Preparatory Debate |
(07-13-2022, 05:15 PM)Griffindor Wrote: I would like to debate whether we think the current thresholds for certain things to pass are best. Is a 60% vote for constitutional amendments too high/low? Are confirmation votes thresholds too lenient? Debate may bring an answer to it. What do you think the best range for a threshold would be?
Not too sure, perhaps 2/3rds, or even 3/4ths. Why even have a supermajority at all? I’d just like to see some debate on that and see what other people think. Perhaps a new government structure would naturally demand a different threshold for things than we have now.
-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 (07-13-2022, 09:26 PM)Griffindor Wrote: Not too sure, perhaps 2/3rds, or even 3/4ths. Why even have a supermajority at all? I’d just like to see some debate on that and see what other people think. Perhaps a new government structure would naturally demand a different threshold for things than we have now. Yeah, I think you have a good point on the percentages, particularly with low numbers of assembly members...maybe a move to 70% would be a nice mid point? (07-13-2022, 09:26 PM)Griffindor Wrote: Not too sure, perhaps 2/3rds, or even 3/4ths. Why even have a supermajority at all? I’d just like to see some debate on that and see what other people think. Perhaps a new government structure would naturally demand a different threshold for things than we have now. 3/5ths is already a difficult threshold to meet. I think we're good on keeping the thresholds as is.
One potential reform to supermajorities I had considered was whether it should be set as a % of total legislators rather than just of those voting - in other words counting abstentions and absences as though they were "Nay" votes. This would prevent potentially significant changes from being passed on the back of legislator apathy.
However I have not studied recent votes in detail to understand whether, say, a 50%+1 majority of all legislators would make much difference to outcomes compared to the current supermajority threshold.
(07-14-2022, 09:29 AM)Bleakfoot Wrote: One potential reform to supermajorities I had considered was whether it should be set as a % of total legislators rather than just of those voting - in other words counting abstentions and absences as though they were "Nay" votes. This would prevent potentially significant changes from being passed on the back of legislator apathy. I strongly disagree with this. This would make apolitical actions such as telling people to vote but suddenly political. If you track vote counts over time, you'll notice that there was a significant uptick during most of my terms due to me sending DM reminders to legislators who did not vote on proposals. While you can certainly argue whether it was a good idea or not to to that, I think debating the merits of reminding legislators to vote should be separate from the debates over the proposals themselves.
I think that there is no reason to change the voting thresholds. So why bother? Just because we are having a GC doesn't mean that everything is broken.
It's worth discussing, although I personally could be persuaded to just make everything a simple majority. A lot of what we have included as a "Constitutional law" versus a normal law is fairly arbitrary. A majority of the Assembly is no small feat and is honestly sufficient, imo, to demonstrate collective will for a proposal.
Minister of Foreign Affairs
General of the South Pacific Special Forces Ambassador to Balder Former Prime Minister and Minister of Defense
Does the political party system still work? If it was revived and promoted it could be a way to increase activity.
Political parties were pretty much dead by the time I joined TSP, but I don't think our broadly non-adversarial political culture creates much need for them. I also tend to think that structures like political caucuses or parties are best left to develop naturally rather than being prescribed into existence.
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