Our Laws: A Guide and FAQ

Octavian X

is not a pipe.
Joined
Jan 11, 2002
Messages
5,428
Location
deceiving people with images
The purpose of this thread is simple. An explanation of our laws. We have a particularly complicated ruleset, and sometimes people don't understand, but don't want to wade through our actual laws.

The Documents

First off, lets begin with what makes up our laws. We use three different documents: The Constitution, the Code of Laws, and the Code of Standards.
  • The Constitution is the framework of our game, and sets the general concepts and ideas we hold.
  • The Code of Laws, or CoL, are the general rules. This document further defines the constitution, but may never conflict with it. The CoL defines each branch of the government. It helps the game run as efficiently and smoothly as possible.
  • The Code of Standards, or CoS, are the mechanics of the game. It defines elections, poll procedure, investigations, and so on.
No standards may conflict with laws, and no laws may conflict with articles, and no article may conflict with another article.

The Branches of Government
Fanatikan Government is divided up into three different branches, much like modern, real world government. They are the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial.

The Executive Branch
This branch is headed up the President. The most important duty of the President is to acutally play the game in a public turn chat according to instructions. This is the only time game movements may actually be carried out. The President's deputy is the Vice President, who takes the Presidency in the President's absence.

The executive branch also consists of the Council. There are six different leaders on the council. There different departments of the council are: domestic, military, foreign affairs, science, culture, and trade. Each member of the council is responsible for voting in various council votes, setting departmental policy, and giving their office's instructions.
Each of the departments duties are determined by what information appears in each advisors screen the the actual game.
In addition, each department leader has a deputy, who fills in the absence of the leader.

The Legislate Branch
This branch is in charge of making and passing laws. It consists of two houses, the Senate and Congress.

The Senate
The Senate consists of Provincial Governors. Each Governor sets the build queues for his cities in the province. Also, before a constituional amendment may pass, it must be approved by a 2/3 vote of the Senate.

The Congress
The Congress consistes of the entirety of the citizenry of Fanatika. Everyone is a member. A vote by the citizens is needed to approve new deputies, laws, and articles.

The Judical Branch
The Judiciary consists of three members: The Chief Justice, Judge Advocate, and Public Defender. The Judiciairy is responsible for running fair public investigations, and revewing new standards, laws, and articles to ensure they don't conflict, and reviewing standing standards, laws, and articles to define their meaning.

Official Polls and Changing Laws
This last section is about polls, and changing laws.

To pass a change to the Constituion, a majority of the citizens need to vote yes, along with 2/3 the senate. At the moment, it takes 21 yes or no votes in citizen polls and 6 yes votes from the senate to pass the Constitutional amendment.

For changing the Code of Laws, at least 21 votes are needed total, with 2/3 of them being yes.

A simple majority council vote is needed to pass a change to the Code of Standards.

All polls that change articles, laws, or standards need at least 48 hours prior discussion, and judicial approval.

If a new councilmember, governor, or member of the judiciary needs to be approved after presidential appointment, a council vote is needed. For deputies, 21 total votes are needed to approve the appointment by the department leader.

All polls need to have the options yes/no/abstain.



Phew! That's it, in a very large nutshell.
 
The official Constituion, Code of Laws, and Code of Standards may be found here.

Now, the FAQ. Please ask any questions you may have about our rules in this thread, and they will be answered promptly. Every once in a while, those questions will be deleted, and placed in this post. Happy question asking!

Please note, all posts may be deleted at any time without notice.
 
How do elections occur? And where can I find out more about the current leadership?

Note: I already know the first answer, but it does deserve a mention IMOSHO :)
 
Elections occur every month.
Nominations begin on the 24th (22nd in February)
Debates begin on the 26th (24th in February)
Polls open on the 29th (27th in February)
Polls close on the last day of the month.
All threads for these may be found in this in the main Democracy Game forum.

As of the beginning of September, these are our current officals.
EXECUTIVE BRANCH

PRESIDENT: Chieftess
VICE PRESIDENT: Grey Fox

DOMESTIC LEADER: FionnMcCumhall
DOMESTIC DEPUTY: Chieftess

FOREIGN AFFAIRS LEADER: Ehecatl Atzin
FOREIGN AFFAIRS DEPUTY: Raven1er

MILITARY LEADER: Eklektikos
MILITARY DEPUTY: CivGeneral

TRADE LEADER: BCLG100
TRADE DEPUTY: Toasty

CULTURE LEADER: CultureFreak18
CULTURE DEPUTY: BCLG100

SCIENCE LEADER: Strider
SCIENCE DEPUTY: Stuck_As_a_Mac

JUDICIAL BRANCH

CHIEF JUSTICE: Octavian X

JUDGE ADVOCATE: Bill_in_PDX

PUBLIC DEFENDER: Danke

LEGISLATIVE BRANCH

GOVERNOR, CAPITAL PROVINCE: Almightyjosh
 
Hello,

First of all, I'd like to congratulate the people of Fanatika on a great piece of work. Dividing the constitution up into several books is sheer genius and definitely something I wish we'd done over at 1BC. Looks like another major overhaul coming up :)

There are a few questions I have:

1. Your citizens' rights state that citizens may group to lobby for candidates and agendas, but may not form political parties for "slate polling". I can imagine citizen groups exploiting the grey area in between to achieve slate polling anyway, or the other way around, to accuse a citizens' group of covert slate polling to get them out of the way. Are there any precedents that define the line between a lobby group and a political party more clearly?

2. The offices of the Science, Culture, and Trade departments seem rather small in terms of game responsibilities. Have there been any problems filling these seats in the Council, or with participation of these leaders during a term?

3. The Military Leader can supercede the President in the Chain of Command only when the "economy is mobilized for war". Does this imply in-game mobilization, ie. only possible after the discovery of Nationalism, or is it a more abstract term?

4. Citizens who are not in office can run for two positions during elections. They may, however, hold only one leadership position. What if a citizen wins elections for two?

Thanks in advance,

--MM
 
1. We have been lucky that no citizen groups have tried anything like this to date. If they did attempt something along those lines they would likely be brought up on charges through a PI (Public Investigation). Respect for the PI keeps such things subdued.

2. We generally have no problem filling the top seats. We did have difficulty in the last game filling the provincial governor positions.

3. Yes, in-game mobilization.

4. If a citizen wins two elections they must surrender one position. This can also occur mid-term. Say a citizen is leader of one office and deputy of another. If the leader of the second office is removed the deputy is promoted to leader. That citizen finds himself in posession of two leadership seats and must choose which position they will keep.
 
Thank you for clearing that up, Shaitan! It has struck me that the Fanatikan constitution is much closer tied to in-game condititions than the 1BC one. Taking my question 3 for example, we have a similar mechanic called the "War and Conflict Act" which can be activated by a majority Assembly vote. It gives the Minister of Defense limited executive power, so he can move troops and fight combats hands-on. It doesn't change anything about the in-game status though, and doesn't even require an actual war or conflict.

This was shown in our very earliest days, when our executive team abandoned us before we had even played a single turn. Stuck without an executive (due to a rather incomplete constitution), our Minister of Defense proposed the WCA - a mock war with a neabry, peaceful barbarian settlement - and gained the power to get our settler moving until we had elected a new President and Vie President.
 
Octavian
After a while of searching, I did find the link to the three books in Post #2 of this thread, but I was wondering if you wouldn't mind adding it to the top of Post #1 as well. And perhaps, make it a little larger too.

With all the new members we have gotten lately and with the apparent confusion about the rules, we should try to make it as easy as possible for everyone to find them. I suggest something like this:

Click here to view the Constitution, Code of Laws & Code of Standards...

Of course, you don't have to. I'm just offering a suggestion. Thanks for your consideration of this matter and great work on this thread. :goodjob:
 
this question may sound really dumb; but how do I join the the democracy game??? And where can I find a good explanation on what it really is (im totaly noob when it comes to the democracy game!!)
 
Top Bottom