Join the new world

In the beginning there was nothing. Then became eRepublik. The land of the lost, the land of the fallen, the land of the cursed. A place for the wicked to gather, a place for those who had nothing better to do in real life. What a better place for the God of Hell could there be? Perkele himself has now seen the potential that has manifested itself in eRepublik, and he has descended upon this wretched land with fire and smoke, and taken over the souls and minds of those who are willing to follow him. For we, the Cult of Perkele have risen from our graves and we seek the total domination of this country and earth. And we, in our wake, are now aiming for congress. Perkele has strengthened our arms, and our will is unwavered. For there is no greater god than Perkele, and he stands behind us. And hence begins my journey to the underworld. For the first time in over a year, I'm applying for congress again.


My view of the congress.

Instead of offering you yet another generic congress manifesto, I'll write down my thoughts of what the role of the congress should be. That topic has always been a matter of debate, and suitably I'm now going to burst it in flames again with this article. Let's start with the basis of the issue: Separation of powers.


Separation of powers in eRepublik

eRepublik enforces separation of powers into the decision-making and legislative branches and admins hold on to the judiciary power. The congress is tasked to decide about domestic issues, like tax proposals, while the President leads the country in international front by proposing alliances and deciding about attacks. This brings forth the issue of what exactly falls under the jurisdiction of the President and under congress?

I will not start analyzing both branches and their tasks, and try find an analytical solution to this dilemma, nor try to compare the system eRep has into real life models. That's useless. Instead, I'll just point to game mechanics, and justify my stance from there.

Note, that when the question is about national issues – tax proposals, citizen fee, donations, the congress has a full right to propose a law, and then either vote for or against it. That's fully in their power. But, when the issue is about alliances, peace proposals, the laws the President can propose – the congress' task is to either approve or disapprove that. They don't decide what alliances the country has, they either approve or disapprove them. There's a clear distinction. On this point of view I base my stance on what belongs to the congress, and what belongs to the government.



The point that the President is the one to decide which alliance he decides to propose, and the congress is the one to either vote for or against it, tells everything essential. The role of the congress is not to step into the decision making, but rather let the government handle that. The congress can discuss the issues government is handling, and it can freely criticize the government, but it's not their place to tell how or what decisions should be made.

It's clear there's no time to ask if the congress agrees or disagrees to deploying the army to fight in battles, and with which supplies. The battle would be long over before the congress had discussed and voted upon that. The government is well able enough to make that call, as it is in any other alike situations which require fast decisions. In these cases, within 95 % confidence the congress wouldn't anyhow be able to make any better decision than the government – the only difference would be that the congress debated on it for hours.

The congress has a right to criticize government of course, and the government has to enjoy the trust of the congress – or else the President can be impeached. This is in my opinion the only limiting factor there should be – if the congress sees that the President and the government is acting over their boundaries and harming the country, their ability to lead should be questioned, and if needed, they should be impeached.

A country is efficient when its government is competent and free to make the calls it sees fit. The government should by definition hold the people who are the most competent for their tasks, whereas the congress has no restrictions – anyone can become a congress member, and mostly the congress indeed is full of newbies who have little to no experience on game mechanics or how the game works.

I believe in democracy, transparency and liberal values, but this is not one of the cases where they should manifest themselves. The distinction between the decision-making and the legislative branches should be kept clear. Democracy manifests itself in elections – the candidates are first picked by the parties, and then voted for by the people. In elections you pick the people to do the decisions for you. Yelling afterwards about how congress should have a say on decision-making is not part of democracy, however much you like to think so. If the President acts against what he promised, and creates harm for the country, then criticize, and propose impeachment if it's severe. That's parliamentarism in effect – the President and the government are accountable for their actions to the congress.


My role in congress

We are the followers of Perkele, the god of the underworld and god of thunder. We rose from our graves under the will of Perkele, and he lights our path in the mortal world. Here in the wretched lands of snow and ice, where the Sun never shines, we are destined to take over and rule this land with an iron fist. We, the power elite of the world, under guidance of our lord Perkele, are going to give rise to the mightiest empire in the World, and the children of the earth will weep and fall on their knees ahead of us. We, the Cult of Perkele, are going to bring change. A change you are going to feel in your bones.




_____
Avec, humble servant of Perkele and a member of the Cult of Perkele