[Proposal] Restoring Democracy
Day 2,046, 11:06
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Published in United Kingdom 
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by
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by Sven Goran Duran-Duran
Given the recent debate over the election of Speaker alongside longstanding concerns over the legitmacy of the Speaker Act itself (passed with less than 33% of congress voting on it, never mind those voting yes), I along with others in New Era - the eUK's most progressive party - propose the following for debate and a vote in Congress:
Either:-
1) That the Speaker Act be abolished. Debate on what replaces it, if anything, comes later. The Act is flawed in its drafting and actually RESTRICTS democracy. It was only ever passed with hardly any congress voting on it. Also the voting for the Act was actually tallied wrong. Some congressmen voted twice. The No vote was 1 short etc. (admittedly this meant no difference to the actual result but ffs). The Act is inadequate and not fit for purpose.
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2) We could instead amend the current Act. In my opinion these concerns would need to be addresse
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a) 24 hour voting periods and / or giving PPs 24hrs to respond to anything needs to be extended. 24hrs is too short a time for anything really, esp for congressmen to vote or for PPs to make a decision.
b) All Congressmen should be allowed to stand as Speaker.
Either we should scrap nominations altogether or replace nominations with a "veto" for PPs.
c) The whole idea of nominations closing BEFORE congressmen even know they are elected is silly. If the "nomination system" as it is continues at all then congressmen should know whether they are in congress or not first. drrr.
d) More Open Democracy. We should end the closed discussion and closed voting (apart from sensitive discussion and voting). the public have a right to know what their congressmen are doing in their name. Having voting (and most discussion) take place on a Speaker / MoLA article (in the comments) is the best way to do it imo. It's in-game, everyone can see it. It's been tried (under Goku) and it worked. More congressmen voted on stuff. It was open and transparent.
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3) We could instead keep the status quo which I hope, isn't really an option congressmen will consider.
I ask Congress and the Speaker to formalise this into a vote. Please give (at least) 24 hrs notice as to when the vote will start. Please also allow more than 24 hrs for voting so that everyone gets a reasonable chance to have a say in our Constitution. And why not do this vote in public eh?
Sven Goran Duran-Duran DSO
Congressman, Councillor and Proud member of New Era
*edit - tl/dr version - see actual proposals put to congress below:
Proposal 1: Abolish the Speaker Act
Options: yes or no
Proposal 2: After the congress results are confirmed (currently 2pm on the 26th) the previous speaker contacts EVERY member of congress asking if they want to run for speaker (this mass message must outline exactly what the role of speaker entails too).
Each congressman has 24h to sign up
Then the previous speaker creates a vote on who should be the new speaker and each congressman has 24 hours to vote on this
At the end of the vote the previous speaker announces the results and the person with the most votes becomes the new speaker
Options: yes or no
Proposal 3: All voting not considered ‘secret’ by the current eUK government (meaning current CP or MoD or MoFA) will now be conducted in the comments section of articles.
The current speaker must create these articles and each member of congress will have 24 hours to vote
Options: yes or no
Proposal 4: All voting periods to be extended to 48 hours
This affects the voting times in Proposal 2 and 3 too
Options: yes or no
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Comments
Well said , great article , make's sense !
Voted
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wrong, wrong, wrong. I'll fix your speaker act next month, unless you REALLY want to do it this month, then you can PM me and I'll tell you what to propose.
The fact that ANYONE has a veto over a nom is ridiculous. That's only part one. So again, you wanna fix it so that it will work, PM me, otherwise, I'll clean it up next month for you.
I don't think vetos are the best idea but they are a decent compromise if you still want PP input. Nominations are ridiculous. Especially those that close BEFORE the Congressmen even know if they are elected or not.
Vetos are the opposite of Democracy, what you say you are trying to achieve here. The nomination process is ridiculous, I had no idea PPs actually nom'd the speaker. stupid law. My proposal, which again, I am more than willing to share in private, addresses all the issues you have here while retaining the speaker role to satiate the RP players.
we dont need PP input.
Agreed. Unless they're in congress, PPs should have ZERO influence.
just say no...
1) speaker act is abolished talk about a replacement for them later
2) after the congress results are confirmed the previous speaker contacts every member of congress asking if they want to run for speaker they have 24h to sign up
then the previous speaker creates a vote on who should be the new speaker and each congressman has 24 hours to vote on this at the end of the vote. the previous speaker announces the results
-24hours is all that's needed since all in game votes are 24hours so every congressmember is expected to be on in every 24 hour period if they're not then they aren't fit for the role of congressman (or indeed speaker)
-no need for a veto as by putting the candidate high on the list the PP should have already signed off on them
3) the current system where PPs nominate their candidates
is this acceptable to all?
nope
ok you need to tell me exactly what's wrong with it
because kravenn can't create a vote with 1/ 2a/ 2b/ 2c/2d/3
especially when 2a/2b/2c/2d have loads of sub options too e.g. '''Either we should scrap nominations altogether or replace nominations with a "veto" for PPs.'''
NO because you need to give more time and not just 24 hours to hurry your selfcentered plan! UNLESS OFCOURSE you have no real life that you are just all the time in here playing... or thats the truth? i guess..
simple question: how long are in game congress votes? And as a result how long is the longest that a good congressman should be offline for?
If you can't log on once every 24 hours for at least most of the term, then to be quite frank you shouldn't be running for congress as you will be a poor congressman.
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if its on the congress votes then its 24 hours, if its outside of the erepublik platform it may take long.. simple logic and i hope you know simple logic mr michael crookes. you cant put everything in general and then i guess, if you are always on and no exception that we should all log in once a day, then i think, you make a POOR real life person! tell me, if you are travelling from LAX to BANGKOK can you log in if the plane dont have internet facility? come to think about it! and i pity on you, you just simply say those words and not even thinking about them first... awww,,,,
basically the rules of democracy are:
- openness
- restriction of rights only when it's absolutely necessary or needed for normal run of things.
when laws attempt to make things stealthy and secret, we are not doing a favour to democracy, but to tirany.
I think youa re right and that was democracy is and I"ll support you or any other in New Era!!:Great article!!.Voted.subed and shouted.
Great proposal! To Democracy!
vote
I don't actually know the current legislation particularly well, but what's the purpose of nominations or veto's?
Why not just have the current speaker open for applications (from anyone not just congress?) 5 days before congress elections. then on the first or second day of congress they vote on the entire list?
Speaker is pointless anyway, all you need is someone to start the mass messages, like the CP or a minister who has 5 minutes spare. S'not like the parliament IRC channel or forum section need a ton of moderating....
"Also the voting for the Act was actually tallied wrong. Some congressmen voted twice. The No vote was 1 short etc."
Sorry yes I did tally incorrectly...however I can assure everyone while some Congressmen voted twice only one vote was counted. (I've updated my articles to reflect my mistake)
A very well written article and your ideas have some merit and are worth a Congressional discussion I feel voted. 0/
I didn't mean the vote for Speaker, I meant the vote for the passing of the actual Speaker Act. But fair play to you for saying so
Thanks Sven, (although I could have gotten away with my poor arithmetic \o/ however honesty is always the best policy)
24hours is how long it takes for voting on game mechanic laws...ofc its long enough, if you don't log in once as an MP you shouldn't be there!
People can have problems in real life 24hr isn't long enough , and in fact they didn't even know they had to vote for a speaker it is done so hush hush the process needs to change
The beauty of in-game voting mechanics being 24 hrs is the big red ALERT showing you there is a specific vote to look at, not just one of probably numerous messages etc, so less possible someone could accidentally miss it.
I read all my messages...and previous speakers have sent a specific pm telling me the vote is up...
Bohemond4 no one can talk to you , talking to you is like dealing with a brick wall, maybe they do things different in New Zealand, haven't you ever thought of helping your mother nation?
Bohemond is completely correct. I recall initially New era were intent on returning to simple game mechanics and ignoring the extra stuff that "oldfags" had introduced.
If we stick to that principle then we quickly realise that the only actual demand on a congressman is to be online to vote at least once every 24 hours. If a congressman fails to do that then I'm afraid that they are failing in their only in game responsibility
How come we heard no protests from New Era last month, when TUP didn't nominate a speaker?
1. No, I think that though 'speaker of the house' isn't a vital job it is a good thing to have
2. Yes. this would prevent any further confusion and give the congress members themselves a bigger say
3. No, this could cause all types of problems e.g. flaming, spamming and trolling
4.Yes, because 24 hours is just 1 day, 2 days will be more fair, it will give you a chance if you can't make it online on the first day
At the end of the day, keeping the public informed on the goings on in congress is the responsibility of the congressman.
Congress doesn't really matter anyway we are just a rubber stamp of what the CP wants, The Speaker is an honorary title at best.
If we have half an inclination of free mindedness we could actually make our own proposals and oppose the CP should we wish too and even impeach.
Rather than be the rubber stamping committee this place apparently seems to be and a notion you appear to subscribe too!
We have a forum where you could propose and discuss this. Article comments aren't a good vehicle for extended discussions of this nature.
not everyone can be arsed to go on the forums .. articles reach EVERYONE!
And the commenting system is incredibly basic, doesn't allow for quoting (and definitely not the incredibly handy multi-quoting that is used in long debates), and articles fall off the map in 48 hours.
There is a reason basically every country with more than 20 people in it uses a forum. People who can't be bothered to give 10 minutes a day to checking the forum shouldn't be running for Congress.
the admins could easily add editing to the reply section of articles as well .. the forums are a MESS and links to it are ALWAYS broken within the game, hence the reluctance of MOST players to use it. PLUS it was previously biased against anyone posting who wasn't TUP or UKRP, hence why UKPP & New Era are reluctant to promote it
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8edit
Isn't the idea to get the Speaker settled to start from when the Congress results are known? All the Top 5 parties/alliances know they'll have at least 1 congressman, if not 2, so the PPs can easily nominate the 1st & 2nd in their list. In fact, how about an alternative:
1) when the PPs choose the final order for congress, on the 24th, the 1st & 2nd places ARE ALREADY nominated for Speaker, with their agreement, [taking this month as an example, there would be 2*TUP, 2*New Era, 2*UKRP, 1*UKPP, 1*ESO, 1*WRP & 1*PCP on the list - in this scenario, neither Kravenn or Chaz would have been considered]
2) the current congressmen & Top 5 PPs all have a free-vote on which of the 10 [TEN] will be speaker for the next session, vote closes at 2pm on the 26th, we'll have the Speaker known just as the full results are released [ooh, probably by me]
Tell me that's not fairer
Abolish it altogether, no need for a speaker.
A congress person is elected, if they are too dumb to understand the issues without being led then they should never have been on the list in the first place
you miss the point that this game is comprised by TEENAGERS and KIDS much more than by ederly people
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