Let's Make things Interesting, or: How to fix the Country

Day 1,642, 04:14 • Published in United Kingdom United Kingdom • by Mr Woldy


Friends, Romans etc

If I were to tell you that the eUK was 'broken' you no doubt laugh in my face, inform of the dragged out conflict that has happened on our shores and then question why I would see fit to point it out when it is something that surely everyone already knew.

If I were to go on and point out that I wasn't talking about the military module you might feel silly and offer an apology, if you were Goku Jones you might make a sarcastic comment on how I probably plan on creating my own new wonderful module, and if you were Johnobrow you might say that such a module exists and that only the proletariat has realised it.

Regardless of all that, I want to let you in on a secret. A less obvious part of the eUK, is broken.


I googled shock and I guess this can work

Despite my choice of image, we aren't home alone. In fact issues with naughty citizenship grantings and the fact that we're members of the largest alliance are both possible avenues for arguing that, we're practically having a house party right now. But that's besides the point, what actually is broken, is our congress.

Took me three paragraphs and a picture to say that, purely because I know that half of you have just stopped reading and I wanted my money's worth. I shall now go on to discuss an idea that I have been brewing for months but never really see the need to release. Recently I have spoken to friends and various congressmen/government chaps about it, and thought I may aswell write a tl;dr article voicing my views.

Causation

There are many possible reasons why we have found ourselves with an utterly naff and boring do-nothing Congress. I thought I would briefly outline my favourites before discussing my wonderful cure-all solution.

Firstly, float voting. In an ideal world my articles on how crap it is would change the world and we'd all be happy, but we're far from perfect and so too is the notion of float voting.

Floating can be considered the prime cause of naff Congressmen. Naff Congressmen always get elected, BUT IN MY DAY they sure as dixie didn't get re-elected. And there was never that many anyway, and the rest of us got on having fun debating the issues of life and discussing legislation.

The domination of naff Congressmen, has led to the total complacency and uninvolvement of Parliament. By that I simply mean, Congress stopped doing anything and stopped caring. A culture of entitlement has arisen in which Congress only ever deviates from what it is told to do when a poo-storm brews. Which in itself only serves to make poo-storms worse.

Interesting to note that the competition between parties and do nothing culture of Parliament will actually lead to more poo-storms and infighting because people will simply look for something to do.


This is a picture of two men who are so bored with eUK politik they they have decided to beat each other to death for fun

Anyway, to summarise: Float voting has caused a crap and lazy Congress which has facilitated total authoritarian control from the CP's office. This is bad because Parliament's role as regulator has completely deteriorated (evidence can be found in the fact that the complacency has affected teh performance of the MoHA, which hasn't been as great as it once was for a long time), it does nothing, and people run to get their 5g then go to sleep. The only element of competition that exists is between parties waving their peens.

Some of you may feel that this isn't necessarily a problem. Perhaps Parliament neglecting to remember it can impeach (nothing new here) and so forgetting it's wider role can be seen as a bad thing. Heck, to some it may seem good. But I don't propose we change that. I just want to make things a bit more interesting.


A foreign solution

Solution

I am of the opinion that the easiest way to 'fix' our Congress lies in our ability to a) harness party rivalries and make them into something healthy and b) give Congress something to do. Dishmcds recently opened a thread on our forums discussing the option of forcing ministry work upon Congressmen, however the idea I have been fermenting for about 7 months now (but have never been brave enough to suggest) found its roots in the structure of such governments as the eDutch, who I believe still operate a similar system.

We need to split our 'domestic' (or internal) ministries from our 'foreign affairs' (or external ministries). The internal ministries are then operated by Congress, and the country president and a handful of ministers operate the external ministries.

You may ask how this helps, well as mentioned it gives Congress something to do. That in itself will begin to remove the number of naff Congressmen, purely because who is and who isn't working will be picked up on by the House. This point is reinforced if we give domestic control to the party with the most Congressmen (with the option of forming coalitions) which which utilise party rivalry to prevent PP's from running naff Congressmen in the first place. It also makes Politics here far more fun as it introduces that lovable aspect of eRepublik that is roleplay. (I'm the King rahrahrah)

On domestics itself, such rivalry will also spur people to do a better job (something that hasn't existed in domestics for a long time) as it will apply a very direct sense of accountability to the MoHA. Similarly, it will also create a better sense of continuity. If you're wondering why that matters, read this.

The elimination of naff Congressmen will reinstate the regulatory sense Parliament plays towards what would be the external government, simply because rising competence and awareness of the roles and powers of Congress will allow them to take up such a role confidently and competently. And in doing so ladies and gentlemen, we would have fixed Congress.



In the mean time if you want to help just stop float voting. Or if you're asked to float vote, read the guys manifesto and if you don't like the cut of his jib, defy your party president and vote for someone else!

Re-democratisation is the only other way to get us out of this mess, and I don't see that happening anytime soon.

To summarise completely:

Congress is currently naff.

Splitting domestic and non-domestic ministries and putting congress entirely in charge of domestic duties gives Parliament a role and will weed out naff Congressmen.

New ways of approaching politics and an element of rivalry and roleplay will make it so much more interesting.

Woldy is great.

😁

Based on the success and comments on this article, I may put this to legislation over the week. The only tricky parts in the ordeal are quite how to form coalitions and quite what to do with the Ministry of Finance. Although I am inclined to place that as an external ministry as Congress already controls its own funds; a separate role of managing the economy could be considered as domestic so some crossover emerges and redefining who does what monetarily will be required.

Thanks for Reading,
His Wonderful most Benevolent and Holy Highness, HRH King Woldy I,

OBE, KCVS, MC, HRH.






To apply for the ‘Woldy’s Young Achievers’ Scheme, simply pop your name in this thread on our external forums:
http://forums.erepublik.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=588&t=75411


WOLD OUT.