The new millennium - Democracy
Ranger Bob
I'll bite.
I will not repeat what gugature has posted in his article: http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/a-new-millennium-constitutional-dictatorship-2581579/1/20
But, I suggest you read it. It contains information on the nature of in game proposals, which are generally speaking of value to understand.
The problem of course in advocating any absolute (this way, that way etc is there are AWLAYS ARGUMENTS against). For brevity, I will focus on the arguments for this option. Others can argue against in comments if they so choose. So to that end, I will advocate for democracy. In doing so, I will make 5 points:
1. Activity.
EAus appeared very quiet during previous dictatorships. Unless things boiled over on to here - which was usually around more people arguing with people, debate was off erep and onto the forum or other areas. Having been back a bit recently, even reading internal discussion threads there is an element of being "in the know" that is assumed, and doesn't play out here.
What alliances are we tracking with? Where are we headed? To get new people engaged and involved in this stuff is hard enough, let alone if you add a dictator component that means there is really no real need to engage with people, or for your congress to be held accountable. You can't see votes as in a democratic in game law proposal to see what they are doing - it is reported third party form in forum, closed discussions.
In addition, you rely very much on the actual activity of the dictator. At least you know if a proposal is made in game it will resolve in a set time from when it is made. Under a dictator model you have to have the discussion, as, the dictator to propose and then it runs. It slows passage of things to a crawl, or in urgent situations forces them to act without discussion.
And, that leads to...
2. A dic can be a d***
There is always a chance a dictator can be a tosser. This COULD start with the best of intention. But the idea of the CP module is while the CP can alone propose things, the congress still votes in a number of things where the CP is one vote. Meaning, just because a CP is elected doesn't give them the mandate to do whatever they like. You might like the general approach of a CP, but collectively also like a congress group that doesn't agree. Unless whoever you elect are always participating in forum discussions, or are 100 percent active things will always come up that need a quick response. In this case, does the CP (if they are the dic) or another dic do something off their own bat without discussion?
Doesn't this lead to the mess around lack of democratic right for people to vote for a CP or congress? What is then the point of congress? It automatically relegates them to a lesser role.
Now I know some congress are about as active as an 80 year old who hasn't seen his "little friend" in 25 years, and can't afford Viagra. But, it means it becomes more and more "easy" to simply get it done, and makes congress more and more just about a shiny medal, and 5 gold.
3. Timely passage of laws
I have covered this above, but, if you have an urgent law or something to be passed, you can always propose it and debate OVER the 24 hours it is being put up as a law. If you follow a democratic model, even with a dictator, the dictator would likely not propose until AFTER this discussion had played out. Even if they tried to do the same 24 hour "live" proposal outlined above under point 2, there is always a chance people will argue it wasn't democratic or the decision was made by one person or a select group there at the time. This might be true but at least you can bag a congress member for inactivity and not voting, and it is their fault of inactivity for not voting if they had a chance to in game, and didn't.
Under this model, the old "wasn't democratic had the dictator model" is almost giving them an out.m and, really it doesn't matter anyway, as the law will pass on the select few active in the forum anyway.
4. Accountable and MEANINGFUL congress
Holding the people you elect to account is a good thing. Reminding people of the responsibility they hold when YOU make them a congress member is a good thing.
A congress member being able to propose what they will as law, and standing up for their view no matter whether you personally agree with it or not, is a good thing.
Many a time eAus have had congress propose laws where it plays out in articles, saying such and such is a knobhead. But at least you voted them, know who they are and they have to justify their view if they care enough about it. It makes them more relevant and more accountable for their actions.
This is a good thing.
5. fun, and other ways to mitigate risks
So, we are going to have an MTO. All of a sudden, people have to participate and fight, to take back what's theirs. Don't get me wrong, and MTO can suck, and depending on the group could last a while. But, conflict makes you active.
You can donate money out somewhere (even if must be to a trusted individual if orgs will be taken over) to try and save the treasury. There are some ways this has been done before, and could be done again. eAus ran as a government in exile when it was taken over by Indo in 2008! And managed to survive and prosper. It's not the end of the world, and if anything contributed to significant growth of active population because people wanted to fight back for their homeland.
It's not a perfect fix, but, my point is there are probably plenty of ways to survive without making the game more boring. If we always play safe then this game becomes more about clicking. And there are plenty of alternatives these days where even where you just click you seem to be doing something more.
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There you go. Before people razz on my views above, keep in mind this is a discussion piece, which is aimed at ENCOURAGING debate. Not to convince you this model s the best. But there are a few solid arguments I hope.
Enjoy.
Ranger
EAus has been.
Comments
Ranger baby \o/
Put some bloody pics in the article 😃
The current political model will not work until there is a functioning forum.
Weren't you going to get one running?
I was, but the lack of enthusiasm for it was a killer.
The issue of IP tracking is a problem for forums. People don't trust it. And in extreme cases it can be manipulated (see the eUS for further information).
One of the best arguments for democracy is that it uses wholly in-game functions. Anonymous voting. Built in multi-identifiers. No requirements to build and maintain (and use) off-game facilities.
"Athenian democracy, voting was seen as the least democratic among methods used for selecting public officials, and was little used, because elections were believed to inherently favor the wealthy and well-known over average citizens."
One of the best arguments? Having voting out in the open on a forum was never an issue in the past, it seems as though with game decline and more multi accounts about, it is better to not be open about voting otherwise collusion would be far too prominent
All I see is you not working
So long as people don't see a functioning forum as a cure-all. I agree it's a good tool to have, but as evidenced in the past, people don't use it, and complain that it becomes also the domain controlled by the few.
I do think a forum is a good idea,m it it is one of MANY WAYS activity and discussion needs to be encouraged.
I'm not talking about popularity of the forum, I'm talking about having a semi functioning forum to maximize the political modules potential. As long as Senators participate it matters not about if other people use it.
However as a byproduct, more people will use it if it is active.
I'm only commenting cos all the other has-beens seem to be & I didn't want to be left out.
We should have an has been reunion in the teepee. 🙂
Oh looky who it is
Great article. I don't mind that it doesn't have any pictures. I often find that recycled memes are a compensation for the lack of intelligent debate.
I agree the split congress message is an issue, but it would be the same issue under any system. People are less likely to log on to an external site and some are outright opposed to them as solutions.
I think articles are the best way to solve this at present because people are more likely to read them and comment. There have been a reasonably good amount of law based articles since democracy. There is still room for more though, especially related to MPP proposals.
Nice to see someone else has stepped forward to offer an alternate \o/
.. wow you guys are still around!!!
wow, so are you!
I'm not really. Just a figment of your imagination. Personally, I blame Ronny.
srg baby \o/
Why are you still around?
OMG, we've almost got enough people to take this place back off the kids.
Probably something like "vanilla forums" should be easier to use.
Honestly never used it, but should also be easy to setup as others forum/cms platform.
It's like erep "latest news" page (should be easy to make it the same in style).
Then you can choose how many setup needs:
- Public? (can avoid it, public discussion remain in erepublik news)
- Private for senate (needed, hide it from public and no more user limits)
- Private for gov (can avoid it, gov should manage less people than 30, so continue to use PMs in game)
At the end, it's only a senate problem, and minimal platform like this should help people (Hey! It's like erepublik page!).
Can't do nothing for ip, if there are multies, they will never log in any places (and, IMHO, it's better, if your can't play honestly, play alone). Maybe password? Can't blame, I've lost also my login access in previous forum. Because shouldit must be different from our email/erep/others accounts. But with a bit of patience, saving url in favourites and give it name "Passwor😛 Banana" and you can't forget it again, it's written and no one cares of it IRL. Result: http://i.imgur.com/TpeTHBE.jpg
Damn, now you know my bank accout password. Don't give it away. XD