| Separation of Powers |
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So, I'd like to talk about separation of powers. Our current set up centralises power in the Cabinet; I'd like us to move to a system where power is spread out between multiple institutions. At present we have;
1. A Cabinet with the Delegate serving as head of government and head of state, as well as the head of the legislature, with a concentration of executive and legislative power 2. A Justice with judicial power I'd like to split up the various powers concentrated in the Cabinet, by separating the positions of head of government and head of state, and ending the overlapping executive/legislative role of the Chair. Broadly speaking; 1. An elected Delegate acting as Head of State, with limited veto power 2. An elected Prime Minister acting as Head of Government, leading the cabinet 3. An elected Chair of the Assembly acting as Head of Legislature, running the assembly 4. An independent appointed/nominated judiciary Minister of Media, Subversion and Sandwich Making
Associate Justice of the High Court and Senior Moderator ![[Image: B9ytUsy.png]](https://i.imgur.com/B9ytUsy.png)
Would "the Cabinet" still consist of separately elected ministers?
Under this kind of system, what are the functions of "state" vs "government"? As it is, I'm not sure that separation does more than add one more person in government. Also, I'm presuming the judiciary remains the same as it is, per the vote result. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Here is my suggestion back from "identification of problems":
Here is my idea of a possible government, this of course can be modified to better work out how it would work in TSP. Keep in mind, I'm still not fully sure how the government completely functions and works here yet. The system of government could be a Delegate as head of state, A "Prime Minister/President" as head of government. Under the "Prime Minister/President", There would be a cabinet with all of the Ministry/Departments heads (appointed by the "Prime Minister/President and approved by the Assembly). The leader of the Assembly would obviously lead the Assembly in debate and setting up votes. The High Court would also be his own branch (which a minimum of 3 justices would exist including the Chief Justice to determine the legality of the Law), The Chief justice would be the leader of this branch. The Chief Justice, Leader of the Assembly, and the "Prime Minister/President" would all be on equal footing and have there own powers and checks on the other two branches. The Delegate which is the head of government would be roughly equal in power to the "Prime Minister/President" but is elected by the region. (I haven't fully worked out the Delegate powers and function in relation to the above leaders..). To better protect the Separation of Powers, it would need to be that the leaders other than the Head of the Assembly (Delegate, "Prime Minister/President", and Justices) would not be able to vote for the laws proposed in the Assembly but only allowed to debate them. These are my ideas on a government that has structure and Separation of Powers. Again, feel free to modify the structure to allow the government to function properly in TSP. Also feel free to work out the Delegate powers in relation to the other positions.. -Griffindor/Ebonhand
-Current Roles/Positions -Legislator 2/24/20- -High Court Justice 6/7/20- -South Pacific Coral Guard 11/17/20- -Minister of Engagement 6/17/22- -Past Roles/Positions -Legislator 7/3/16-4/10/18 -Secretary of State 4/3/20-2/24/21 -Chair of the APC 9/24/16-5/31/17 -Vice-Chair of the APC 6/1/17-4/10/18 -Local Council Member 7/1/17-11/17/17 -Citizen 5/2012-12/2014 and 2/26/16-7/3/2016 (04-05-2016, 05:37 PM)sandaoguo Wrote: Would "the Cabinet" still consist of separately elected ministers? I've been intentionally unspecific; under our current system I would never support non-elected ministers, as I believe that would concentrate far too much power in the Delegate. However, if we moved to a system with a separate Delegate and Prime Minister that would no longer be the case. Argument can be made for and against either system - elected or appointed ministers - and I don't have a firm preference either way at this point. (04-05-2016, 05:37 PM)sandaoguo Wrote: Under this kind of system, what are the functions of "state" vs "government"? As it is, I'm not sure that separation does more than add one more person in government. In terms of specific numbers of officials, separation doesn't really add that many more people - depending on how the government is restructured it could leave it the same number, or increase it slightly. What it does do is break up a major concentration of power in one location (the cabinet) and spread it amongst multiple centres of power. It would allow for a more explicitly political executive government, with the Prime Minister and cabinet being able to campaign accordingly whilst the Delegate could remain an apolitical figure above the fray; acting as an impartial, moderating influence. Similarly, by taking the Chair out of the cabinet we make the Assembly more independent of the cabinet, again making me feel more confident with a more explicitly political executive. In terms of exact functions, the way I'd see the division working would be something along these lines; Delegate: Heads the region (in particular the in game end), moderates conduct, provides a check/balance on the cabinet, acts as an apolitical unifying figure. Prime Minister & Cabinet: Carries out the day to day business of government - conducts foreign, military and regional policy, manages the various ministries. Chair of The Assembly: Runs the assembly, processing applications for legislator status, brings matters to vote, etc. Judiciary: Runs the judicial system. In terms of specific powers, I'd like to see the Delegate have a limited right of veto - over executive policy and assembly decisions that don't achieve a higher than normal (60%?) threshold. The general idea is that the Delegate steps in to stop overreach, such as the cabinet or legislature making a questionable decisions with insufficient consensus to support it. I think we can all see how a controversial law that passes by one vote might not always be a good thing. More broadly, the Delegate is the guy running the in game region, as well as acting as a global moderator and policing conduct on these forums. As I said above; he's the apolitical guy we all look to as a unity figure. Now, making the Delegate apolitical and taking him out of the cabinet means we can make the cabinet explicitly political in a way that is... awkward at present. As it's no longer the centre of nearly all power, it can be more open to radical ideas and pursue them more easily. This is partly why I think appointed/confirmed ministers might be a good idea; it gives the prime minister and opportunity to appoint people who share the ideas and objectives, rather than having to compromise with people who ran on different manifesto's. Radical change in the government becomes possible, and maybe even desirable, because there's a check on what happens. Again, it's this same idea of breaking up the cabinet as the single centre of power that means I think the Chair should no longer be a member - that way there is no cabinet influence on the legislature; a lot of the time stuff comes out of cabinet, with the chair already signed up to push it through as they already agreed to it. That would no longer always be the case. (04-05-2016, 05:37 PM)sandaoguo Wrote: Also, I'm presuming the judiciary remains the same as it is, per the vote result. I remain convinced that the judiciary could function better if reformed, and that my proposed system would work better if it was reformed, but as that matter did not proceed to this stage I have no intention of pushing it. I may put up an extra-draft in the next stage showing how a reformed judiciary would work, but I have no expectations of such being adopted. Minister of Media, Subversion and Sandwich Making
Associate Justice of the High Court and Senior Moderator
I was sent a telegram with some suggestions for our government structure by a resident. I'm complying with their request to post this on their behalf. I'll finish with a note that I don't approve or disapprove of any of the following suggestions, I'm simply acting as a messenger:
* A RMB-based communal assembly called the Town Hall. * The army operates with a chain of command not decided through elections or external appointments, it's an independent body that responds to the will of the CSS, the delegate and the region. * A public service commission provides the Assembly with a list of names to choose from, for important appointments. * The judiciary is no longer an elected body per se, appointments are nominated by the public service commission and voted on by the Assembly. * The Citizenship Commission approves and registers players for citizenship. They may need mod powers to do so. * The Delegate and Vice Delegate would be elected by both residents and citizens. * The Local Council acts as the resident's cabinet, elected by the Town Hall. The Cabinet is elected by the Assembly's citizens. This amounts to kind of political symmetry. * Elections would be run by an independent commission, the Election Commission. They may need mod powers to run elections. * Forum administrators would be independent as they are now - but will less "political" tasks. No longer running elections or managing citizenships. Former Delegate of the South Pacific
Posts outside High Court venues should be taken as those of any other legislator. I do not participate in the regional server, but I am happy to talk through instant messaging or on the forum. Legal Resources: THE MATT-DUCK Law Archive | Mavenu Diplomatic Archive | Rules of the High Court | Case Submission System | Online Rulings Consultation System
I'd be okay with all of the above however, I would like to see the chair of the Local Council be a cabinet member.
Above all else, I hope to be a decent person.
Has Been What's Next? CoA: August 2016-January 2017
Minister of Foreign Affairs: October 2019-June 2020, October 2020- February 2021
I agree as well. The Local Council/Town Hall is elected from game side only people, and as a council they choose their representative to the cabinet meeting. Would we want to give the Local Council/Town Hall a non voting/observer seat in the assembly?
-Griffindor/Ebonhand
-Current Roles/Positions -Legislator 2/24/20- -High Court Justice 6/7/20- -South Pacific Coral Guard 11/17/20- -Minister of Engagement 6/17/22- -Past Roles/Positions -Legislator 7/3/16-4/10/18 -Secretary of State 4/3/20-2/24/21 -Chair of the APC 9/24/16-5/31/17 -Vice-Chair of the APC 6/1/17-4/10/18 -Local Council Member 7/1/17-11/17/17 -Citizen 5/2012-12/2014 and 2/26/16-7/3/2016
(04-06-2016, 10:40 PM)Omega Wrote: I'd be okay with all of the above however, I would like to see the chair of the Local Council be a cabinet member. Just to give a bit of history here, previously, the idea has been that the Minister of Regional Affairs is suppose to act in the same manner we're discussing. The LC and the RA responsibilities have overlapped a bit and such we've been in this quagmire. I personally wouldn't be opposed to having a LC that elects a chair who becomes part of the Cabinet — I think it's a novel approach. The only caveat is that we'd need to make sure the LC Chair is active (or at least has an account on) the offsite.
-tsunamy
[forum admin]
The Ministry of Regional Affairs was originally established to oversee and encourage activity in our regional roleplay, and was most likely custom-made to include Carta in the Cabinet. The bill that mandated its creation did include other responsibilities, like keeping RMB activity and promoting the forum, but its main focus was overseeing roleplay, as explained in this report.
I don't have much of a point with this. I just saw this as a good opportunity to bring up some fun historical facts. Former Delegate of the South Pacific
Posts outside High Court venues should be taken as those of any other legislator. I do not participate in the regional server, but I am happy to talk through instant messaging or on the forum. Legal Resources: THE MATT-DUCK Law Archive | Mavenu Diplomatic Archive | Rules of the High Court | Case Submission System | Online Rulings Consultation System
A Ministry of Roleplay, sub-Ministey to the Ministry of Regional Affairs!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
ProfessorHenn
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