[NYYS]

We need to set up the Parliament system. How many seats are available? What type of majority is needed to ratify a law?

I propose a simple 100-seat parliament, with 60 votes needed to pass legislation. Parties get the number of seats equal to the percentage of the vote, and parties always vote as a whole (ie no single person going off to vote elsewhere, they must change parties or change their party's platform to change their vote). So if the Conservative Alliance has 30% of the vote and the People of PoFo have 40% of the vote and the Liberal Democrats have 30% of the vote, they get that number of seats, and an alliance will have to be made to pass any legislation (to get that 60).

In addition, every two weeks we should have a re-vote to see how the party-seat representation has been reshuffled.

The majority coalition elects a Prime Minister, who is the only person that can start topics proposing legislation (they can and should, of course, propose legislation for other parties on request). Within the thread the parties can haggle until a 60 vote coalition is created to pass it, when it becomes law.

The Prime Minister election is a "law" in itself, as a thread would just be started where the parties propose PMs and when one gets 60 votes they become PM. PMs can be removed if a different 60 vote coalition comes up proposing someone different.

I also propose that we start loosely based on the US Constitution. It would take forever to draft up a document for how Pofo-country (need a name) works, so it would be far simpler to use a document we are all probably most familiar with and change it from there. I'm sure after some time it won't resemble the US Constitution at all.

Anyway, give your opinions.

[Nets]

60 is too high, you've seen how fractured PoFo is. I propose only a simple majority.

[Okonkwo]

I propose a simple 100-seat parliamen

Seconded. We should call it The Senate or something fancy like that.

60 is too high, you've seen how fractured PoFo is.

I agree. Take a look at the recent poll results:

In addition, every two weeks we should have a re-vote to see how the party-seat representation has been reshuffled.

Two weeks is a bit much in my opinion. I'd say elections once a month.

[NYYS]

Very well, 50 vote simple majority will work.

I'd like to retract my idea about starting with the US Constitution. I think we should just make a thread that compiles all the laws. It will be empty at first, but since there is no real country it doesn't matter. Laws can be added and repealed over time, once there are enough of them we can divide it into Economic, Social, Foreign Policy, etc. Ideally it will resemble a mix of all our party platforms to show the broader PoFo government policy. It would be interesting to take the political compass test using our laws as a guide to see where our nation ends up pegged.

[Doomhammer]

I agree with NYYS; no reservations.

60 is too high, you've seen how fractured PoFo is. I propose only a simple majority.

51 - 49? Not very different, especially considering that all MPs of a party will vote the same way. I still think 2/3 majority is the way to go.

We need to craft a constitution/legislature covering basic issues - we need to know what sort of behavior is constitutional or unconstitutional. What does the PM do? Will there be a Head of State? Do we elect him? etc. Are we a unitary or federal state? Secular?


What happens when a legislature is passed? Is it an end to itself?

[Fasces]

I propose a much simpler government.

Put myself in charge, and you can all skitter underground like you matter.

[NYYS]

51 - 49? Not very different, especially considering that all MPs of a party will vote the same way. I still think 2/3 majority is the way to go.

We'll probably end up starting with the simple 51 majority, but it can be amended. PoFo is a living document

We need to craft a constitution/legislature covering basic issues

I think that's basically what this thread is.

we need to know what sort of behavior is constitutional or unconstitutional.

Nothing, really. I think if someone tries something truly ridiculous they'll get voted down. Unconstitutional behavior can be found here.

What does the PM do?

They're the only ones allowed to make (legitimate) threads proposing legislation. It's not much of a power, but they do act as a filter and the official start of the legislative process.

Will there be a Head of State?

I don't think so, no need to over complicate things, really.

Are we a unitary or federal state? Secular?

These are the things we'll need to vote on

What happens when a legislature is passed? Is it an end to itself?

haha, well unless you're all going to live your actual lives by these rules... nah, it's just to get power for the sake of power, and shaping our great nation in your image.

[Aekos]

Are we a unitary or federal state?

How about a federal state in which each ideology gets their own autonomous region with a proportional area to its support?

Party policy could influence local governance far more than the overall federal government.

[albionfagan]

I like this system, party splits really would be doom though.

[Doomhammer]

Nothing, really. I think if someone tries something truly ridiculous they'll get voted down. Unconstitutional behavior can be found here.

[Nets]

If we are going to do this, we have to do it right. For coalition negotiations, the government in waiting should be allowed to divy up portfolios pursuant to coalition agreements (i.e. PUC gets Education, SLD gets Finance and Defense, etc.)

We need to come up with a list of 10-15 relevant ministerial positions.

Obviously, the big ones are:

Prime Minister
Finance
Defense
Foreign

and the smaller ones

Justice
Environment
Health / Education (possibly as two)
Agriculture
Labor
Science and Technology
Commerce
etc....

Also, 100 for the assembly is so boring, why not a more interesting number? How about 156?

[Doomhammer]

We need to come up with a list of 10-15 relevant ministerial positions.

As well as ad hoc Parliamentary commissions.


Ministries (I'm basing this mostly on Turkey):

Treasury
Ministry of the Interior
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Undersecretariat of Foreign Trade
Ministry of Trade and Industry
Ministry of Defense
Ministry of Finance
Ministry of Health
Ministry of Education
Ministry of Justice
Ministry of Agriculture and Environment
Ministry of Energy and Technology

Minilove, Minitruth etc.

Unofficial Positions:
Speaker of the House
Leader of the Opposition

Also, 100 for the assembly is so boring, why not a more interesting number? How about 156?

How about 300?

We should definitely have peerage and titles as well.

[NYYS]

Also, 100 for the assembly is so boring, why not a more interesting number? How about 156?

It seems like a needless step, we'd just end up converting the percentages into 156 rather than having them ready at 100.

If we are going to do this, we have to do it right. For coalition negotiations, the government in waiting should be allowed to divy up portfolios pursuant to coalition agreements (i.e. PUC gets Education, SLD gets Finance and Defense, etc.)

I feel like that's going to make it more complicated than we need it to be. If this works out, fine, we can add those positions and maybe a judicial branch, but for now I think it would get off the ground better if we were just voting on laws.

What exactly would the minister positions do?

[Nets]

Instead of the PM proposing laws, ministers propose laws for their respective fields.

It makes coalition negotiations much more realistic if we have haggling over portfolios.

[NYYS]

Isn't that going to result in like 30 threads open at a time? If there are 10-15 ministers and each one proposes 2-3 laws, we'll be swamped. My vision for it was only having like 5-10 threads going at a time, but obviously that's up for debate.

[dgun]

Oh!!Oh!!

I want to be an opposition MP sitting way in the back who only get's recognized so he can stand and tell the PM to kindly STFU.

And I would like to do this very sarcastically but with an undeniable air of formality and dignity, like the proper British gent.

Yes, everything I know about British government I learned watching Prime Minister’s minutes.

[Doomhammer]

The Right Honourable, Dgun.

[Oxymoron]

We need to elect representatives of each party who will craft the Basic outline of how the goverment will work, if we allow each user a voice nothing will get done. We need to send our Founding fathers to a smokey room and establish and outline.

[Okonkwo]

There should be a requirement for a certain percentage to enter parliament. I say a party has to have at least 5% of the votes to warrant representation.

[Clausewitz]

Isn't that going to result in like 30 threads open at a time? If there are 10-15 ministers and each one proposes 2-3 laws, we'll be swamped. My vision for it was only having like 5-10 threads going at a time, but obviously that's up for debate.

If that turns out to be a problem, we could leave it up to the Parliament in-game. They could impose some kind of parliamentary rule - for instance, that only 5 pieces of legislation may come before Parliament at any given time, which would force the Government to withdraw legislation that was deadlocked, or that only one piece of legislation may be pending before the Parliament per minister.

There should be a requirement for a certain percentage to enter parliament. I say a party has to have at least 5% of the votes to warrant representation.

We've got eight parties, which is a decent number, but PoFo is a pretty diverse place. If we set a barrage like that, the libertarians and fascists might not get seats and it just wouldn't be PoFo without libertarians and fascists throwing wrenches. I think it'll be manageable with eight parties.

Also...how will voting work? Will the party leader just say "yay" or "nay," and that's where the party votes go, or will party members be able to break from the party on individual issues? It seems like the former would be a lot easier to handle and tabulate - the members can punish the leader in the next election.