Lists of Heads of Government and Heads of State

[Stuyvesant]

Governors of the Republic of the State of New York:
1789-1837: Alexander Hamilton (Whig) [1]
def. 1789 George Clinton (Democracy)
1798-1801: Connecticut Valley War between New England Alliance and New York
1821-1823: New Jersey War sees New Jersey split between New York and Columbia
1824: New York Assembly ratifies Treaty of Boston, leading to the foundation of the Third Continental Congress
1837-1841: de jure: Alexander Hamilton (Whig), de facto: Maarten Van Buren and William L. Marcy (Whig) Leading Albany Regency [2]
1841-1862: Maarten Van Buren (Van Burenite Whig/Equal Rights then Locofoco Whig) [3]
def. 1841 William L. Marcy (Marcyite Whig), Robert D. Owen (Working Men's/Radical), Charles Paine (Green Mountain)
1849 Constitutional Referendum:57% Yes, 43% No [4]

[1] Alexander Hamilton remade New York in his image following the failure of the Philadelphia Convention, a centralized Republic under his iron fist. Various underlings came and went, but the Governor remained, making sure he was indispensable. However, as time wore on, Hamilton’s grip on the political landscape loosened, and a series of simmering conflicts began across various regions including but not limited to, the Renssalaerwyck Rent War, the Champlain Rebellion, the Salt City Uprising, and the Long Island Tax Revolt.

[2] After Hamilton suffered a stroke in 1837 that left him bedridden, there were rumbles of an attempt to declare him incapable of governance, but because no one in the Whigs wanted to be the one who knifed the Old Man and the Governor was a lifetime appointment, he remained Governor. And so, a ‘Regency’ was formed, led by the two major players in the Whig Apparatus to enforce the Old Man’s increasingly disconnected diktats.

[3] When the Old Man died, a power struggle broke out between Marcy’s Tammany Hall Old Guard and Van Buren’s Reformists, and the eventual result was two Whig Tickets. This would normally be an excellent opportunity for the Democracy Party, but they also split, between the Radicals advocating for mass Land Reform and Redistribution and John Slingerlands’ Moderates who simply sought the abolition of the Patroons and expansion of the Franchise. The Radicals would eventually support Robert Owen’s Utopian Candidacy, and the moderates would endorse Van Buren, and given the final vote’s narrow margin, there is no doubt, the Equal Rights label won him the election.

[4] The Second Constitution of the Republic of the State of New York was a dramatic departure for the Republic, but the major changes were thus: Abolition of the Autonomous Regions, expansion of the Franchise to Universal Male Suffrage, and turning New York from a Unitary State to a Federal one.

(@Japhy)

 

[Uhura's Mazda]

List of CEOs of Consentia

2004-2013: Craig Davenport

Consentia began as an enterprise dedicated to service delivery and customer excellence, under the management of Craig Davenport, a man with an MBA and a baseball cap. The New Labour government of the UK was in the process of streamlining its education offer by contracting out to third parties for certain elements of the programme - in this case, it was judged that the sexual education of teenagers could be more ergonomically delivered by the staff and resources of Consentia Ltd., a team of whom would come into each school for a couple of weeks a year and deliver an intensive education-style course to the students. This had the twin objectives of firstly, enabling individual schools to cut down on their banana budgets, and secondly, enabling teachers to avoid the awkwardness of sex ed lessons in order to actually teach (i.e. achieve improved outcomes in the league tables).​

​

Put briefly, Consentia supplied enthusiastic youth-adjacent practitioners and up-to-the-minute resources to all Local Education Authorities in return for an initially modest fee. Naturally, however, both the Consentia Team Members and their lessons were extremely cringeworthy, and the videos using skateboarding as a metaphor for cunnilingus were mocked by observational stand-up comedians for decades to come. Worst of all, it has been proven by social scientists that the "It's rad to be gay!" slogan dissuaded huge numbers of young people from coming out until they had recovered from the cringe, which in many cases took years.​

2013-2019: Rachael Vickers

When Davenport resigned as CEO amidst a spate of revelations regarding the employment of Team Members who had not been compelled to have police background checks, Rachael Vickers was poached from another firm in the government-contract sector (AnaLITica, subcontracted by MI5 to compile lists of people who had borrowed extremist literature from libraries) and instituted a more serious business culture, predicated on customer satisfaction and measurable efficiency. Consentia also diversified under the Vickers regime, with the firm exploring broader opportunities after being hired by the Coalition government to investigate sex crimes - the state police had struggled with an endemic failure to close cases in the sector, and it was hoped that the use of outside specialists would enable detectives to get back to their real jobs: paperwork and the solving of serial murders in sleepy Cotswold villages.​

​

While the arrest records did not markedly improve with privatisation, and in fact declined sharply, Consentia were justly praised for bringing a new sense of business efficiency to the task at hand, with victims being issued with pamphlets that were much glossier than previous, and being interviewed by Team Members in open-plan offices, with nice biscuits and beanbags, rather than the grim police-station interview rooms that were formerly used.​

2019-2032: Xavier Powers

Vickers' successful tenure came to a conclusion as she left to head up Defendr (formerly the HMS Defender), and she was replaced by Xavier Powers, who had revolutionised the HR department by turning all the Consentia Team Members into zero-hours contractors. Some stakeholders claimed that this made the staff less dedicated to customer service in both the sex education and criminal investigation ventures as they were worn down by long-term stress, but Powers had the foresight to create an expectation that the workforce would be constantly refreshed by rapid staff turnover.​

​

Soon after Powers rose to the top, Coronavirus hit Britain, which might have had negative consequences for the business but for the fact that so much important work was done by the state-contracting sector that the firms couldn't be allowed to fail. The state, however, could definitely be allowed to go under, especially after Covid-21, by which point the ailing banks were calling in several centuries-worth of sovereign debt. Hard-pressed, the Sunak government retreated from further elements of what was once called the 'state sector' - the welfare system became DooWoP, a tech startup based around matching subscribers (formerly 'jobseekers') with patrons, in return for a subscription fee of just 69% of the minimum wage.​

​

Consentia itself diversified its portfolio by taking on democracy services. The ads for their new app, TikBox, gave nothing away as to its nature (they were just music samples called 'InspiringTrack256.wav' played over black-and-white footage from American civil rights rallies), but it quickly emerged that Consentia were bringing democracy to the masses in ways never seen before. After signing the Terms and Conditions, users were able to vote on every matter coming before Parliament, which was now bound to comply with the wishes of the people. Now, of course, such an innovative app with such a cringeworthy name would inevitably only be used by a minority of people, so Consentia ensured that the results were representative by feeding through their patented AI algorithm.​

​

For some reason, the results of this process always aligned with the wishes of the Conservative Government (Brought To You By PowersCorp Holdings Ltd).​

 

[Hjaltland]

Lord Protectors of Great Britain after WW3 (29 October 1962-8 February 1963)

1963-1972: Sir Richard Hull

1972-1986: Sir Walter Walker

1986-1986: Sir Julian Thompson

1986-1996: Roy Hattersley-Social Democracy

1996-2006: Lord John Attlee-National Union

2006-2006: Donny Gluckstein - Unified Trades League

2006-2016: Raymond Jolliffe-National Liberal

2016-present day:William Hague-Unified Trades League

Lord Protectors of Great Britain

1963–1972: Sir Richard Hull (Military (Reconstructionist)) leading Government of National Reconstruction
1972–1986: Sir Walter Walker (Military (Anti-Communist)) leading National Unity Government
1986: Sir Julian Thompson (Military (Reformist)) leading Transitional Government
1986-1996: Roy Hattersley (Social Democracy) *
1986 Def. Sir Airey Neave (National Union), Sir Ian Gilmour (National Liberal), Eric Heffer (Independent (Trade Unionist))
1996–2006: John Attlee, 3rd Earl Attlee (National Union)
1996 Def. Giles Radice (Social Democracy), Michael Heseltine (National Liberal), Tony Wedgewood-Benn (Trade Unionist Coalition)
2006: Donny Gluckstein (Unified Trades League) **
2006 Def. Raymond Jolliffe, 5th Baron Hylton (National Liberal), Godfrey Bloom (National Union), Alan Johnson (Social Democracy)
2006–2016: Raymond Jolliffe, 5th Baron Hylton (National Liberal)
2016–Present: William Hague (Unified Trades League) ***
2016 Def. Charles Kennedy (Social Democracy), Richard Drax (National Union), Nicola Ann Morgan (National Liberal)

* Following the March Days in ’86 and the restoration of power to parliament, the position of Lord Protector was made largely ceremonial and elected to a single 10-year term.
** Winning on a minority of the vote (the tradition-obsessed Council of State would never countenance reforming First Past the Post) Gluckstein’s election was immediately declared void by the Nation Union parliament on a technicality. Installing the runner-up candidate avoid a public backlash, this clear coup against the growing Left still led to mass protests.
*** With a majority of the popular vote this time, the beloved Bill Hauge has taken back the premiership for socialism. The victory of a man who had once led the youth opposition to Walker’s regime has marked a key turning point in the revival of left-wing politics – especially as it preceded Katy Clark, the first PM to be born after WWIII and Britain’s first women leader, taking a UTL-led coalition into power.

 

[iupius]

Cloverfield, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Throw the Mystery Box into the Sea

Spoilers ahead for those who haven’t seen the films, obviously. Had a little Cloverfield marathon this weekend, and thought it might be fun to have a crack at piecing the world of the films together. I know the jury’s still out on the degree to which the films properly overlap – alternate dimensions ahoy – but figured I’d try and weave it together into one unfortunate world.

Haven’t really done anything like this before, so thank you to @Mumby and @Japhy, your list styles in particular were of great help in constructing the final product.

---

America still bears the scars of 2008. The economy, already on the verge of overheating, never fully recovered from the annihilation of New York. Any remaining trust in the political system crumbled overnight when the Bush administration gave the infamous early-morning order to initiate Hammerdown and throw every MOAB within range at Manhattan. As bedside alarms went off, and It stubbornly refused to die, George W. Bush became only the second president in U.S. history to authorise the deployment of nuclear weapons. He remains the first and only to use them on American soil.

When the dust finally settled, It’s corpse lay motionless in what had been Central Park. We still don’t know what it was. A replica of It’s skeleton went on display at the Smithsonian in 2013 – It’s real bones are far too irradiated for a public exhibit – and drew record crowds, but we have been able to ascertain precious little about It. Whatever It had been, it had reduced New York from the “City That Never Sleeps” to a graveyard in less than eight hours.

Meanwhile, hell descended on Washington. Millions marched in the streets demanding to know why the government hadn’t been It coming, or arguing either for or against it’s fallout management strategy. Congressional Democrats wilfully threw the book at the White House. Bowing to popular demand, an impeachment process on rocket boosters raced through the House of Representatives, although the president would be given a metaphorical stay of execution given its proximity to election day. Barack Obama, on the cusp of the Democratic nomination when It arrived, would sweep to victory in November and end John McCain’s political career.

The economic recovery proved extraordinarily difficult. The NYSE stock exchange had set up shop pretty quickly in Chicago, but the domino effect of insurance companies going under, followed by several of the big banks, overwhelmed the White House. The economic migrants from the tri-state area alone prompted a rat race for what jobs remained in cities across the country; the mayors of America’s largest cities became celebrities overnight as their available work forces surged, even as employment plummeted. Neither the assassination of Osama Bin Laden – by Seal Team, drone strikes seeming too close for comfort after Hammerdown – or the dumping of Jim Webb made an impact on the president’s abysmal approval ratings. And when Mitt Romney crumbled under the pressure during the Republican primaries, victim of a groundswell of anger at The Politicians! And Bankers! Who Had Failed To See It Coming, the right’s unity ticket took to the stage in Tampa. Nobody was surprised when the Huckabee campaign swept through the swing states – the early calls of Ohio, Florida, and New York were the death knell for the ailing Democrat campaign nationwide.

Nobody remembers much about the first few years of the Huckabee administration. Much like with the second Bush administration and 9/11, students of political history were prone to skip the malaise of 2013, 2014, and 2015 and turn straight to the chapters on the Lake Charles War. Nobody much knows how that one started, either. Conspiracy theories abounded again, but They were gone as soon as they’d arrived. A series of gradually wider blackouts preceded Their appearance over Lake Charles, Louisiana. They detonated something caustic over Lake Charles and Baton Rouge, and set about on a bombing campaign over Cajun country. Local police and the National Guard swiftly stood aside as the White House rolled the military in town, but they weren’t much good against what dropped from Their ships either. Within hours, much of Louisiana, and later Texas, became a battleground. In many places, the air hung toxic. Crops rotted. Animals died. People burned.

Through brute force, although less gung-ho than in 2008 for political reasons, the military managed to take back the southern seaboard. We’re all familiar with the stories of that – the raising of the flag over Minute Maid Park; the naval bombardment of Galveston; the burning of the Texan oil fields; the heroism of the New Orleans search rescue teams (petitions to put Bayou, the nation’s favourite German Shepherd, on the twenty dollar bill had surprising grassroots traction). As Huckabee remarked after They died, we know little of God’s creation, but we know much of human nature. It had all the makings of an American success story until their defeat prompted the frying of all electronics as far as Appalachia. Urban areas shut down, what remained of the economy went into freefall, and Americans huddled in the dark until, when things returned to something approaching normality, they trudged in line to boot Huckabee from office.

Economic stagnation and energy crisis brought with them fresh challenges. The Villaraigosa and Walsh administrations invested heavily in fields of solar panels in the western plains, only to meet head-on the intransigence of western Republican governors and elected officials. Protests erupted yet again, and Montana’s governor was propelled to political stardom for his “take those shining bastards down” comment, caught live on CNN as the president flew into Billings. Villaraigosa himself would resign just over eighteen months into office, as the gold of the L.A. boom turned an ugly shade of dehydrated yellow amidst a bribery scandal, but President Walsh kept the administration chugging along, beating back an ultimately anticlimactic Republican challenge in 2020 but failing to garner much enthusiasm either way.

Then again, American politics in the late-2010s and early-2020s was not a particularly enthusiastic place. The population looked elsewhere for that, especially when they finally replaced their TVs and iPads. Eccentric billionaire Elon Musk was the source of much of that, amazing enthralled fans with new technologies at a time where life consisted of rebuilding much of the old. His collaboration with various global governments on manned and unmanned orbital launches, and his regular appearances on Colbert, Kimmel, and Taylor, made him by far the most popular man in America. His “Look Up” ethos and insistence that America’s energy future could be secured out there in the cosmos through technological innovation caught the moment. Was it entirely realistic, or sensible? Not a jot. But it tapped into the optimism that Americans hadn’t truly felt for over a decade. His 2020 donation of $1 billion to the Treasury to help pay down the national debt – described by the man himself as a “wedding present for the nation” after his marriage to MacKenzie Tuttle (née Bezos), and a cheap stunt by his detractors – was the news event of the summer. Both the GOP and the Democrats (to Walsh’s uneasy attention) wanted him on their ticket – enough to push through the Equal Opportunity to Govern bill, ironically only after Orrin Hatch himself had vacated his Senate seat for Mia Love. Musk would pass on a slap-dash 2020 bid, and keep himself busy at NASA during Walsh’s rather lacklustre second term.

Musk would walk it in ’24, of course. He was hardly one of America’s best presidents, but he was one of the more fun. Stymied at home after eschewing party labels to win the White House as an independent, he focused his attention on foreign policy, with the Shepherd programme the forefront of the Musk administrations’ international efforts. The pact was signed at the G8 in Montreal, with only minor rumblings from the Kremlin, still transitioning to a post-Putin political system, and Tom Mulcair, disgruntled at being overshadowed in his own backyard. The groundwork had been laid under the Walsh administration, and Musk wasted no time in pushing the Montreal Pact to action with the enthusiastic support of Johnson and Hamon. The mandate of the International Space Station would be extended further to include work on a particle accelerator and a plan to finally crack the riddle of perpetual motion. The world was watching – and kept watching, given the rate of failure when the Shepherd went online. Rumours that Musk pressured NASA and partners for more frequent testing, pushing the machine harder and harder in the run-up to the 2028 election, cannot be confirmed.

On 4 February 2028, the Shepherd team tried again. For a brief, wonderful moment, hope. There’s a famous snap, lost to history now, of President Musk standing on the Resolute Desk, arms outstretched in triumph, a beautiful snapshot of the twenty-six second period where a better world seemed, finally, to have arrived. And then the dimensions cracked, the ISS vanished, and It appeared on the South Lawn. As major cities around the world suddenly found their CBDs occupied by beasts from another dimension, the world sighed, wearily, and lurched back into crisis.


List of Presidents of the United States (2001-)

2001-2009: George W. Bush (Republican)
2000 (with Richard B. Cheney) def. Albert A. Gore, Jr. (Democratic), Ralph Nader (Green)
2004 (with Richard B. Cheney) def. John F. Kerry (Democratic)
2009-2013: Barack H. Obama II (Democratic)
2008 (with James H. Webb, Jr.) def. John S. McCain III (Republican)
2013-2017: Michael D. Huckabee (Republican)
2012 (with Newton L. Gingrich) def. Barack H. Obama II (Democratic)
2017-2018: Antonio R. Villaraigosa (Democratic)
2016 (with Martin J. Walsh) def. Michael D. Huckabee (Republican)
2018: Resignation of President Antonio R. Villaraigosa (Democratic)
2018-2025: Martin J. Walsh (Democratic)
2018: Senate confirmation of Terrycina A. Sewell (Democratic) as Vice President
2020 (with Terrycina A. Sewell) def. Ryan K. Zinke (Republican)
2025-present: Elon R. Musk (Independent - 'Look to the Stars')
2024 (with Randall M. Hultgren) def. Louis B. Gohmert, Jr. (Independent Republican), Carlton W. Reeves (Independent Democratic)
2028: Declaration of nationwide State of Emergency

 

[Time Enough]

Tugwell Over The White House: An Alternate Presidents List
1929-1934: Herbert Hoover (Republican)
1929 (With Charles Curtis) def: Al Smith (Democratic), Norman Thomas (Socialist Party of America)
1932 (With Charles Curtis) def: Albert Ritchie (Democratic), Henry A.Wallace ('Progressive' Democratic), Norman Thomas (SPA), William Z. Foster (Communist Party of the USA)
1934-1937: Charles Curtis (Republican)
1937-1941: Rexford Tugwell (Democratic)
1936 (With Huey Long) def: Charles Curtis (Republican), Upton Sinclair (SPA-EPIC), Earl Bowder (CPUSA)
1941–1945: Rexford Tugwell (National Union)
1940 (With Thomas Dewey) def: Huey Long (‘Share the Wealth’ Democrat), Clarence Senior (Popular Front), Robert A.Taft (Independent Republican)
1945-1953: Rexford Tugwell (National)
1944 (With Vito Marcantonio) def: Huey Long (CommonWealth), Hugh De Lacy (Popular Front), Henry A.Wallace (Libertarian), Robert A.Taft (Conservative)
1948 (With Brien McMahon) def: Huey Long (CommonWealth), Angelo Herndon (Popular Front), Jerry Voorhis (Libertarian), Robert Rice Reynolds (Conservative)
1953-1957: Huey Long (CommonWealth)
1952 (With Lyndon B.Johnson) def: Rexford Tugwell (National), Earl Bowder (Popular Front), Glen H.Taylor (Libertarian), Strom Thurmond (Conservative)
1957-:Brien McMahon (National)
1957 (With Richard Nixon) def: Huey Long (CommonWealth), Gus Hall (Popular Front)

 

[Sideways]

Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom since 1945 In A World Where Superpowers and Super Science are Real (From the Goose Green 'Verse or MCU-1982):

Nice work. May I suggest breaking up the paragraphs a bit and not presenting text in colour? It may make it easier to read

Some stakeholders claimed that this made the staff less dedicated to customer service in both the sex education and criminal investigation ventures as they were worn down by long-term stress, but Powers had the foresight to create an expectation that the workforce would be constantly refreshed by rapid staff turnover.

Chills, honestly

 

[Walpurgisnacht]

Remember that gimmick from a week ago?

Well,

WalpurgisBrit(ain)

Prime Ministers of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

2010-2012: Norman Baker (Liberal Democrats)
def 2010: (Coalition with New Conservatives) David Cameron (New Conservatives), David Miliband (Social Democratic Labour), Caroline Lucas (Green), Gordon Brown (Labour)
2011 Schengen Area Referendum: JOIN 61%, REMAIN 39%
2012 Voting System Referendum: PR 53%, FPTP 47%
2012-2015: Norman Baker (New Britain Group minority)
2015-2017: Caroline Lucas (Green)
def 2015: (Coalition with Socialist Labour) Norman Baker (New Britain Group), Benjamin Zephaniah (Socialist Labour), Andy Burnham (Social Democratic Labour), Simon Singh (Rationalist)
2016 Monarchy Referendum: ABOLISH 78%, RETAIN 22%
2017-xxxx: Lisa Nandy & Jon Lansman (Co-Operative Commonwealth)
def 2017: (Popular Front with LRC, Abolish The State, and Poale Zion) Owen Smith (Social Democratic Labour), John Trickett (Socialist Labour), Frances O'Grady (LRC), Luciana Berger (Poale Zion), Lena Worwood (Ecology), collective leadership (Abolish The State), Bill Drummond (Discordian)
2018 Voting System Referendum: STV 55%, RETAIN PR 41%, FPTP 4%
def 2019: (Popular Front with LRC, Abolish The State, Poale Zion, and Municipalist) Alex Sobel & John McDonnell (United Labour), Anna Taylor (XR), Charlotte Nichols (Poale Zion), Andrew Pakes (LRC), Anntoinette Bramble (Municipalist), collective leadership (Abolish The State), "KING MOB" (Spoiled Ballot), Melanie Barber (Folkist)

The sudden explosion in the Liberal Democratic vote in 2010 came as a major shock to most observers, but was obvious in retrospect. The Iraq war, the financial crisis, and the expansion of the security state had created a mood of discontent with the way things were, and when one of the Labour leadership's most frequent critics started a new party intended "to revive the spirit of social democracy" it was clear Brown was doomed. Floods of new voters, impelled by what was described as "Bakermania", gave the Lib Dems, if not a majority, at least a workable minority. A government was formed with the aid of David Cameron's modernised Conservatives, and from the steps of No10 Baker promised a new dawn that would combine the best of Left and Right for Britain.

It couldn't last. While the Government's poll ratings saw a bump after securing British entrance to the Schengen zone, the public quickly became disillusioned with the Lib Dems, and what they saw as willing collusion in a Conservative agenda of welfare cuts, privatisations, and environmental neglect. An increasingly militant far-Left gained council seats and polling ground, and Miliband's increasingly naked careerism allowed the Greens to rise rapidly as the main opposition to the government, but the real threat to the coalition came from within. After failing to win any ground campaigning against both European integration and voting reform, David Cameron took the New Conservatives out of coalition. Facing a party revolt, Baker looked at the healthy state of his personal ratings, and decided to try a rebrand...

After a record number of by-elections, the New Britain Group was just about holding together, if you squinted. The anti-Establishment energy of Bakermania had been diverted down a thousand twisting channels, and as a result Britain now had a TV comedian for a Home Secretary and Howling Lord Hope for Chancellor. The Direct Democracy initiatives Baker had introduced only served to confuse the work of government further--polls, and thus policy, swung frequently between Marxism, technocracy, liberalism, and at one point the principles of Thomas More's Utopia. It was clear that the British public would go any direction, as long as it seemed like it went forward. The only remotely unifying public concerns were support for a stronger welfare state, and support for more environmental action. It was no surprise when the party seen as offering both managed to win out in the next election.

Lucas's government, backed by the resurgent Socialist Labour, would be a marked contrast to the last three years. With a strong mandate and wide-ranging emergency powers to tackle climate change, complete decarbonisation of the UK was merely the beginning. As the state expanded, on paper to prevent environmental catastrophe, the business and corporate sector shrunk. It is estimated that the last non-government owned business shut shop in April 2016, a week after Derek Wall's jubilant declaration at the Spring Conference that "British capitalism is dead.". The abolition of the monarchy and the subsequent seizure of Crown land seemed to be the crown jewel of the administration, but the public tide was turning under them. While the British public were firmly against business, they seemed disenchanted with a monolithic state that seemed as unresponsive and faceless as the corporations it replaced. The surprise smash hit that was the TV adaptation of the Illuminatus! trilogy served as advance warning for the rise of a new force in British politics, which was rapidly reshaping the moribund New Britain Group and reaching out to dissatisfied Coalition members.

Ten years after Brown stepped down, Great Britain has one of the oddest political systems in Europe, with a libertarian-centralist split having replaced the conventional left-right divide entirely, and none of the parties of ten years ago survive. After the annihilation of the New Conservatives by the electorate, the only parliamentary party to advocate for a more free-market system is the minor Folkists, who are more concerned with local customs and real ale than economics. The Social Democrats and the Socialists are co-operating once more on a new party, but its resemblance to New Labour is slim at best. Since Lucas's downfall when half her party left under her, the former Greens have been taken over by their own youth wing, and are increasingly orientated towards extra-parliamentary action. The direct successor to the Liberals is currently run by Discordians openly making a joke out of the political process, eschewing legislation in favour of putting whoopee-cushions under the green benches. The governing parties are united only by a shared determination to dismantle the government in favour of local communes, co-operatives, and kibbutzes. Somehow, this system retains the support of the British public, but with a flu pandemic, a changing climate, and Chukka Ummuna still at large, Britain has many a challenge ahead for it.

 

[neonduke]

King Mob" (Spoiled Ballot)

The Invisibles?

 

[Walpurgisnacht]

The Invisibles?

Never read it--I was going more for the Situationist graffiti group.

 

[Bolt451]

Okay then @Walpurgisnacht I'll redo my list and try and explain what the heck happened to end up with that.

2005-2006: Charles Kennedy (Liberal Democrat-Labour "Progressive" Coalition)
Def 2005: Tony Blair (Labour) David Cameron (Conservative)

Everyone expected the uptick in Lib Dem votes during the Iraq war to go away but somehow it never did. A strong performance in the leaders debate before the 2005 election by Charles Kennedy and a poor performance by Michael Howard combined with several recorded arguments between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown meant that once the results were in the Lib Dems were on the most votes of the main three parties but the least seats with Labour on the opposite and the conservatives in the middle. After long debates between Labour and the Lib Dems, Charles Kennedy went to the palace to form a government with Tony Blair going to the back benches. The primary focus of this government was electoral reform and a staged withdrawal from Iraq. The first goal was achieved with a 2006 referendum on moving to single transferrable vote. However the vote on withdrawal of forces from Iraq lead to a rebellion by Labour voters that would eventually lead to a collapse in the government and a vote of no confidence in Kennedy and all three parties trying their luck under the new system.

2006-2007: David Cameron (Conservative-UKIP-English Supply and Confidence)
Def 2006: Charles Kennedy (Lib Dem) Gordon Brown (Labour) Alex Salmond (SNP- Regionalist Alliance) Nigel Farage (UKIP-English Democrat Alliance) Caroline Lucas (GPEW-Green List) George Monbiot/Salma Yaqoob (RESPECT)

With the Lib Dems and Labour at each others throats, David Cameron's Tories hoped to capitalise but found their votes sapped by the alliance of UKIP and the English Democrats, campaigning as an English alternative to Salmond's So called "Celtic Alliance" of SNP, Plaid Cymru and Alliance. Cameron secured a majority of 3 on the strength of greater powers to devolved regions (something he found support for on the opposition benches) and an EU referendum (something he didnt). The government quickly seemed to fall apart, the anti-federalist parts of the Tories fell out with their supply and confidence partners as did the Pro-European Tories.

2007-2009: Nick Clegg (Lib Dem Democrat-Regionalist Coalition) (2008 me was really into devolution)
Def 2008: David Cameron (Conservative) Alex Salmond (Regionalist) David Miliband (Labour) Nigel Farage (UKIP-English Democrat Alliance) Caroline Lucas (GPEW-Green List) George Monbiot/Salma Yaqoob (RESPECT)

The Lib Dems returned to power under their new young, charismatic leader. It didnt hurt that the Lib Dems were finding some ground in the cause of the day that was devolution, as did the Regionalist Alliance. Some Cameronite plans for devolution were modified and English regional Assemblies were established and greater power was given to the regions and the Lords were reformed into a council of mixed senators appointed by the regions (in the style of the German Bundesrat) and directly elected Senators. However a disagreement over a Scottish Independence referendum threatened to bring down the government


2009-2011: Nick Clegg (Progressive) (little Cleggmaniac Bolt)

Clegg had an ace up his sleeve however. A mass defection from Labour followed by a merger lead to a majority under the "Progressive" banner with David Miliband as Deputy Prime Minister. Labour spend the next three years reforming into a more left wing vehicle, eventually partially merging with Respect and Several other parties in a similar manner to the regionalists. While the Progs were praised for their handling of the banking crisis, legalisation of gay marriage their subsequent plans for austerity proved unpopular.

2011-2011: Caroline Lucas (Green List-Left Coalition)
Def 2011 Alan Duncan (Conservative) Nick Clegg (Progressive) Alex Salmond (SNP-Regionalist) John McDonnnel/Salma Yaqoob (Labour/Respect "Left List")

Clegg's attempt at an election to secure support for the Progs back fired and saw them fall just below the Tories. The Greens (being an alliance of GPEW, Scottish Greens and Northern Irish Greens) and Left List surged, managing to form a coalition based on massive expansion of renewable energy, closing tax loopholes, a tobin tax and various other platforms. This stretched relations with President Obama when Clegg had gotten on well. This period also saw a flight of capital from the UK. Worker's representation on corporate boards was enshrined in law and Trident was disarmed.

Another pledge was a referendum on the monarchy which curiously lead to the abolition of the monarchy (and establishment of the Commonwealth of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) but then the election of Charles Windsor as President (the now Elizabeth Windsor declined to stand) and relationships between President Windsor and the Prime Minister were fairly strong.

2011-2013: Laurie Penny (Radical: Green-Left List Coalition)

2011 saw Prime Minister Lucas stand down to focus on her constituency work the government butted heads over who would be leader with Labour (now having absorbed RESPECT) and the Greens unable to come to a decision between John McDonnell and Jean Lambert, eventually they compromised, McDonnell and Lambert would be joined Deputy PMs with an MP from the Radicals (a minor syndicalist party with a mere 3 seats) serving as Prime Minister. Journalist turned politician Laurie Penny would become Britain's Youngest (and first LGBT) Prime Minister at a mere 26 and would stay in power for the next few years on a platform of "Trust in her ministers" with the public getting used to more appearances by ministers where the PM might have done press conferences. The Penny minister increased rights for LGBT+ people, protection for women, healthcare for trans people.


2013-2016: Patrick Harvie (Scottish Green: Green-Left List Coalition)
As per Penny's plans she stood down after two years with another minor party leader taking over in the form of Scottish Green co-convener Patrick Harvie


2016-2018: Patrick Harvie (Scottish Green: Green-Left List-Progressive Coalition)
Def 2016: Jo Swinson (Progressive) Anna Soubrey (Moderate), Leanne Wood (Plaid Cymru: Regionalist), Harry Brewis/Laurie Penny (Radical)
Harvie took the Greens into the next election. However the Progressives rose in the polls and a "Grand Traffic Light" coalition of Greens, Progressives and Left was formed. Green-Red cuts to the armed forces were slowed and more investment in small businesses was introduced as well as minor cuts in business rate taxes. There is some disagreement over Green-Left plans to introduce universal basic income and Left-Prog lead plans for increased High Speed Rail, however. The recent pandemic may see the introduction of the former however.

2018-2020: Jack Monroe (Labour: Green-Left List-Progressive)
The rotating leadership amongst the coalition was decided by a vote of MPs and senators in government and Labour candidate Jack Monroe narrowly beat out Jo Swinson of the Progressive Party and Sian Berry of GPEW.





Out of Character: I thought of putting a Libertarian party in there but I could only imagine the staff of Spiked Magazine leading it.
Also I am aware Jack Monroe would hate being MP let alone PM. If this werent the case I'd love to see her in govt. Her ideals are why I picked her.

 

[Meppo]

The Kingdom of God?-A Presidents List:

Jerry Voorhis is one sexy Congresscritter and ought to be utilized more often.

All in all it's a nice, well-described list.

 

[Time Enough]

Jerry Voorhis is one sexy Congresscritter and ought to be utilized more often.

Indeed he is, him and Glen H. Taylor. Nothing like Cooperative Liberal representatives who believe in Social Gospel. He’s a fun person.

All in all it's a nice, well-described list.

Thanks, wanted to do something with Long and Lindbergh that doesn’t end in a horrible dystopia.

 

[Yossarian]

I've noticed an awful lot of these lists (I am somewhat guilty of this as well) feature OTL stable countries having crisis points and revolutions (in an electoral or literal sense). What if someone tried the opposite, e.g. the Third or Fourth French Republics continuing to the present day, Italy still being Japan-like with the Christian Democrats dominant to now, etc.?

La Historia Nos Absolverá

Presidents of Cuba ("Antigua República")

1925 - 1933: Gerardo Machado (Partido Liberal)
1933 (Aug-Sep): Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada (Liberal)

Executive Commission of the Provisional Government of Cuba
1933 (Sep): La Pentarquia (Sergio Carbo y Morena, Porfirio Franca y Alvarez, Ramón Grau San Martín, José Miguel Irisarri y Gamio, Guillermo Portela y Möller)

Presidents of Cuba ("Segunda República")
1933 - 1934 (interim): Ramón Grau San Martín
1934 - 1938: Miguel Mariano Gómez y Arias (Acción Republicana as part of Tripartite Coalition with Partido Liberal and Unión Nacionalista)
1934 def. Ramón Grau (Partido Revolucionaro Cubano - Auténtico), Mario García Menocal (Conjunto Nacional Democrático), Carlos Manuel de Céspedes (Partido Centralista Nacional), various other candidates
1938 - 1942: Ramón Grau (Auténtico)
1938 def. Federico Laredo Brú (Liberal), Mario García Menocal (Partido Conservador), Carlos Mendieta y Montefur (Unión Nacionalista), Antonio Gutieras Holmes (Partido Unión Revolucionaria)
1942 - 1946: Carlos Prío Socarrás (Auténtico)
1942 def. Carlos Márquez Sterling y Guiral (Liberal), Carlos Saladrigas Zayas (Unión Demócrata)
1946 - 1950: Carlos Márquez Sterling (Liberal-Unión Demócrata alliance)
1946 def. Raúl López del Castillo (Auténtico), Gustavo Cuervo Rubio (Partido Republicano), Raúl García Menocal (Partido Popular Nacional), Antonio Gutieras (Unión Revolucionaria-Comunista)
1950 - 1954: Emilio Núñez Portuondo (Liberal as part of Coalición de Acción Nacional with Republicano, Unión Demócrata, and Partido Popular Nacional)
1950 def. Eduardo Chibás (Partido del Pueblo Cubano - Ortodoxos), Ramón Grau (Auténtico), Antonio Gutieras (Partido Socialista Popular)
1954 - 1958: Eduardo Chibás (Ortodoxo)
1954 def. Óscar Gans (Liberal-Nacional alliance) , Carlos Hevia (Auténtico), Gustavo Cuervo Rubio (Republicano), Andrés Rivero Agüero (Unión Demócrata)
1958 - 0000: Manuel Urrutia Lleó (Independent as part of Moderado electoral fusion of Liberal, "Realista" Auténtico, Unión Demócrata, and Republicano)
1958 def. Roberto Agramonte (Ortodoxo), José Miró Cardona (Auténtico), Juan Almeida Bosque (Partido Socialista Popular), Raúl García Menocal (Partido Popular Nacional)

Prime Ministers of Cuba
1940 - 1941: Félix Lancís Sánchez (Auténtico)
1941 - 1942: Carlos Prío Socarrás (Auténtico)
1942 - 1943: Federico Laredo Brú (Liberal)
1943 - 1944: Gustavo Cuervo Rubio (Liberal)
1944 - 1946: Raúl López del Castillo (Auténtico)
1946 - 1947: Carlos Hevia (Auténtico)
1947 - 1948: Anselmo Alliegro y Milá (Liberal)
1948 - 1949: Óscar Gans y López Martínez (Liberal)
1950 - 1951: Manuel Antonio de Varona (Auténtico)
1951 (Jan - Oct): Andrés Rivero Agüero (Unión Demócrata)
1951 - 1952: Guillermo Alonso Pujol (Partido Popular Nacional)
1952 (Mar- Oct): Carlos Hevia (Auténtico)
1952 - 1953: Óscar Gans (Liberal)
1953 - 1954: Rafael Guas Inclán (Liberal)
1954 - 1956: Roberto Agramonte y Pichardo (Ortodoxo)
1956 - 1957: José Miró Cardona (Auténtico)
1957 - 1958: Jorge Mañach y Robato (Ortodoxo)
1958 - 1959: Nicolás Castellanos Rivero ("Realista")
1959 - 1960: Miguel A. Suárez Fernández (Liberal)
1960 - 0000: Huber Matos Benítez (Ortodoxo)

Spoiler: Writeup

The dissolution of the Machado regime left Cuba with two surviving domestic institutions of note: the University of Havana and the Army.

The quiet court-martial and execution of a jumped-up sergeant with treasonous ideas above his station left the latent might of the Army in the ineffectual hands of Pablo Rodríguez. Between the disorganisation of the Army and the failure of the United States Marine Corps to materialise on the beaches and reinstate the dictatorship, there turned out to be little opposition to the vision of the academics who dominated the Pentarchy of 1933.

For a fleeting moment, there was a chance to secure the future of their short sharp revolution, and Cuba's leaders seized the opportunity.

The election of 1934, hotly contested in a free-flowing political environment, saw the son of a hero of Independence entrusted with carrying Cuba into its bold new revolutionary future? The slowly recovering economy allowed Gómez to legitimise the new Government's shaky position, the recovering sugar harvest to placate the U.S., and a set of social and labour reforms to keep the growing labour movement on-side.

The culmination of these was the Constitution of 1937, a progressive document that enshrined the new order, reflecting serious considerations about Cuba's problems and opportunities, and striking an enlightened, optimistic tone about the future.

The next decade saw these promises delivered on. A fragmented right and the resulting dominance of Congress allowed the Auténticos to push through reforms in women's suffrage, economics, labour relations, and land, with Grau and Socarrás maintaining a delicate balancing act between the aspirations of the nationalist left and the economic interests of the American businesses who made the investments that financed the realisation of the Revolution.

The two-bloc system did not last. The prosperity of the Forties was unevenly distributed, and strikes and political violence had grown as corruption sank in amongst the political establishment. Elements of the progressive and nationalist blocs, disillusioned by the persistence of poverty and corruption as the Auténticos proved ineffectual in overcoming the Liberal-led bloc's opposition to further social reforms, defected to the new Orthodox Party.

While a broad-tent electoral alliance of the right and centre (a Coalition of National Action which, naturally, ended up doing very little) was able to keep the radicals out of power temporarily, the 1954 election was a watershed moment in Cuba's blossoming democracy. The Ortodoxos, who promised "to realise the great place reserved in history for Cuba", were swept into power, and set about their crusade against "the three evils" of corruption, poverty, and slavery.

Taking care to avoid completely alienating the United States (luckily, the Mafia still had Vegas by the time Chibás started trying to clean up Havana), the Ortodoxos forced a realignment in Cuban politics, between those who favoured careful, incremental reform and those who wished to keep the fires of 1933 burning.

The left of the Auténticos joined forces with the Ortodoxos, while the "Realists" hedged their bets and supported the Moderate bloc, which united behind the progressive (but fiercely anti-Communist) leadership of Manuel Urrutia to regain the confidence of the people.

As the 1960s dawn, Cuba stands at the crossroads. As the Dominican Revolution tears through Hispaniola and the new regime courts the Soviets, threatening American hegemony over the Western Hemisphere, Urrutia seeks to reassure President Lodge that Cuba is as reliable as ever. At the same time, the 1960 mid-terms allowed the Ortodoxos to regain control of the House, and young firebrands who have grown up in the land the Revolution built are agitating for even more. Cuba's careful balancing act is both more crucial and under greater strain than ever before. With God's grace and the best efforts of its leaders, it will avoid falling into the abyss.

 

[Time Enough]

Enter the Markey Zone...
1977-1981: Ronald Reagan (Republican)
1976 (With Bob Dole) def: Jimmy Carter (Democratic), Tom McCall (New)
1981-1989: Jerry Brown (Democratic)
1980 (With Joe Biden) def: Ronald Reagan (Republican), Tom McCall (Reform)
1984 (With Ed Markey) def: Bob Dole (Republican), Ralph Nader (Reform)
1989-1993: Ed Markey (Democratic)
1988 (With Major Owens) def: Dan Quayle (Republican), Ralph Nader (Reform), Lyndon LaRouche (New Democrats)
1993-1997: Jack Kemp (Republican)
1992 (With Lynn Martin) def: Ed Markey (Democratic), Bernie Sanders (Reform), Lyndon LaRouche (New America), Pat Buchanan (We The People)
1997-: Paul Wellstone (Democratic)
1996 (With Nydia Velázquez) def: Jack Kemp (Republican), Bernie Sanders (Reform), Lyndon LaRouche (America Party), David Duke (We The People)

 

[Cev]

'Great Electors' of the French Republic​

1799-1815: Lucien Bonaparte (Brumairian)
1799 def. Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès (Brumairian) [did not seek office], Scattered Jacobin Ballots
1815-1836: Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès (Rue de la Bûcherie Committee)
1815 def. Jacques-Rose Récaimer (Society of the Friends of the Republic), Pierre-Antoine Antonelle (Jacobin Clubs), Joseph Bonaparte (Bonapartist Ballots)
1836-1843: Antoine Marie Rœderer (Party of the Constitution)
1836 def. Phillippe-Antoine Merlin (Party of the Salle du Manège), Scattered Royalist Ballots, Élie Decazes (Liberal Clubs)
1843-1852: Amable Brugière (Nonpartisan)
1843 def. François-René de Chateaubriand (Charismatics), Ferdinand Flacon (Sectionist), Constitutionalists and Liberals endorsed Brugière
1852-1866: Amable Brugière (Liberal-Constitutionalist)
1864-1866: Henri Georges Boulay de la Meurthe (Liberal-Constitutionalist)
1864 def. Other Conservatie Ballots, Éliphas Lévi (Utopic), François Guizot (Club of the Rue de la Ville l'Evêque)
1866-0000: Lucien Bonaparte (Liberal-Constitutionalist)
1866 def. Jean-Baptiste Godin (Utopic), Hippolyte Jaubert (Liberal-Constitutionalist), Victor Hugo (Party of Motion)


The death of Napoleon Bonaparte during the coup of Brumaire 1799 would prove to be only a momentary setback for the plotters seeking to overthrow the frail French Directory. Though scattered in the wake of Bonaparte's supposed murder by Jacobin assassins on the floor of the convention (the truth of which has been lost to history), the Abbé Sieyès, Bonaparte's brother Lucien, and the duplicitous former Bishop Talleyrand were able to rally the army and many of the Sections around the 'myth of Bonaparte', dissolving the existing government. In the hectic days that followed, the esoteric ideals of Sieyès would ultimately win out, and a complex new constitution was ushered to life. At the apex of this system sat the mercurial office of the 'Great Elector', endowed with important functions in selecting two 'Consuls' to act as the executives of the Republic (one for home affairs, the other for war), as well as the initial members of the College of Guardians, a body whose members served for life without the possibility of retirement or resignation, who received great estates as compensation for their service synthesising the elective aristocracy of the United States Senate with the legal function of both a constitutional court and a legislative upper house. The day to day business of legislation, meanwhile, was handed to a bicameral legislature selected by a process of "filtration", by which local, provincial, and regional assemblies (elected by propertied citizens) elected their best members upwards, culminating in a "national list" of the best citizens of the republic, from which the College would select the members of the assembles and the Elector the members of the executive. In its intended operation, this constitution would usher in the rule of a revolutionary aristocracy, with the wise members of the College overseeing the proper functioning of the state, operating as a great council in the background steering the republic onto its proper course, and absorbing into its ranks any official whose ambitions threatened the Republic, including the Great Elector. This Republican monarch would serve for life, but in the normal function of government would be a silent sovereign, possessed of the unique capacity for immense action in times of crisis, but expected to remain dormant.

Yet in the turbulent years of the young Republic, as counter-revolutionary enemies bore down ceaselessly on France's frontiers, the country's charismatic and ambitious young Elector did not remain silent for long. As financial crisis and frequent legislative deadlock between his moderate and conservative supporters and a renewed radical Jacobin movement rocked the Republic, Bonaparte would take an increasingly prominent role. When it became clear, after his dissolution of the government of Ducos and Carnot, he would assume an ever more active function: now, in practice, the government would be directly responsible to the Great Elector, and Bonaparte would use his power to dissolve the government and call for fresh elections (intended for extremes) as a threat held over both the executive and legislature to assume total power over France. For the duration of the wars this was accepted, but with the end of the War of the Fifth Coalition in 1813 with the second capitulation of Austria and the assurance of French hegemony west of the Rhine and in Northern Italy, Bonaparte's refusal to rule "constitutionally" in peace time became a source of increased frustration. There was talk of another coup, and Sieyès, the President of the College of Guardians and his old ally Rœderer became anxious about the Republic's total dissolution despite its triumphs. In the end, extreme action was averted: in a narrow vote, the moderate Brumairians, the liberal Republicans, and the Jacobins in the College would align to absorb Bonaparte, and in a series of secretive votes would elect Sieyès to the Great Electorate, passing in the instant before a special enabling act exempting him from the usual restrictions of a member of the College. The Rue de la Bûcherie Committee, named for the street on which Sieyès lived in Paris, would coalesce into the Party of the Constitution thereafter, their sometime liberal allies a series of Liberal Clubs, and the Jacobins into a constellation of loosely aligned new leftist parties.

The following 28 years, first under Sieyès, and then under his friend Rœderer's son would be one's of stability. The Grand Elector's role remained, in practice, more substantial than Sieyès had envisioned, with the need to break legislative deadlocks or replace failing governments arising far more frequently than the extreme emergencies envisioned by the constitution's father, but none would embrace the extreme dictatorial powers of Bonaparte. The greatest threat the Republic had faced since the years of its founding would come with the "Charismatic" movement led by the extreme reactionary the aristocrat and poet Chateubriand in 1843, synthesising counter-revolutionary royalism with Jacobin nationalism and social policies: these Charismatics had won the legislative elections of the later 1830s, and having assumed a significant position in the College were only defeated by an alliance of Republican forces and the eventual support of the 'Sectionist' Jacobin party. The Charismatics were purged from the lower legislative bodies by the College and the new Elector, the moderate and milquetoast liberal Amable Brugière, and domestic harmony restored. Slowly the Republican forces would coalesce into the hegemonic Liberal-Constitutionalist party, and have dominated France ever since. The rise of the far-left Communist 'Utopic' party first under a series of social theorists, and then under the charismatic mystic Éliphas Lévi remains a concern for the centre, but for now the vigilance of the College's members have meant that despite a brief legislative majority in the late 1860s the Utopics have never possessed more than 20 votes in the College, and seem unlikely to be able to choose the Great Elector. Certainly there has not been perfect harmony, and cracks have begun to show in the liberal movement over Guizot and Hugo's support for some moderate democratisation and the end to the Continental System, as well as some contention in the 1866 election over the triumphant return of the Bonaparte family to power. Nevertheless, promising nationalism abroad to appease the masses, the maintenance of the wise guidance of the elite in politics, and a crackdown at home on the Utopics' para-governmental communes, Lucien Bonaparte is perhaps the most popular Elector since his namesake's early years. It remains to be seen if he will be content to govern as a constitutional sovereign, or if the call to greatness and the easy pretext of rising tensions with the German Empire might reignite the Bonapartist allure of dictatorship...


(This is all based on Sieyès' real plans for a post-1799 French government, which Mignet rather elegantly describes as an attempt to usher in "the reign of a revolutionary oligarchy". I wrote my undergraduate dissertation partially on the topic, so I'm happy to answer any questions on it. This list has been my attempt to sketch out how I think such a system would deteriorate in practice despite Sieyès' intention to maintain a weak executive).

 

[Bolt451]

The Scientific State

Presidents of the United States of America (1969-1984)

1969-1973: Richard Nixon (Republican)
1968: Def. Hubert Humphrey (Democratic), George Wallace (American Independent)
1972: Def. George McGovern (Democratic)
1973-1977: Gerald Ford (Republican)
1977-1981: William Proxmire (Democratic)
1976: Def. Ronald Reagan (Republican)
1981-1983: Ronald Reagan (Republican) † [1]
1980: Def. William Proxmire (Democratic)
1983-1984: Dixy Lee Ray (Democratic) [2]
1984: Elections suspended

Presidents of the Scientific State Of America (1984-2017)

1984-1994: Dixy Lee Ray (Technocratic)
1994-2004: C. Everett Koop (Technocratic)
2004-2016: Sam Harris (Pure Reason) [3]
2016-2017: Bill Nye (Reformist) [4]

Presidents of the Free States of America (2017-present)

2017-2017: Bernie Sanders (Nonpartisan leading Revolutionary Government)
2017-0000: Richard Ojeda (Populist)
2017: Def. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Christian Workers), Kyrsten Sinema (Reason)

[1] Died in World War III, which was started by Able Archer being misconstrued by the Soviets.
[2] Ascended to the Presidency from being Secretary of the Interior.
[3] Was executed by revolutionary forces in 2017.
[4] Surrendered to the American Peoples' Army in 2017.

Sorry to bring up such an old post but Dixy Lee Ray is a fascinating figure. Her running America as some kind of ultra-efficient dictator is a great touch

 

[Charles EP M.]

1939 - 1948: Jan Smuts (United Party)

1948 - 1950: Jan Smuts (United-Labour coalition)

1950 - 1953: Bernard Friedman (United-Labour coalition)

1953 - 1963: Bernard Friedman (United)

1963 - 1968: Bernard Friedman (United-ANC-SAIC coaltions)

The National Party very narrowly took power in 1948, forcing a formal coalition between United and Labour - the recommendations of the Fagan Commission were kicked down the road and a few labour laws were relaxed as the price. Before Smuts' death, the government ground on and was mostly static. Friedman came to power warning that the National Party would win if United couldn't provide something attractive, that the only way to beat the National's dominance on race was to make people question if National had anything else to offer, and a minor form of keynesian investment was shoved through along with social liberalisation. That made enough voters happy enough to win United a term - and then Friedman decided to try and fix the racial issue by, despite avoiding the issue during the election, enacting recommendations in the Fagan Commission and even increasing voting rights for non-white (middle classes) South Africans.

Friedman did other stuff too but that didn't matter in the 1958 election: it was National VS United, apartheid vs "dignified coexistence". Labour split in twain. Various dirty tricks and sordid violent acts were used across South Africa to 'discourage' non-white voters. But in the end, FPTP meant United won the most seats if not the most votes, thanks to the increased suffrage.

Political chaos and street violence spread for five years; there were high profile murders. The world winced, but South Africa was a key nation in the Cold War and the United Party were liberal conservatives, so they got support from the US and Britain - Macmillan's famous "Winds of Change" speech praised South Africa for its "calm, sensible, measured changes" which Macmillan knew was bollocks but it helped shore up the government. (Some nice trade deals and quiet tips from MI6 & CIA on plots helped too) In the end, when it came to the next election, United was losing support but the Nationals were as well because enough voters considered them the party of chaos, violence, and yelling loudly. Labour & left-wing vote was splintered.

What wasn't splintered was the African National Congress and South African Indian Congress, who had both taken advantage of the new suffrage to run MPs and had an electoral pact. There was fierce debate within United about allying with them and some MPs resigned, but by this point it was the only game in town - this or opposition, and for how long if Nationals got in now? And so a mostly conservative party passed another tranche of emancipation laws and several cities erupted into bloody riots for weeks. It was later revealed an army mutiny almost occured except that Johnson and Douglas-Home sent word to various South African figures that they would be very unhappy if an elected government headed by Their Man fell and communists went "SEE SEE" and, worse for them, black Americans and the remaining colonies said this showed there was no point talking to white leaders. Even with that behind the scenes, the country teetered on the brink.

In the end, despite hundreds of deaths, Friedman's government was bloodied but still there. Friedman agreed he would step down before the next election to allow a new face.

Those potential news faces are now really hoping the bigger electorate will vote United and 1968 won't see the first Congress Pact government, that the communists don't make gains, that the National Party is too weak to take much, that no new party is coming, that.......

 

[OwenM]

Ooh, very good, if possibly a bit optimistic.
@Sulemain
Does South Africa have television yet TTL?

 

[Beata Beatrix]

snip

Quite a nice list! What happened to Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr – did he die as per IOTL?

 

[Japhy]

@Tyche I'm glad you like my old lists.