[CRL] Ziu Reform Possibilities

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

You can't really make a statutory provision that's especially difficult to change.  Any future Ziu will have equal power to this Ziu, and we can't "tie their hands."  I think the principle is called legislative sovereignty.

It occurred to me that we could make a provision of the OrgLaw saying "any change to statute that affects so-and-so must be agreed upon by a supermajority of the Cosa" or something like that.  But we've never done that before, and the immediate problem that presents is that it might make it really easy to impose new laws about that topic by just looping in something about that provision and then really hard to change them once they exist.  Plus it creates a new category of law, which makes me nervous after we spent so much trouble on going to a single legal code.

That said, I bet a lot of this can be put into statute or made so that statute can guide it or something.  I'll take a look.

[Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP]

The Organic Law already imposes a special condition on statutory changes to the Cosă size and that seems to work well enough (i.e., resizing the Cosă via statute takes at least a year, resizing the Cosă via amendment takes one term like normal). What I was suggesting wouldn't be too different from that in my opinion.

[Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP]

Okay, the change sounds good to me.  I'll make it: "3. No person shall hold more seats in the Cosă than thirty times the total number of seats in the Cosă divided by two times the number of ballots cast for the Cosa in the most recent General Election, rounded up to the next integer."

Under this formula, the seat limit in a 20-seat Cosă is 4 if turnout dips below 100, which as far as I could tell is the normal case. This has to do with how the limit strictly rounds up. Perhaps the following would future-proof things somewhat:

"3. No person shall hold more seats in the Cosă than thirty times the total number of seats in the Cosă divided by two times the number of ballots cast for the Cosa in the most recent General Election, rounded up to the next non-zero integer."

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

There's a time limit before such changes come into effect, which is already significant and which I'm not 100% happy about.  We worked really hard to get dozens and dozens of laws assembled into one legal code, and it took months, and it turned our laws from something impenetrable that only a few people knew their way around into something that was actually useful to people.  And it's still legalese, but it's relatively simple.

If we start making special categories of provisions inside of it... well, I'm a little nervous about where that can lead.  Regular Talossans (sometimes MLLs, sometimes not) still sometimes say to me that they don't understand how to read our laws very well.  "Make the laws simpler" is an explicit goal for my party, and there's a bill we'll be putting on the Sixth Clark which has some wording changes for just that purpose.  I'm uncomfortable making them less simple at the same time.

We can do a lot with "as guided by statute" and putting what we can into statute, so let me take a crack at this.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

Can I concentrate minds here. We are very close to being able to get something onto the Sixth Clark. We only seem to have a few, frankly mathematical, stumbling blocks to go, and I suggest we push through them. Let's give the CRL plenty of time to nitpick the final draft.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

My stepmother's services are in a couple of days. Right now I'm helping my dad as much as I can. After that, on Thursday I'm headed home and I will take on the standards for political parties which is I think the last real stumbling block.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

Okay, for standards of party governance, what are the principles which we need to see in all political parties?  Miestra suggested "a party's internal processes for naming their candidates must allow and reflect the democratic input of members, and members have standing to sue in default of this."

Honestly, that might be nearly all we need.  Anyone else have anything that it's vital for parties to have to be considered democratic?  No one's spoken up about this in the last week.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

Let's get this to the CRL urgently. Like, next 48 hours urgently. @Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP your input is sorely required at this last stage.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

Maybe we just set aside the party standards thing and put it in the CRL right away?

EDIT: Sorry, waiting to hear from primary stakeholders is a good idea.

[Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP]

Before we do that, one thing:

Okay, the change sounds good to me.  I'll make it: "3. No person shall hold more seats in the Cosă than thirty times the total number of seats in the Cosă divided by two times the number of ballots cast for the Cosa in the most recent General Election, rounded up to the next integer."

Under this formula, the seat limit in a 20-seat Cosă is 4 if turnout dips below 100, which as far as I could tell is the normal case. This has to do with how the limit strictly rounds up. Perhaps the following would future-proof things somewhat:

"3. No person shall hold more seats in the Cosă than thirty times the total number of seats in the Cosă divided by two times the number of ballots cast for the Cosa in the most recent General Election, rounded up to the next non-zero integer."

EDIT: An as a side note, if you insist on moving voting system minutiae into the OrgLaw to make them harder to edit in the future, I expect we could just as well move the 20-seat Cosă in there, instead of continuing the "200 by default unless otherwise specified by law" dealio. In fact, I insist.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

Yeah, I'd agree with that.

The standards of party democracy are a "nice to have" which we can deal with later if necessary; right now I don't think any party's membership are disgruntled.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

Before we do that, one thing:

Okay, the change sounds good to me.  I'll make it: "3. No person shall hold more seats in the Cosă than thirty times the total number of seats in the Cosă divided by two times the number of ballots cast for the Cosa in the most recent General Election, rounded up to the next integer."

Under this formula, the seat limit in a 20-seat Cosă is 4 if turnout dips below 100, which as far as I could tell is the normal case. This has to do with how the limit strictly rounds up. Perhaps the following would future-proof things somewhat:

"3. No person shall hold more seats in the Cosă than thirty times the total number of seats in the Cosă divided by two times the number of ballots cast for the Cosa in the most recent General Election, rounded up to the next non-zero integer."

EDIT: An as a side note, if you insist on moving voting system minutiae into the OrgLaw to make them harder to edit in the future, I expect we could just as well move the 20-seat Cosă in there, instead of continuing the "200 by default unless otherwise specified by law" dealio. In fact, I insist.

Okay, fair enough. I will try to write the changes to the text tonight, and get it to the CRL tomorrow.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

The Democracy Act and Amendment

Whereas the Ziu believes in further perfecting our democracy, and accordingly wishes to better establish its belief that the outcome of a vote should match the will of the voters as much as possible, and that the people should be in charge of that outcome and not party bosses, and that there is room for parties of every size,

Part I: Ironclad Party Lists

THEREFORE, the second section of Article IV of the Organic Law, which currently reads:

Based on the final results of the General Election, the Secretary of State shall calculate the apportionment of seats among the parties, hereinafter referred to as "party seats".
    1. The party seats shall total 200, or another number which may be set by law, with the provisos that any such change will not take effect until the next election following the passage of a calendar year; and that this number may never be less than twice the number of Senators minus one.
    2. Each party shall receive a percentage of party seats as equal as possible to its percentage of the popular vote, but each party shall receive a whole number of seats, and in turn, each party shall assign these seats to individuals, in accordance with law. The Secretary of State shall employ whatever mathematical formulae and calculations in the apportionment of seats as are set by law, or, in the absence of such law, as will best reflect the intentions of this Organic Law. The Uppermost Cort shall be the final judge in case of mathematical disputes.
    3. Only registered political parties may obtain party seats. Parties which win votes but are not registered may not assume their seats in the Cosa until they register. The process to register a party shall be defined by law. The Secretary of State may request from all parties a registration fee, to be set by law, to cover the cost of the election. This fee shall be uniform for all parties.

shall be amended to read:

Based on the final results of the General Election, the Secretary of State shall calculate the apportionment of seats among the parties, hereinafter referred to as "party seats".
    1. The party seats shall total 20, or another number which may be set by law, with the provisos that any such change will not take effect until the next election following the passage of a calendar year; and that this number may never be less than twice the number of Senators minus one.
    2. Each party shall receive a percentage of party seats as equal as possible to its percentage of the popular vote, but each party shall receive a whole number of seats, and in turn, the Secretary of State shall assign these seats to a numerically-ordered list of candidates nominated by that party. The Secretary of State shall assign seats by assigning a seat to the first person on a party's list. If the party won more than one seat, then the Secretary of State will assign a seat to the next person on their list, and so on until the end of the party's list. The Secretary of State will then return to the top of the list, and continue in the same manner until all of the party's seats have been assigned.
    3. No person shall hold more seats in the Cosă than thirty times the total number of seats in the Cosă divided by two times the number of ballots cast for the Cosa in the most recent General Election, rounded to the next non-zero integer.
    4. Any seats which cannot be assigned under the procedure described in this section may be filled by the King according to his own best judgment, or left vacant.
    5. The Secretary of State shall employ whatever mathematical formulae and calculations in the apportionment of seats as are set by law, or, in the absence of such law, as will best reflect the intentions of this Organic Law. The Uppermost Cort shall be the final judge in case of mathematical disputes.
    6. Only registered political parties may obtain party seats. Parties which win votes but are not registered may not assume their seats in the Cosa until they register. The process to register a party shall be defined by law. The Secretary of State may request from all parties a registration fee, to be set by law, to cover the cost of the election. This fee shall be uniform for all parties.

FURTHERMORE, the third section of Article IV of the Organic Law, which currently reads:

In the case of vacant party seats occurring between elections, the Secretary of State shall inform the King and the leader of whatever party held the vacant seat. The King shall appoint a replacement to each vacancy. If the seat belonged to a party with a functioning party leader, the King must appoint as a replacement whichever person shall be so designated by that party's leader. If there is no functioning party leader, or if the party leader refuses to designate a replacement, the King shall appoint the replacement according to his own best judgment.

shall be amended to read:

In the case of vacant party seats occurring between elections, the Secretary of State shall inform the King and the leader of whatever party held the vacant seat. The Secretary of State shall redistribute all of that party's seats among the remaining eligible candidates on that party's list in the same manner described in the second section, above. If no eligible candidate remains on that party's list, whether by vacation, ineligibility, or the operation of the maximum seats provision, the King may assign the seat according to his own best judgment, or leave it vacant.

FURTHERMORE, there shall be a new second subsubsection of the third subsection of the second section of Title B of El Lexhatx, B.2.3.2, which shall read:

2.3.2. The Secretary of State shall confirm to their satisfaction that all citizens appearing on a party list consent to do so, prior to the printing or publication of the ballot. Only citizens so consenting shall be recognized as being on a party's list for the purposes of Lexh.B.2.3, and only said citizens will appear on the party's list as shown on the ballot.

FURTHERMORE, the first subsection of the fourth section of Title H of El Lexhatx, H.4.1, which currently reads

4.1. No person shall hold more seats in the Cosa than ten times the total number of seats in the Cosa divided by the number of ballots cast for the Cosa in the most recent General Election, rounded up to the next integer.
4.1.1. The total number of party seats is twenty.

shall be amended to read

4.1. The total number of party seats is twenty.

FURTHERMORE, the first subsubsubsection of the first subsubsection of the third subsection of the second section of Title B of El Lexhatx, B.2.3.1.1, which currently reads

2.3.1.1. The party leader may assign seats to any eligible citizen(s) they see fit, so long as the following criteria are met:
2.3.1.1.1. The party's internal procedures are followed
2.3.1.1.2. No one who was not named on the list is assigned more seats than any eligible citizen who was named on the list
2.3.1.1.3. The total number of seats awarded to those not on the list does not exceed 1/3 of all seats won by the party
2.3.1.1.4. No person occupies more than the maximum legal number of seats.

shall be deleted in its entirety.

FURTHERMORE, the third subsection of the second section of Title B of El Lexhatx, B.2.3, which currently reads,

2.3 The ballot must also include, for each party contesting the election, a 50-word (or less) statement of the general aims and views of the party, and a list of citizens to whom the party intends to award Cosa seats. If a party does not submit a candidate list to the Secretary of State before the election, the party leader is assigned all seats won, and seats which cannot be held by the Party Leader are forfeited.

shall be amended to read

2.3 The ballot must also include, for each party contesting the election, a 50-word (or less) statement of the general aims and views of the party, and a list in numerical order of citizens to whom the party intends to award Cosa seats. If a party does not submit a candidate list to the Secretary of State before the election, the party leader is assigned all seats won, and any seats which cannot be held by the Party Leader may be filled by the King according to his own best judgment, or left vacant.

FURTHERMORE, the third subsection of the second section of Title B of El Lexhatx, B.2.3.1, which currently reads

2.3.1. Before the conclusion of the first Clark, each party leader must submit to the Secretary of State a report containing the distribution of the seats won in the election.

shall be amended to read

2.3.1. Before the conclusion of the first Clark, the Secretary of State shall publish the distribution of seats among the candidates of each party, as calculated under the procedure described in Article IV of the Organic Law.

FURTHERMORE, subsection 2.3.1.2 of the third subsection of the second section of Title B of El Lexhatx, B.2.3.1.2, which currently reads

2.3.1.2. Any person assigned a seat as above may decline to take their seats in which case they will be reallocated according to the criteria of B.2.3.1.1.

shall be amended to read

2.3.1.2. Any person assigned a seat may decline to take their seats, in which case the Secretary of State shall redistribute that party's seats among the remaining candidates on the party's list in the manner described in the Organic Law.

FURTHERMORE, subsection 2.3.1.3 of the third subsection of the second section of Title B of El Lexhatx, B.2.3.1.3, which currently reads

2.3.1.3. If a party cannot assign all of their seats under the criteria of B.2.3.1.1., the additional seats are forfeited.

shall be deleted in its entirety.

Part II: Standards of the Cosa

FURTHERMORE, the fourth section of Article IV of the Organic Law, which currently reads:

1. In addition to the seats apportioned between parties after a General Election, the Secretary of State shall assign one Cosa seat to any citizen who becomes eligible to vote after the most recent Election Deadline but before the dissolution of the Cosa, upon the request of such citizen, up to a maximum number as this Organic Law might provide. Any additional seat so assigned shall cease to exist should its holder vacate or be removed from the seat and shall not be subject to the procedures for filling vacancies in the Cosa, and shall also cease to exist upon the dissolution of the Cosa.
2. The maximum number of seats that may be assigned to new citizens between general elections shall be 7.5% of the seats apportioned between parties, rounded up to a whole number of seats.

shall be amended to read

The Cosa may impeach any of its members from the Chamber with a two-thirds majority vote and with the approval of the King. Following impeachment, a replacement will be chosen according to the third section of this article, and the impeached member shall not be eligible for reassignment of seats under the terms of this article. Following a failed impeachment, the accused Member of the Cosa may not again be impeached for the same offence, pursuant to the Seventh Covenant of the Covenant of Rights and Freedoms. The former Member of the Cosa is not barred from running for office in future elections as long as the former Member of the Cosa maintains citizenship.

if and only if the vote for ratification of the referendum for 62RZ14 - The Broosking Swing Mitigation Amendment (Reconsideration) fails.  Should the referendum for 62RZ14 - The Broosking Swing Mitigation Amendment (Reconsideration) succeed in ratification by the people, then the new text shall be added to the end of the article as a new section, instead.

FURTHERMORE, the fifth section of Article IV of the Organic Law, which currently reads:

Each person holding one or more seats is a representative known as a "Member of the Cosa" (MC). MCs may not be removed from office except by a two-thirds vote by the Cosa and approval by the King. An MC vacates his seats if he fails to vote on two consecutive Clarks, or if he resigns from office or dies. The seats of any MC who is removed or vacates shall be reassigned according to Section 4, above.

shall be amended to read

Each person holding one or more seats is a representative known as a "Member of the Cosa" (MC). An MC vacates his seats if they fail to vote on two consecutive Clarks, if they resign from office, or if they die. The seats of any MC who is removed or vacates shall be re-assigned according to the third section, above.

FURTHERMORE, there shall be a new subsection of the seventh section of Title B of el Lexhatx, which shall read as follows:

7.3 A registered political party's internal processes for naming their candidates for the ballot must allow and reflect the democratic input of members, and members have standing to sue in cort if their political party falls short of this standard.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

Okay, it took me a couple of extra days, but I did it.  I think it's all set.

@Sir Lüc , please move this to the CRL for review.

[Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP]

With regards to LegOrg.IV.3: Not "rounded up", merely "rounded". Rounded up or down depending on the number involved.

[Sir Lüc]

Okay, it took me a couple of extra days, but I did it.  I think it's all set.

@Sir Lüc , please move this to the CRL for review.

Done.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

I vote to approve this bill.