Political Parties
Parties are the central political structures of A House Divided. Everything meaningful — elections, legislation, coalitions, and parliament formations — flows through party membership. If you want to do more than run as an independent, you need a party.
What a Party Is
A political party is a country-scoped organization with its own name, abbreviation, color, treasury, and ideology position on a two-axis grid (economic left-right, social liberal-conservative). Parties hold seats, run candidates in primaries, and accumulate resources that leaders can spend on collective actions.
Each party also has a per-state footprint: state party organizations track regional membership, organization score, treasury, and leadership separately from the national party. What happens in Texas Democratic circles is distinct from what happens nationally.
The Two-Axis Ideology System
Party ideology lives on two axes:
| Axis | Left/Liberal end | Right/Conservative end |
|---|---|---|
| Economic | -5 (far left) | +5 (far right) |
| Social | -5 (progressive) | +5 (conservative) |
The party's official position on these axes directly affects:
- Which NPPs align with the party (ideology proximity)
- Which voter demographics the party appeals to
- How your character's primary score is calculated (party alignment component)
The sequentialId System
Each party has a sequentialId — a short number used in URLs like /parties/1?country=US. This ID is only unique within a country. The US Democratic Party and the UK Labour Party might both have sequentialId: 1, so country context is always required when looking up a party.
URLs always include a country parameter: /parties?country=UK lists UK parties, and party links always carry the country flag.
Party Pages
Navigate to /parties and select a country to browse all parties. Each party page shows:
- Overview — ideology position, seat counts by office type, member roster
- Leadership — current chair, vice chair, and treasurer with their term status
- Organization — per-state org scores, momentum, and budget allocations
- Treasury — national treasury balance and tax rate settings
Built-in vs. Custom Parties
Built-in parties (Democrat, Republican, Labour, Conservative, and their equivalents by country) are pre-configured with party colors, historical positions, and seeded membership. They cannot be deleted.
Custom parties are created by players. Any character with enough resources can found a new party — but building organization, winning seats, and accumulating treasury from scratch is the hard part. Custom parties deleted by the emptyPartyCleanup process (no members, no seats) are gone permanently.
Parties by Country
Each country has its own set of default parties suited to its political system:
| Country | System | Key offices |
|---|---|---|
| US | Presidential, FPTP | House, Senate, Governor, State Senate, President |
| UK | Westminster parliamentary | Commons, Regional Councils |
| CA | Westminster parliamentary | House of Commons (federal) |
| DE | Mixed-member proportional | Bundestag |
| JP | Mixed-member majoritarian | Shūgiin, Sangiin |
Party organization cap weights differ by country — winning a Commons seat in the UK contributes up to 60 cap points, just like winning a Bundestag seat in Germany.
Related
- Party Membership — How to join, switch, and what membership unlocks.
- Party Leadership — Chair, vice chair, treasurer roles and elections.
- Party Organization — The org score system, how it builds and decays.
- Party Ideology — The two-axis ideology grid and its effects.
- Party Actions — What leaders can spend party resources on.
- Coalitions — Cross-party alliances and their effects.