As part of the Government's commitment to revitalize and improve the structure of our state apparatus, we have thus far held a discussion in which many valuable ideas were submitted, discussed, and initially refined. The next step is to allow, as per the Avant! coalition agreement, "each party [to] promote its own preferences." To that end, I submit the Reform Plan (in that it is the proposal of the Reform Party, not the definitive roadmap for reform -- cf. the Virginia Plan, the New Jersey Plan, etc.) Keep in mind of course that this is not a concrete legislative proposal -- we need to know what the goal is in order to know what legal changes must be proposed, after all!
The main points of the plan can be found here.
For a bit more detail:
Crown Reform:
Ziu Reform:
A Fixed Legislative Schedule:
Other Reforms:
The main points of the plan can be found here.
For a bit more detail:
Crown Reform:
- The Crown and Ziu execute a bit of power-swapping arrangement.
- The King regains the right to appoint a Seneschal after consultations with the various party leaders in the Cosa, but it also becomes easier for the Cosa to override a royal veto.
- The royal veto on Organic amendments is eliminated, simplifying the process and ensuring vital amendments are not logjammed by a single individual.
Ziu Reform:
- The Senäts is abolished with the general election following ratification of the relevant Organic amendment.
- Because Senators pay to serve in the Senäts, and in doing so directly contribute to the upkeep of our nation (web presence etc), I believe it unfair to strip them of something before they have gotten that which they pay for. As a result, I believe it necessary to "grandfather" in Senators to Cosa membership for the remainder of their Senatorial term -- effectively making this somewhat of a "merger" as opposed to an "abolition". There are two ways to do this that I foresee, which I will go into more detail below.
- Option 1: Biproportional Representation:
- As a means of retaining a form of "provincial representation" despite a lack of Senäts, the Cosa is now elected using electoral districts (which for the sake of ease are coterminous with provinces). (I should point out here that this practice is actually fairly common, very few proportional-representation legislatures use the entire country as a single electoral district.)
- Seats are apportioned among each province based on how many votes were cast from that province in the previous election. This is meant to be equivalent to "apportionment by population", but renders useless any attempts to "gerrymander" catchment areas. It also is useful as a tool to both encourage and reward activity.
- Parties are awarded seats within a given province based on their proportion of votes within that province (these seats do not necessarily need to be assigned to an MC from that province).
- Any seats that cannot be assigned to a single party (for example, if one province has two seats left to be apportioned and three parties equally deserving) are awarded at the national level via a "topping-off" once all provincial seats possible are awarded. This method takes all provincial seats into account as well as the nationwide proportional vote.
- The apportionment of seats to provinces and the awarding of seats to parties (both at the provincial level and the nationwide "topping-off" stage) is all accomplished via the Webster method.
- In this case, incumbent Senators at the time of the Senäts' dissolution (of which there would be five) are automatically assigned half of their respective province's seats for each election during the remainder of what would have been their current Senatorial term. Should any of these ex-Senators appear on a party's list (with their consent) during such an election, their automatic seat assignment will count towards that party's seats in that province instead.
- Option 2: Retain a Single District:
- The Cosa remains elected on a purely nationwide basis, but the Webster method is still adopted. This maintains a very proportionate outcome in terms of seats awarded to each party, but also abolishes the "percentile dice" system currently in place for something that uses straightforward mathematical rule as opposed to pseudo-random number generation.
- In this case, incumbent Senators could be granted some equal number of Cosa seats (perhaps 10 each?) outside of the 200 seats normally elected. In other words, this would see the Cosa increase from 200 to 250 at the Senäts' dissolution, shrink to 220 at the next election after that, and then return to 200 seats starting with the election after that. Ex-Senators may still be assigned party seats, but are of course subject to the same limit as every other MC on the number of seats an individual MC may hold, and these additional seats count towards that limit.
A Fixed Legislative Schedule:
- Elections now occur annually from January 15 - February 1.
- This increases the length of a Cosa term from six Clarks to nine. Namely, March through November, with December kept clear for the sake of the Chancery (preventing too much overlap between holidays and election prep work).
- The Seneschal may still issue a single month of recess per Cosa term, but this no longer pushes back subsequent Clarks (in other words, this Cosa will instead have eight Clarks instead of nine). This aligns with the preceding point of keeping December clear.
- Because elections are now fixed, a Vote of Confidence is no longer capable of calling a new election. As a result, VoCs now become "constructive" -- MCs voting Non are asked to provide a replacement candidate for Seneschal, who, upon review by the King and consultation with party leaders, can name a new Seneschal should a VoC fail (as per their restored power to do so anyway).
Other Reforms:
- MCs may petition the Chancery for official recognition / "parliamentary status" for a new party in the middle of a Cosa term.
- Each MC who defects from their original party forfeits half of their personally-assigned seats to do so (which, as all their seats do, return to the original party).
- Each MC may not defect more than once per Cosa term.
- A convention / commission / panel / what-have-you will examine, in a coordinated manner, the best possible paths to reduce the number of provinces. Individual provinces are strongly encouraged to heed their recommendations.