New Government Proposal

[Kuciwalker]

(I'd like to note one thing: there is no penalty for disobeying polls because the only possible penalty is impeachment anyway. Also, look at the asterisks.)

Constitution

Article I: Executive

Section 1: President and Vice President

(insert current description of President and Vice President)

Section 2: Ministers

The War Minister is responsible for all units except Workers.

The Domestic Minister is responsible for all Workers, the tax/sci/lux slider, which technology is researched, and city production.

The Foreign Minister is responsible for all trades, alliances, and treaties.

Section 3: Assistants

Generals (or Admirals) are appointed by the War Minister to a specific theatre and confirmed by the (pick one: Citizens/Legislature). They are responsible for and make the final decisions on all units except Workers and Settlers in the theatre that they are assigned to. The President may, however, make minor changes in unit movement do to unexpected circumstances.

Governors are appointed* by the Domestic Minister to a specific Province (call it what you want) and confirmed by the (pick one: Citizens/Legislature). They are responsible for and make the final decisions on all Workers and city production in their Province. The President may NOT make minor changes to these things because the sort of unexpected circumstance that would force a change would be grounds to halt the (pick one: turnchat/turnthread).

Ambassadors are appointed by the Foreign Minister and are not confirmed because all they do is give him information.

Article II: Judicial

(insert current description of the Court)

Article III: Legislative**

Section 1: Membership

All members of the Legislature must be Citizens. To become a membe of the Legislature, you must (pick one: have a certain number of posts per week allowing for vacations etc./post in a thread created for this purpose that you will be active for the following month). Each month new members of the Legislature are confirmed through a mass affirmation vote, which is a multiple-choice poll in which each potential member must have more than 50% of the voters vote for him (excuse my wordiness). Each month, a member of the Legislature may propose the removal of ONE other member. If this proposal is seconded, a vote is held in which (pick one: one half/two thirds) of the voters vote for the removal. EDIT: No member of the Legislature may hold an office in the Executive or Judicial Branch. To do so, they must resign from the Legislature.

Section 2: Code of Laws

The Code of Laws is a document, beneath the Constitution, which contains all laws deemed not of the sort to be put in the Constitution. To add or modify a part of the Code of Laws, a member of the Legislature (remind me to think up a good, original name for them) must propose the addition or modification and it must be seconded by another member. Then, it may be passed by a majority vote. Laws may be deemed unconstitutional by the Court.

Article IV: Elections

(insert current description of elections, except for the change in ministers)

*Considering that Governors are so powerful, we may just have them elected.

**This section is not an integral part of this proposed Constitution, so it may end up just cut out.

I have the feeling I forgot something. Please tell me what.

[Kuciwalker]

Now, this is a lot shorter than the current Code of Laws, isn't it?

[Spiffor]

Sure, reducing our whole judicial system (about 1 page long) to "please insert current judicial system" makes things look shorter.
Completely forgetting poll rules too (and we need poll rules if we want to avoid chaos)

But there is one thing worth of interest in you text : it's how you integrated the Code of laws, different from the constitution.
I think we should simply write the outcome of official polls somewhere, and they remain valid until deemed obsolete.

[Kuciwalker]

Oops, actually I'd forgotten about the (insert...) stuff. You have a point there. However, I think it would still be shorter. Also, poll rules could be part of the Code of Laws. No need to put everything into the Constitution.

[GodKing]

Good idea spiffor. How to do this and keep track of them all the time, could be a full time job.

[Kuciwalker]

Minor change made.

[Darkness' Edge]

I'm against a good portion of this.

Firstly, there's not enough ministers. There's too much power in the hands of too few.

Secondly, especially with so few ministers, the governors must not be appointed. This -is- a democracy game, right? This also applies to Generals, and to a lesser extent, Ambassadors.

Thirdly, I oppose a legislature that leaves out the citizens. The citizens are quite capable of making decisions without a middleman.

[GePap]

Skywalker:
On the legislature: I don't see why make the porcess so complex for those to be eligable- the whole one must ask for another removed might create far too much antipathy and besides, many of those who apply might not want to run, and many of those who might want the job may not apply.

I agree with Darkness that there are simply not w enough elected officials for what needs to be a democracy game.

[Spiffor]

"The Apolytonian Government is now despotism"
"Banana proclaimed Great One"

Intelligence report - Civ2

[Spiffor]

For a long time, people said we need a "clerk" or something, who has no power at all on the forum, but who has to do all forum chores.
Some people argued it was the work of the VP. However, VPs can consider themselves as replacement for ministers, nothing more.

I think writing the constitution, updating the list of our government, writing the Code of Laws (seaprate from the const.) etc. should be given to someone who has time to do this, and wants too. It's not a too big job if you focus on it. It's a much bigger job if you must do it long plenty other things (like the Prez does)

Having a clerk would make my simple suggestion for a "CoL" viable.

[Kuciwalker]

The Legislature would be largely made up of the Citizens. The people who sign up and then never post or vote don't really count, in my mind. This just recognizes those who are active participants but not, under the current system, members of the government.

[Octavian X]

In Phoenatica, the legislative branch of the government is made up of the Congress, or ENITIRETY of the citizenry, and the senate, which is made up of provincial governors. We determine the number of active citizens during the presidential election. The total number of votes is considered the cencus of Phoenatica.

Just some hopefully helpful input.

[UnOrthOdOx]

Originally posted by Spiffor
For a long time, people said we need a "clerk" or something, who has no power at all on the forum, but who has to do all forum chores.
Some people argued it was the work of the VP. However, VPs can consider themselves as replacement for ministers, nothing more.

I think writing the constitution, updating the list of our government, writing the Code of Laws (seaprate from the const.) etc. should be given to someone who has time to do this, and wants too. It's not a too big job if you focus on it. It's a much bigger job if you must do it long plenty other things (like the Prez does)

Having a clerk would make my simple suggestion for a "CoL" viable.

Clerk...well, I suppose I could assist there a bit. I already make a ton of links and make up stories, why not organize government while I'm bumping around their threads. The links are all kept in 'my notepad' so I would just have to cut/paste them into a directory thread.

[Donal Graeme]

I had conisidered making some of these changes, or bringing it up at least, so I will respond to skywalker's ideas. I like the idea of provincial governors, who are responsible for a certain region, with all of the units(all of them) there under their control during peacetime. However, during wartime the SMC would gain control of the military, and could have the prez appoint generals or admirals if necessary.

However, I find that there is at present no need for a legislature, as the population of the Civ 3 Demo game is not large enough at this point to warrant one. I happen to like our mix of Cabinent/presidential system of executive power, with the legislative power in the hands of the people. I did like however, the way that Skywalker thought the COL should work. That is, with a set down constitution requiring 2/3 vote to change and regular laws requiring a simple majority. I will be posting a pre-poll discussion on this, so check it out.

[carpathia]

If its not broke, don't fix it.