NationStates Jolt Archive

Recently, a series of murders committed by a middle-aged man and his underage nephew have brought into question the viability of the death penalty for bot adults and children.

The debate

"It isn't a matter of age," says staunch conservative activist @@RANDOMNAME@@. "The fact is, both people were responsible for the deaths and both people should pay. With the only thing they can pay with - their lives. Execute them and all other killers. Age is just a number. An insignificant number in this case."

"Executing a minor? Are you out of your mind?" clamors children's activist @@RANDOMNAME@@. "Sure, execute the adult in this case, but children can't be held to that standard, what with all the bad influences the adults around them present. Rehabilitation for the child, execution for the adult."

"Since when does the government have the right to execute anyone?" shouts @@NAME@@ Civil Liberties Union director @@RANDOMNAME@@. "We're killing to show that killing is wrong. Anyone can be rehabilitated. So let's do it."

Famous anarchist @@RANDOMNAME@@ replies, "Rehabilitation and punishment are tools of government oppression. Let these people go free; they are obviously the smartest and craftiest people in all of @@NAME@@. Let's return democracy to the people and get rid of all these extraneous rules that get in the way."

Option 1
Civil Rights go way down
"the government routinely executes children convicted of severe crimes"
Option 2
Civil Rights go down slightly
"all those of legal age are subject to capital punishment"
Option 3
Civil Rights go up
Taxes go up
"a rehabilitation program inspired by "A Clockwork Orange" is underway for all violent criminals"
Option 4
instantly changes government type to "Anarchy"
Political Freedoms go through the roof
All taxes disappear
"murderers either go unpunished or die at the hands of vigilantes"

Any fine-tuning is encouraged.

Option 4 need Fine Tuning. Anarchy is a result of having all Freedoms at their highest level, it's not necessarily something you can bestow upon a Nation. I'd say that Crime skyrockets, Civil Freedoms Increase dramatically, Political Freedoms increase slightly.

Anarchism is not about letting murderers go free, nor is anarchism best represented by the NS "anarchy" category. Get rid of the fourth option and it will be ok.

The option did explicitly state that all laws would be abolished, thereby turning the nation in question into an anarchy. If i understand correctly, anarchy is, by definition, the absence of government rule. Saying it's "the absence of law" wouldn't fit because some totalitarian states may not have law yet have extreme government rule. I may edit the results to Option 4, but I don't like the idea of getting rid of it.

Taxes go up for 3? But the death penalty is more expensoive than prison.

Remember, Validity: not valid in nations with no death penalty.

Taxes go up for 3? But the death penalty is more expensoive than prison.

This isn't simply prison; it's a full-scale rehab program. For both adults and children. Prisons are less expensive than the death penalty due largely to the appeals process as well, aside from the fact that people are kept in prison while they are awaiting execution. The death penalty doesn't have to take forever; however, in practice over here in the U.S., it does.

---Post deleted by NationStates Moderators---

Rrrrright...

What I don't get is why punishing children the same as adults for heinous crimes such as murder would reduce civil liberties, as stated in option 1. Forgive me, I'm a bit new to games like this.

The option did explicitly state that all laws would be abolished, thereby turning the nation in question into an anarchy. If i understand correctly, anarchy is, by definition, the absence of government rule. Saying it's "the absence of law" wouldn't fit because some totalitarian states may not have law yet have extreme government rule. I may edit the results to Option 4, but I don't like the idea of getting rid of it.

As it stands right now, it could be rather difficult to implement option 4.

The option did explicitly state that all laws would be abolished, thereby turning the nation in question into an anarchy. If i understand correctly, anarchy is, by definition, the absence of government rule. Saying it's "the absence of law" wouldn't fit because some totalitarian states may not have law yet have extreme government rule. I may edit the results to Option 4, but I don't like the idea of getting rid of it.

As it stands right now, it could be rather difficult to implement option 4.

I don't really see how. All it would require would be the dissolution of government. Taxes would disappear, and the nation would turn to anarchy. And if I can go from "Democratic Socialists" to "Psychotic Dictatorship" in one day at one issue a day, then this is feasible.

To my knowledge (bearing in mind that my understanding of how the issues are coded is severely limited, which is why I'm spending more time gamely trying to understand them than I am actually coding them for the site), the best we can do is to say that political freedoms - or civil rights, or whatever it is - move in a certain direction. We can influence the direction they move in and we can (possibly) influence the speed at which they move, but I don't think we can say "as of now, the nation arrives at complete and utter political freedom".
At least, if we are able to, I don't know how it would be done.

I like it.

Civil Rights go up
Taxes go up
"a rehabilitation program inspired by "A Clockwork Orange" is underway for all violent criminals"


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Rehabilitate!!! If not that up up for option 2!!!

The option did explicitly state that all laws would be abolished, thereby turning the nation in question into an anarchy. If i understand correctly, anarchy is, by definition, the absence of government rule. Saying it's "the absence of law" wouldn't fit because some totalitarian states may not have law yet have extreme government rule. I may edit the results to Option 4, but I don't like the idea of getting rid of it.

Anarchy and Anarchism are not the same thing. Anarchists do not advocate Anarchy. The goal of anarchists is to remove oppressive authority. This does not require a complete lack of law and order.