NationStates Jolt Archive

Yultana Ita, the Rosian Representative to the United Nations, 28, and Russian. She was a young woman, and she was part of the Foreign Ministry. Nevertheless, she had a position in Cabinet for some reason. Anyway, she represented the Island of Rose to the UN. Not very influential in UN matters, but she voted.

But the Rosians ordered her to get up on that podium and give a speech. And that she did.

"Representatives of various UN Nations. As you may or may not know, the Island is part of the United Nations. Now, as you may have or may have not noticed, voter turn out is down."

She cleared her throat. "Over 18,000 nations vote in UN Matters everyday. That is one-third of the entire body, do you know what this means? This means that the UN is getting apathetic."

She continued. "And this is bad. We need some sort of way to get voter turnout up."

She ended with this. "Now, do we have any suggestions?"

She sat down, went to her seat, and waited.

((OOC: Basically, this is an IC rant. I have a problem when 1/3 of something is deciding the fate of a majority. And I just started noticing this too. Maybe this is a seasonal thing or it was always like this. But this is starting to scare me and I might as well speak up if nobody already did.... yup.))

OOC: Right now there is a holiday on. We won't get a high voter turnout no matter what it is. It could be a proposal requiring that everyone in the UN must wear frilly dresses and juggle elephants to decided elections and not that many would vote on it. It'll be this way during the second half of next month through the first half of the month after that as well.

Just for reference here are a few matters to consider when we think about voter apathy in the UN.

1. Nations/delegates may actually choose to abstain for various reasons. This will of course not count to the vote.

2. Some regions internal procedures may require you to be member in order for you to endorse others as a form of voting system. Thus the reason for joining is not a participatory reason, but rather one regarding regional policy. These nations will likely not vote.

3. Not every player in the game is going to be available to vote on every resolution, every time due to RL considerations.

4. Some members may no longer be ‘active’ nations in that the nation is active but the player no longer uses the nation. Nations require 30 days of non-activity before they are deleted.

Whilst I share your concerns regarding 1/3 making decisions for all, I feel this is almost unavoidable in a game this large in scope. The thing to consider is that the voting one third are hopefully active members making their contributions, which in reality is far more important and significant in general.

Respectfully
Lydia Cornwall, UN Ambassador
Office of UN Relations, Dept for Foreign Affairs
HM Government of Telidia

Saint Neurion, Lord Protector of Quitos, arose from his seat in the UN.
"I believe that this statistic might be a result of invalid information. There is a very large possibility that nations are deciding not to participate in United Nations activities but do not formalize their withdrawal," Neurion cleared his throat. "I propose as a remedy to this situation is to remove nations from the UN that do not take part in UN activities for extended periods of time."

Neurion looked around at the other delegates present, "I can only suggest a finite number of abstaining from five resolutions before a nation is removed from the UN."

"This may or may not be a plausible solution, but I believe it to be a just solution," Saint Neurion took his seat once again.

OOC: Right now there is a holiday on. We won't get a high voter turnout no matter what it is. It could be a proposal requiring that everyone in the UN must wear frilly dresses and juggle elephants to decided elections and not that many would vote on it. It'll be this way during the second half of next month through the first half of the month after that as well.

((OOC: I knew it was seasonal >_>))

Many of the regions delegates that i associate are unconcerned with the UN resolutions that are being passed. I believe this may have something to do witht the constant diminishing of the delegates role within the region. Other than for invading and defending, the UN bares little practicle use for many regions. With founders controlling more regions, resolution voting is taking a backseat, with the original purpose of voting being passed up.
Obivously this isnt the case globally, but it may account for some of the problem.

Don't forget that many nations are weeks inactive anyway.