What caused your last political earthquake?

[Cema Delta]

Cema Delta appears to be on the verge of a major political shift following actions by the Commonwealth Party which some experts have described as being one step short of a coup.

The Commonwealth Party is our main socialist party and has been a political powerhouse for many years, winning 15 of the last 20 elections.

But the resignation due to ill health of former leader Harry Chelvers triggered a massive change not only at the top but within the entire team surrounding the party leadership. New leader Karl McDussus steered the party to a comprehensive election victory and became Chancellor in 16~2, but soon after began to push through a raft of new authoritarian laws and move his party in the general direction of communism.

Many have accused him of hiding his true intentions when he stood for the party leadership, and he has successfully used technicalities within the constitution to avoid being challenged.

In the most recent National Assembly election the Commonwealth Party suffered one of its worst defeats in history; a 20.2pp swing to other parties. McDussus has insisted that the public are being "short sighted" and says "what we do is for the national good and it needs to be accepted".

But opinion polls suggest that a growing number of people are worried about what the Chancellor will do next and will use the High Council elections in 16~6 to give the party perhaps the bloodiest nose it has ever had.

The main opposition is the Independence Party. They are committed to what their name suggests - an independence for citizens and business owners to live their lives free from state interference. Yet they fail to win the kinds of widespread support that they might because of certain unpopular policies like privatised health care and cuts to the welfare budget.

Our third party is the centrist Democratic Nationalist Party, but they are steady at best. The one to watch therefore could be the People's Green Party - a liberal outfit which has enjoyed a rise in vote share from 3.9% to 11.9% in the last three National Assembly elections. Moving above 10% also qualifies them to stand for election to the High Council (our executive branch of government).

The next High Council election takes place in the year 16~6, which because of relative time dilation is in March 2015 realtime.

When was the last political earthquake in your nation? What caused it - and were the effects for good or bad?

[Galba Dea]

Our last political earthquake took place in 1912, when the recently-coronated King Hayden III expressed a preference for a member the Monarchist-Conservative Party in that year's special elections. This went from being a minor faux-pas to a major political tempest-in-a-teapot within a week of the comment.

Ultimately, however, the Monarchist-Conservatives actually won those special elections, riding on the back of what was a rather large popular movement in support of the Monarchy at the time. It only became a true storm in later years, when changes in political thinking called the statement back into question, even going so far as to challenge the validity of the 1912 elections after the fact.

[North American Empire76]

when Daniel Chardu'e had a referendum ordered over the state of swazilaland, the congress were outraged and they refused to even show up, Chardu'e, however had forced them to vote over the threat that he would shoot them all. after it was done, however, he procceded to have his gaurds murder the entire congress anyway. after that, sevral revolts and an army rebelling, forced Chardu'e to flee and he was exiled to newfoundland for 4 years.

[Southern Hampshire]

In 2010 the UK Parliament decided to divert funding from the South East region to the lesser-developed regions, as well as taxing it more. This has caused a major historical break-away by lots of counties and micronations from the country.

The last political earthquake of this country was when in 2013, Northern Hampshire decided to go independent, free from the rest of Hampshire, due to too low public expenditure and their leftist-leanings. This has caused a major controversy as to why Southern Hampshire allowed this to happen and the former ruling party was ousted by disgruntled nationalists and capitalists.

[United Russian Soviet States]

Vladimir Putin caused it. The Bolsheviks rebelled against him in the Winter Revolution. He was overthrown.

[Otulia]

In Otulia, the latest political earthquake came with the December 25th approval of the Wyvern Suffrage Act, which gave wyverns, a draconid species that makes up about a quarter of the population, the right to vote. Shortly thereafter, the government failed to pass a budget and dissolved. The next Parliament to be elected included many new faces, and has dramatically changed the game for wyvern civil rights agitators in the country.

[Inyourfaceistan]

None once our founding in 1968 after a violent and bloody CIA-backed civil war to overthrow the murdering socialist Soviet-puppet regime.
However, the group "Inyursta Populaire" (which many have described as basically the Latino TEA Party) and their proposed amendments to bring Inyursta closer to a direct democracy has been gaining support and more and more elected officials are attempting to pass their proposals. Leftists fear that direct democratic reforms would turn Inyursta into a "ruthless mobocracy" and "let the "1%" get away with even more"; and almost everyone speculates there will be a massive political earthquake and near-complete ideological exodus from the Rogue Republic if "Inyursta Populaire" gets their way...

[Trevor Phillip Enterprises]

Well, more or less our creation, spurred by the hiest of the Union depository building. More obviously, it gave Trevor Phillips enough funds to purchase and obscene amount of firearms and manpower to make his gang bigger than others. Another side affect of the hiest was that many people in Blaine county were extremely dissatisfied with how poorly the government handled the various criminal attacks commuted by Trevor and his friends with the Union depository being the straw that broke the camel's back. This lead them to join Trevor's company in hopes of actually gaining the freedoms and prosperity they craved, a decision they regretted for the rest of their (short) lives. This only happened a year ago, we are a young company.

[Alizeria]

There hasn't really been a major political earthquake since the constitutional crisis of 1912, when King Paul II attempted to dismiss Liberal Prime Minister Alexander Marshall due to the King's support for Alizerian involvement in the Great Cornellian War (whereas Marshall was a pacifist). He attempted to install a Conservative Prime Minister, the Baron of Deaconsfield, who was in the end unable to retain the confidence of the House of Peasants and led to the passage of the Constitution Act 1912, which formally limited the King's powers.

Another major political earthquake came in 1920 when the Liberal government of Sir James Hastings passed legislation giving women the right to vote.

There have been some minor political earthquakes since then, such as the election of 1931 when Walter Ellis-Ashby became Prime Minister and set up the welfare state. The Conservatives governed continuously from 1931 until 1955, excluding a brief two year period when the Liberals formed an ill-fated coalition with several independent candidates before losing a vote of confidence in 1951.

To a lesser extent, the 2014 general election could be considered a political earthquake. The Liberal Party, led by Anthony Ashton, won a landslide and the party's biggest ever election victory - this following five consecutive election victories for the Conservatives. The Liberals promised rapid free-market economic reforms in order to combat stagflation and a record deficit.

[-Srpska]

The former main opposition party, the Serb National Party lost half its seats to the Socialist Party and the Progressive Party. This caused a major shakeup of the political system as it went from being largely two-party (Socialist and National) to multi-party (Socialist-Progressive-Communist-National).

The election also saw a huge reduction in ethnic minority parties, the main Bosniak party merged officially into the Socialists (they had an alliance for years before) as did a few Croat ones. The only ethnic minority party to re-enter the National Assembly was the Croat People's League which lost four seats, bringing it down to three.

[Alone Island]

Alone Island's last major political earthquake occurred when Chief Adam Olessiason called Chief Luke Luke-Jadeson fat. The resulting fight saw the council hut need a new door curtain, and left most of the Chiefs with sore bodies and bruised egos.

[Corunia and Mironor]

A minor political earthquake happened when Corunia and Mironor unified, introducing the Civil Rights Party, a successor to the Mironorese Liberal Party. This made there be 3 major left-wing parties, 1 major centre-left party, and 1 major right-wing party (the fact that Corunia and Mironor uses instant-runoff voting dampened the imbalance).

The last MAJOR political earthquake in Corunia happened in 1822 when democracy was first adopted in Corunia. It ended the 413-year period of absolute monarchy.

The last major political earthquake in Mironor happened in 1987-1988 when the people revolted and overthrew the Marxist-Leninist Soviet puppet government.

[Arvenia]

The last time political earthquake happened in Arvenia was in 2010.

[Brellach]

The Holy Queendom of Brellach has largely been politically stable for at least a millennium. While Queens die, and Devout Advisors of Her Court resign and/or are replaced on occasion, there is little in the way of political turmoil in their government, which has operated without significant change for centuries. The closest it ever comes to a 'political earthquake' is when the Divine Queen's life ends before her Divine Successor has come of age (or, worse still, before The Renewal has even occured).

The Divine Queens of Brellach are believed to be "Avatars of Her Divine Glory" - living embodiments of their goddess - and society revolves around them, to the point that their calendar years are based on the age of the reigning Queen. The Priesthood of Her Divine Glory is usually very efficient at ensuring there is an adequate line of succession, however there are occasions when their calculations are off, which leads to a power vacuum - usually if a Divine Queen dies unexpectedly. In Brellach this is known as a 'Link Break', for their link to the Divine Glory is believed to be severed. During this time it is seen as appropriate for the existing Devout Advisors of Her Court to govern the country in the Divine Queen's stead, until a Divine Successor is chosen and comes of age. As the Devout Advisors were hand-picked by the outgoing Queen, they are thought of as carrying out the deceased Queen's last wishes - during this time, Her Court will rarely pass new laws, and will essentially maintain the status quo until relieved by the new Divine Queen. The Priesthood of Her Divine Glory will often oversee them during this time, ensuring they don't overstep their bounds.

Despite governmental stability largely being maintained, the years without a Divine Queen become cynically known as 'Sun Rotations Lost to the Dark', and are believed to be signs that their goddess is upset by something they have done - the living embodiment of their goddess believed to have essentially abandoned them. While there isn't considerable public unrest, Brellach's already-weak economic output invariably deteriorates into recessions during these periods.

The last time a Link Break occurred was in 1996, when Queen Vala III died suddenly of a cardiac arrest. Although not a true Link Break (The Renewal had already occurred, and had selected Queen Lyta as the Divine Successor), Lyta - then aged only 4 - would not come of age for another 11 years, and Brellach entered an economic recession almost immediately. The economy has only just recovered to its pre-Lyta level.

[New Vudnia]

A literal earthquake ushered in the rise of the Exceptionalists.

[Luziyca]

A political fault line of course, with a magnitude of about 9.8 on the Richter scale. About 3,586 administrative staff were killed, as well as 520 Congressmen and the entire Cabinet.