DISCUSSION : Are you sure you want a REVOLUTION ?

[Pandemoniak]

This constitution is not an amendment, but would make a passage from the Second United Nations Organization ot the Third United Nations Organization.

Main changes from the last Constitution :

• Changing of Names : Committees instead of Directorates, etc...
• Creation of Vice-Presidents of Commities, so that the game invite more players
• Bill of Rights replaced by the UN Charter of Human Rights

I may have forgotten some

Preamble

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between factions,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member Bases have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, Therefore the General Assembly of the Peacekeepers of the United Nations declares this Constitution as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping the Declaration of Human Rights constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member Bases themselves and among the peoples of other territories.


ARTICLE I : General Assembly Structure

The General Assembly is the main deliberative organ of the United Nations. It is composed of representatives of all Member Bases, each of which has one vote. Each base of the United Nations can present one or several representative, to be registered in the Citizen Registry.

ARTICLE II : Executive Structure

Alinea 1 : This is the administrative section of our faction. The Executive branch is made up of the Commissioner and the Alpha Talent. These two are required to abide by the suggestions of the commitees, who represent the will of the people.

Alinea 2 :
Commissioner:
Has the right of:

• Playing the game for the citizens
• Acting as he deems fit if there is an emergency
• Advising any other part of the government

Has the duties of:

• Following directors orders on there field of expertise
• Posting SAV`s and turnlogs on the forum
• Overall keeping the citizens aware of there situation.
• Making turnthreads and keeping them updated
• Serving his faction the best he can

The Commissioner shall physically play the game.

Alinea 3 :
Alpha-Talent:
Has the right of:

• Acting as he deems fit if there is an emergency
• Taking over the Commissioners seat with its right and duties if the current Commissioner is somehow not available.
• Starting elections
• Advising any other part of the government

Has the duties of:

• Posting polls he hear the peoples voice
• Posting elections polls
• Posting cabinet threads for his term
• Posting nomination threads
• Being a substitute when a goverment official is impeached or has resigned
• Serving his faction the best he can

The alpha talent is the second of the commissioner and is responsible for elections, finding out what the people want and helping the commissioner as best as his abilities let him.


ARTICLE III : Committee structures :

Alinea 1 : Presidents of Committees are elected in the area they oversee, and they have the task of informing and advising the people on our situation.
Alinea 2 : They are required to conduct polls in order to interpret the people’s will. They are then to carry out that will, by giving their orders to the Commissioner.
Alinea 3 : Any President of Commitee is allowed to appoint any Representative of the General Assembly as Vice-President of his commitee, who will be given the same rights and duties than the President.
Alinea 4 : In any case of conflict, the President's choice always prevail over the Vice-President's.
Alinea 5 : In case of impeachment or resignation of the President, the Vice-President is to take the President's rights and duties.
Alinea 6 : All Presidents and Vice-Presidents are allowed to advise and consult with each other. They are also granted the right to petition for changes or actions from other Directors that may be critical to the their department. Ultimately, however, it is the Director in charge of his/her section that has the final say in how things are handled.
Alinea 7 : Directors must poll all major decisions. They are only given the right to act without polling in case of emergency during a turnchat.

Science and Technology Committee
The President and/or Vice-President has the right of:

• Starting polls to ask the people what there wishes are in his area
• Ordering the Commissioner what the next researched advancement is
• Advising any other committee.
• Requesting buildings to the Administrative and Budgetary Committee or to any Local Representative of the United Nations.

Has the duties of:

• Starting polls to ask the people what their wishes are in his area
• Listing to the will of the people in his area
• Giving his opinion to the director of foreign affairs about any talks, which effect his area, with other factions
• Serving his faction the best he can
  

The President of the Science and Technology Committee shall choose the advancement to research.

Exploration, Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence Committee
The President and/or Vice-President has the right of:

• Starting polls to ask the people what there wishes are in his area
• Ordering the commissioner to move any exploration units and covert ops units
• Asking the director of Peacekeeping Operations for exploration units
• Advising any other part of the government

Has the duties of:

• Starting polls to ask the people what there wishes are in his area
• Listing to the will of the people in his area
• Consulting the director of Foreign Affairs during covert ops actions
• Giving back control of exploration units to the director of Peacekeeping Operations when the situation asks for it
• Serving his faction the best he can
  

The President and/or Vice-President of Exploration, Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence Committe is in command of exploration units and covert ops units.

Disarmament and International Security Committee
The President and/or Vice-President has the right of:

• Starting polls to ask the people what there wishes are in his area
• Ordering the commissioner to move military units
• Ordering the commissioner to design military new units, disband old military units and upgrade current military units.
• Advising any other part of the government
• Requesting buildings and military units with the Director of buildings productions.

Has the duties of:

• Starting polls to ask the people what there wishes are in his area
• Listing to the will of the people in his area
• Giving his opinion to the Special Political Committee about any talks, which affect his area, with other factions
• Designating a portion of his units as exploration units
• Serving his faction the best he can

May NOT:
Start wars if there hasn’t been official poll that says it is ok

The President and/or Vice-President of Disarmament and International Security Committee controls all military units.


Special Political Committee
The President and/or Vice-President has the right of:

• Starting polls to ask the people what there wishes are in his area
• Ordering the commissioner on talks with foreign factions
• Advising any other part of the government

Has the duties of:

• Starting polls to ask the people what there wishes are in his area
• Listing to the will of the people in his area
• Maintaining good foreign connections
• Giving his opinion to the Exploration, Intelligence and Counter Intelligence Committee on covert ops actions
• Consulting for advice any other director if his area is being discussed with foreign factions
• representing our faction in the councel
• Serving his faction the best he can

May not:
Declare blood truce, peace, pacts if there hasn’t been a poll saying it is ok.

The Special Political Committee will do all foreign negotiations


Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee
Has the right of:

• Starting polls to ask the people what there wishes are in his area
• Ordering the commissioner to change the social engineering’s page
• Advising any other part of the government

Has the duties of:

• Starting polls to ask the people what there wishes are in his area
• Listing to the will of the people in his area
• Consulting for advice committees which are effected by changes made in the social engineering’s page
• Serving his faction the best he can

May NOT:
Change the social engineering settings if there hasn’t been a poll saying it is ok.

The Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee is responsible for the social engineering’s page

Administrative and Budgetary Committee
The President and/or Vice-President has the right of:

• mapping out regions in our faction
• advising any Local Representative on how he should run his region
• veto an orders from a Local Representative
• moving colony pods

has the duties of:

• dividing formers, crawlers and funds over regions in our faction
• making a list of every build request by other Committees that has to be divided between the regions in our faction
• polling the peoples wishes on colonizing decisions

The President of Administrative and Budgetary Committee is the head of the Local Representative Assembly.

Local Representatives :
A Local Repsentative, in its own region, have the rights of:

• ordering the commissioner to:
• move formers for his region
• move crawlers for his region
• start buildingqueues for his region
• rush constructions for his region
• move workers
• advising any director that concern his region
• polling for guidelines for his region
  [all within the parameters given by the Administrative and Budgetary Committee]

have the duties of:

• carrying out orders from the Administrative and Budgetary Committee
• advising the rest of the faction about this region the best he can

May NOT:
give orders in a specific field if the director of Internal affaires uses his veto on the subject.

Governers are assign by the people to take care of a certain region of our faction.

ARTICLE IV: Administrative and Government policies

Alinea 1 : Amendments
Amendments to the Constitution can be submitted by any member of our faction. First in a form of a thread where exact lines can be discussed and after that in a poll. An amendment is passed and made official by a 2/3 or greater vote on the amendment's inclusion.

Alinea 2 : Office Terms
All office terms shall last one month. A member can run for a different office at the end of his term, but he cannot change offices during it. If a member is elected three times into any government office, that member may not noinate himself for any government office the fourth consecutive term. After the fourth term he may run for any government office that is available. If this rule let not have a fully seated government, the rule will be deemed invalid for that term.

Alinea 3 : Impeachment and Resignations:
Alinea 3.1 : Every member of our faction is recognised the right to bring foreword the issue of impeachment of any government official at any time. The Constitutional Court look at the demand and determine if an impeachment progress is to be cancelled.

Alinea 3.2 the Rules for the poll

• There has to be started a one-choice-poll with the options: YEA, NEA and ABSTAIN
• 5 days open
• 2/3 YEA vote to pass the proposal or under 1/3 NEA vote to pass the proposal

Alinea 3.3 : The rules for the first post:

• The unbiased reason why the person in question could be impeached
• The job of the person in question
• The time when the poll ends

Alinea 3.4 : If impeachment happens the Alpha Talent choose to takes his place or appoint his Vice-President, until a new election has been held at the end of the term.

Alinea 3.5 : Every government official may resign from office the alpha talent will do the same as with impeachment. If the alpha talent has to take over 2 or more government places we will freeze the game until new elections are held.

Alinea 4 : Playing ahead:
No person is allowed to play ahead for any reason.

Alinea 5 : Base Names:
The Alpha Talent, the Commissioner, the President or Vice-President of Administrative and Budgetary Committee will pick several names from the name thread and will put them in a poll where a name for a new base can be chosen. The names with the most votes will be chosen for the base and will be scraped from the list. The same counts for landmarks. If someone wants to name a place without a landmark a poll has started about giving it a name or not.

Alinea 6 : No-confidence votes
The words ‘abstain’ and 'xenobanana' will have the same utilisation : if a candidate ora proposition receives a majority vote of abstain and/or xenobana, the result of this poll would be considered as a non-confidence vote.


ARTICLE V : Elections and polls

Alinea 1 :
There will be 3 types of polls:

• Elections
• Official
• Unofficial

Alinea 2 : Elections
May only be started by the alpha talent. Must have election
in the subject line. They are purely decision-making polls.

• Poll:
• Office in question
• ONLY names candidates
• Abstain option (will Refrain from banana)
• Write-in-option
• 3 days open
• First post:
• ONLY names candidates
• Link to discussion thread
• Expire date

Alinea 2 : Official polls

May only be started by a government official. Must have official in the subjectline, and must be used as information gathering or decision making

• Poll:
• Abstain
• Write-in-option
• Minimum of 2 days
• Maximum of 7 days
• Clear and not biased question and answers
• First post:
• Further explanation of the questions and answers
• Link to discussion thread (if any)
• Expire date
• Stated: information gathering or decision making

Alinea 3 : Unofficial polls
May be started by all members of the faction. They are purely information gathering polls

• Poll:
  • Minimum of 3 days
• First Post:
  • Expire date (if any)
  • Link to discussion thread (if any)

ARTICLE VI : United Nations Declarations of Human Rights
All Citizens of the U. N. Faction shall carefully regard the Declaration of Human Rights

ARTICLE VII: The U.N. Constitutional Court


Alinea 1. Purpose:
The Court is constituted to rule upon: contested disputes involving legal interpretation, validity of polls, violations of the Constitution, or any other legal dispute involving the game.

Alinea 2. Construct of the Court:
Alinea 2a. Size of Court:
The Court is composed of five Justices. Each Justice is to to be elected by the people.
Alinea 2b. Terms in office:
There is no limit to the number of terms a Justice may serve. Each Justice serves a term of two months. All appointments and re-appointments must be approved by a majority vote of the public.
Alinea 2c. Senior Justice:
At the beginning of each case, the complainant is to select a 'Senior Justice', who will be responsible for ensuring that a report is published for each decision made by the court, showing the rationale behind the decision. If the report is not provided, this may be grounds for an appeal. The Senior Justice will also preside over any hearings before The Court.
Alinea 2d. Other Governmental Posts:
A Justice may serve in other governmental posts, but may not serve as Commissioner or Alpha Talent while a serving Justice.

Alinea 3. Case Structure:
Alinea 3a. Quorum:
At least three Justices must be involved in any ruling that is made. If only three justices are involved and they cannot agree, a non-voting justice must step in to break the deadlock.
Alinea 3b. Rulings:
All rulings are immediately official and final except where appeals are granted.
Alinea 3c. Appeals:
Appeals may be granted if there are grounds to believe that the constitution has not been applied properly. Any citizen directly involved in the case may make an application for an appeal. If 3 of the 5 judges decide to grant the appeal, a new trial will be created to examine the case. In that case, the current verdict is placed on hold until after the appeal process.
Alinea 3d. Injunctions:
The Court cannot stop the game to make a decision without a 2/3 vote amongst the people. In case of an emergency due to timing of a turnchat and poll of the populace, the Court may halt the game for 24 hours, but only by unanimous vote of the Court and only if a specific case has been presented to them that must be decided prior to the turnchat. In the emergency case, the Court would immediately have to present a 24 hour poll to the people for their approval of the Injunction. If not approved by the time of the poll's closure, the game immediately resumes where it was before.
Alinea 3e. Case Presentation:
The Court cannot act on any issue until a citizen of the nation brings forth an Issue to The Court. Issues to The Court should be posted publicly and must involve a dispute that the court is empowered to rule upon.

[Cedayon]

I read through most of it, but skimmed parts...

An interesting idea, if you're aiming to encourage new players (or get old ones involved again)... but would it really make much of a difference to have more offices? We're already shorthanded with 2 governorships (1 if TKG takes Aurillion) open to any willing & warm body, yet the response is somewhat small.

Also, what are the exact differences between this and the current? I can't be the only one who doesn't want to read the whole thing

[Pandemoniak]

The Vice-Presidents can take place of the President so that we dont run of people when there are impeachments and resignations, more people would be able to play the game even if not able to connect every day or so. Ie : It is more likely that two players have the time to make two halves of a governorship, than one player has the time to make the full governorship.

[Cedayon]

I agree that the additional posts would mean we deal more easily with impeachments/resignations... but do we have the people to fill those additional posts?

[Pandemoniak]

I think so. I think many of the "Regular" citizens of the UN Peacekeepers dont have the timeto handle a full-seat of governor or director : people like Lucky22, Tassadar, maybe, probably many others, dont want to run for full seat office because they dont log in often enough. If their commitee/governorship consists of several delegates, I think they'll be more likely to participate, knowing they wont be troubling the game by their "only ponctual" visits.

[Cedayon]

Re: DISCUSSION : Are you sure you want a REVOLUTION ?

Fair enough on the people that would likely fill such positions.


A question about this bit, though:

Originally posted by Pandemoniak
Alinea 7 : Directors must poll all major decisions, such as deciding what science advance to pursue, what to build in a city, or where to place the workers in a particular city. They are only given the right to act without polling in case of emergency during a turnchat.

I think this is in the current Constitution too, or something like it... obviously we don't observe this fully, in that I've never seen or made a poll for build orders or worker placement. The two polls I did do on terraforming were voted on by all of about 3-4 people, telling me that the people didn't really care so long as I acted reasonably and gave them time to dispute my orders before the turnchat. Does your proposal include the "reinstatement" of polling every "little" thing?

[Maniac]

So if I get this right these are mainly name changes, and the right to appoint an unelected second-in-command? Though vice-presidents would of course be nice, I have also my doubts about whether the people to fill thos seats are available. Before we change our constitution, I think we should do a survey of all our citizens, asking them questions about their degree of activeness (posting, voting in polls...) and whether they would be interested in an office if they don't get a load of work by it.

[Voltaire]

I have to echo Maniac’s sentiments; we are already shorthanded as it stands. First we should attempt to resolve the issue of the lack of interest in government positions, then attempt to work to solve the problems within the current system which we have. The current situation doesn’t warrant scrapping the constitution and replacing it with a new one. If we do receive more interest in the director/governor positions the influx of candidates could all be accommodated as we grow and create new regions. Nevertheless I find the proposed constitution to be unworkable under the current circumstances since we lack the necessary manpower to fill all the positions. So in short, let us wait and see.

[Method]

correct. not only do we not have enough people, but i don't like the name change, and you used a quote from civ3, something that is not allowed around here, my friend

[GeneralTacticus]

No. There is absolutely no need for us to create a new constitution, and as Maniac and TKG have said, this would not improve anything over the original.

[Archaic]

Agreed with Maniac, TCG & GT. No need for this whatsoever.

[Pandemoniak]

Re: Re: DISCUSSION : Are you sure you want a REVOLUTION ?

Originally posted by Cedayon
Does your proposal include the "reinstatement" of polling every "little" thing?

I just suppressed the examples, thus there is more place for interpretation, making almost legal this kind of actions.

Originally posted by ManiacBefore we change our constitution, I think we should do a survey of all our citizens, asking them questions about their degree of activeness (posting, voting in polls...) and whether they would be interested in an office if they don't get a load of work by it.

This is also what this thread should be used for. I think this DG is really limited by the fact that we always have the same players -- no offence meant to all of you.
... And about not liking the names, they're all real names from the UNO.

Originally posted by voltaireI have to echo Maniac’s sentiments; we are already shorthanded as it stands. First we should attempt to resolve the issue of the lack of interest in government positions, then attempt to work to solve the problems within the current system which we have. The current situation doesn’t warrant scrapping the constitution and replacing it with a new one. If we do receive more interest in the director/governor positions the influx of candidates could all be accommodated as we grow and create new regions. Nevertheless I find the proposed constitution to be unworkable under the current circumstances since we lack the necessary manpower to fill all the positions. So in short, let us wait and see.

This is precisely what this constitution is for : preventing the lack of people in government, so that everyone actually plays : Precident and their Vice Presidents, Local Representative and their assistants. Making the Governor job easier will sure invite more players. I'm positive many people feel concerned about the game and would like to be more involved with it, but just looking at a sheet of Governor orders would destroy any good will of helping...

[Pandemoniak]

And I forgot to notify this change as well : instead of "people cant run for a fourth term" I put "people cant nominate themselves after three terms, but they still can be nominated by someone else", to refrain from iron hand on a seat, but to keep in contact with someone considered worthy enough.

[GeneralTacticus]

When you already don't have enough people, asking for more to come and help isn't the answer. We could always set up a system where Directors and Govenrors can employ assistants as is, without changing the constitution.

[Pandemoniak]

It is an answer, since they are more to share the chores and thus awill prbably be more likely to join.
And amending the constitution over and over again is just plain stupid, sometimes the whole thing needs to be rewritten or some things are forgottten.
This also the purpose of this new constituttion : point at whats not working, whats useless, what has been amended but is not in the current constitution, etc...