NationStates Jolt Archive

I'm trying to increase my political freedoms, but can't seem to get them to go above "Superb". Can someone tell me which options to pick on political-related issues to increase my freedoms? The ones I know increase them are:

- Compulsory voting (keep it voluntary)
- Corporate donations (allow them)
- Selecting a judge (I assume that "make them elected" raises it, but I haven't tested this)

I'm especially curious about the Term Limits issue, since the "institute term limits" and "extend term lengths" options both seem to lower my political freedoms.

Just dismiss the issues you don't like.

I wish I knew as well. My political freedoms had been at superb since the beginning until recently they went down to "excellent." The issue made no sense either. It was one about a big gold find and I said that the government had the right to seize it as it was on government property thinking it would boost up my economy. Well, it didnt do anything to my economy and instead lowered my political freedoms. Makes no sense to me.... Ever since then i have tried to get to get them back up to no avail.

The death penalty issue has the option to, possibly, increase political freedoms by legalizing capital punishment.

Also, be aware that a militaristic attitude in the government tends to lower political freedoms (Just in case: No, I'm not pointing at anyone, but merely mentioning it).

On the gold find issue: Though the land may be owned by the government, a nation with high freedoms seizing the discovery for itself is, in a certain way, tyranny and pulling a fast one on the original discoverer(s), who will now probably abstain or express major disgust in the next elections...

Understanding the issues and what they do is pretty pivotal to designing a nation in the way a person wants. However, there really isn't any point in trying to justify why an issue affects freedoms the way they do because this is very subjective and can be legitimately argued either way. One can say the gold was on government lands, thus, it was simply upholding the law. One can say that should affect civil rights instead of political rights if they do seize it, etc etc...

But that's tiresome discussion that doesn't lead anywhere. I'll simply make a few points on political freedoms:
-Seizing the gold reduces political freedoms, like it or not.
-Increasing police and army elements decrease political freedoms.
-Allowing corporations to donate is still in the air... I'm not sure exactly how that affects political freedoms.
-Electing judges increases freedoms

A lot of the times, I get confused as to which issues affect civil rights and which ones affect political rights. It's difficult to differentiate sometimes but I guess that's part of the game.

Oh yeah, I don't understand why the guy said dismiss the issues you don't like. I don't think he was actually complaining about any of the issues.

Allowing corporations to donate to politicians almost always increases political freedoms, sometimes by two levels.

So does anybody know how "term limits for Senators" affects them?

It's a matter of thinking in logic and trying to think in the dogma of the author.

@ TS: What were the other options provided in these issues?

Allowing corporations to donate to politicians almost always increases political freedoms, sometimes by two levels.

What are the other options?

Let the Nazis have their rally. This ups both Civil freedoms and political freedoms.

let people elect there own supreme high court judge that might help

let people elect there own supreme high court judge that might help

Is it really possible for judges to be elected without justice being affected by the people who spend lots of money to get a judge elected? We see in all other elected positions a tendency to do things in favor of the big money... should this really apply to judges?

I would think that strengthening term limits would increase political freedoms. After all, which nation technically offers its individuals more say in government: One that holds elections every six years or one that holds elections every two years? You also have to realize that you can have "too many" political freedoms. Abolishing the Constitution in the US, for instance, would seem to increase political freedoms because the Constitution is there to keep the US from degenerating into mob rule and potential tyranny by majority by regulating what the majority can decide upon and protecting the rights of the minority.

I think there is a difference between apparent political freedom and effective political freedom. Allowing these corporations to bribe candidates with huge sums of money will undoubtedly raise apparent political freedom, but it will probably lower effective political freedoms by reducing the real say your average Joe has on how his country is run. I think one's UN rating depicts the former.

So does anybody know how "term limits for Senators" affects them?Bump.

Want to know this.

The ones I know increase them are:

[...]
- Corporate donations (allow them)

I'm pretty sure that allowing corporate donations lowers PFs. I did it once on a nation whose PFs I was trying to raise, and they lowered quite a bit.

I believe term limits lower political freedom.

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Kûk‡xenisi n!ok‡x'osi xno-k‡xek‡emi.
The state only exists to serve itself.
Racism-the other stupid ideology
Peace, love, and girls with small waists and really big butts!
http://www.sulucas.com/images/steatopygia.jpg
I'm male. Note the pic
of attractive women.

Why can't you just be true to yourself and allow your state to develop as a result of your decisions?

That's what I am doing and (although I have only been here a few days) I am pleasantly surprised at how my state is developing.

It's becoming somewhere I would like to live.

GN

Hello, GentleNiceness.

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Kûk‡xenisi n!ok‡x'osi xno-k‡xek‡emi.
The state only exists to serve itself.
Racism-the other stupid ideology
Peace, love, and girls with small waists and really big butts!
http://www.sulucas.com/images/steatopygia.jpg
I'm male. Note the pic
of attractive women.

Why can't you just be true to yourself and allow your state to develop as a result of your decisions?

That's what I am doing and (although I have only been here a few days) I am pleasantly surprised at how my state is developing.

It's becoming somewhere I would like to live.

GNYou've only been here 5 days though. I've done that bit, and got a little tired with it. I want to try out some different possibilities.

Also, be aware that a militaristic attitude in the government tends to lower political freedoms (Just in case: No, I'm not pointing at anyone, but merely mentioning it).
That explains it! :idea:

I was unable to life of me figure out why my PF kept on sliding down.

It makes sense as "A lot of what's wrong with yout today could be fixed by a year's military service" Strongly Agree, lowers one's PF rather significantly, but I never thought that it had that effect with issues.

Although oddly, the "no more bombs" option, does not seem to raise it, as I chose it on my puppets. :?

Why can't you just be true to yourself and allow your state to develop as a result of your decisions?

That's what I am doing and (although I have only been here a few days) I am pleasantly surprised at how my state is developing.

It's becoming somewhere I would like to live.

GNYou've only been here 5 days though. I've done that bit, and got a little tired with it. I want to try out some different possibilities.
And also, as I learned the hard way, unlike in the real world where you can only make democracy compulsatory or "ban the politics of hate and fear" once, here you keep on getting those issues, and due to my gradual but steady lowering of PF, I went from Liberal Democratic Socialists to Corrupt Dictatorship.

Max never fixed that as he never though that people would be here long enough to have that problem.

Note: since you've only been here five days, I'll explain: Liberal Democratic Socialists and corrupt Dictatorship are the same except that LDS has the highest five PF rankings, and CD has the lowest five (out of 15).

Too true. You got to watch out for that.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kûk‡xenisi n!ok‡x'osi xno-k‡xek‡emi.
The state only exists to serve itself.
Racism-the other stupid ideology
Peace, love, and girls with small waists and really big butts!
http://www.sulucas.com/images/steatopygia.jpg
I'm male. Note the pic
of attractive women.

So does anybody know how "term limits for Senators" affects them?Bump.

Want to know this.

Option 2 (Increasing the length of terms) lowers PF enormously, but Option 1 (setting term limits) doesn't increase them. This appears to be a sucker issue, with nothing to gain from any option - dismiss it.

Allowing corporations to make unlimited donations to politicians sometimes raises political freedoms, but not always.

So does anybody know how "term limits for Senators" affects them?Bump.

Want to know this.

Option 2 (Increasing the length of terms) lowers PF enormously, but Option 1 (setting term limits) doesn't increase them. This appears to be a sucker issue, with nothing to gain from any option - dismiss it.

Allowing corporations to make unlimited donations to politicians sometimes raises political freedoms, but not always.

I'm pretty pissed about the term limit one. Today I had my political freedoms lowered to average after I voted against term limits and I always make a point of allowing high levels of political freedom when I vote.

I strongly have to disagree with the logic used here. How can you consider limiting a persons choice of who they can vote for an increase of political freedom? I think people should be able to vote whoever they like, even if that person has been in the same office for 20 years. THAT position represents greater political freedom. If people make bad choices by sending poor Senators back into office, hey that's freedom.

And arguments that having inexperienced legislators somehow makes them more independent or otherwise better is only speculative. The longest serving Senator in the US Senate is Robert Byrd. He has also been the most outspoken Senator against the War in Iraq. I wish a few freshman Senators had shown the political independence and courage that the 80-something Byrd did on that issue.
One could also argue that term-limits decrease political representation because people who aren't going to run for office again have no means of being held accountable to the voters.

The consequences for voting against term limits are totally bogus and should be changed.

Oops. double post. I sware i only clicked once. Why does it do that?

Oops. double post. I sware i only clicked once. Why does it do that?
It's been doing that a lot today.

ANd no issue involving PF in NS seems to work logically.

I'm pretty pissed about the term limit one. Today I had my political freedoms lowered to average after I voted against term limits and I always make a point of allowing high levels of political freedom when I vote.
I got sandbagged by the same issue, losing two levels of political freedom that I've not been able to regain.

I strongly have to disagree with the logic used here. How can you consider limiting a persons choice of who they can vote for an increase of political freedom? I think people should be able to vote whoever they like, even if that person has been in the same office for 20 years. THAT position represents greater political freedom. If people make bad choices by sending poor Senators back into office, hey that's freedom... One could also argue that term-limits decrease political representation because people who aren't going to run for office again have no means of being held accountable to the voters.

The consequences for voting against term limits are totally bogus and should be changed.
We totally agree; we chose against term limits expecting that to increase political freedoms at the price of an increase in government corruption (even though, as you say, there's no compelling reason to expect increased corruption, that is the popular perception of the issue).

Unfortunately, there is not a shred of logic in the way issues affect political freedoms; there doesn't even seem to be a working definition of what political freedoms are. The only way to anticipate what an issue will do to your PF is to experiment with it, or possibly to have access to the same hallucinogenic substances that the moderators use when coding the issues.

I suspect that some of the problems with issues may be due simply to programming errors; for instance, harvesting people's organs against their will causes civil rights to increase. It's hard to imagine that this result was intentional.

Unfortunately, there is not a shred of logic in the way issues affect political freedoms; there doesn't even seem to be a working definition of what political freedoms are. The only way to anticipate what an issue will do to your PF is to experiment with it, or possibly to have access to the same hallucinogenic substances that the moderators use when coding the issues.

I suspect that some of the problems with issues may be due simply to programming errors; for instance, harvesting people's organs against their will causes civil rights to increase. It's hard to imagine that this result was intentional.

So this free internet game isn't completely perfect in every way?! (gasp) I guess I can live with that.
Thanks for the response.