Wittenberg

Good afternoon Talossa! In our last campaign post, (https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=5380.0) I mentioned that the URL would soon be getting into more of our positive program for the 63rd Cosă term. Don't get me wrong -- we're not done with our recap of the outgoing Government's weaknesses, but we think it makes sense to get a little optimism mixed in there too. After all, it's all well and good to point out why one party has explicitly failed to earn your vote, but that doesn't mean other parties don't have to give you something to vote for, too.

With that in mind, it seems like the most obvious place to start with our intentions for the next term is with our main legislative program:


Since we've already laid out the Democracy Agenda in more detail -- you can read the full text here (https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=5147.0) -- I'm going to keep this one a bit shorter and highlight some of the best bits.

Cosă Size: This is something we've already had one major success on. The URL was able to pass the Pseudo-Real Cosă Act (https://database.talossa.com/ziu/bills/62RZ11) to shrink the size of the Cosă to 20. Talossa is a representative democracy, and is clearly set up as such. But when the legislature is larger than the country's own population, that system starts to break down a bit. A legislature more appropriately sized to the country is a good example of one of our party's principles: (https://wiki.talossa.com/Union_of_Free_Reformists#Beliefs_and_Platform) "Free Reformists believe that political systems must suit the population as opposed to the reverse."

Electoral Reform: We're making advances on this front too! The Democracy Act and Amendment, passed on this last Clark, is largely cobbled together from various proposals the Union has put forth (even its primary sponsor admitted as much). This puts a more concretely-defined closed-list proportional representation system in place for future elections, presuming it passes its referendum. In addition, the bill clarifies that party electoral lists are always to be respected when assigning seats (even for mid-term vacancies) and requires that people cannot appear on a party list or hold seats without their own consent. An electoral method that allows voters to directly select who sits in the Cosă by approving of party lists is a huge win for improving the balance of power between party bosses and citizens.

However, the work on this front is not done. Improving the Organic Law is a continuous process (and we think it's worth revisiting the idea of encoding a detailed electoral process in Organic Law), but improving the state of Talossan democracy is massively important. We've had discussion on a more open-list system in this term, and from what we've seen there is broader support for this than we may have initially expected. The URL will continue to lead the way on promoting reforms to increase the power of the electorate.

Upper House Reform: Talossa's government is of course appointed under a parliamentary system. As the chamber to which the Government is responsible, the Cosă is by necessity the more prominent house of the legislature. This does not mean that the Senäts cannot hold an appropriate place in the Talossan legislative process; it means that right now, the place it holds is not appropriate. The Senäts ought to function as a reasonable brake on the power of the Cosă, not a roadblock, and for that reason we will continue to support moving to the "house of review" model.

If you agree that the Democracy Agenda is the right path for Talossa, then your vote for the Union in August will make it happen. If you really want to get into the details and help shape the Agenda going forward, our doors are always open! (https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=5354.0)