Vexut Reforms

In 1977, Jáán Vexut became the leader of the Kúúlist Popular Party, and therefore the de facto leader of the Helsonian Union. He instituded a wide range of liberal reforms through a reinterpretation of the 1942 Helsonian Constitution, rolling back the absolute Kúúlist dictatorship of the 40s and 50s.

Although Vexut never went so far as to implement multi-party democracy, his government granted Helsonian citizens rights to free speech, freedom of religion, and a relatively free press. Local votes and elections, which had been enshrined in Helsonian democracy since 1942 but often overrided by the KPP, were accorded a much greater degree of importance under Vexut, in a bid to maintain popularity for the Kúúlist regime.

From the 1980s onwards, Vexut also implemented a vision of "market pragmatism", whereby Helsonian citizens were given limited rights to enterprise and small business for the first time since 1925. An 1983 amendment to the constitution was overwhelmingly approved by 93% of Helsonian citizens, in the only nationwide referendum ever held in the Helsonian Union. This entailed the reintroduction of an official currency and the legalisation of private business licenses for citizens.

In other countries

The reforms did not stay in the Helsonian Union, but spread to its allies and satellite states.

In Zaizung

In 1977, the satellite state of Zaizung copied the Helsonian model, and implemented similar changes. Most notably, it softened up relations with the newly formed Capitalist country of Fordas, and made factories to supply labor and cheap electronics.

One reform was to allow for some limited private enterprize. These started with the government recognizing a union for illegal street food vendors, making this quasi-legal status where getting a government approved union card meant that illegal street food vendors could not be prosecuted if they had it, and had representation in the Ministry of Labor. In exchange, this union card came with a licensing fee paid to the ministry of finance, which the government extended to a larger system of privatized industries in 1978.

Because the government made much of its money from directly controlling the factories and selling the products, private companies paid a large tax.

One of the reforms was a brief attempt to split the unitary state into a federation of two halves called "the Confederation of Thãw and Jã" with the idea that the north (older center of power) which is more Kwang and the south which is more Mañi (and with newer infrastructure). Corporations, both government owned and private, had to register in only one of the two states, with many supply chains having to have two separate parallel organizations in the two halves of the country. Similarly, many licenses were only valid in a single constituent, where you need to go and get the same license for the other half as well. In 1980, only three years after being introduced, this split failed.

Between the Pangyeoun War and 1977, the government owned all land and leased it out, but to raise money for its reforms, it sold off some to private intrests.

Zaizung also reimplemented the older Qonklese "tribal" system where certain groups could act semi-autonomously, with a different set of rights and privileges as a single corporate entity.