The Seventh Term [notCP]
Day 902, 22:52
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Published in Canada 
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by
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by Jacobi
The Seventh Term
This is a procrastinating article with a provocative title. You see my competition for the Canada Prize dropped out and was replaced by AMM with a topic of the economy. I've said my peace on the economy, I've wrote about its history, my views are probably among the most well known in Canada. I don't as yet have a clue how I'm going to add meaningfully to that. So until then, having watched three one term Presidents come and go, I've come to the conclusion about why there is such a large turn over in the Head of State of Canada. For most people, on most schedules, its far too much of a full time job.
Certainly, Canada will run into people with both the desire and capability for an volunteer full time job full of criticism and precious little glory, but more often than not asking these people to weather it for more than 30 days is like asking someone who has just run a marathon to go right back and run another one. The Canadian presidency causes burnout – just take a look at the sparse population of the ex-Presidents club. But there is something we can do to prevent burnout and as a nice side effect give another avenue for players who are interested in the political side of the game to pursue.
It is a reorganization of the government that I like to call the Recognition of Reality Plan.
First, separate the Presidency from the Prime Ministry.
There ought to be two distinct positions in Canadian government, a Head of State (the President) and a Head of Government (the Prime Minister).
The President of the Dominion of Canada
Head of State, speaks on behalf of Canada, represents Canada internationally, Commander-in-Chief of the CAF. The President would primarily concern himself with foreign and military affairs, with the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (along with the the Ambassador Corps and CAF) under their purview. The President would also be responsible for Supreme Court appointments, civilian honors, and any other in game Presidential prerogative (New Citizen Message, Defence/Hospital systems, war, embargoes, etc).
The Prime Minister of the Dominion of Canada
Head of Government, primarily concerning himself with domestic affairs, including but not limited to Health, Finance, Industries, Immigration, Education, Justice, Communication and Official Languages. The Prime Minister would take the current Presidential veto in Congress.
This setup does two things:
1) Places the President in a position where he can direct all his attention to external threats without having to spend time babysitting domestic affairs.
2) Keeps one person accountable for domestic issues who can devote all of their attention to government and the Congress.
Bonus points for anyone who notes that this is very similar to how I had my last three cabinets set up : )
Secondly, how do we accomplish this division of power?
I suggest two different methods:
1)A Constitutional Amendment.
The President is elected as per normal, but the Prime Minister derives his powers from Congress. Congressional elections are turned into contests between teams supporting Prime Ministerial candidates (who will have their own cabinets), with the Prime Minister eventually being the person who can command the confidence of Congress. This would work exactly how the real life Canadian elections work. There would be in this scenario, no link between the President and the Prime Minister with each being accountable (The President to Congress and the voters, the Prime Minister to Congress and the voters) individually and distinctly. The Prime Minister would in effect be the leader of the Congress, with the Speaker being regulated to the role of non-partisan referee. Of course, Constitutional amendments are fraught with difficulty and it may be quite too controversial a change to survive the enforced gauntlet that is legal change.
2) An informal division of powers.
The President is elected as per normal, but the Prime Minister is among his cabinet appointees. The Prime Minister decides on who to put in his Ministries and proceeds per normal with power being informally devolved upon him by the elected President. Of course, under this circumstance the Prime Minister changes with the President, and is accountable exclusively to the President. It would look much like the relationship between the real life Prime Minister and Governor General, in that it would be the President's government and everything would be done in the President's name, but with the advice of the Prime Minister. This would require a high degree of trust for the President to not have to worry about what's being done in their name biting them at election time.
Between them, I obviously prefer method one. It gives a President a free hand to focus on the military and foreign affairs and allows for qualified candidates who have made this their speciality to not have to worry about budgets, social services and other concerns that can when done properly take up a significant amount of time and energy. While it is likely the President will have to be active the same amount of time, the burden of that activity would be much lighter. And therefore, less burnout.
On the same token, there would now be another prestigious position that people who are perhaps not extremely interested in military and foreign affairs could aspire to. The Prime Ministership would also lend to Congress a measure both of maturity and responsibility since it would be given power outside of the game commensurate with its power in game. Under a dedicated and active leader, the potential efficiency and effectiveness gains for a government the size of Canada's would be impressive.
Finally, beyond the division of powers, beyond the decreased chances for burnout, it would also bring a Canadian flavor to our politics that the erepublik system does its best to discourage.
Its certainly something I'd want to implement. Of course, that might eventually be contingent on a seventh term.
; )
John “Jacobi” Carpenter
This is a procrastinating article with a provocative title. You see my competition for the Canada Prize dropped out and was replaced by AMM with a topic of the economy. I've said my peace on the economy, I've wrote about its history, my views are probably among the most well known in Canada. I don't as yet have a clue how I'm going to add meaningfully to that. So until then, having watched three one term Presidents come and go, I've come to the conclusion about why there is such a large turn over in the Head of State of Canada. For most people, on most schedules, its far too much of a full time job.
Certainly, Canada will run into people with both the desire and capability for an volunteer full time job full of criticism and precious little glory, but more often than not asking these people to weather it for more than 30 days is like asking someone who has just run a marathon to go right back and run another one. The Canadian presidency causes burnout – just take a look at the sparse population of the ex-Presidents club. But there is something we can do to prevent burnout and as a nice side effect give another avenue for players who are interested in the political side of the game to pursue.
It is a reorganization of the government that I like to call the Recognition of Reality Plan.
First, separate the Presidency from the Prime Ministry.
There ought to be two distinct positions in Canadian government, a Head of State (the President) and a Head of Government (the Prime Minister).
The President of the Dominion of Canada
Head of State, speaks on behalf of Canada, represents Canada internationally, Commander-in-Chief of the CAF. The President would primarily concern himself with foreign and military affairs, with the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (along with the the Ambassador Corps and CAF) under their purview. The President would also be responsible for Supreme Court appointments, civilian honors, and any other in game Presidential prerogative (New Citizen Message, Defence/Hospital systems, war, embargoes, etc).
The Prime Minister of the Dominion of Canada
Head of Government, primarily concerning himself with domestic affairs, including but not limited to Health, Finance, Industries, Immigration, Education, Justice, Communication and Official Languages. The Prime Minister would take the current Presidential veto in Congress.
This setup does two things:
1) Places the President in a position where he can direct all his attention to external threats without having to spend time babysitting domestic affairs.
2) Keeps one person accountable for domestic issues who can devote all of their attention to government and the Congress.
Bonus points for anyone who notes that this is very similar to how I had my last three cabinets set up : )
Secondly, how do we accomplish this division of power?
I suggest two different methods:
1)A Constitutional Amendment.
The President is elected as per normal, but the Prime Minister derives his powers from Congress. Congressional elections are turned into contests between teams supporting Prime Ministerial candidates (who will have their own cabinets), with the Prime Minister eventually being the person who can command the confidence of Congress. This would work exactly how the real life Canadian elections work. There would be in this scenario, no link between the President and the Prime Minister with each being accountable (The President to Congress and the voters, the Prime Minister to Congress and the voters) individually and distinctly. The Prime Minister would in effect be the leader of the Congress, with the Speaker being regulated to the role of non-partisan referee. Of course, Constitutional amendments are fraught with difficulty and it may be quite too controversial a change to survive the enforced gauntlet that is legal change.
2) An informal division of powers.
The President is elected as per normal, but the Prime Minister is among his cabinet appointees. The Prime Minister decides on who to put in his Ministries and proceeds per normal with power being informally devolved upon him by the elected President. Of course, under this circumstance the Prime Minister changes with the President, and is accountable exclusively to the President. It would look much like the relationship between the real life Prime Minister and Governor General, in that it would be the President's government and everything would be done in the President's name, but with the advice of the Prime Minister. This would require a high degree of trust for the President to not have to worry about what's being done in their name biting them at election time.
Between them, I obviously prefer method one. It gives a President a free hand to focus on the military and foreign affairs and allows for qualified candidates who have made this their speciality to not have to worry about budgets, social services and other concerns that can when done properly take up a significant amount of time and energy. While it is likely the President will have to be active the same amount of time, the burden of that activity would be much lighter. And therefore, less burnout.
On the same token, there would now be another prestigious position that people who are perhaps not extremely interested in military and foreign affairs could aspire to. The Prime Ministership would also lend to Congress a measure both of maturity and responsibility since it would be given power outside of the game commensurate with its power in game. Under a dedicated and active leader, the potential efficiency and effectiveness gains for a government the size of Canada's would be impressive.
Finally, beyond the division of powers, beyond the decreased chances for burnout, it would also bring a Canadian flavor to our politics that the erepublik system does its best to discourage.
Its certainly something I'd want to implement. Of course, that might eventually be contingent on a seventh term.
; )
John “Jacobi” Carpenter
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Comments
vote go john 🙂
Jacobi/TemujinBC July 2010
\o/
Good healthy proposal.
This might solve many recent issues.
Good luck Jacobi!
/voted
oh SNAP
You've already got my vote
Why don't you just call it "The King" and get it over with?
Meow \o/
Sounds like RL Russia (with some modifications.)
Sounds solid.
James McNamara / Jacobi August 2010!
Sounds realy good and I would also prefer option 1. However with the current game mechanics where SVU's decide the outcome, this system would be far away from being [even looking] democratic.
But the Admins did say that after V2 there will be a big update of the political module and I hope we could implement such a thing.
This division of power, whether formal or informal, is needed to preserve the sanity of whoever sits in the presidential chair. Unfortunately, such a system is doomed to failure as long as we have extremely influential players that refuse to recognize any legitimacy in our rules and regulations adopted outside the constraints of purely game mechanical laws.
Yeah, but this problem also exists if the CP has all the work.
Jacobi/TemujinBC July 2010
\o/
No.
There's no impeach buttons for Prime Ministers.
If the President gets removed, the VP, PM, and every unelected moron in the House will role play squabble for power.
The stupidity is bad enough as it is. We don't need to compound it with more red tape bureaucracy, and endless rounds of legal (or illegal) wrangling. We already have too much of that as it is.
lol see jacobi i always know when your running. dont deny it next time when i ask you 😉
Didn't you accuse me of running in May?
I denied it and....didn't run in may 🙂
the impeach button for Prime Minister is simple: If he lost the confidence of the House he'd have to step down.
I think some of the real life effects of our current system, which this emulates, indicates the very problems with it. The Prime Minister in this setup simply holds too much dictatorial power. It allows a singular party to provide a leader of their choosing who has virtually NO checks and balances. Having someone with a Congressional veto who is created by having the support of Congress just means that the majority rule is double enforced, with no chance of any minority elements having any say whatsoever.
The aim of this system is noble, but powerful unelected officials are a serious danger.
As a former Prime Minister I am all for this idea.
Jacobi/TemujinBC July 2010
AND ONLY THEN CAN JACOBI ASCEND INTO THE CANADIAN ROYAL CHAMBER OF........ THE KING!
If the PM is elected during the congressional elections then wouldn't there be a new one every month? How would that make them better than the one term Presidents in terms of stability?
We could keep the Congressional veto with the President or scrap it altogether.
@Imaria and Ozy: It's a matter of confidence, not stability. A Prime Minister who can maintain the confidence of Congress (which will always require at least 2 partys) could theoretically stay in power indefinitely, or be as easily removed if he loses confidence. A saavy Prime Minister (presumably we would want one that was saavy) would build a coalition that could endure across multiple parliamentary elections through his government and sound decision making. A silly Prime Minister could easily find himself tossed out by his coalition fairing poorly at elections or by not nuturing his parliamentary coalition.
I, of course, do not want a silly PM surviving because of a desire for stability nor do I particularly want a PM who cannot command a majority of Congress. I want a survival of the fittest and I want people who want to be Prime Minister to be able to demonstrate that desire with ability.
I like the idea of 2 distinct function as President and Prime Minister.
But I don't like the reference to Canada as a Dominion.
We have no link to Monarchy whatsoever in that game...
That's just me being me Sam. 😛
I think the current system is better, to be fair. If we get a President who is comfortable appointing someone else to hold their powers in this manner, so be it. But then the President is still directly responsible for their actions. If a President does NOT feel it best to share power as such, then so be it as well. But I don't think such a division should be constitutionally mandated.
May I ask why you think the current system is better? There are very few Prime Ministers who will attest to that.
this is an interesting idea, i would suggest 2 changes though--first, the supreme court appointments should come from whoever is running the domestic issues because, well its a domestic issue. second i would prefer that the candidates run together, the president should choose who they want to handle the domestic issues while they are in office. its better to have the pres and pm on the same page which would be more likely if they ran together then have a pres and pm on different sides. the pm is part of the executive branch and should be seperate from the legislative branch. having pm and congress linked together could be too easy to undermine the presidents authority, and place too much power to congress
I agree. Let's do it! 🙂
Uh, what does your VP do exactly?
the VP scratches the president's bum when he can't reach around his fat torso
The Veep currently plays a role in chain of command and is otherwise a go-fer.
Said that ages ago.
Guess fucking who.