The Union's Goals for the 63rd Cosă

[Mic’haglh Autófil, O.Be]

Good afternoon Talossa! In our last campaign post, 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:

The Democracy Agenda

Since we've already laid out the Democracy Agenda in more detail -- you can read the full text here -- 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 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: "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!

Ja Pevar din 'n Uniun -- There is Power in a Union!

[Mic’haglh Autófil, O.Be]

While it's well and good to run on the Democracy Agenda, it's not the only thing we intend to bring to the 63rd Cosă. We'll encourage activity and creativity, resume Talossa's process of making new connections in the micronational world, and pursue upgrades to Talossan institutions and infrastructure.

• Encouraging Creativity: We've seen some talk of things like new national maps. Thankfully, this is another area URL candidates have already been working ahead of the game, but we also think "just" creating new maps is a bit of a narrow view of the possibilities. We think it makes more sense to have a place citizens can put all their creative projects: road signs, license plates, sports jerseys, you name it. A "worldbuilding bureau" of sorts to give Talossa a bit more panache. This can (and should) be tied into an updated set of clearer criteria for promotion in the Royal Zouaves in order to encourage creativity and award participation in Talossan society in many ways beyond the political arena.
  
  
• New Micronational Connections: We believe Talossa ought to resume the process it's been pursuing on-and-off of wider relations with the rest of the micronational world. We've seen some half-hearted attempts at "information gathering" in this past term, and while that's all well and good, information gathering is only a productive use of your time if you intend to actually do something with the information you gather. The micronational community is one of those things that can be of good use to Talossa, especially when we consider that some members of the community think to themselves "micronationalism is fun, but it's a lot of work to do myself". Wouldn't it make more sense to try and get some of those people to see the value in working as part of a larger group in Talossa? It's another good example of what our campaign has said this whole time: we're stronger as a group. Ja pevar din 'n Uniun. Don't we owe it to Talossans to let them show off a bit in the various competitions and tournaments out there? We ought to let our best chess players and wargamers and whatever else represent us to the community as a way of showing others what Talossa is supposed to be all about.
  
  
• Upgraded Institutions: The first of these that comes to mind is the CRL. The committee that reviews legislative proposals for linguistic errors and the like has been a good idea in principle, but this term showed some of its key weaknesses and places where the process can be abused. The URL supports reforming legislative procedures to encourage more thorough review of legislation before it's Clarked; including either a greater role for the Tuischac'h and Mençei, or a shift to Civil Service legal review positions as has been previously suggested.
  
  
• Upgraded Infrastructure: While we're not quite in agreement with some parties about downplaying the role of Wittenberg in favor of places like Discord -- and we believe the Chancery ought to be consulted on the matter, which we've not seen anyone else mention -- it is worth acknowledging that the Secretary of State has advocated for a move to a new version of Witt with an improved set of features compared to the current platform. In recognition of the Civil Service's independence from the Government, a URL government will support the Chancery's professional judgement on the future of Wittenberg.