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Being a good Minister for Legislative Affairs is a balancing act, much like washing a hedgehog. Yes fowks, here in eWepublik, its the MoLA who has to balance the needs of the government with the voice of the people. You have to get it just right or it won't be good enough. If you do it the wrong way, it'll stab you, and at the end of the day, you're handling more pricks than a metrosexual convention, so tread carefully.


Yey for legislative affairs!

They don't have to exist, and sometimes in the eUK they haven't, most recently in February/March 2012. Apart from that brief interlude 5 people have held the office since last November: serial MoLA Sir Humphrey Appleby, Lightning43, national hero Talon Karrde, Sven-Goran Duran Duran, and Garth Lidlington.


All the debates archived by the MoLA on the erepublik forums are printed onto rolls of vellum parchment in Comic Sans, then stored in Iain Keers's fortified Pakistan compound

A good minister for legislative affairs has three key functions. They'll stimulate political engagement: through encouraging in-game wall commenters and media thinkers to post ideas, or to help people understand how the country works and why governing it is important. For example, you don't have to be a congressmen to sponsor or propose a bill, thanks to our proposal system on erepublik.co.uk. The MoLA might post articles explaining taxation, what a citizen fee does, the process of war and peace, or that fun box marked "Citizenship passes". Or they'll keep would-be MPs uptodate on the business of the country, and ping current congresspersons to get their input on a key vote.


Talking about stuff shouldn't feel like a tomb, surrounded by people with closed minds who are dead to the world, or like a honeyed trap, where everyone's opinions are jumped on and attacked after being superficially appreciated

The second key function in my view is for a good MoLA to facilitate debates, make things between citizens smoother, keeping everyone informed and constructive. On the forums, they'll seperate discussion from votes, and encourage formal proposals where new ideas are put forward. On the eRepublik wiki, they'll help out keeping the game mechanics and important recent history updated so that people can find information easily. Ingame, they'll maintain a "House Speaker" role by being a go-to for ministers and congressmen to check on procedure, and co-ordinating good timing for votes. All of this might sound tough, but in reality we're talking 5 minutes a day to check up on forums and the wiki, to 10 ingame.


No-one likes the impact of Visa on erepublik politics

If there's any use for a MoLA at all, they need to make government work. There's only so far you can go with carrots like education, sometimes you need to throw the fax machine at something. Legislative Affairs must be responsible for keeping votes on government proposals and the use of citizenship passes. Currently the UK has strong rules on both, so the MoLA should moderate intemperate proposals and police naughty MPs. While vote buying for articles is frowned upon, we view vote buying for elections to congress as immoral and illegal. The MoLA can help kick Visa out of politics by having zero tolerance for corruption; they'll warn and ban errant MPs, and institute impeachment against the Prime Minister if needed. It's really not hard to become a congressman for one of the main parties and ESO often allow small parties to run for them.



Dear next country president: I want this job. Thank you for reading.