National Liberal Party

The National-Liberal Party is a political party in Austrasia formed in 1956 from a union of a number of right-wing parties including the influential Liberal-Conservative Party and Gothic Farmer's Union with the intention of challenging the post-war political dominance of the Justice Party. Starting in the 1970's NLP candidates achieved an extended string of electoral successes in the People's Assembly whittling away the Justice Parties 50-year Senate majority, a process that was completed in 1991 with the high-profile defection of seven Justice Party-aligned senators to the NLP caucus. In contemporary Austrasia, the National-Liberal Party is considered to be politically dominant, the NLP caucus having maintained a plurality in the Senate and a majority in the Directory for 28 consecutive years.

=Ideology & Influence=

Drei Rechten
The NLP is commonly considered a law-and-order party, a sentiment which is captured in the party's three rights or three justices, as declared in its charter: Commonly understood the three rights declare that notwithstanding, every citizen has equal privilege and equal duty under the law including the duty to uphold the law. In practice, this has translated into the NLP enacting policies promoting, curtailing , pursuing , expanding the access too & quality of. Owing to their popularity the Three Pillars remain central to the NLPs propaganda. Under the NLP's influence, a 30-year moratorium on the death penalty in the Riche was ended in 1977.
 * Equality under the law
 * Responsibility to the law
 * Respect for the law

Ikanocracy
Ikanocracy or Eignungsgesellschaft - Rule of the Capable - is one of the foundational principles of the NLP. It is axiomatic to the NLP that if the fittest men & women are found, brought into the party, cultivated and ultimately placed into office in the then the dominance of the party and flourishing of the Riche will follow inevitably. The NLP distinguished between the more popular term, meritocracy, and ikanocracy on the grounds concepts of "merit" purportedly fail to properly disaggregate merit acquired through blind chance and genuine individual aptitude prior to acquired merit which is held to be essential. Operationally the NLP administers a range of aptitude tests administered through its Examination Bureau to screen party members prior to joining or advancement as well as a series of voluminous examinations intended to measure the commitment of party members to the NLPs mission. The parties commitment to Ikanocracy was instrumental in the institution of the modern REP system of comprehensive aptitude examinations for children and young adults in the Riche.

Freigeld
Since its foundation, the NLP has maintained a charter commitment to Freigeld - free money- which is defined as a currency which has a stable purchasing power, is freely convertible and serves as a stable store of value. This has put the NLP and its associated economists at odds with most contemporary schools of economic thought which favour flexible monetary policies and mild inflation but it remains a politically popular position in the Riche; according to the NLP freigeld protects the lawfully accumulated wealth of citizens and serves as a firebreak against excessive government debt.

Pragmatically the NLP has championed a form of fractional reserve banking leveraging the Riche's reserves of Gold, Silver and foreign currency as the best method to realize Freigeld. This was enshrined in the 2000 Millenium Currency Law which mandates the Riche Bank maintain reserves equal to least 1/5th of its outstanding Reichsgulden obligations in Gold, Silver and a basket of reliable FOREX reserves - in practice the currencies of Austrasia's league allies, Tiperyn and Koryeo.