Octavian X
is not a pipe.
Sorry for the delay. I've just completed my semester finals... 
I tried for cleaner formatting this time around, so people can better reference specific sections.
A list of changes is forthcoming...
More changes just made:
B.3: changed to 'contested election.'
C.1: Accidentally refered to Defense Minister. D'oh!
C.8: Reworded slightly according to Black_Hole's suggestions.
G: Tried to reword some of the vacancy stuff...
I tried for cleaner formatting this time around, so people can better reference specific sections.
The Proposed Flexible Government
- Government Structure
- The government will consist of the Executive, Legislative, and Judical Branches.
- No one citizen may simultaneously hold positions in both the Executive and Judicial Branches of government.
- The Legislative Branch
- The Legislative Branch of government shall consist of the Citizen’s Assembly. The Assembly consists of all Citizens of the nation.
- All decision-making power is derived from the Assembly, which represents the collective will of the nation. This collective will must be defined through the Power of the People as defined in Article C of the Constitution.
- The total number of active citizens shall be defined by the Census. The Census shall be equal to the total number of votes (counting absetentions) cast in the lowest-participation contested election of the current term.
- The Executive Branch
- The Executive Branch shall consist of the President, the Minister of Domestic Affairs, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Military Affairs, and the Governors of the Provinces. Persons holding these offices may be referred to as ‘Executive Officers.’
- The President shall preside over the Citizen’s Assembly, and shall be considered the head of state of the nation. He shall be responsible for managing and validating elections, as well as validating polls as meeting the legal requirements of a Referendum, Initiative, or Recall, all as defined by Article C of the Constitution.
- The Minister of Domestic Affairs shall be responsible for worker improvements (including control of workers, as well as the power to assign certain workers to certain provinces if so desired), city placement (including settlers), taxation, research, culture, Civic adjustment, religion (including missionaries), Great People, Wonder and Team Project construction, and other related affairs. The Minister is also responsible for the care and management of all cities without a Governor.
- The Minister of Foreign Affairs shall be responsible for all matters pertaining to foreign Civilizations, including trade, declarations of war, peace treaties, Open Border Agreements, Mutual Defense Agreements, and all other diplomatic affairs.
- The Minister of Military Affairs shall be responsible for the control of all units under the jurisdiction of the nation, excluding settlers, workers, missionaries, and Great People.
- The Governors shall be responsible for one province each. Individual Governors are responsible for the care and management of all cities within their assigned provincial borders (excluding Wonder and Team Project construction, which must be assigned by the Minister of Domestic Affairs). Governors also control all workers that may be assigned to their provinces by the Minister of Domestic Affairs.
- No one citizen may simultaneously hold two Executive Branch positions at once (deputies and members of lower offices excluded).
- All Officers of the Executive Branch may create lower offices to which they may delegate portions of their authority.
- Executive Officers may appoint or remove Citizens as they please for the offices that are under their jurisdiction, expect in cases where the Citizen's Assembly has chosen to fill the office.
- The duties of these lower offices must be publicly defined, and the office may be closed at any time by the Executive Officer to which it is responsible, except in cases where the Citizen's Assembly may chose to create or close a lower office.
- These lower offices may be created, filled and closed via an Initiative of the Citizen’s Assembly.
- All persons appointed to fill these lower offices may be Recalled by the Citizen’s Assembly. Lower Offices created by the Assembly may not be closed by the Executive Officer to which the lower office is responsible, while the Assembly may close lower offices created by an Executive Officer.
- Irregardless of their origins, all lower offices shall close at the end of term during which they were created.
- Elections
- The President shall be the chief officer in charge of elections. He and other relevant appointed officials must act in a fair and unbiased manner.
- The regular election cycle starts at the posting of the nomination threads, and concludes when the last poll, including runoff polls, closes. Nomination threads will be posted 8 days before the end of the current term. Election polls will be posted 4 days later, and will list all accepted candidates for each election. Election polls will be marked private, and last for 3 days.
- A citizen may only run for a single office during a regular election cycle.
- Each position will be granted to the candidate receiving the largest number of votes in that election.
- In the event of a tie between two or more front runners, a runoff poll shall be opened between those candidates only. This poll shall run for 2 days.
- Should this runoff poll also result in a tie between two or more front runners, another runoff poll shall be posted. This process shall repeat until one person may be declared the winner, or until all but one candidate decide to formally concede the election.
- Should the runoff process continue into the term for which the election was being held, the office in question shall be considered Vacant. In this case, the President, at his discretion, may appoint another citizen that is not involved in the runoff to temporarily hold the office until a winner shall be decided. In the case where the Presidental election is at stake, the President of the previous term may make such an appointment.
- Except for the first term, which may start on any day before nominations are scheduled to start, all terms will start on the 1st of the month. All terms shall end on the last day of that month.
- Designated Player (DP) Pool
- During each regular election cycle, a separate thread will be created during the nomination process for DP Candidates. Any citizen that wishes to be a DP must post in this thread. When the election polls are posted, a separate poll, in multi-choice format, listing each candidate will be posted. Citizens will vote their approval for a candidate by selecting their name.
- A citizen may run for an elected office and apply to be a DP in the same term. The DP Pool does not count as an elected office.
- Each candidate that receives a vote from more than ½ of the citizens that vote in the poll will be accepted as a DP for that term. The President will put together a list of the Designated Players, ordered by the number of votes in support for that term. In the event of a tie, the order of formal acceptance of the nomination will be used. All DPs that actually ran a game session in the previous term will be put below those that did not, regardless of the number of votes. This list will determine the order that the DPs will be used for game sessions. If there are more game sessions than DPs, start again from the top of the list.
- Should the DP pool be empty, the President is responsible for determining who will be the DP for each game session, using any citizen of the nation to serve as DP.
- Members of the DP pool may exchange places as they desire, so long as all citizens involved agree.
- Deputies
- All Executive Officers will have a deputy. The Deputy is permitted to conduct the affairs of the office as directed by the elected official, or during a planned Absence of the elected official.
- If no instructions have been posted for an office within 24 hours of the upcoming Game Session, the deputy for that office may post the official instructions for the office, though such instructions may be superceded should the Executive Officer return to make them before the session begins.
- The Judiciary does not use deputies.
- In the event of a planned absence (defined by a formal annoucement by that justice of such a period of inactiviy) or an unplanned absence (defined as the lack of any posts on the Democracy Game forums for 48 hours after a formal request for some sort of judicial action), a pro-tem justice(s) may be appointed by the Chief Justice (or Judge Advocate if the Chief Justice is absent) and confirmed by the President and the remaining justice if not also absent.
- If both the Chief Justice and the Judge Advocate are absent, the Public Defender may appoint pro-tem members to the other seats, with Presidential approval.
- In the event of absence by all three members of the Judiciary, the President may fill all offices with pro-tem members.
- Upon the return of an absent justice, the appointed pro-tem justice shall relinquish the seat immeadiately.
- Vacancies
- If an elected official (either Executive Officer or Justice) does not post in the Democracy Game forums in 4 days without prior notice, any citizen may request the Judiciary to investigate. The Judiciary, by a majority vote, may declare the office Vacant at the conclusion of the investigation.
- The President will appoint a citizen to any Vacant office. If a deputy exists for that office, the President must offer the appointment to that citizen. The appointment may be challenged by any citizen by posting a Recall poll within 24 hours of the appointment. After that period of time has expired, any attempt at a recall must procede through normal channels as defined by Section I.1 of the Code of Laws.
- Lower offices of the Executive Branch are excluded from these procedures,
- Polling Standards
- The initial post should contain a link to all relevant discussion threads, and should define the poll as either an Initiative or Referendum. Each option should be explained if not immediately clear. The question and answers of the poll must be unbiased. The time frame for the poll, and how the results will be interpreted should also be in the initial post.
- All Initiative and Referendum polls must be open for a minimum of 24 hours to be binding. They are strongly encouraged to be open for at least 3 days. They must be flagged as "Public" unless directly concerning another Citizen. A minimum of number of votes greater than 1/4 the current term's census is required for the poll to be considered official.
- Should a citizen question the validity of an Initiative or Referendum, the President shall judge the qualifications of the poll. Should all qualifications be met, the President shall validate the result. Should some requirement be lacking, the President shall invalidate the poll, and its decision will be considered that of an Opinion Poll and therefore not binding.
- Recalls
- Any citizen may create a thread requesting the recall of a specific official. This post must include the reason the recall is requested. Should two additional citizens post in that thread supporting the recall within 24 hours of the initial post, the Chief Justice (or Judge Advocate if the recall is for the Chief Justice) must create a Recall poll.
- Additionally, an individual citizen may post a Recall poll 24 hours after the President has appointed a citizen to a vacant office.
- This is a private poll, asking in Yes/No/Abstain format if the elected official should be removed from office. This poll should run for 4 days.
- If 60% of the citizens voting support the recall, ignoring abstain, and the total number of votes is greater than 1/2 of the census, the citizen is removed from office, and the office is declared Vacant.
- A Recall may be requested no sooner than 7 days after a previous attempt in the same term on the same official.
- Game Sessions
- All irreversible game actions must progress during a game session, while reversible game actions (i.e. build queues) that adhere to legal instructions can be prepared offline. During each session, the designated player must provide a log of their actions in sufficient detail to replicate their actions.
- Game Sessions must be at least 3 days apart, while no more than 7 days apart.
- A Game Session Instruction Thread must be created at least 2 days before the session by the Designated Player for that session. Should a thread not be created in a timely manner, the President may create one. The initial post should contain the date and time of the game session, a link to the save to be used for that session, and if the game session will be on-line or off-line.
- If the game session is off-line, a citizen may request that the session be conducted on-line. If three other citizens concur, the session must be on-line.
- All official instructions must be posted in the current game session instruction thread. Instructions must be clear and defined. Officials must post their instructions at least one hour before the scheduled start of the game session. However, officials may make changes to their instructions up to an hour before the chat, so long as those changes are clearly noted. Officials that do not post instructions for a game session are considered to have given the DP complete control over their area for that game session.
- The game session may last for as long as there are relevant instructions, until a posted instruction says to hold the session or when the DP decides to end the session. Once a game session is over, the DP must post a summary of that session, a detailed log of their actions, and a save in the instruction thread and in the summary thread.
- If the DP for a session does not show up, or is unable to continue, a substitute DP can be chosen for that session. This substitute is chosen from the President, the Minister of Domestic Affairs Affairs, the Minister of Military Affairs, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, in that order. If none of these officials are present, another substitute may be chosen from the DP Pool, if present.
- Freedom of Information
- All elected officials will create an official thread. This thread will be used to provide updates to the citizens about their office. The information in this thread should updated frequently in order to accurately reflect the current game situation.
- Amending the Code of Laws
- Amendments to the Code of Laws must be posted as a Proposed Poll in the discussion thread for at least 24 hours prior to submission to the Judiciary. The discussion on the amendment must have lasted at least 48 hours.
- Amendments must pass Judicial Review. If accepted, the Judiciary will post the poll. This poll will be open for 3 days, state the new text and the current text. To pass, an amendment must have a majority of positive votes, ignoring Abstain.
A list of changes is forthcoming...
More changes just made:
B.3: changed to 'contested election.'
C.1: Accidentally refered to Defense Minister. D'oh!
C.8: Reworded slightly according to Black_Hole's suggestions.
G: Tried to reword some of the vacancy stuff...
