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Post by Fortwhile on Feb 23, 2018 6:49:33 GMT
Hey all,
So incredibly enough, our region and it's government started being formed six (!!) months ago, in this forum, with an informal discussion about what our government should look like.
Today I want to replicate that effect and process.
The truth is, we are floundering a little bit. Since the drama of Tiberius Cecil, both our forum and Discord has been pretty quiet. A select few citizens seems to be putting a lot of effort into the region without much help, and things are stagnating.
To be clear: this thread isn't about blaming anyone. I too was gone for roughly a week with real life busy-ness. But I think it's worth having a discussion about changes we might be able to make to get things motivated again.
Is our governmental system working? Is it too big? Are elections held enough? Are powers distributed appropriately? These are questions I feel like we should ask half a year in, and evaluate.
I have some of my own thoughts that I will chime in later, but I'd rather hear from other people first. What makes you want to play this game, in this region, rather than something/somewhere else. And if the answer is "not much as of late" let's talk about that.
Anyway, the floor is yours - chat away.
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Post by Bymaria on Feb 23, 2018 6:54:21 GMT
I think changes to the way elections work is somethings to explore. Perhaps we would see more activity if parliamentary elections were every two months rather than every three. Same could apply to other offices, but I think parliament needs a major boost the most.
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Post by Bymaria on Feb 23, 2018 6:55:46 GMT
We should announce this on the RMB to get more involved.
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Post by Fortwhile on Feb 23, 2018 7:12:26 GMT
We should announce this on the RMB to get more involved. Good idea.
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Post by germanempire on Feb 23, 2018 10:51:03 GMT
May I propose , if the way the Parliament works is a "Problem" to look into other ways to Design it ? I know I am not the biggest Fan of democracy but if we have one , I might as well propose the Best System ( in my view ), which is the german (duh) way a Parliament works.
In an election people get to vote for a political party to go to the Parliament and according to the percentage of the votes in total they get "seats" there. There also is a Maximum amount of seats. Those partys get to vote for a chancellor (here primeminister). A party needs 50 % or more of the absolute votes to rule alone and since that is almost never the case a coalition is formed with another party to vote for a chancellor together. Those partys then are tasked with building/making a government and giving Ministeries to each other. The other parties that are not in the Coalition/ government are then tasked with making up the opposition that questions every move of the government and tries to keep an eye onto what they do and provide critic.
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Post by Bymaria on Feb 23, 2018 14:08:17 GMT
May I propose , if the way the Parliament works is a "Problem" to look into other ways to Design it ? I know I am not the biggest Fan of democracy but if we have one , I might as well propose the Best System ( in my view ), which is the german (duh) way a Parliament works. In an election people get to vote for a political party to go to the Parliament and according to the percentage of the votes in total they get "seats" there. There also is a Maximum amount of seats. Those partys get to vote for a chancellor (here primeminister). A party needs 50 % or more of the absolute votes to rule alone and since that is almost never the case a coalition is formed with another party to vote for a chancellor together. Those partys then are tasked with building/making a government and giving Ministeries to each other. The other parties that are not in the Coalition/ government are then tasked with making up the opposition that questions every move of the government and tries to keep an eye onto what they do and provide critic. I never raised an issue with the system of the entire region, but rather with inactivity in parliament. Political parties in-game are never really of that much relevance. I think (especially when there’s only five to be chosen) we should focus on individual candidates as opposed to picking parties that we vote on. This is me being really critical, but that’s only to point out what I see wrong. If you prove me wrong there I’m not against testing something like it. My stance right now is that the purpose of the parties currently should be as is: to support their candidates and act as a platform for individuals to be elected. I just can’t see the reasons for making such drastic change, which would entail major constitutional changes, while accomplishing little in my eyes. So you said the “chancellor” I’m this instance, would be the Prime Minister. I’m not a fan of that idea either, as it means only five residents choose the head of government. Part of what interests people is the campaigns and elections, so the whole appeal of elections and government itself would maybe suffer quite badly from such a change. The main reason for shortening parliamentary term lengths would be to encourage more activity. With less time to get things done, MPs would be more motivated to write and pass legislation. There would additionally be more campaigns and chance to think about issues facing the region, while also serving as an opportunity to get people involved sooner. Accountability would also benefit here, as MPs could be outvoted if the residents are dissatisfied. Btw the reason I do not propose the same for Prime Minister is that there are greater responsibilities, needing more time to get things done - at the early stage we’re at more so than usual. Forming a cabinet, etc, take up significantly more time than the duties of parliament. I don’t see spreading out elections as a bad thing either (which some may assume) as it could help with spreading activity out instead of a rush to do things at one single election time for everything.
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Post by Fortwhile on Feb 23, 2018 22:08:23 GMT
May I propose , if the way the Parliament works is a "Problem" to look into other ways to Design it ? I know I am not the biggest Fan of democracy but if we have one , I might as well propose the Best System ( in my view ), which is the german (duh) way a Parliament works. In an election people get to vote for a political party to go to the Parliament and according to the percentage of the votes in total they get "seats" there. There also is a Maximum amount of seats. Those partys get to vote for a chancellor (here primeminister). A party needs 50 % or more of the absolute votes to rule alone and since that is almost never the case a coalition is formed with another party to vote for a chancellor together. Those partys then are tasked with building/making a government and giving Ministeries to each other. The other parties that are not in the Coalition/ government are then tasked with making up the opposition that questions every move of the government and tries to keep an eye onto what they do and provide critic. For the record, I am actually interested in different ideas that might promote political parties a little more prominently. Political parties frequently help add activity to regions and make politics a little more exciting.
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Post by germanempire on Feb 24, 2018 1:10:56 GMT
That was my Intention as well and since I am most familiar with the System of my fatherland I would have guessed that it would make a good Addition if it is implemented with a few fixes or changes to it.
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Post by Nyelant on Feb 24, 2018 15:58:46 GMT
Isn't that also how part of New Zealand's Parliament works? I like that. I guess a system with ridings or seats like in the UK or Canada wouldn't work so well.
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Post by Fortwhile on Feb 24, 2018 20:22:15 GMT
Isn't that also how part of New Zealand's Parliament works? I like that. I guess a system with ridings or seats like in the UK or Canada wouldn't work so well. Yeah, I don't think we should have ridings. Not enough people to make that sustainable. Maybe a proportional representation system? Like members vote for a party leader for PM, and then parties get their seats distributed based on the % they get? Main motivator behind this change is trying to make politics more exciting, and political parties more important. It's just one idea though, think we should discuss others too.
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Post by Nyelant on Feb 24, 2018 22:49:09 GMT
Yeah. Sounds good. Not that we've decided on a system, but does anyone have an idea as to the threshold of vote percentage to get a seat? Theoretically it should be 20% because we have 5 seats, but it can be changed to boost smaller parties.
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Post by Fortwhile on Feb 25, 2018 2:44:33 GMT
Yeah. Sounds good. Not that we've decided on a system, but does anyone have an idea as to the threshold of vote percentage to get a seat? Theoretically it should be 20% because we have 5 seats, but it can be changed to boost smaller parties. Hmm I'd say we start at 20%, because otherwise it might be tough for any party to command a majority. We could expand that threshold as we grow, however.
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Post by Sopo on Feb 25, 2018 6:12:49 GMT
I like this idea a lot. I know I haven't been very active here, but I'm planning to invest more time. This is a unique system that might spice things up a bit.
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Post by Bymaria on Feb 25, 2018 10:43:45 GMT
Isn't that also how part of New Zealand's Parliament works? I like that. I guess a system with ridings or seats like in the UK or Canada wouldn't work so well. Yeah, I don't think we should have ridings. Not enough people to make that sustainable. Maybe a proportional representation system? Like members vote for a party leader for PM, and then parties get their seats distributed based on the % they get? Main motivator behind this change is trying to make politics more exciting, and political parties more important. It's just one idea though, think we should discuss others too. This works much better for me, provided MPs and the Prime Minister are selected by the Assembly. Does this mean that all candidates for PM need to be a party leader? Proportional representation for parliament is interesting and I’d be happy to explore it, however our MPs are all elected by the same people, not representing constituencies or anything like that, so I’m not sure how necessary it is. I also still think individual candidates are important.
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Post by Nyelant on Feb 25, 2018 12:57:04 GMT
I was thinking the same thing. If we're going to have a PR system, the Assembly (everyone who takes the time to vote) would vote for a party. The party with the highest number of seats would then have their party leader put as Prime Minister. This would mean combining PM and MP elections into one (good idea) and making political parties have more value. The MP now doubles as an MP.
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