Politics of Haesan

Since the founding of the Second Commonwealth in 1985, the politics of Haesan take place amidst the context of a unitary, democratic, republican system. An elected President serves as the head of state, while the leader of the governing coalition in the Chamber of Deputies serves as the Prime Minister, Haesan's head of government. Haesan's government structure is outlined in its constitution, while its politics are marked by high levels of corruption, close working relationships between politicians and corporations, and a dynamic political framework which in theory encourages cooperation amongst diverse political parties, but in practice has engendered long stretches of single-party control.

Structure of Government

The National Assembly of Haesan in Hwagang

Haesan uses a semi-presidential system, with both a president and a prime minister. The President of Haesan is the head of state, is responsible for overseeing all international relations, serves as the commander in chief of Haesan's armed forces, can appoint ministers to the Cabinet of Haesan, proposes judicial appointments, and serves as the tiebreaker in both the Chamber of the Commonwealth and the Chamber of Deputies. The Prime Minister of Haesan is the leader of the governing party or coalition in the Chamber of Deputies and is responsible for setting the legislative agenda.

The National Assembly of Haesan's lower chamber, the Chamber of Deputies, is the most important organ in Haesan's government. The majority party or coalition has the ability to pass legislation, manage the budget including levying taxes, vote to impeach the President and start a trial in the Chamber of the Commonwealth, and define the scope and function of the Cabinet agencies. The upper chamber of the National Assembly, the Chamber of the Commonwealth, retains veto power over all Chamber of deputies legislation, and can strike any legislation down with a two-thirds vote. Additionally, the Chamber of the Commonwealth approves all judicial nominees, runs the trial of the President in case of impeachment, and advises the Chamber of Deputies throughout the legislative process.

Haesan has an independent judiciary. The High Court of Haesan has supreme jurisdiction over all legal matters, including maintaining the right to final appellate review. The High Court seats 11 justices, and they serve 24 year terms. There are provincial high courts, one in each province, which serve as the next highest courts for appeal. Because Haesan uses a common law system, judicial precedent is of the utmost importance.

Elections

At a national level, Haesan's populace elects the President, 400 deputies to the Chamber of Deputies, and 100 regents to the Chamber of the Commonwealth. All Haesanites that are not convicted felons and are above the age of 18 may vote. Haesan's elections usually have high voter turnout, with Presidential elections having around 80% voter turnout, with the number around 65% for National Assembly elections.

The President of Haesan serves 6 year terms, and at the end of their term, or in case of resignation or impeachment, an election will be held. The election date will be 1 month before the conclusion of the President's term, or in 5 weeks from the time of any resignation or impeachment conviction. Haesan's presidential elections use ranked-choice voting. The election period lasts for 5 weeks, and by the conclusion of the second week, all interested candidates must have officially declared their candidacy and filed the required paperwork. This period is usually marked by fierce internal competition, often with inter-party debates taking place at party conventions. During the remainder of election season, candidates usually campaign near non-stop, often in whistle-stop style campaigns. Debates are typically held several times over those weeks by major newspapers and broadcasting outlets, like the Suyang Times Courier, the Anfa Star, Suyang Broadcasting Services, and the Haesan News Network. For 24 hours before the last polls are scheduled to close, Haesan enforces a media blackout.

Chamber of the Commonwealth elections occur every three years, with the same election timing as the presidential elections. Haesan's 100 regents are split into two classes, each up for election every 6 years. The 50 regents are assigned to each province by population, with every province getting at least one regent. Both classes have the same distribution of regents across the provinces. The elections are run by a series of simultaneous ranked-choice single candidate voting elections. If a province has more than one regent up for election, it is the responsibility of the parties to draft a slate of the requisite number of candidates to compete for all of the seats in the region and assign them each to a specific race. If a special election is needed, the seat is left vacant until the next election.

Chamber of Deputies elections happen at most every 5 years. Snap elections can occur in the case of a vote of no-confidence, especially common in the wake of failed budget negotiations. Haesan's 400 deputies are assigned to each province by population, with each province getting at least one deputy. The provinces are treated as multi-member districts for the purpose of party-list proportional representation voting. A party must gain at least 5% of the vote in a province in order to qualify for a deputy there. Elections are run on the same 5-week schedule as presidential and Chamber of the Commonwealth elections, with party slates in each province being due by the two-week deadline.

Nominally, the Province of Soeyan has two regents (one in each class) and five deputies assigned to it. Due to the impracticality of administering Haesanite elections there, those seats have been left vacant throughout the duration of the Second Commonwealth.

Political Parties

Haesan encourages a multi-party system, explicitly allowing for a government where the President, Prime Minister, and majority in the Chamber of the Commonwealth are controlled by different parties. This system was established to encourage discourse and to persuade against the one-party rule of the Free Republic of Haesan that preceded the present regime. Practically, this kind of power sharing agreement was recently made obsolete by the 18-year long Prime Ministership of Choi Da-yeon, whose Free Democrats often controlled both the presidency and at least one third of the seats in the Chamber of the Commonwealth. However, after the snap election in 2022 caused by the revelation of the Seollim bribery scandal, the political scene in Haesan has become much more competitive. Afterwards, a center-right coalition is in charge in the Chamber of the Deputies, with the populist, anti-corruption, traditionally farmer's rights party Liberty! leading a government coalition along with the formerly-powerful Conservative Party, and nationalist, pro-Soeyan unification One Haesan. After the collapse of that coalition in April 2023, a center-left coalition came to power, led by the Moderate Party, alongside the Liberal Democrats, New Bargain, and Onwards Haesan!.

The spectre of Gramont and Gramontism still loom large over Haesan after he instigated the Tragedy of 1963 during the Great War and annexed Soeyan Province during the joint invasion of Haesan by Darya and the Slokais Islands. As such, far left-wing, socialist, and communist parties, while not explicitly outlawed, are highly taboo. The creation of the Haesan Democratic Socialist Party in 2005, prompted by abysmal economic conditions in the wake of the Monetary Crisis of 2004, led to the Yeocheon Convention Massacre, the worst outbreak of political violence in Haesan since the founding of the Second Commonwealth. However, in 2023, the Social Democrats had appeared on the ballot in four provinces without incident and won seats in the National Assembly for the first time since 1940. Additionally, parties that stray too far to the right often risk losing support due to potential associations of authoritarianism given Haesan's acute political and economic struggles during the military rule of the Free Republic. As such, parties might be more aligned with right-wing or left-wing ideals, but generally cannot stray too far from the center.

Major and Minor Political Parties in Haesan by Ballot Line

#	Party Name	Ideology	Floor Leader	Seats in the Chamber of the Commonwealth	Seats in the Chamber of Deputies
1	Conservative Party	Conservatism, fiscal responsiblilty	Lee Ju-ho	8	38
2	Liberal Democrats	Liberalism, globalism	Amelia Ward	16	76 (in government)
3	Free Democrats	Neo-liberalism, growth oriented	Seo Jun-yeong	36	69 (main opposition)
4	Moderate Party	Centrism, anti-corruption politics	Sabrina Hwang	9	79 (leads government)
5	Onwards Haesan!	Lagardian futurism	Dr. Im Su-yeon	2	26 (in government)
6	One Haesan	Populism, Haesanite reunification	Seo Yu-jun	6	14
7	Liberty!	Libertarianism, agrarian rights	Wim Schouten	10	2
8	New Bargain	Anti-corruption politics, labor rights	Mireille Kim	7	75 (in government)
9	Parti du Nord	Federalism, French language rights, amelioriation	Martin Saint Fleur	3	8
10	Neutral Haesan Today	Single issue, political neutrality	Jang Seo-eun	1	2
11	Social Democratic Party	Social democracy	Devrim Köroğlu	0	6