Quote from: Breneir Tzaracomprada on Today at 09:10:05 PM

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on Today at 08:53:56 PMTo the extent that we need to dismantle our institutions to continue to function and free up space for priorities, this makes sense.  Do we need a unicameral legislature?  Do we need to eliminate a bunch of Cabinet positions?  Okay, fine, maybe we need to do that since those things aren't a priority...

That's exactly it, for me. We should reconsider what are the most vital services for Talossan Government and then make reductions based on that. This is just my personal opinion but I don't think Defence is a vital government service in our particular situation. I am sure there are other areas where we can consider whether they should be public or private entities.

We should do that to free up personnel resources, with a plan for how to use them.  Gradual decay is not a plan.  A plan is something like "make it known, in a way that preserves the dignity of the prize, that anyone who recruits five new citizens will be granted a knighthood."

This stuff about Cabinet ministries is silly.  Eliminating Defence isn't going to free Braneu up to do other things -- there's no regular duties in that position.  It's a proactive role, like almost all of them.

I mean, Tric'hard is absolutely right that our systems of government and law have grown so complex that they now require specialist help to navigate correctly. Free Democrats' solution to that is to have Civil Servants whose job is to "hold the hands" of politicians in this regard. Like, for example, a Clerk of the Ziu who would take a badly-written napkin idea from a Senator and turn it into a properly worded and formatted bill.

Talossa has failed if we've created a technocracy, but the problem is that frankly brilliantly intelligent people get into power around here and build high-quality things (legal, judicial, or technical) that only they know how to operate, and then they disappear and the rest of us schmoes don't know which end's up.

Well, we can discuss this further. What would a good check on majority rule be in a unicameral Cosa, in addition to the Royal veto and the entrenched OrgLaw/Convenants? My preferred solution would be a "three-reading" system or something similar which would ensure quality law making with lots of opportunity for the minority to get their points heard

I came into Talossa with a lot of enthusiasm, I quickly realized I was in way over my head. Yes it obviously takes enthusiasm for someone to serve in any governmental capacity, whether that is as a minister, senator, cosa member, king or civil servant, but it also requires intelligence. The ability to sift through all of the laws, and understand them. When I was a member of the TNC and we won the majority I immediately contacted party leadership and told them I did NOT want a cabinet position and when I was asked why, I told the truth. I am not intelligent enough to understand the inner workings of the government. I think a lot of the problem with finding willing people who stick out there terms as ministers is in some ways the same. Some people jump into the job and then realize they don't really understand the process. Another issue is the constant hurling of insults back and forth which inevitably lands upon the shoulders of the ministers in the form of Terpelaziuns. Pretty much everyone in Talossa has jobs and family in the real world which take up their time and inhibits their ability to effectively perform the tasks set before them. We simply do not have enough people who are active, have an understanding of how the government works, an understanding of the laws, the time to put into the job to do it properly and honestly the thick skin required to do the job. Hell since I have been here I have seen at least one person leave a post to seek mental health treatment, I think that speaks to the problem with the insults. I ran for senator at the behest of my previous parties leadership despite not understanding the job. I have held a seat in the Vuode provincial government up to and including both Premier and Presiding Officer despite having no knowledge of how to perform the duties of those positions, proving once again that we do not have enough intelligent active citizens. Until this problem is solved we will have a government run by a select few citizens who in my opinion have done fantastic work on both sides but are overwhelmed. Sorry about the longwinded rant but I needed to get it off of my chest...you may continue LOL

With respect to both y'all, Defence is not the problem here because the Zouaves don't take up time and energy. You know what takes up time and energy? Immigration admin; making sure the websites/Wittenberg/the social media keep running; for the first two Clarks of each Cosa at least, drawing up the Budget. And the Chancery is overwhelmed with the Wittenberg/database stuff as well.

As to recruitment as the solution; we've had a good influx of new citizens recently. None have jumped up to volunteer for this stuff. I mean, perhaps we should have a draft, i.e. "for your first 3 months as a citizen you have to run the Facebook account".

There is a lot of stuff we could get rid of, but this problem de facto solves itself, i.e. stuff doesn't get done and no-one misses it.

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on Today at 08:53:56 PMTo the extent that we need to dismantle our institutions to continue to function and free up space for priorities, this makes sense.  Do we need a unicameral legislature?  Do we need to eliminate a bunch of Cabinet positions?  Okay, fine, maybe we need to do that since those things aren't a priority...

That's exactly it, for me. We should reconsider what are the most vital services for Talossan Government and then make reductions based on that. This is just my personal opinion but I don't think Defence is a vital government service in our particular situation. I am sure there are other areas where we can consider whether they should be public or private entities.

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on January 14, 2025, 03:12:02 PMI think it's a good one because it enables proportional political representation for the provinces

I think that's a benefit.  But we've had the Senats in this form for almost thirty years, and if we're throwing it on the pyre, I'd hope for more than somewhat more proportional representation.  And I'd hope for some sort of new check on the power of the majority in the new unicameral Cosa.

We don't have enough active people in Government because we don't have enough active people overall.

Because of that, we don't have enough people interested in serving in Government.  Required tasks are fairly minimal, but finding more than three or four seriously responsible people is a challenge.  Whether or not they are in Government or the Civil Service doesn't change that fact.  And this same problem is the cause of many of our other ills... for example, we have so few interested citizens that there's less reason to make art or literature.  No one will see it.

To the extent that we need to dismantle our institutions to continue to function and free up space for priorities, this makes sense.  Do we need a unicameral legislature?  Do we need to eliminate a bunch of Cabinet positions?  Okay, fine, maybe we need to do that since those things aren't a priority -- but if we're burning the furniture to keep warm, we need to make the most of it.

The next Government should focus overwhelmingly and exclusively on increasing the immigration rate.  Success or failure will be revealed by that single measurement.

Quote from: Breneir Tzaracomprada on Today at 04:31:13 PMWe need to reduce the amount of work by a combination of eliminating some ministries entirely (Defence, please)

I'm old enough to remember when a certain Baron pummeled the FreeDems-led government about not doing more with the Zouaves.

Quoteand repurposing some toward the Civil Service.

You miss the point. Whether a Minister or a civil servant, someone has to do the job, and the reason why we haven't parceled out more jobs to the civil service yet is a lack of enthusiastic civil servants, not Ministers wanting to hold on to this stuff.

QuoteI think Immigration is a good place to start on that note.

I would *dearly love* to shove the squalid technical details of the job off to a Civil Servant. If someone were willing to do the thankless job. Which there isn't.

I'll give it some thought. I have some ideas but in the mean time while I formulate a more formal response, I'd like to refer back to my Independence Day Speech.

QuoteTherefore, I am declaring 2025 as L'Anneu D'Comunità, or in English, The Year of Community. Throughout this year, beginning with the newest holiday in our calendar, Flip Molinar Day, I urge each and every one of you to spend as much time as possible seeing, hearing, listening, and communicating with other Talossans.

-Txec R