Constitutional Reform, We Mean It This Time

[Mic’haglh Autófil, SMC EiP]

Azul Belacostaes! (?)

Without performing necromancy on an old thread, I wanted to return to the idea of reform to our province's constitution.

Specifically, I wanted to re-submit this proposal for your review. (It has received a few minor updates since then.)

Key Points:
- The province moves to a unicameral "citizens' assembly" legislature where each interested citizen may claim a seat at the beginning of a term.
- The provincial executive is replaced with a three-member Provincial Council; Consuls are elected by the Borda method. A Governor serves as the primus inter pares presiding officer.
- The proposal includes several clauses that address the possibility of provincial mergers, which is (hopefully) an issue picking up steam among the nation as a whole. (More on this elsewhere soon...)

Two things this Constitution does not do:
- Describe in any way a provincial flag, which I thought would be more sensible to adopt by statute.
- Provide for a newly-renamed Order of Benito, which I believe is also better addressed by statute.

[Mic’haglh Autófil, SMC EiP]

Updated this to address royal/viceregal countersignatures on gubernatorial proclamations, as well as adding a possibility for newly-naturalized citizens of the province to join the Provincial Assembly mid-term.

[Mic’haglh Autófil, SMC EiP]

Updated to allow for early closure of votes on bills if passage or failure is mathematically guaranteed (Art.II, Sec.2). Also clarified that the Constitution would go into effect upon the next Cosa dissolution following ratification (Art.IX), and that the Provincial Council conducts its business as a unit (by majority vote) (Art.III, Sec.1).

I'm open to modifying the Consular electoral system from a Borda count to Single Transferable Vote, but I'll leave that open to feedback.

[Sir Lüc]

Right, I never got around to acknowledging or commenting on this, but 1) sterling job, 2) here's some minor things:

- Art. I Sec. 2, "la Provinçù Liveradă es Soverană da Belacostă" - both adjectives are declinated to the feminine form because of "la Provinçù"
- Art. I Sec. 3, "Mazzini (also known as Lançacuratx) and Garibaldi (also known as Utulfaçeir)" - I am really not married to these, both because I don't really feel the connection with Talossa, because the former name of one of the two (Lorentzio) was actually pretty popular back in the day, and because those Talossan translations are just hideous (I probably was the one to put them forward, admittedly). I know it's not the point of this reform but just putting it out there that I'd like to change these down the line.

- Art. II Sec. 2 is very EU-parliament like as the legislature itself wouldn't have the power to introduce bills. I'm not 100% sure what I think about this - not that I'm opposed to it, it's just an interesting choice.

[Sir Lüc]

(Other than that, Mic'haglh, you sure you don't want to take over as Maestro? I regularly forget I'm supposed to be the incumbent and we didn't even elect a new one at the beginning of this term)

[Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP]

Sorry to intrude, but the feminine form of "soveran" is itself "soveran", not "soverană".

[Sir Lüc]

Ah, I see you're unfamiliar with Belacostan dialect.

[Mic’haglh Autófil, SMC EiP]

Right, I never got around to acknowledging or commenting on this, but 1) sterling job, 2) here's some minor things:

- Art. I Sec. 2, "la Provinçù Liveradă es Soverană da Belacostă" - both adjectives are declinated to the feminine form because of "la Provinçù"
- Art. I Sec. 3, "Mazzini (also known as Lançacuratx) and Garibaldi (also known as Utulfaçeir)" - I am really not married to these, both because I don't really feel the connection with Talossa, because the former name of one of the two (Lorentzio) was actually pretty popular back in the day, and because those Talossan translations are just hideous (I probably was the one to put them forward, admittedly). I know it's not the point of this reform but just putting it out there that I'd like to change these down the line.

- Art. II Sec. 2 is very EU-parliament like as the legislature itself wouldn't have the power to introduce bills. I'm not 100% sure what I think about this - not that I'm opposed to it, it's just an interesting choice.

Regarding the first point (not counting the crossed-out one) -- I mean, I'm interested in taking additional proposals. Might as well bake them in now if we're redoing the constitution wholesale, you know?

Regarding the second -- it is admittedly assumed that all Consuls are themselves members of the Provincial Assembly; if I'm honest I think this dated from when I had the Provincial Council as the legislature (way back when I was drafting a constitution for Garibaldi) and I thought it was an interesting inversion so I kept it in the Belacostan draft. Would not have known it was EU-Parliament-esque though, that's unexpected.

[Mic’haglh Autófil, SMC EiP]

Only slightly related, but on the note of a new flag, I've mutated one of my previous proposals to arrive at the attached.

Blue: Water, naturally. You can't have a Beautiful Riverbank without it! This particular shade is actually Savoy blue, the color of the Italian royal House of Savoy, in order to maintain a connection with the Province's Italian roots while also not implying our water is green.

White: I actually tried using gold in this place but it felt a bit too busy in terms of color. Granted, our riverbank itself is mostly green (well, brown at this time of year), but we need a metal in this spot to make it look good.

Red: Bicoloreu Red for the People! Red in this case can also serve as a callback to both the Italian flag itself (both use red specifically in the fly portion of the field) as well as the Red Shirts of Garibaldi.

Three Stars: Could refer to the three members of the proposed Provincial Council model, the three names our fair province has had, or the three cantons that are lawfully ours just kidding, neighbors. These point to the right in order to avoid putting one star over the other -- the Governor would be first among equals on the Council -- and also to symbolize our province's looking to a brighter tomorrow (tying in well with the motto of our Medium Neighbor, Wisconsin: Forward)

[Sir Lüc]

I absolutely love the flag proposal!

[Iason Taiwos]

I love the new flag design! (I uploaded the image of it to the private Belacosta Facebook group, with a link to this thread, if that's okay...)

[Mic’haglh Autófil, SMC EiP]

I love the new flag design! (I uploaded the image of it to the private Belacosta Facebook group, with a link to this thread, if that's okay...)

It certainly is! I didn't mean to hijack my own thread, but I figured since flags were already mentioned it was at least sort of on topic. Still mostly looking for constitutional feedback, however...

[Sir Lüc]

My feedback remains that you've done an excellent job and we should get this over the line sooner rather than later!