[Aries CP] Dictator Quandary & Immigration
Day 2,659, 10:59
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Published in Netherlands 
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by
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by Aries Prime
The second part of my plans primarily has to deal with this dicator update that has upset the balance of the entire world. Before this I had intended on focusing more on my immigration policy and other small issues, but I’m forced to spend most of the article on this dictatorship quandary. Note that my immigration plans stand no matter what the outcome of our vote of the dictatorship issue.
Immigration
We have too strict of immigration policies. I myself had a difficult time coming into the country because some players in power didn’t appreciate my return. This leads me to believe we need a more open immigration policy. Now this does not mean we allow anyone in, but we do need to create a better system for accepting players. I want to start creating articles to come to Netherlands and allow players even from “enemy” countries to come in. We would still have a strict process to prevent PTO, especially with the dictator addition, but it would open to playing field for who is allowed to apply in the first place. Remember, players like myself, lancer, and jordic are all immigrants that have contributed to our country.
This is why I will have Spir Tus and GEN DE LA REY working together on immigration. With both of them dedicated to this idea of safe recruitment and immigration to our country, I’m confident we can get some fresh blood without risking a PTO threat.
Dictatorship Quandary
This dictatorship quandary has thrown a bit of a turn for eRepublik. Currently we have Garmr as our dictator, although this was not agreed upon by congress. The logic is that we needed to secure a dictator in order to deter foreigners from being able to take over our country and empty our coffers. It is sound logic, but I very much dislike the idea of having a dictator. Currently congress still needs to vote on how the dictator role will be handed off. Will there be a permanent dictator or will the dictator position be handed from CP to CP? I’ve been told that it is absolutely necessary that we maintain a dictator, so the most reasonable step in maintaining some form of democracy would be rotating dictatorship between the CPs. The idea of a permanent dictator is decent, but finding a person that is impartial, uncorrupt, and extremely active is very difficult. I just hope we keep democracy as key and don’t devolve into an actual dictatorship.
I’m of the belief that we will continue to debate this topic for weeks to come while Garmr maintains his role as dictator. I strongly support the CP/Dictatorship where the CP elected becomes dictator. I believe this will allow for a more democratic system, reduce bias in the position, reduce foreign affair confusion of our leader, faster reaction times to starting laws, and less chance of corruption that comes with a single person maintaining a position of dictator for a long period. Although it appears the current congress wants a permanent dictator, I think it will completely change the way CP elections are handled and the power both the CP and congress actually have.
Truthfully the dictator update makes the CP elections feel almost like a sham. Neither the CP nor congress has any real power now. If Garmr or any other dictator decides to take control, we can’t really stop them. Because the CP has no power, the position is fully subject to filtering orders through the dictator. What if the dictator stalls a decision because s/he doesn’t like the outcome? What if they flat out say no? What if a basic decision, such as accessing budget funds, is demanded to be filtered through congress vote just to stall? What if every decision is demanded to be filtered through congress to stall an outcome? You see, there is way too much restriction in have a permanent dictator, or a dictator in general. I do feel a CP/Dictator will at least relieve some of this pressure as someone who is elected by direct mandate from the people.
I’m very much in favor or more open immigration, recruitment, and the most democratic dictatorship we can achieve. This leads me to believe that a CP/Dictatorship rotation is the only way to keep power shifting enough to avoid corruption and maintain democracy. I’ll see you all with my last article about my cabinet,
Aries Prime
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Comments
very thorough explanation of your ideas and worries.
good luck !
I'm on the TV!!!!!!!!!!
I'm afraid I have to disagree with your assessment regarding the Dictator issue. A CP Dictator would not be as democratic as you suggest in this article and would be unrestricted. If we were to have the CP as Dictator, that would give the CP and his Government the option to completely ignore the Congress without threat of consequence because, after all, the Dictator cannot be impeached. Also, it is far more dangerous to rotate the position to those who win the CP election. Unfortunately, the general population of the eNetherlands has made mistakes in the past (electing Lord Jale as CP) and this time, if he were to have been Dictator, we would have been totally powerless to remove him. We cannot afford to have something such as that to happen.
I also don't believe it should be solely up to the Congress to decide on this issue. A referendum certainly is the best way to go in my opinion.
Referendum would be better.
And all of your concerns mirror exactly the problem we have with a permanent dictator. S/he can also circumvent congress and the CP to do whatever s/he wants.
Dangerous or not, it is up to the people to decide these things. Don't elect unqualified people into power if you don't want to risk security. We can't just control everything in the name of safety.
Well, either way we are stuck with a Dictator now. The thing is, I support installing a nonpartisan, button pusher who will only do as the Congress and the CP and Government say (unless it requires expedient action which has been afforded to the CP with those same powers in the past for emergency situations) to try to preserve the authority of the Congress and the CP and prevent a CP/Dictator from becoming a TRUE Dictator.
The Dictator position is far more powerful in-game than any other position in eRepublik has been. To allow so much power to change hands each month based on mere CP election results (which does not prove the person to be anything other than good at campaigning as we have seen in the past) is dangerous. I would hope people would put aside their personal political ambitions and see what is best for eNL.
Who are to decide who is an unqualified person? It's a slippery slope.
Referenda might be more easy to manipulate. However, having current congress vote on a permanent dictator while they are just a temporary representation (the amount of CM per party might wildly differ in a few months).
Not surprised to hear your comments in eNL immigration. I think I tried to move to eNL once upon a time and hit a wall of suspicion when I made inquires.
On the new Dictatorship feature, like it or not the game needs change and novelty or it slowly dies. Don't fall too much in love with the status quo, either with your policies or systems of government, etc. etc. because they can't stay the same if we want a healthy game with new challenges.
as far as i can see you never officially applied. and it is only healthy to have suspicions we are a small country after all.
I believe it is better to be suspicious than to be gullible. I have seen an enormous amount of foreigners move to NL for cheap congress medals and/or cabinet positions in case a CP is dumb enough to appoint them.
Install a dictator king, who is chosen every 3 months on the forum 😃
just because you weren't admitted the second you applied doesn't mean there are problems with the immigration policy.
"I myself had a difficult time coming into the country because some players in power didn’t appreciate my return"
What difficulties? You mean because you weren't accepted right away? There was like 12 hours between the time your application was posted on the forum and that you where accepted? 8 of those hours where night time while everybody was sleeping. Saying you had a difficult time getting accepted back into the country with your citizenship is just a misinterpretation of what happend.
"I strongly support the CP/Dictatorship where the CP elected becomes dictator. I believe this will allow for a more democratic system,"
It is also a huge security risk, if we have somebody like Lord Jale who becomes Presidents and becomes dictator ingame the ramifications of will be tremendous. I think that the risk is way too big and we should know better after what happend with Lord Jale.
"If Garmr or any other dictator decides to take control, we can’t really stop them. Because the CP has no power, the position is fully subject to filtering orders through the dictator."
You questioned Garmr about this on IRC, he said he would follow the CP and the congress. What else do you want?
He said, "Probably."
Good job taking something out of context,
" If there's a congress majority, yes"
Yeah, I maybe wasn't too clear the first time. I explained further when Tonie asked it, that I would follow any congress majority, but might hesitate when a CP forms a rash plan that is not ratified by congress.
voted
Dictator unapproved
I supported your return, but I do not support letting everyone and their grandmother walk into eNL. It brings a far too large shift in political power for every 5 guys that enter NL.
You mean that you don't want to go back to the situation before (for example) Lancer and his club, you, Valeyard etc. were let in?
btw, a large shift in power (what happened because of the entry of those forenamed) is called a PTO.
Anyways, I like this idea from Aries, because right now it looks like only people who agree with the elitists are granted cs, and that's just not healthy, I hope you agree.
I said before I wouldn't have let lancer in, nor any other non RL-NL players. Fhaemita and myself are quite different, especially my case as I've always kept forum access. It's not a PTO when 5 votes cause I&W or DemNL or ReL to gain an extra congress seat, but it does change the balance.
Aries doesn't agree and got citizenship. I don't see why you would talk such nonsense. Just a setup to get your other account back into NL?
If Lancer and his crew never received eNL cs we wouldn't have changed our national policy. As for Fhaemita aka lots of names, he/she should've been blacklisted for all the hatred towards eNL. And my other account? I just have one, so you must be refering to accounts of friends and or family. Most of them are still inside eNL, so what's your message, that eNL isn't a place for rl NLers?
@Alex How am I responsible for a change in national policy for immigrating here? And what national policy are you speaking of? To me, it sounds like you are saying the national policy changed because we were seen as a threat to eNL. My "crew" was a total of three people: me, Cody Caine, and Schoft. Yes, we created a political party and it grew... with the help of both real life AND non-RL Dutch players who were already citizens of eNL. All three of us were and have been loyal to eNL (though Schoft has since eDied and Cody is not active). Cody was even CP and I have served in Congress and in several governments since I came here, including several consecutive months as MoFA. It was clear rather quickly that we were no threat at all.
Only PTO we have had in years was homegrown and voted by NL's finest. Good catch on Lord Jale.
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"As for Fhaemita aka lots of names, he/she should've been blacklisted for all the hatred towards eNL."
Get over it, that incident was almost 2 years ago. Stop being so petty about what happened between me and you(r "uncle" M. de Ruyter/van Spijck). You are just being petty and spiteful and keep raking over these old controversies.
"Only PTO we have had in years was homegrown and voted by NL's finest. Good catch on Lord Jale."
Nobody saw it, Lord Jale was supported by many parties and many people supported him so it's shortsighted to just blame I&W. He fooled everybody.
I'm happy lancer and co got in, afterwards, but in my current stance I would not be in favor of letting anyone in. No people who are not RL NL, and no people who act against the best interest of NL like you(r "uncle").
That's just bs Garmr, MdR has done a lot for eNL, you can't deny that.
Leave us with a debt he created and didn't take responsibility for. Manipulate elections for his own gain. Try to slander and blacklist the opposition. That was bad for the country, no matter what good supposedly he has done.
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What if the dictator stalls a decision because s/he doesn’t like the outcome?
He has to go
What if they flat out say no?
He has to go
What if a basic decision, such as accessing budget funds, is demanded to be filtered through congress vote just to stall?
How does congress or the dictator even come into the picture when you are dealing with things like the budget?
What if every decision is demanded to be filtered through congress to stall an outcome?
Anything that is of importance normally has to be presented to congress. The only things that concern the dictator are the ingame laws. Those things by definition cannot skip congress. The outcome of a forum vote about it is very black and white so that leaves no room for opinion and interpretation of the dictator.
You are mixing Erepublic with forumgame, theres a whole lot of difference imo.
What is this Erepublic you speak of?
You should never install a dictator if you believe him capable of those points. I understand it when people would have reservations about my fairness in such matters, I have indeed tried my best to establish an aura of evil and sneakiness around my person for political benefit.
Which should have been reason enough not to appoint you as dictator.
Well that is your opinion. It's better to appear evil than to be evil.
We all know Garmr's hard on the outside and soft on the inside... like a watermelon or an egg. xD
Good luck from Canadia!