based economic system, Mireism sees it the opposite way: that a thriving economy is nothing more than a tool to support social progress, where culture, arts and music are the main expressions of individuals and local communities.

Land ownership comes with a license to use the land for economic purposes like agriculture, forestry or building. However, so-called mobile or hidden assets like streaming water or sub-surface resources are jointly owned. Water management and raw material extraction are public domain and as such controlled completely by the government. While the land owners have the first rights to excavate resources, they are only compensated for the work and possible loss of surface land use. But the revenues of the extracted material are the government's, who allocate it through a tender system.

For example, ercinite ore is extracted against a compensation, then it's allocated to an aluminium manufacturer providing the best price for processing the material within the social and ecological requirements set in the tender. The aluminium is then leased through tenders to manufacturers and end users. Buying an aluminium product gives you the right to use it as intended, but the aluminium itself still is owned by the (federal) state. At the end of the life cycle, the product can be returned for a deposit, after which the raw material is allocated a next time. Non-renewable resources can be privately owned, but in practical terms there is a tradition of downcycling where those resources are seen as raw material and not as waste.

Criticism

According to many political scientists, Mireism is more a political system applied in one single nation and not so much a political philosophy or ideology. According to these criticasters, it is only applicable in Sokoku and has no universal value. This is however a minority stance.

Other analysts see Mireism only as a variation of Orderism and not so much an independent ideology. According to them, Mireism is simply post-colonial Orderism with a monetary system instead of energy accounting. Mireism also suffers from the same disadvantages as Orderism, like nepotism in appointments, authoritarian tendencies and economic inefficiency; albeit to a lesser extent.

The implementation of Mireism in Sokoku has led to almost parallel pillars of powers, where each region has its own hierarchy in public office. Instead of a single field of nepotism, it is spread out among the regional pillars through the federal structure of the nation state. However, nine fields of nepotism is a lot less nepotist than the single field of nepotism around in most Orderist systems.