Social Democratic Party (Monsilva)

Social Democratic Party (SMD) 社会民主党 (Shèhuì Mínzhǔdǎng)
Leader	Zi Ch'en
Founded	January 1997 (1997-01)
Headquarters	Amking
Membership (2022)	64,000
Ideology	Social democracy Democratic socialism Left-wing populism
Political position	Centre-left to left-wing
National affiliation	Democratic Coalition
International affiliation	Progressive Alliance
Colours	Dandelion
Legislative Assembly	37 / 510
Senate	0 / 85
State Parliament members	104 / 1,260

The Social Democratic Party (Monsilvan: 社会民主党; pinyin: Shèhuì Mínzhǔdǎng), or the SMD, is a rapidly growing democratic socialist party in the Monsilvan Republic. It has been a member of the Democratic Coalition, lead by the Freedom and Democracy Party, since 2020. The party's initials 'SMD' are occasionally used within Monsilva, including on the party's logo, and originate from the pinyin name for the party, "Shèhuì Mínzhǔdǎng".

The Social Democratic Party was founded in January 1997 by Shi Bai who had previously been a member of the Freedom and Democracy Party from 1983 to 1992. The party won its first seat in the 1998 Meixian state election, unseating the Reformed National Party member Shen Bohai who had served since the establishment of the Meixian State Parliament in 1983. The party has managed to retain this seat up to the most recent state election in Meixian in 2023.

The SMD has seen rapid growth over the last decade, especially in Monsilva's state parliaments. After the state elections which took place in several states across Monsilva, the SMD has a total of 95 seats across all the parliaments, which is the fourth-highest number of seats compared to the rest of Monsilva's political parties. The party won its first seats in the 2023 federal election, which took place after the Legislative Reform Act 2023 and the Electoral Reform Act 2023, winning 34 of the 454 seats in the Legislative Assembly. In 2024, it established the Social Democratic Party in Shaoyu, which serves as the party's equivalent in the state. They both appear under the same party in parliament.

Before the Democratic Coalition was created, the SMD had always closely aligned with the FDP and other centre-left political parties thanks to their similar ideologies and policies. Most of the SMD's state parliament members have gained their seats from former FDP or Liberal Party politicians.

Policy

The SMD is a left-leaning political party which combines socialist economics with more liberal and sometimes more centre-right social and cultural values. The party declared its principles in December 2022.

Party policies include:

• Advocates policies relating to market socialist as opposed to a social market economy.
• Advocate a significant increase in the scope of social welfare such as healthcare, pensions, social security and disability care.
• Opposition to neo-conservatism and elitism, instead supporting the 'common people'
• Support of the continuation of Monsilva's 'defence over offence' policy, which states that Monsilva will only declare war if it, or its allies, were attacked unprovoked.
• Introduction of an environmental carbon tax.
• Significant increase in the scope of wildlife protection legislation, increasing the number of protected species and setting up of protection zones.
• Transition from a mass-production/mass-consumption society to a sustainable society in coexistence with nature.
• Clampdown on harmful chemicals, e.g. restriction on use of agricultural chemicals, ban on asbestos, tackling dioxin and soil pollutants.
• Increased investment in public transport, encouraging a switch from petrol powered buses to hybrids, electric vehicles and light rail transit.
• Support of nuclear power and proposal of a gradual switch to wind energy and other renewables from oil and natural gas.
• Support of feminist politics.

See also

• Federal government of Monsilva
• Democratic Coalition
• Politics of Monsilva
• List of political parties in Monsilva