Why congress ISN'T open/why we DON'T publish draft proposals publically!

Day 279, 11:06 • Published in United Kingdom United Kingdom • by Stan Wephen

A lot of people have been complaining recently that congress is secretive and that we're not allowed to publish proposals before they've passed through congress. They think it makes the government very secretive and they think its so the PCP can pass through its iron grip laws, turning the E-uk into a dark wasteland of death and despair. Well, quite frankly, nothing can be further from the truth. There are good reasons why we don't allow congress to be totally transparent and good reasons why we don't publish proposals. This article will deal with the reasons why.

1. It's not finished yet!

When a proposal enters congress, it's not the final thing, end of, can't edit, voted through and made law. When something is proposed in congress, we need to look at the proposal, scrutinise it, edit it and make sure its totally suitable. That takes time, effort, and a lot of work. Obviously the first draft is going to have flaws - nothing's perfect at first. The aim here is to make sure that when the proposal does become law, it's flawless. If however, we start allowing people to publish the first draft proposal and read it without the final editing, people get the wrong idea on what its about. They start to misunderstand things, perhaps because the wording is wrong or its not explained well. And when people misunderstand things, they get the wrong impression of it - that's what's happened in the past with proposals. We don't want to tear apart a proposal that hasn't even been finalised yet!

2. It leads to a more secretive cabinet

The reason things are published in congress and not in, say, the general forum is to ensure that the right people hear it and it can be debated well. However, if someone from congress takes that proposal and just publishes it to be criticised harshly, it's pretty much pointless. Then people would choose rather to have more secret conversations with others, in another, more secluded forum. That means only a select few are going to be able to look at initial proposals, and then only a select few can debate it. The beauty of congress is that it draws upon a selective sample of the best in the E-uk, people dedicated to helping government. To lose the ability to freely shoot proposals off of each other and debate them freely would be terrible. That's why we'd rather keep congress how it is - the fewer people that see the initial proposal, the more people we can get to debate it.

3. Some things need to be kept a secret

This one's obvious. Certain laws, such as MPPs and military operations need to be kept secret to stop other countries finding out. If we're about to invade a country, we don't want them knowing in advance! There are all sorts of securtiy issues surrounding certain proposals and the best way to keep them secret is to ensure congress and only congress can see it.

Of course, there are counter-arguments, which I'll deal with here.

1. But in RL Parliament is open!

Yes, that's true. But that doesn't mean we have to do that here. When a MP proposes a proposal in the House of Commons, the difference is that the proposal is pretty much finished - in the House of Commons, you don't see MPs going over the details editing it and rubbing stuff out. But in congress here in E-republik, you do. You can't actually compare RL Parliament to E-republik Congress because the factors are far too different in terms of the way we do things (They're formal and don't published half-made proposals, we do).

2. Why can't we just have an open parliament and a closed one?

Yes, that's certainly a possibility. In the closed parliament will go all the secretive stuff, and in the open one we can publish anything. But when you look closer, there's no difference. Congressman again aren't going to want to publish their draft right into the open because they're worried their proposal isn't finished and they know it needs work. So they're going to publish their draft proposal in the closed congress, and all the editing and debate takes place there. Sure, when the final proposal's been made, it can then be published in the open congress. But what's actually going to happen there? Just voting - all the debate's already taken place. So really, all that's being done is the final proposal is being published for the public. Oh, but look - We've already done that! It's called Government Policies, and anyone can view them on the forum! Suprisingly, most proposals have only about 50 or 60 views, if that. It seems like the people calling for a transparent government aren't bothering to look at the government transparency already in place. Hmm...

Well, that's pretty much it. As you can see, we're not looking at an evil dictatorship government that wants to leave its people in the dark - we're looking at a shrewd and intelligent government that knows what it needs to do to maximise its efficieny and make sure it can concentrate on what making the E-uk better. Thank you for reading, and I hope I've convinced you that opening up congress isn't the solution here.

Stan Wephen