I have moved up the Con and CoL shown below with the current changes enabled. I've left the DOW and the DOM tentative for further discussion. Made prior changes permanent. Changed wording about Game Sessions in Article L of the Con and Section L.1 of the CoL. Added a paragraph for the Domestic Leader.
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Demogame Constitution
The Laws of Fanatikos
To keep the DemoGame running smoothly we have created a set of rules by which we play. These rules (or laws) lay down all aspects of our Government; such as who does what job, how our leaders are elected and what we have to do if we want to change the Laws.
We have 2 Sets of laws; the highest set of laws is the Constitution, which gives the top level set of rules. This is backed up with the Code of Laws, which puts some more detail behind what the Constitution says.
Hopefully these Laws will answer your questions concerning the rules of the game, but if not, please do not post here but ask in the Judicial Thread in the Government Forum.
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The Constitution
We, the people of Fanatikos, in order to create an atmosphere of friendship, cooperation, and pride, establish this Constitution of our beloved country. We uphold the beliefs that each citizen must have an equal voice in the government and ruling of our country, that government itself is a construct of and servant to the people, that rules, regulations, and laws should be established to facilitate the active participation of all citizens and to make possible the dreams and desires of the citizens.
Here, there are many people involved with making the decisions on how the game is played. Instead of all sitting at the same computer, we use the forums to discuss the game with each other. To manage many people playing the game, a government has been formed to provide a structured way for everyone to be involved in the decision making process. We encourage all citizens to take an active part, and to act as a citizen would, to role play their views and actions.
This government is much like real life. It has a Constitution, a Code of Laws, and elections to select Leaders that are responsible for managing certain aspects of the game. Continue reading and you will find all you need to know to participate in the DemoGame.
Article A. Citizenship
Article B. Laws of Fanatikos
Article C. Game Structure
Article D. Government Structure
Article E. The Executive Branch
Article F. Legislative Branch
Article G. Judicial Branch
Article H. Elections
Article I. Governors
Article J. Will of the People
Article K.
Article L. Game Sessions
Article M. Playing the Save
Article N. Census, and Amending the Constitution
Article A. Citizenship
All Civfanatics Forum users who register in the Citizen Registry are citizens of our country, and members of the Assembly. Citizens have the right to assemble, the right to free movement, the right to free speech, the right to a fair trial, the right to representation, the right to request an investigation into possible violations of law and the right to vote. Political parties are not permitted.
Article B. Laws of Fanatikos
Governing rules shall consist of these Articles of the Constitution, such amendments that shall follow and lower forms of law that may be implemented. No rule shall be valid that contradicts these Articles.
These rules may not contradict the rules and regulations of the Civfanatics Forums. Moderators may veto any such rules.
Article C. Game Structure
Article D. Government Structure
The government will consist of the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch and the Judicial Branch. All leaders must determine and implement the Will of the People. The number and type of offices which may be held by a citizen simultaneously may be limited if specified in a lower form of law.
Code of Laws Section D.1 Freedom of Information
Code of Laws Section D.2 Multiple Offices
Article E. The Executive Branch
The Executive branch is responsible for tasks and projects that affect the Nation and is headed by the President.
The President is responsible for control of the slider, worker allocation and resolving disputes between leaders, such as over use of gold. The President is also responsible for all tasks not assigned to another leader. The President is also held accountable for the playing of the save and the actions taken while playing the save. The consistant progression of the game as a whole is also the President's responsibilty
The Domestic Leader is responsible for all issues domestic not handled by the President. Organizes decisions about settler placement. Organizes departmental and provincial budgets. Is Governor of cities that do not have a Provincial/Expatriate governor. The Domestic Leader will also be responsible for all the duties of the game's Cultural Leader.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs is responsible for all matters involving treaties with foreign nations and all espionage activities. This includes Trade Embargoes, Military Alliances and the use of Spies to acquire technologies.
The Minister of Defense is responsible for the defense of Fanatikos and military planning. The Minister also controls the actions of all Military units.
The Minister of Trade and Technology is responsible for all trade initiatives and research goals. The Minister also coordinates any plans for spaceship construction.
Code of Laws Section E.1 City Placement and Naming
Article F. Legislative Branch
The Legislative Branch is formed of the Assembly.
The Assembly is made up of all citizens, and is responsible for the creation of new laws and Amendments. The Assembly will present all such proposals to the Judiciary for review.
The power to declare War is given to the Assembly, as is the power to Declare Mobilization.
Code of Laws Section F.1 Declaration of War
Code of Laws Section F.2 Declaration of Mobilization
Article G. Judicial Branch
The Judicial Branch will consist of one Chief Justice, one Public Defender and a Judge Advocate. These three justices are tasked with upholding, clarifying and reviewing all changes to the Constitution and its supporting laws through Judicial Reviews, and upholding the rights of all citizens through Investigations. The Judiciary will carry out all its tasks in a fair, impartial, public and speedy manner.
Code of Laws Section G.1 Judicial Procedures
The Chief Justice shall have the additional responsibility to organize and conduct the affairs of the Judicial Branch. The Public Defender will act as council to an accused citizen, if the accused citizen wishes. The Judge Advocate will act as the prosecution.
Article H. Elections
The Executive Branch positions, Governorships and the Judiciary positions are all elected positions with a fixed term not to exceed one month.
Code of Laws Section H.1 Elections
Code of Laws Section H.2 Designated Player Pool
Code of Laws Section H.3 Deputies
Code of Laws Section H.4 Vacancies
Code of Laws Section H.5 Confirmation Polls
Code of Laws Section H.6 Recalls
Article I. Governors
Governors are responsible for the well-being of the Provinces of Fanatikos. Each Province will have its own Governor. Each Governor is responsible for the care, management, and use of Province/Cities they control.
Each Governor may also setup a civic government for the cities they control in any manner they see fit that does not conflict with Fanatikos laws.
The Governors are also responsible for choosing a President should an election cycle complete with no citizen elected as President.
Code of Laws Section I.1 Gubernatorial Election of a President
Article J. Will of the People
Elected Officials must plan and act according to the Will of the People. The Will of the People is the aggregate wish of the citizens of our Fanatikos. It is determined by unanimity in a completed discussion, or by the majority vote in an official poll.
Code of Laws Section J.1 Polling Standards
Article K.
Article L. Game Sessions
There are two kinds of Game Sessions. One is an online TurnChat (TC), the other is offline both played by the President (DP), or any other approved DP. The default Game Session will be the online TurnChat (TC).
All irreversible game actions must be made by the President or his delegate (DP) during a game session using instructions posted in a game session instruction thread.
A special session to accomplish a specific, short goal may be held by the President if there is significant public support. These special sessions do not count as a regular game session.
Code of Laws Section L.1 Game Sessions
Article M. Playing the Save
Commission of any game action, by any person other than the Designated Player while carrying out their duties, which is not instantly reversible without reloading the save, is strictly forbidden.
Exception: Determining options in the renegotiation of Peace agreements requires an action of acceptance or war to exit the bargain screen. This may be done but the game must be immediately closed without saving.
Article N. Census, and Amending the Constitution
The Census is defined as the average number of votes cast, dropped fractions, in each of the contested elections in the most recent general election
Amendments to the Constitution 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 4 days, state the new text and the current text. To pass, an amendment must have a 67% majority of positive votes, ignoring Abstain, and have a total number of votes greater than 1/2 of the census.
Code of Laws Section N.1 Amending the Code of Laws
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The Code of Laws
Section D.1 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.
Section D.2 Multiple Offices
A citizen who holds a governorship may also hold one additional office which may be an executive office or another governorship. Citizens may only accept one nomination per election cycle. If more than one nomination is accepted the first one shall prevail. The second office held by a citizen, if any, must be by appointment to a vacant office. The order of the offices held by the citizen is immaterial (Governor then Executive, vs Executive then Governor), as long as the offices are combined as specified in this section.
Section E.1 City Placement and Naming
Discussions on city placement will be initiated by the Domestic Leader. Any citizen may post their opinion on any location. Names for all cities will be chosen by the Governor of the Province the city resides in. Alternatively, a discussion for naming a city will be lead by the Governor.
Section F.1 Declaration of War
To declare a war, the Minister of Foreign Affairs will create a normal poll for the Assembly. If more than 50% of the voters, not counting abstain, support the declaration, war can be declared.
Section F.2 Declaration of Mobilization
To declare Fanatikos in a state of Mobilization, any citizen may create a discussion thread about it. After more than 48 hours of posting, but less than 96 hours, a vote about the Mobiliztion shall be called for by the President, in the form of a Public Poll that will last 48 hours. If there are more votes in support of Mobilization than opposed at the close of the Poll, Fanatikos is to be placed in a state of Mobilization on the decided turn.
Section G.1 Judicial Procedures
The Chief Justice must post the Judicial Procedures by which they plan to run the Judiciary. These procedures are not binding until 2/3 of the Judiciary accepts the procedures. They may not be changed except through a unanimous decision by all members of the Judiciary. These procedures may not contradict the Constitution or the Code of Laws, but are considered law.
Section H.1 Elections
The Election Office, a citizen’s office supervised by the President, will perform all actions needed for each election cycle.
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 public, and last for 3 days.
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, and be repeated as often as needed to resolve the tie.
Except for the first term, all terms will start on the 1st of the month, and end on the last day of that month.
Section H.2 Designated Player 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 any 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 Election Office 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 posting in the nomination thread 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 Fanatikos to serve as DP.
Members of the DP pool may exchange places as they desire, so long as all citizens involved agree.
Section H.3 Deputies
All Executive and Governor positions 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.
The Judiciary does not use deputies. In the event of an Absence, a pro-tem justice(s) may be appointed by the Chief Justice (or Judge Advocate if the Chief Justice if 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-tems to the other seats, with Presidential approval.
Section H.4 Vacancies
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. This appointment may be challenged by any citizen by that citizen posting a confirmation poll within 24 hours of the appointment.
If an elected official does not post in the DG forums in 7 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.
Section H.5 Confirmation Polls
A confirmation poll is used, where permitted by law, to give citizens the opportunity to challenge certain actions. If a challenge poll does not exist for such an action, any citizen may create such a poll. This poll must be created within 24 hours of the action, should ask “Do you approve of <description of action”>, contain Yes, No and Abstain options, and run for 2 days. If the action concerns a citizen, the poll must be marked private. Otherwise, it must be marked public. When the poll closes, if the majority of citizens, not including abstain, voted No, the action is overturned. Any other result confirms the action.
Section H.6 Recalls
Any citizen may create a thread requesting the recall of a specific elected 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. 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 2/3 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.
Section I.1 Gubernatorial Election of a President
The Governors are responsible for choosing a citizen to serve as President if an election cycle completes with nobody no citizen elected to the office of President. A Governor will create a thread for interested citizens to post in, and be questioned by the Governors. 3 days after the creation of this thread, the Legislature will vote amongst all interested Candidates via Private Poll. The citizen receiving the most votes is elected President. If more than one citizen ties, a run-off election will be held between only those citizens.
Section J.1 Polling Standards
Polls posted by an elected official on an area they control are considered official and binding unless specifically stated otherwise. Polls posted by citizens, by officials outside their area or by officials in their area explicitly noted as such are considered unofficial, and do not bind officials in any way. Officials should, however, take such polls into account during planning.
The description and initial post for all official polls should be stated in a clear and neutral manner.
The initial post should contain a link to all relevant discussion threads. Each option should be explained if not immediately clear. The time frame for the poll, and how the results will be interpreted should also be in the initial post.
All official 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.
Official polls should be flagged as “Public” unless directly concerning another Citizen.
Section K.1
Section L.1 Game Sessions
All irreversible game actions should progress during an online turnchat, 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. The President or his delegate may choose to play an offline Game Session rather than an online TurnChat, but must first get the approval of the people with a public poll.
The President will schedule all Game Sessions. The President is the Default Designated Player. If the President needs to, he or she may delegate a Game Session to a member of the Chain of Command. If a President or their delegate is more than 15 minutes late for an online TurnChat, it may be played by another member of the CoC, the highest ranking member having priority. A replacement DP must post in the Instruction thread that they are now taking and playing the save (putting a timestamp on their action).
A Game Session Instruction Thread must be created at least 2 days before the chat by the Designated Player for that session. Should a thread not be created in a timely manner, the President may create one. Game Sessions must be at least 3 days apart, no more than 7 days apart. 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 online or offline.
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 in that official's Office Thread. 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. If this happens in two consecutive game sessions, that Official is subject to a recall vote.
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, DPs must post a summary of that session, a detailed log of their actions, relevant screenshots, and a save in the instruction thread and in the summary thread.
Section N.1 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.
