[WIP] Handbook: Government

Amerion Admiral General Joined:       Dec 2014 Posts:       2,235 Threads:       271 Rep:       2,586 Credits: 97,100¢ #1 05-26-2020, 04:25 AM — Index-|-Getting Involved-|-Government-|-Roleplay — — Introduction-|-Members-|-Elections — — INTRODUCTION — WELCOME The Government of the South Pacific is the entity that governs the South Pacific region and its community. It is a parliamentary republic and is one of NationStates oldest and biggest democracies. Its job is to engage, moderate, and protect the community of this region. The Government belongs to a part of NationStates known as Gameplay or more specifically, Regional Politics. This part of the game mainly deals with managing a region and developing it into the greatest or worst place, depends on you, your friends, or your enemies. If you like realistic politics, making laws, interacting with other, or trying to make something better for everyone then this is the place for you! Regional politics is not a roleplay thing as it involves real powers and responsibilities. Unlike roleplay, regional politics doesn't require pretense, because there are actual game mechanics which allow its moves to be played out and, in this case, actual votes will get actual candidates elected to actual roles with actual powers that they can actually carry out to the benefit (or detriment) of the region. It may sound scary but remember, this is still just a game! We have an abundance of guides and tutorials to assist you along the way if you choose to play in this side of the game. If you are an absolute beginner, we recommend you to begin from this handy guide on our politics. DOES IT HAVE REAL PURPOSES AND POWERS? Yes, members of the government are tasked with jobs such as community engaging, helping new nations, operating the military, making sure everything is nice and neat, ... Some members of the Government have real administrative powers such as moderating the message board, banning/ejecting nations from the region, changing the World Factbook Entry, ... while others have the power to vote on and recall those members, decide how they should do their job by making laws, ... In a sense, it is like an administrator and community organizer team which operates by mechanisms of real-life governments. THE OVERALL STRUCTURE The Government of the South Pacific is a democratic parliamentary republic with three-branch checks and balances and a separate head of state (Delegate) and head of government (Prime Minister). The Charter of the South Pacific is the supreme law of the land. The Government is divided into two parts. GAMESIDE GOVERNMENT The Local Council (LC) is the governing body of the gameside. It consists of three members that are elected every 3 months by regional nations that are in the World Assembly. The Local Council mostly deals with engaging and organizing the gameside community which includes RMB (Regional Message Board) chatters, RMB roleplayers,... and acts as a bridge between the gameside and forumside community of the region. FORUMSIDE GOVERNMENT This is the supreme governing body of the region, an equivalent to a national/federal government of a real-life country. It resides on the forum of the region and consists of three branches: • Legislature: The Assembly is the unicameral parliament of the region. It consists of legislators who voluntarily join by applying here. It makes laws, resolutions, elects/approves/recalls members of other branches,... Its matters are managed by the Chair of Assembly (Incumbent: Amerion). • Executive: The Executive branch is headed by the Prime Minister who is the head of government and the Cabinet. The Delegate is the head of state who only has ceremonial roles but is granted technical administrative powers by the game itself. The Cabinet consists of the: ◦ Minister of Foreign Affairs who leads the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA). The MoFA cares about relating to other regions, building treaties, running embassies and so on. ◦ Minister of Regional Affairs who leads the Ministry of Regional Affairs (MoRA). The MoRA is all about welcoming new players to the region and keeping activity going with fun events, festivals, roleplays, and so on. It is also about maintaining the regional journalism. This is the biggest job of the three. ◦ Minister of Military Affairs who leads the Ministry of Military Affairs (MoMA) and deals with running the South Pacific Special Forces (SPSF), our regional military. The SPSF participates in what known as Military Gameplay or Raiding/Defending (R/D) which is an area of gameplay that uses the game mechanics to invade other regions or defend them from being invaded. The Executive branch employs dozens of personnel such as ambassadors, journalists, roleplayers, event organizers, soldiers, officers, commanders, managers,... all work together to make the region better. The Cabinet and the Prime Minister have the power to issue executive orders and appoint some positions. They are elected every 3 months by the Assembly. • Judiciary: The High Court is the highest and only court of the region, where all matters related to law interpretations and conflicts are resolved. It consists of Associate Justices and is led by the Chief Justice. Justices are appointed by the Cabinet and approved by the Assembly. Aside from justices,there are also informal roles such as legal text analyzers, court-related event organizers, investigators, paperwork managers, ... in this body. Aside from the above, there are a few bodies known as independent institutions that don't belong to any government ministry such as the Council on Regional Security (CRS) which handles matters such as protecting the region from intruders, gathering intelligence, ... ;The Legislator Committee (LegComm) which handles legislator applications; ... GETTING INVOLVED IN THE GOVERNMENT • Become a Legislator: Being a legislator will allow you to make, debate, and vote on laws that govern the region and run for elections of positions in the forumside government. It is very easy to become a legislator, just apply for it here, no experience required! • Apply for a job in the government: The government offers a variety of job positions such as writers, roleplayers,journalists, graphic designers, event managers, military soldiers, community organizers,... If you hate laws or want to run for elections of executive positions, this is the path for you. By gathering experience while working, you will build a strong profile of yourself which is necessary if you want to become a future leader. Click here to learn more about applying for a job. If you are interested, check out our dispatches about the Government here. — MEMBERS — — —CABINET— — Prime Minister Roavin Roavin Roavin#5410 Minister of Regional Affairs Penguin Penguinpies Penguin#0738 Minister of Foreign Affairs Omega Omega Omega#7092 Minister of Military Affairs Asia and Pacific Asia and Pacific Warrior#0528 — —ASSEMBLY— — Chair Phoenixofthesun14 FiHami Phoenix of the Sun #1459 — HIGH COURT — Chief Justice Kris Kringle Kringalia Kringle#7460 Associate Justice Belschaft Belschaft Belschaft#0942 Associate Justice Nat The National Corporation Nat#0726 Associate Justice Rebeltopia Rebel-topia JDowls#9473 — ELECTIONS — ABOUT ELECTIONS The Local Council (Gameside government), Cabinet Ministers, the Prime Minister, the Delegate, and the Chair of Assembly are positions that are elected in the South Pacific. All elections in our region are similar in how they are carrying out, with just a few variations in term of electors, voting methods, and time. Every election in the South Pacific is run by the Election Commission and consists of three periods: • Nomination: When you declare your candidacy or nominate others. • Campaign: When you convince people to vote for you via a campaign, debate, ... • Voting: When people vote for you. Position Elected by Time Period Voting method Delegate 1st step: Assembly 2nd step: WA nations on game-side The first of January, July Nomination and campaign: First 8 days 1st step voting: Next 3 days 2nd step voting: Next 1 week 1st step: Instant-runoff 2nd step: First-past-the-post Prime Minister & Cabinet Assembly The first of February, June, October Nomination: First 6 days Campaign: Start 3 days after nomination begins, last for 1 week Voting: Start after campaign has ended, last for 3 days Instant-runoff Chair of the Assembly Assembly Eight days before the end of the current Chair's term Nomination and campaign: First 5 days Voting: Next 3 days Approval Local Councillors WA nations on game-side Every June, October, and February Nomination: First 4 days Campaign: Next 4 days Voting: Next 3 days First-past-the-post TYPES OF ELECTIONS DELEGATE ELECTIONS The Delegate of the South Pacific, who is the head of state and holds the gameside delegate position along with all administrative powers that come with it, is elected every 6 months (January, June) by a two-step process. In the first step, legislators of the Assembly will vote on candidates using Instant-runoff Voting. Two candidates with the most votes will go to the second step where they will be voted on by World Assembly nations in the gameside using First-past-the-post. The candidate which gets the most vote will win the position. The Delegate position is the hardest position to run. One needs to be a legislator and have a high amount of popularity on both the gameside and forumside community. <Click here> for more information about Delegate elections along with how to run for the position. CABINET ELECTIONS The Cabinet of the Government which is the head of the executive branch and consists of the Prime Minister, Minister of Military Affairs (MoMA), Minister of Regional Affairs (MoRA), Minister of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) is elected every 3 months (February, June, October) by legislators of the Assembly (Our legislature). Electors will vote on candidates using Instant-runoff Voting (Click here if you don't know what this is). In order to run for a position in the Cabinet, one needs to be a legislator. <Click here> for more information about Cabinet elections along with how t… CHAIR OF THE ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS The Chair of the Assembly, who handles paperwork matters of the Assembly, is elected by legislators of the Assembly one week before the end of term of the current Chair using Approval Voting (Click here if you don't know what this is). The candidate that gets the most votes will win the election. As usual, one needs to be a legislator in order to run. <Click here> for more information about Chair of Assembly elections along with how to run for the position. LOCAL COUNCILLOR ELECTIONS Elections for the three seats of the Local Council (LC) which is the gameside part of the government and handles interaction with the gameside community happen once every 3 months (June, October, February). Local Council candidates are voted on by World Assembly nations in our region using the regional poll feature. First-past-the-post (FPTP) voting method is used for these elections. Usually, three candidates with the most votes will get the seats. However, when there are a lot of candidates (more than what NationStates's poll feature can handle), the procedure is different. One needs to be a citizen of the South Pacific in order to run for these elections. <Click here> for more information about Local Council elections along with how to run for the position. QUESTIONS WHEN IS THE NEXT ELECTION? Check out our election schedule by <clicking here>. HOW DO I VOTE IN AN ELECTION? Voting will be carried out on either the forum or the gameside (Using the regional poll feature) depends on who are the electors. For forum elections, you usually post your ballot on a designated public thread (Which the Election Commission will create before an election) or message your ballot (If you want to go secret) to a designated forum account (Currently, it is Vote Collector). For gameside elections, just click on the option you want on the poll then click Vote or send your ballot via telegram to a designated nation (Currently, it is Vote Collector). Each type of elections have different voting methods and some methods can be confusing to newcomers but a guide will always be posted before an election to instruct you. However, if you want, just click here to learn about all voting methods that we use. For more information on how to vote in an election, please <click here>. HOW DO I RUN FOR A POSITION IN AN ELECTION? In order to run for a position, depends on what the position is, you either post your candidacy declaration along with your conflicts of interests (CoI) on a designated public thread (Which is always posted by the Election Commission before an election) or send it via telegram to a designated nation (For Local Council elections, it is <nation>). Conflicts of interests is a short writing about your past (What positions you have held, what regions you have joined,... in the past). For more information on how to run for a position, please <click here>. (This post was last modified: 05-28-2020, 07:21 AM by Amerion.) Reply   • Reply

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