Constitutional proposal

[Maniac]

This is only the temporary constitution proposal. A coup chapter will probably be added later. I topped the thread anyway, so officials can see their task description in case the final constitution draft will take a while.

---

CONSTITUTION

OF

THE UNION OF HUMAN HIVE REPUBLICS

Adopted at the Ninth Session of
the Supreme Soviet of the UHHR
First Convocation
On Mission Date 2101.06.01

---

Preamble

The Great October Socialist Revolution, made by the workers and peasants of Old Earth Russia under the leadership of the Communist Party headed by Lenin, overthrew capitalist and landowner rule, broke the fetters of oppression, established the dictatorship of the proletariat, and created the Soviet state, a new type of state, the basic instrument for defending the gains of the revolution and for building socialism and communism. Later this example was followed by the People's Republic of China. Over time however the conspiring capitalists managed to overthrow these future paradises. But they have not escaped their destiny. The fallacies of capitalism inevitably led to more and more imperialism, social abuses and ultimately the Nuclear Holocaust of 2060 AD. We managed to escape that Holocaust and have travelled for fourty years to this new Planet. We have been given a chance to start anew. And we will grab this opportunity by both hands to create a classless communist society. The main aims of this people's socialist state are: to lay the material and technical foundation of communism, to perfect socialist social relations and transform them into communist relations, to mould the citizen of communist society, to raise the people's living and cultural standards, to safeguard the country's security, and to spread our ideals over all of Chiron. The Hive people hereby affirm the principle so the social structure and policy of the USSR, and define the rights, freedoms and obligations of citizens, and the principles of the organisation of the socialist state of the whole people, and its aims, and proclaim these in this Constitution.



I. The Party Structure

We, participants of the Alpha Centauri Police State Game, are all full members of the Central Committee of the The Party of the Union of Human Hive Republics. This Committee is responsible for discussing policy alternatives. They also elect the executive government officials - the Council of Ministers, Central Committee Secretariat and the republican Secretariat - responsible for carrying out the policies decided upon. A step up on the party hierarchy is the Politburo. The Politburo consists of the most influential members of the Party. The Chairman of the Politburo is the General Secretary. This person is the highest authority within The Party. These positions will now be explained in more detail.

General Secretary

Unlike members of the executive government, the General Secretary is chosen once shortly after Planetfall and will remain in his or her position until he or she resigns or is impeached.
Tasks and functions:

• Post nomination and election threads when necessary, keep track of coups, and keep the goverment thread updated.
• Try to find replacements if a government official becomes inactive, and no deputy is available.
• Be moderator of the "AC-Police State Game" forum.
• Guardian of the constitution, and mother-hen of the game in general.
• Chairman of the politburo. The General Secretary has the right to appoint and remove the members of the party's Politburo.

Politburo

The members of the Politburo are appointed by the General Secretary, the Chairman of the Politburo. The Politburo can at most consist out of nine members. Criteria for selection are political influence, activity rate (especially on turnchats) and representation of the most important political tendencies. The Chairman of the Council of Ministers is an automatic member of the Politburo though.
Tasks and functions:

• In case of a constitutional issue, the judges for the Supreme Court will be volunteers of the Politburo.
• A majority of the Politburo can veto any decision of an executive government official.

II. Executive Government Structure

The Council of Ministers, the Central Committee Secretariat and the Secretariats of the Union Republics make up the executive government. Government officials are elected in the area they oversee, and they have the task of informing and advising the people on our situation. They are required to conduct polls in order to interpret the Central Committee’s will. They are then to carry out that will, by giving their orders to the Chairman of the Council of Ministers.

All Secretaries are allowed to advise and consult with each other. They are also granted the right to petition for changes or actions from other Secretaries that may be critical to the their department. Ultimately, however, it is the Secretary in charge of his or her department that has the final say in how things are handled.

Secretaries must poll all major decisions, such as deciding what science advance to pursue, whether to change our social engineering settings, or whether to construct a secret project. However, they can act on minor decisions without consulting the Central Committee, such as what to do in the event of a mindworm attack, or every little former order.

The Chairman and Secretaries are advised to appoint a Deputy Chairman or Deputy Secretary who can give orders if they are absent. This is to allow the smooth flow of the game in case they are temporarily absent.

Chairman of the Council of Ministers

Tasks and functions:

• Play the game.
• Follow the orders of the Secretaries on their field of expertise.
• Post turnthreads, turn save files and chatlogs on the forum.
• May take emergency decisions when the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of a certain republic or department are absent and have not given orders.

Secretary for Science and Social Engineering

Tasks and functions:

• Order the technology to research next.
• Order changes to the Social Engineering settings.
• Control the movement and use of alien artifacts.

Secretary for Factional Defense

Tasks and functions:

• Control the movement and use of miltary units.
• Control the movement and use of covert ops units.
• Design new military & covert ops units, disband old military & covert ops units and upgrade current military & covert ops units.

Secretary for Foreign Affairs

Tasks and functions:

• Determine the general foreign policy of our faction.
• Control diplomatic talks with other factions.
• Represent our faction in the Planetary Council.

Secretary for Economic Policies

Tasks and functions:

• Map out the borders and bases of the Union Republics in our faction.
• May veto orders of First Secretaries.
• Set the energy allocations.
• Move colony pods and determine future base locations.
• Poll base names and landmark names.

First Secretaries of Union Republics

Tasks and functions within their republic:

• Control the movement and use of formers and crawlers supported by their republic's bases.
• Set production orders and build queues of their bases.
• May hurry production and order former and crawler upgrades.
• Move their bases' workers.

III. Political Rights and Organization

Amendments:

Amendments to the Constitution can be submitted by any member of the Central Committee. 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 YEA vote on the amendment's inclusion.

Limits on office accumulation:

Officials can be divided in five groups:
1. General Secretary and Chairman of the Council of Ministers
2. Politburo members and Judges
3. All-union Secretaries
4. First Secretaries of Union Republics
5. Deputies of executive government officials
It is not allowed to run for two positions in the same group. Nor is it allowed to combine a position in group one with a position in group three, four or five. All other combinations are allowed.
An official can infinitely stay in charge until s/he resigns or is couped.

Coups and Resignations:

Every member of the Central Committee can start a coup to overthrow any government or party official at any time. The challenger to take over the position must start a thread with "Coup Attempt" and the position they are attempting to take over as thread title. Then everyone who wishes to declares their support for either the incumbant or the challenger in that thread. After 5 days, the General Secretary (or the Chairman if the position being contested is the General Secretary) tallies the votes, and declares the winner. Voting is as follows:

• Central Committee Members not holding any other position - 1 vote
• First Secretaries of Republics - 2 votes
• All-union Secretaries - 3 votes
• Politburo Members - 3 votes
• Chairman of the Council of Ministers - 4 votes
• General Secretary - 5 votes

The person that holds the position being contended receives two extra votes, as s/he has extra influence over that department, being that s/he legitimately controls the defenses and employees of that department.

If a person holds multiple positions, that person gets the votes for all (since s/he controls the defenses and employees of all of those departments, and s/he has the same influence as if multiple people held those positions). Split votes are not allowed: one must vote for one candidate.

If one fails in his/her attempt to dispose of someone, that person not launch another coup on any position for a period of one turnchat, and if the person succeeds then no one else may launch a coup against the person for a period of one turnchat. However if the coup fails, someone else may launch another coup against that same position as soon as the first coup finishes. There may be many coups for different positions going on at once, however if there is a coup for a position, it would break the 'one turnchat' rule to launch another while it is ongoing. It is possible however for a third person to enter a currently running coup as a third candidate. If such happens, the coup still times out at the same point, and the first votes cannot be changed as people have already committed their influence.

If a coup is tied after five days, the incumbant holds his/her position.

During a coup attempt to overthrow the General Secretary, the General Secretary is not allowed to change the composition, remove current or add new members to of the Politburo. S/he is neither allowed to affect coup threads with his/her mod powers until general permission is given.

Every government or party official may resign from office. The Deputy or Chairman will take over the duties until a replacement is found.

Playing ahead:

No person is allowed to play ahead for any reason.
Checking what technologies can be researched when the current research is "None" and negotiating with AI factions on a parallel turn is not considered playing ahead.



IV. Poll Regulations


There will be four types of polls:

• Election
• Official
• Social Engineering (a special case of an official poll)
• Unofficial

Elections:

They may only be started by the General Secretary. They must have “Election” in the subject line. They are purely decision-making polls.

Poll:

• Office in question
• ONLY names candidates
• Abstain option
• Write-in-option
• 3 days open

First post:

• ONLY names candidates
• Link to a discussion thread when present
• Expire date

Official:

They may only be started by a government official. They must have “Official” in the subject line, and must be used as information gathering or decision making.

Poll:

• Abstain option
• 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

Time Frame:

• No poll may be posted on a particular issue more than once in the period between two turnchats, excepting polls which have been declared invalid.
• The above rule will apply even if a new decision on a particular issue which has already been decided is part of a poll on something else; for example, a poll on a borehole being built on a particular square, if, within the specified period, the people have voted against it, could not be worked into a general terraforming poll.
• In cases where a previous poll is tied, new polls are permitted on the issue, but may only include the options that tied, along with the 'Abstain' or 'Xenonabana' option.
• If a turnchat does not occur within 7 days (168 hours) of the previous poll closing, it is considered to have occurred for the purposes of this amendment, as the opinion of the people may have changed significantly by this time.

Social Engineering:

They may only be started by the Secretary for Science and Social Engineering. They are purely decision-making polls.
All polls to change social engineering settings should be in this format:

Poll:

• Single choice
• Only names options (Must include current setting)
• Abstain option
• Write-in-option
• Open for 3 days minimum

First post:

• Further explanation of question (if needed)
• Only names options
• Link to discussion thread, if present
• Expire date

If this poll gives a clear majority (50+%) to one option, then that option is put into place. If not then there is to be a ‘head to head’ poll in this format:

Poll:

• Name the two highest scoring options from above poll (if two are equal second, the Secretary for Science and Social Engineering can choose which one goes through)
• Abstain option
• Write-in-option
• Open for 3 days minimum

First post:

• Further explanation of question (if needed)
• Only names options
• Link to discussion thread
• Expire date

The time frame rules for official polls also count for all Social Engineering polls.

Unofficial:

They may be started by all members of the faction. They are purely information gathering polls. No special rules apply to these polls - they are unofficial after all. However to increase the probability the unofficial poll results would be taken under consideration, the poll starter is recommended to follow the rules for official polls.

No-confidence votes:

Besides the word “abstain” for a general disagreement or no-confidence vote, the words “Banana”, “Xenobanana” or the dancing banana smilie are also allowed. This then follows the time-honoured precedent where a banana vote signifies disagreement with all choices on offer, or, to put it more negatively, a no-confidence vote in the poll or candidate being voted on. Please also note that in an election poll the Banana option must have more votes than a candidate for the Banana to be elected. The combination of Banana plus Write-in votes surpassing the amount of votes for a candidate is no sufficient reason not to be elected.



V. The Supreme Court


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.

2. Construct of the Court:

a. Size of Court:
Judges are chosen out of the Politburo, which at maximum consists out of nine members.

b. Terms in office:
There is no limit to the number of terms a Judge may serve. Each Politburo member can serve as Judge as long as he remains a Politburo members.

c. Procurator:
At the beginning of each case, the Politburo is to select a 'Procurator', 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 Procurator will also preside over any hearings before the Supreme Court.

d. Rules for selection
A Politburo member can not volunteer to judge over a case when that member is involved in the case.

3. Case Structure:

a. Quorum:
At least three Judges must be involved in any ruling that is made. If only three justices are involved and they cannot agree, a non-voting Judge must step in to break the deadlock.

b. Rulings:
All rulings are immediately official and final except where appeals are granted.

c. 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 a majority of the Politburo decides 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.

d. 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.

e. 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.

[Maniac]

Comments, suggestions, critiques?

[Vander]

I like it. I think it is a through and well done document.

[Nubclear]

The name is bad. I would prefer:

HIVERIAN SOLIDIFIED SOCIALIST REPUBLIC

Also, it's not the "Supreme Soviet of the UHHR", its the "Supreme Soviet State of the UHHR".

But other than that, it's good!

[Drogue]

Seems good Have a couple of points though:
[list][*]Why have a minimum time limit for unofficial polls as 3 days but only 2 days for official polls? [*]There's an extra

• command in the Social Engineering Poll section.
• Looking at the Time Frame section of Official Polls, it does not mention when another poll is needed. It states you cannot have two in the space between turnchats, but not how long one is valid for. I would say a month at most.
• It needs stating in the Social Engineering Polls that those also follow the same rules regarding timing of polls as the Official Polls, and so there cannot be two SE polls on the same subject between turnchats.

Overall a very well written and thought out document

[Maniac]

Thanks Vander. But credit must also go to the USSR Constitution of 1977, of which I copied parts of the preamble. And let's not forget DeathByTheSword who wrote the first ACDG constitution, which is still the framework for Chapters III, IV and V of this constitutional proposal.

Comrade Tassadar:

The name is bad. I would prefer: HIVERIAN SOLIDIFIED SOCIALIST REPUBLIC

Your proposal is as good as mine of course. But is there any reason why you prefer that name?
IIRC the Hive of the team game is called like that. Do you think it would be a good idea to give the two different Hives the same name?

Also, it's not the "Supreme Soviet of the UHHR", its the "Supreme Soviet State of the UHHR".

Why's that?

I'm of course not an expert in Russian or the USSR, but AFAIK "Soviet" means "raad" in Dutch and "council" in English. In the USSR the Supreme Soviet (=Supreme Council) was some sort of parliament. This constitution would be adopted at the first session of this parliament. Why would you add "state" after that?

Drogue:

Why have a minimum time limit for unofficial polls as 3 days but only 2 days for official polls?

Nice catch. I was thinking of scrapping that entire article, but in the end I left it in anyway. But now I've replaced it with this:

They may be started by all members of the faction. They are purely information gathering polls. No special rules apply to these polls - they are unofficial after all. However to increase the probability the unofficial poll results would be taken under consideration, the poll starter is recommended to follow the rules for official polls.

What do you think of it?

There's an extra[list] command in the Social Engineering Poll section.

Edited.

Looking at the Time Frame section of Official Polls, it does not mention when another poll is needed. It states you cannot have two in the space between turnchats, but not how long one is valid for. I would say a month at most.

It states that if a turnchat does not occur within 7 days (168 hours) of the previous poll closing, it [the turnchat] is considered to have occurred for the purposes of this amendment. I guess that could be interpreted as: After a week an official can start a second poll on the matter, but he or she doesn't have to. But after a week Central Committee members are also allowed to ask for a second poll. If the official would refuse another poll even if several members ask for it, he or she would be in violation of the constitution that says polls need to be conducted to interpret the Central Committee's will.

It needs stating in the Social Engineering Polls that those also follow the same rules regarding timing of polls as the Official Polls, and so there cannot be two SE polls on the same subject between turnchats.

Quite right. I added this phrase, so the whole list doesn't have to be copied:

The time frame rules for official polls also count for all Social Engineering polls.

Does that sound ok?

[Octavian X]

I'd alter a bit about the General Secretary. Give him the power to remove members of the Politbuto, as well as appoint them. This allows the Politburo to easily remain brimming full of active members, just because polling removal would get tedious.

[Drogue]

Originally posted by Maniac
Thanks Vander. But credit must also go to the USSR Constitution of 1977

*cough* 1917?

Originally posted by Maniac
What do you think of it?

Looks good.

Originally posted by Maniac
It states that if a turnchat does not occur within 7 days (168 hours) of the previous poll closing, it [the turnchat] is considered to have occurred for the purposes of this amendment. I guess that could be interpreted as: After a week an official can start a second poll on the matter, but he or she doesn't have to. But after a week Central Committee members are also allowed to ask for a second poll. If the official would refuse another poll even if several members ask for it, he or she would be in violation of the constitution that says polls need to be conducted to interpret the Central Committee's will.

Sounds fine

Originally posted by Maniac
Does that sound ok?

Yep that solves that

As forn the General Secretary, powers to remove sounds good to me.

[jtsisyoda]

Question: First Secretaries of Union Republics... Are the Republics like states or provinces? ...not individual cities? How many cities in a Republic, then?

[Maniac]

If we assume the example of the previous ACDG will be followed, republics will be like provinces. Again in the first ACDG, there were around 4 to 6 bases per region. But it's up to the Secretary for Economic Policies to decide. I guess the interest in the Central Committee for being a First Secretary will play an important role.

[GeneralTacticus]

Can't see any problems with this - just one question: who are Deputy Secretaries? Do First Secretaries have the power to appoint their own deputies if they want to?

[Nubclear]

Originally posted by Maniac
But is there any reason why you prefer that name?

Barring the fact that it's the Hive name in this game, the abbr. is HSSR, like USSR

I'm of course not an expert in Russian or the USSR, but AFAIK "Soviet" means "raad" in Dutch and "council" in English.

Soviet CAN mean that, but it is more common to see Soviet as "Worker".

Let's look at the name of the USSR:

Soyuz Sovietskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik
(Interesting Factoid: S is "C" in cryllic, and R is "P". Thus: CCCP!)

Soyuz = Union
Sovietskii = Workers
Sotsialisticeskikh = Socialist
Respublik = Republic

Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics
Union of the Workers Socialist Republics

OR

Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics
Union of the Council Socialist Republics.

Better example:

"He is a SOVIET!" - "He is a WORKER!"
"He is a SOVIET!" - "He is a COUNCIL!"

So it's probably best to add "State" to the end of that or more preferably "Respublik"

[Voltaire]

We perhaps should have a few RP positions as well, it's all nice and well that the people in government make all the in-game decisions, but in real life that's not what goes on. The politicians make the decisions, and the administrators carry them out.

IMO the government should be separate from the Communist Party. By that I mean that the government carries out the in-game stuff, where as the Communist Party is more of an informal democratic structure in which one must maintain support to stay in power. The General Secretary should be that sort of post.

Also we should distinguish from the Communist Party Central Committee, and that of the Government. By that I mean the government should be responsible to the Communist Party. The Party gives general orders of do-this do-that, and the government carries out these orders (or tries to anyway).

[Maniac]

Octavian X:

I'd alter a bit about the General Secretary. Give him the power to remove members of the Politbuto, as well as appoint them.

I had that in mind all along. I've slightly edited the text to make it more clear.

Drogue:

*cough* 1917?

There were constitutional changes in 1918, 1924, 1936, 1977 and 1988. In 1917 the Bolsheviks probably had other priorities besides writing some constitution.

GeneralTacticus:

Can't see any problems with this - just one question: who are Deputy Secretaries? Do First Secretaries have the power to appoint their own deputies if they want to?

I gave the job of giving orders of absent officials to the Chairman. The other AT duties went to the General Secretary. Only later it struck me: "But who will replace the Chairman if he is absent?" Therefore I added a paragraph saying all executive officials have the right to appoint deputies to fill in in case of a temporary absence. It isn't crucial for most officials (as long as the Chairman is active), but IMHO the Chairman should always appoint a deputy (or deputies) of his free choice, just in case.

Voltaire:

We perhaps should have a few RP positions as well

There is the Politburo, which probably won't have much to do.
Anyway, I agree more RP positions would be nice, but since there wasn't much interest anymore in becoming an official at the end of the previous ACDG, I thought it would prudent to create a limited number of positions, so they can all get filled. If the interest in the new ACPSG is bigger than expected, we can always amend the constitution and add some more positions.

As for the rest of the post, it already is that way:

We, participants of the Alpha Centauri Police State Game, are all full members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. This Committee is responsible for discussing policy alternatives. They also elect the executive government officials - the Council of Ministers, Central Committee Secretariat and the republican Secretariat - responsible for carrying out the policies decided upon.

and

The Council of Ministers, the Central Committee Secretariat and the Secretariats of the Union Republics make up the executive government. Government officials are elected in the area they oversee, and they have the task of informing and advising the people on our situation. They are required to conduct polls in order to interpret the Central Committee’s will.

[Maniac]

Would anyone mind if I added the bold text to our constitution.

We, participants of the Alpha Centauri Police State Game, are all full members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, the only party legally allowed within the Hive

The extract is the first sentence from Chapter I of the constitution.