Urbocentrism

Urbocentrism, also known as Mayzalonism from the Énqutsa name Mayzalónyín, is a spectrum of light-blue political ideology that arose from the Énqusqan peninsula. The central ideology is considered the oldest true-blue ideology in Vidina and was formed progressively by numerous poets, monarchs and political thinkers prior to Alutran colonisation. The core tenant of the ideology and from where it takes its name is the sovereignty and importance of the city within society, politics and the economy.

The modern ideologies have expanded on the core concepts to include ideas of federalism, direct democracy, self-determination, degrowth and solutions to climate change. The ideology was famously studied by Ordrish zoologist Acoul Noyon, whilst on expeditions to Ordrish Énqusqó. It is believed he was inspired by the Énqutsan urbocentrist philosophical tradition when he came to describe his ideas about municipal federalisation and many modern urbocentrists view noyonism as another branch of urbocentrism.

Origins
The unique geography and political history of the peninsula are believed to have provided the necessary backdrop for the ideology to have taken root. Archaeological and historical evidence has shown that the peoples of the peninsula have lived in dense, localised communities since the 8th millennium BCE, with the first walled city appearing in the 3rd millennium BCE. It is speculated that the dense jungle covering much of the peninsula drove communities together where they could more effectively create and maintain clearings. During the millennium-long interregnal period, these cities became extremely wealthy and developed largely independently from each-other, with every political structure focused around the running of a single municipality.

Towards the end of the interregnum, some of the city-states had grown influential enough to govern over multiple cities which reach its peak with the unification of the kingdoms of Cílonyósqu and Tsétlaxó into the Second Kingdom. Some 40 settlements across the south west of the peninsula were now governed under a single state apparatus, an idea that hadn't existed on the peninsula in over a millennium. Growing tension in the kingdom lead to a series of governmental reforms to increase the autonomy of the cities. An inscription that can still be read in the palatial complex at Tsétlaxó declares that under the Second Kingdom, it was the cities and their peoples who were sovereign and that the monarch ruled at their behest. The adoption of an early urbocentrist ideology by Póo Mín Tsetli has lead to some scholars retroactively titling her as the Sapphire Queen.

The stability and expansion of the Second Kingdom fostered and spread the ideology across the Kidal Sea. Within the borders of the kingdom the ideology became more entrenched in High Énqutsan culture. By the time of Alutran investment in the country, the cities had gained so much independence due to the eroded political hierarchy that many cities were able to sell themselves to Alutran nations without the monarch being able to intervene.

Politics
Urbocentralism is fundamentally a municipal federalist ideology and largely focuses around issues of political structure. The ideology tackles these issues on four levels: the individual, the community, the city and the state.

Individual
Urbocentrist ideas of the individual are much more modern compared to other tenants. [someone] wrote in his 1950 essay Who is that girl on the bridge about the role of the individual in the community. The essay explains the role of the individual is to act to the benefit of one's community and to further the interests of their community over their self-interest. Another post-war thinker, [someone else] wrote a series of poems exploring the concept of the individual and was a major proponent of positive rights. These are rights or guarantees to certain things. These may include subsidized education, subsidized housing, a safe and clean environment, universal health care, and even the right to a job with the concomitant obligation of the government or individuals to provide one. To this end, urbocentrists generally support social security programs, public works programs, and laws limiting such things as pollution.

Community
The basic building block of society, according to urbocentrist thought, is the community. Communities not only shape individuals but can also work together to achieve greater feats. In the Second Kingdom, it was the communities within cities from where the monarch drew their support and by providing the cities with autonomy it allowed the communities to cooperate more effectively according to their needs.

The notion of community is believed to be a reflection of the role of the clan in ancient Énqutsa society. Decisions were often made for the benefit of the clan and this fostered a collectivist attitude amongst Énqutsa people that still exists today. In the modern day, the structure of clans and family has become much more liberal and this has allowed the role of community to expand beyond the traditional notions. [Someone] who wrote at length upon the changing nature of the Énqutsa clan system in the late 1800s discussed the way this breakdown of traditional family structures had impacted contemporary urbocentrist ideology. She responded to critics at the time, who said that the modern community could no longer be defined and that it was too vague of a notion to count as a basis for society. She argued that the modern community, whilst no longer defined by the direct relatedness of individuals could be defined as having two characteristics. First, a web of affect-laden relationships amongst a group of individuals, relationships that often reinforce one another (contrasted against chain-like individual relationships); and second, a measure of commitment to a shared set of values, norms, meanings, history and identity - or put briefly, a culture.

Despite a fluctuating definition between thinkers and time periods, to the modern urbocentrist, the community is the level of governance best suited for managing day to day services and provision of funds. As such they are often considered limited in scope. This is because a smaller community is best positioned to take informed, appropriate action to support individuals.

In most schools of urbocentrism, the local, geographic community is considered the most important in the system of governance, however, modern urbocentrists also recognise the intersectional nature of communities and the individuals that form them.

City
The city is from where the urbocentrist philosophy takes its name. The city operates as a forum for communities to interact and foster shared prosperity. To this end, the government of a city should work to bolster social capital and the institutions of civil society. Under other philosophies, bolstering social capital and civil institutions would involve infiltration of the government sector into civil society, however, urbocentrism posits that instead a city should empower its communities through strategies of support such as revenue-sharing and technical assistance. Largely this comes through the centralisation of the public sphere within the city, something considered critical for ensuring fair distribution of the provision of healthcare, educational and social services.

The city should also stand to provide and enforce the positive rights of the individual and of communities and protect the individual and communities against those that would infringe on their rights.

This municipal structure and empowerment of local communities within a city had a great influence on Acoul Noyon during his time in Ordrish Énqusqó. It is believed much of his philosophy around municipal federalisation can be traced back to conversations with locals during expeditions in the Énqusqan jungles.

State
The segregation of the city and the state occurs in a branch of urbocentrist thought that arose and developed during the Second Kingdom. Where the city and state were previously considered one and the same, the expansion of the Second Kingdom reshaped this view. The city is defined as a forum for a collection of communities, in direct correspondence with this the state became the forum for a collection of cities. This viewpoint of the role of statehood has been described Alutran political scientists as a bottom-up confederalist approach to conceptualising the state.

The lateral nature of these fora at both the municipal and state level are reflected in the political culture of the peninsula which often strives for cooperation and consensus when forming policy, in contrast to rule of the majority.