Hugh Vale

Hugh Vale was Prime Minister of the Ariddian Republic from 1909 to 1924, representing the Liberal Party.

Early years

Vale was born in 1858 in Rêvane, the eldest child in a middle class, merchant family. His childhood was, if not luxurious, at least comfortable. An anglophone Ariddian by birth, he soon mastered French, the other official Ariddian language. Young Hugh received a solid education, and proved himself keen to discuss political issues at every available opportunity. In particular, he had long discussions with his uncle, an MP for the Conservative Party. Vale later said that he disagreed (politely) with his uncle on a great many topics, but that it was their disagreements "which made our conversations so interesting and helped me shape my own beliefs".

Although he adhered to core conservative values and was a practising Christian, Vale discovered that he also held progressive ideals. Above all, he admired the capitalist ideology - "the very essence of freedom for the bold" - and wished to see it implemented more extensively.

At the age of 23, he joined the Liberal Party - a moderately conservative, staunchly capitalist party dominated by the middle class, and created just two years earlier in 1879 - and specifically the Young Liberals' Think Tank (YLTT). Dynamic and full of ideas, he soon became a notable voice in Liberal politics in the capital. The party was new enough to welcome fresh ideas, and Vale set out to help shape its policies.

The Liberals in office

In 1884, Liberal candidate Serge Marchand, a francophone Ariddian whom Vale greatly admired, was elected Prime Minister - the first ever Liberal politician to come to power in Ariddia. Until then, government had been mainly in the hands of the right-wing Land Party, with the Conservative Party occasionally obtaining electoral success.

Marchand proceeded to democratise the country by extending the suffrage, a decision Vale whole-heartedly supported. Within weeks of being elected, Marchand had lowered the property and monetary requirements needed in order to become a citizen, and, in 1894, he extended suffrage to all adult Indigenous Ariddian males possessing the requisite amount of individual or communal property and money. Vale applauded this measure, which put an end to discrimination against Indigenous voters, all the more so since the decision gave the Liberal Party a significant boost in support from the Wymgani population.

At that stage, the Liberals were the most progressive of organised parties in Ariddian politics, which endeared them to a significant segment of the electorate, but this was gradually going to change. In 1898, forecasting the rise of left-wing movements in the twentieth century, two new political parties were formed: the Wymgani Party, created to defend and promote Indigenous rights, and the Socialist Party, which brought radically new ideas into the national political debate. Both parties remained marginal, but they did split the progressive vote, enabling the Conservative Party to regain power in 1899 with Prime Minister Wesley Carrington.

Vale as Liberal leader

Following the Liberals' defeat, Marchand took a backseat in the political arena, and the Party called upon the ever-active Hugh Vale to lead them. Vale campaigned on a promise to continue Marchand's extension of suffrage rights, to promote civil rights, and to pursue the deregulation of the economy. Meanwhile, on the left of the political spectrum, the Wymgani Party fused into the Socialist Party just in time for the 1904 elections, splitting the bulk of the Wymgani vote between the Liberals (who obtained most of it) and the Socialists (who obtained enough to keep Vale and the Liberals out of office). Henry Dover, the Land Party candidate, was elected.

In 1906, a new movement split away from the Socialists to form the Radical Party, fragmenting the radical left anew. Vale's consensual campaign promises, appealing both to elements of the left and to conservatives, saw him elected Prime Minister in 1909, whereupon he promptly set about democratising the electoral system, abolishing all property requirements for suffrage and greatly lowering monetary ones. This move made him particularly popular among the newly enfranchised citizens, many of whom gave their loyalty to the Liberals rather than more left-wing parties. It was to be a long time yet before the left rose to power in Ariddia.

Vale's marriage to Celia Desisles in 1911, the daughter of middle-class merchants, helped strengthen his popularity among Wymgani voters. Desisles, although "westernised" and bourgeois in her lifestyle, was ethnically one-quarter Indigenous, and was an active member of a charity organisation aiming at helping urban Wymgani find employment and housing. Although marriage to a "brown" woman, however light the hue of her skin, was not considered "shocking" by most Ariddians, it was still uncommon enough among politicians to attract comment, and helped Vale be perceived as a "friend of the Wymgani".

It was also in 1911 that he took a decisive stance in favour of Indigenous rights, criticising the 1747 Prime Court decision which had proclaimed the Treaty of Espérence a nullity, and stating his view instead that the Treaty was a valid legal document which should be viewed "with solemn respect". Two months later, the courts reversed the 1747 finding, and re-established the validity of the Treaty. It was a momentous decision; it meant that Indigenous lands could no longer be expropriated unilaterally by the government, and it enabled Wymgani communities to claim compensation for past expropriation, or, in some cases, reclaim their ancestral lands.

Vale, driven by a Protestant work ethic, abolished some social laws while maintaining those which benefited the "truly deserving poor", as he put it. An advocate of "humane capitalism" and, above all, of "freedom to succeed", he criticised both Socialists and the more extreme Conservatives, while trying to draw supporters away from both those parties.

In 1919, he extended the suffrage further after being elected for a third consecutive term. All money requirements were dropped, and, perhaps most importantly, women (Wymgani included) were granted the right to vote. True, a woman still had to wait until the age of 26 while a man could vote at the age of 21, but the measure confirmed Vale's status in popular opinion as a truly progressive leader. In 1924, he declined to stand for a fourth term in office, but his popularity ensured that the Liberal candidate, Richard Tenet, was elected with a comfortable majority.

Legacy

Hugh Vale is not the only Ariddian Prime Minister to have been perceived as progressive, but he lived and ruled at a time when Liberalism was growing into a dominant political, social and economic force in his country, and he played a significant role in shaping its ideals and policies. It has been theorised that Vale's "middle way" between hard-line conservatism and the promotion of civil rights delayed the rise of left-wing parties on the Ariddian political scene; it was not until 1985 that a left-wing candidate, Xavier Gris, came to power.

Today, Vale's image is an ambiguous and sometimes controversial one in communist Ariddia. He is both credited with having tempered conservative dominance over the country, and criticised for his active promotion of capitalism at the expense of social rights. He remains, in any case, a key name in Ariddian history.