NationStates Jolt Archive

Is your legislature unicameral (one chamber/house/body) or bicameral? (two chambers/houses/bodies). How does your legislature work, if you have one? Is it just a rubberstamp legislature (approves bills, but solely ceremonial, does not really have any power) or does it have power? In a parliamentary system, legislatures normally is supreme and elects the executive. Or is the executive branch equal to the legislative in your government. How are the officials elected? etc.

(bump, any one wanna describe it?)

ours is solidly in the totaly different arraingement catigory.

local councils elected annually have always an odd number of members called low
persons, neither less then five nor greater then 13 in proportion to population.
the age of franchise is a local option chosen by each concil themselves, but national
law requires no local council to deny the vote to anyone over the age of puberty who
has resided in its jurisdiction for one year or more.
there are no political parties, and it is forbidden by national consensus at this time to
campaign either for or against oneself or anyone else. all voting is by plurality vote.
that is to say in each local community each voter selects the number of electable
names equal to the number of seats on that communities council. those receiving the
greatest number of votes are the council for the year that begins one month after the
election. in the case of ties (which are not unusual) runoffs are immediately held.
qualification for electability is determined by essay solutions to posted issues and
judged on the basis of equability, creative originality, and implimentability.
localities may also at their option create a 'guardianship' which is generally someone
chosen for exceeding wisdom as a kind of local constitutional monarch for the
remainder of their life.
in the earliest history of carlemnaria they were the lawful owners of the land on which
their communities were built. this no longer applies as the land itself as such is no
longer privately owned but in a modified sense held in common

the members of local councils, by the same voting method elect the members of the
council of the next level. (rural villages; districts, neighborhoods; cities, cities and
districts; counties, counties; shires, shires; sub state regions, sub state regions;
states, states; sub national regions, sub national regions; the national

all elected officials and all individuals qualified to be elected are granted the
honorable title of "low person". no elected official other then the optional guardians
are granted personal authority of any kind but only the councils to which they are
elected have authority when they meet as a body with a quorum and are bound by the
same laws as any other citizen.

the primary function of government at the national level is to insure freedom of
movement for all law abiding citizens and lawful tradegoods between local jurisdictions
and to insure the existence of means of doing so.

local governments exist to deal with local issues and are free to use their own
consensual judgment in doing so.

intermediary levels exist both to coordinate more local ones and to insure provision of
organizational coordination for infrastructural interconnections between them,
delegating the actual coordination of infrastuctures to councils of wisdom in the lore
of each.

every infrastructure being coordinated in such a way as to maximize the usefulness
and benefit of its own nature and purpose for being and harmonious integration and
sustainablitiy with the natural environment and not tied to arbitrary and unrelated
economic or even political concepts

=^^=
.../\...

The Federated Segments' Legislative Unit was once bicameral, consisting of both a population-based and a region-based model. After the Break and the needs of colonizing Titan, the LU became a unicameral legislature based solely on population (as distinct regions no longer needed representation). It does actually serve a legislative purpose, codifying laws and determining budget; it still has much less power than the Executive Unit concerning international relations.

*will make up more as the need presents itself*

I didn't have the time yesterday.

Rejistania consists of 300 "regions" (the rejistanian term is "kalesa'ny"). Every region elects several representatves, which will be in the rejistanian parliament. They also elect their local parliaments in the same election. (These elections are not at the same time, nearly every week a kalesa has elections. the elections are in a three year period) The representatives of one kalesa share one vote, if a representative got 30% of the votes in his kalesa, his vote is 0.3 units. Laws are passed if they get a majority of 155 units (a bit more than 50%), but the kalesian parliaments can veto it (if 155 of the 300 parliaments veto during one months, the laws can not be passed).
After the kalesa of Sike (the capital) has held elections, the first lentine is elected by the parliament. The first lentine nominates the ministers (they are mostly decied before Sike has its elections since the parliament and its coalitions never change drastically)

(bump)

(Cmon, describe your legislatures!)

There are two chambers. First, the Senate, where all of the nation's provinces have an equal representation of 2 Senators. Senators serve for 4 years. The second chamber is the House of Representatives, based on province's population. Represenitives serve for two years. Both chambers propose and pass laws. After a measure is approved by the Chambers(a majority), it goes to the President, who can veto it. However, the Chambers can quite easily override the veto by having another majority in favor.

Note

On the Commonwealth level, Iansislean government is by law bicameral, with power being in theory being divided between the Cruinniú and the unicameral Combined Parliament. However, the unreliable Cruinniú more often than not fails to assemble, leaving the C.C.P. without a peer (pun intended ;)).

On the Imperial level, the Cruinniú is integrated into the parliament in a more traditional bicameral form. The structure differs from Dominion to Dominion, with Noropia and Gadsan running bicameral legislatures, Troobodia a unicameral one, and Tharia a unicameral body that would be better termed a oligarchic institution.

On the local level, there are even more differences. However, most seem to follow Weshield's example of a bicameral legislature divided into a hereditary House of Lords and a more powerful, elected House of Commons.

Hmm. Tsaraine is now ruled by a technically-hereditary ruler, the Domina. She has a veto, and can generally do pretty much what she likes.

The Domina is also the Commandant of Division Five, the Command Division, and it's from this she derives her power. Traditionally, the Div5 Commandancy is held by the Lord (or Lady) Protector, the original one of whom established the system.

There are ten Divisions, one each for Hydroponics, Industry and Maintenance, Manufacturing, Construction and Mining, Command, Research and Development, Ground forces, Air forces, Space forces, and Naval forces, in that order.

The ten Division Commandants form the Division Council, which meets to decide upon matters of national importance.

Outside of the Council, the DivComms have free reign in most things involving their Division, including the appointment of subordinates. At the lower levels, appointments and promotions are carried out by a board of superiors.

Although there are two represenative body systems - The represenative body and the Soviet Congress, the executive may override the legislative branch if it sees fit to do so. That is quite an rarity, considering that one party controls both the executive and legislative branch (Socialist Labor Party.)

The People's Prime Parliament consists of 99 elected representatives. There is no regional representation, though; parliamentarians are elected from national lists. (Ariddian government is traditionally very much centralised).

The PPP shares legislative power with the Office of Secretaries (ie, Ministers) and the citizens. The PPP and the OS submit new laws to one another for approval and, if a law is truly important, it will be submitted to referendum, needing a 75% majority to pass.

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The Confederacy of Effrenata has a fluid sort of government that changes a lot. Every Effrenatan has to affiliate themself with the Special Interest of their choice in order to vote. You only get one Special Interest per election or referendum, but you can change them whenever you want.

For levels of government below the Confederacy, each Confederated Tribe in good standing more or less sorts it out according to how they want to deal with it. Most of them have chosen cutdown versions of the Confederacy's Regional Conference, Marginally Empowered Bureaucracy, Interest Group Meeting, and Figurehead Council.

I myself am currently Acting Temporary Everything Else, the highest-ranking Marginally Empowered Bureaucrat in Effrenata, but when I vote in Confederacy elections and referenda, I vote as a Tidyite. The Tidyites have the largest share of elected and appointed Marginally Empowered Bureaucratic Offices, probably because of our Interest Group Motto/Philosophy: "Leaving everything just a little tidier than we found it." Without, of course, making a nuisance of ourselves.

Other very popular Interest Groups include the Otterite Hedonists (M/P: "OH, we just wanna have fun and eat fish,") the Scorekeepers, (M/P: "Whatever it is, we've got more of it or do it better,") and the Big Mushy Middle (M/P: "Just leave us alone unless there's a problem, and there better not be any problems.")

However, there are more than 7,000 IGs registered in the Confederacy, and even IGs as tiny as the West Confederacy Reform Party (324 registered members as of last Monday, M/P: "Someone's got to DO something about this!") and the Enkian Fundamentalists (136 registered members for as long as anyone can remember, M/P: "You're all going to Hell and we're not,") are entitled to full representation at the Interest Group Meeting (in continuous session for more than seventy years, now.)

Interest Groups that can muster large enough voting blocks usually manage to shove a few members into MEB offices or even Figurehead slots. On the other hand, IGs who make too much of a nuisance of themselves proposing referenda, calling for elections, or agitating on issues usually run afoul of the Big Mushy Middle and rarely make it past Third Assistant Internships in the Bureaucracy.

Probably the most powerful governmental entitiy in the Confederacy is the Pest Control Board, chosen strictly by lot from among all adult Effrenatans in Good Citizen Standing. (That is, they've completed Regular Education with a rating of Pretty Good or higher, done their national service and been Honorably Discharged, and have a clean voting record (that is, they haven't skipped voting in any Confederacy Elections or Referenda without an Excuse Note.)

If you're chosen by the random lottery to serve on the PCB, you have to serve a mandatory term of six months. Once you've served your term on the PCB, you can never serve again. The PCB monitors all other governmental bodies and has a unique set of Appointment, Veto, and Firing powers that can be exercised whenever they determine (using the Pest Control Standards) that someone is making a pest of themselves, or some piece of legislative action of referendum result is going to Create A Nuisance.

The preamble to the Articles of Confederation, BTW, includes the Prime Principle of Effrenatan Life:

COMMIT NO NUISANCE

This covers everything from littering to starting wars. The Articles affirm every Effrenatan's Soveriegn Right to be Left Alone as long as they Commit No Nuisance.

Our legal code, based on the Prime Principle, has changed very little over the 178-year history of the Confederacy, but the Administrative Regulations are continually updated.

An extremely prestigious Marginal Bureaucratic Empowerment is the Regulation Repeal Department, which reviews every Administrative Regulation when it is one year old, ten years old, fifty years old, or As Needed, and repeals any that are outdated, irrelevant, or in danger of Constituting a Nuisance. They also have the power to recommend to other Departments that they create new Administrative Regulations, but those recommendations are non-binding. Only recommendations from the Regional Conference and the Figurehead Council are binding, but fortunately, they are rare, since the nature of those bodies is such that the MAA (Majority Agreement on Action) is hard to obtain. Most Administrative Regulations originate among the middle echelons of Marginally Empowered Bureaucrats in various Departments, and are subject to Departmental Review and endorsement by the Interdepartmental Committee before they are approved.

We get along, more or less. The main thing is to keep anyone from thinking they're entitled to make a nuisance of themselves to other people, based on elective or appointive office. The unofficial government motto of Effrenata is "So who do you think you are, then?" and we're pretty good about enforcing it.

helpfully,
Bright
Acting Temporary Everything Else
Interdepartmental Committee of the Confederacy of Effrenata

mod please remove

As anarchists, we don't have a legislature.

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Kûk‡xenisi n!ok‡x'osi xno-k‡xek‡emi.-The state only exists to serve itself.
"Oppose excessive military spending, yet believe in excessive spending on junk food and plastic surgery to make all your women look like LARDASSES!"-Sino, when I criticized excessive military spending.
http://www.sulucas.com/images/steatopygia.jpg
I'm male. Note the pic of attractive women.

(bump, why should mod remove, just a survey?)

At the provincial level, it's a unicameral legislature, but at the federal level, we're with many different bodies; with a House of Commons, Senate, House of Lords and a Privvy Council.

AFRP (and subsidiaries) is ruled by a multi-national mega corperation, Mikosolf via economic means (go monopoly, on everything).

Therefore the government is a 11 person board one of which is the chairman who only votes as a tie breaker.

The Dominion is actually a corporate autocracy. Everyone and everything in the country is an asset of Evil Overlord Enterprises.

The government ministers are all executives in the corporation, appointed for life at the pleasure of the Evil Overlord. Laws are proposed by personnel in EOE's Legal Division and approved (or not) by His Omniferocity. Citizen/shareholder input is appreciated but not required.

Citizen/shareholders who wish to comment on a law or propose one file an electronic form available at any public library. Posting a good idea that becomes law earns the citizen/shareholder increased status and frequently a bonus. Stupid or unworkable legislation earns the citizen/shareholder scorn and ridicule from everyone reading the publicly available listing.

TEO

The Senate of Keltana is Unicameral. The Senators are elected by the people once every six years. The Government consists of three Consuls and various ministers. The First Consul is elected for life. However, under Keltana law, no person under the age of 35 years may be elected as First Consul. There is not really a Party Political system as such. Any individual may, if he or she has enough support, run for election. In other words we don't have conflicting ideologies, just slightly different ideas on how the country should be run. From the choice of candidates, the people decide which one will be the best person to represent them, not for some nebulous ideology. Voting is compulsory. The Second and Third Consuls are elected by the Senate as a whole. The three Consuls together appoint members to the various ministries. Provided these individuals retain the confidence of the Senate, things run smoothly. The Ministers are answerable to the Senate and can be removed from office if the Senate no longer has confidence in their ability to perform their duties or run their ministries. This is very rare, but it does happen from time to time. The First Consul has very wide powers and may, in times of national emergency, suspend the Senate and, with the assistance of the Second and Third Consuls, take control of the government of the nation and rule by decree. Once the emergency is passed, power returns to the Senate.

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Tirah is ruled by an Grand duke who is advised by an High Council who members comes from each of the 5 great factions of of the country.

Mine is a monarchy with a House of Lords.

Teritora is ruled by an king chosen by the senate, to take the trial by fire in order to become king, from one of the 7 great Royal houses each of whom have a feudal system of lower noble houses loyal to them. The senate it self has little power other than to choose the king after the death of the old one. There is also a Parlament but since it has around 50,000 members and it takes an three fourth plus one majority to do anything, the country is effectively run by the king, his minsters and the noblitity.

Tordor has an reigning monarch who controls the miltary and police forces. There is also an Prime Minster who controls all the minstries not connected with law enforcement or the miltary and a two house Parlament in the Japanese style.

Zerni is ruled in the old style of Japan before the Emperor lost real power and became just a figure head instead of an real governmental power. The Emperor and his minsters run the government with no parlament or other legislature.

Al Anbar has the Iraqi National Assembly, which is led by the leader of the ruling party. The Iraqi National Assembly is elected every five years by the people of Al Anbar. (OOC: However, the Iraqi National Assembly has absolutely no authority and all decisions are made by President Hussein)

The Holy Republic of Franciscia has two chambers. The first chamber is the parliament. Parliament is elected every six months, although most elected will serve their entire lives. Every political party is represented in Parliament, although most are joke parties who don't have a vote. The biggest parties include (in order of size) the Falangelist Party, the Holy See Party, the Irish Republican Army Party, the Republican Party, the Democratic Socialist Party, and the Veblenist Party. Joke parties, who have one or zero votes, include the Cannabis Party, the Immoral Party, and the UN Resolution Party. The Parliament formulates and passes new laws.

The second chamber is the College of Bishops and Representatives, which includes all the bishops in the archdiocese of Franciscia, plus the leaders of the local Sisters. The College of Bishops can be sharply devided along lines of Orders, including the Franciscan Order, the Jesuit Order, the Augustinian Order, and other minor orders of the ordained.

Any new law must pass with a 2/3 vote in the Parliament and a 1/2 vote in the College of B&R.

Compound interest is run by a consortium of corporations which seized power after the democratic government failed to redeem its debts.

Everyone just has to do as I say and/or please or they will be shot.

I do have some minions running departments for less important things though, but every decision they make can be overruled by me.

http://www.solcon.nl/fhjgoorman/niek/kane2.jpg
Kane, Messiah of the Brotherhood of Nod, Military Head of the Global Dominion Of Dictators Against Democracy, member of the Arda Alliance, member of Metus.

Unicameral parliamentary democracy with a constitution, works quite independently from government and with constantly shifting coalitions of opportunity.

(bump)