Clean-Up on Aisle 7: Fixing up the Constitution

[Octavian X]

Yes, it's that time of year again. I've begun to notice more problems with our constitution in it's current state, so I'm starting this discussion over several problems. This discussion should culminate in a poll that changes various areas of the constitution.

1. The Master Record Keeper
I think we need to add a responsibility to the duties of the Vice President: Treaty Record Keeper. He'd just keep track of all the treaties we've signed, something that's needed to avoid confusion. I propose the VP for this, as the VP otherwise has little to do.

2. Clarifying Public Investigations
This would just be a clarifer for the justice's current duties. Something like:
"2. The Justice of the Court may preside over Public Investigations of elected officials. All decisions of innocence or guilt must decided by a fair poll of the populace. If a person is delcared guilty, the punishment must be decided by the populace in a fair poll. The option of removal from office of a public official, and the option of complete banishment from the nation, may be presented as a valid punishments in appropriate cases. The Justice of the Court shall break all ties in these polls."

3. Deadbeat officials
We also need a procedure for removing deadbeats from office. I'd just give the 'boss' the power of removal of deadbeats after a week or so, 'boss' being the official who would appoint a new person to fill the vacancy (Pres appoints VP, Dom, FA, Justice. Dom appoints Sci, Mil. FA appoints ambassadors).

We may also want to forgo this and impleament a recall process.

4. Re-simplfy Treaty ratification
Our current treaty ratification process is complex, and, in hindsight, unneccesary. I propose simply mandating a 72 hour poll for all treaties (tech trades included) of the populace. In situations where we don't have 72 hours, allow a council vote for treaty approval.

Thoughts?

 

[croxis]

sure

 

[Bootstoots]

I think those amendments sound good, Oct. Just a couple of minor suggestions, it may be better to change the required time for a poll in treaties to 48 hours, to minimize the number of council votes (plus, most people will vote before the 48 hour park anyway). I think we should allow for a recall process, but make it relatively hard to do, perhaps one citizen must make a motion, two more must voice support of it, and then a 2/3 poll vote could oust them. We can also include this in conjunction with a law that allows the "boss" to remove leaders that have been inactive over a week or two without notice of absence. The first two points look good to me; I have no problems or suggestions on them.

 

[Cheetah]

I agree with Bootstoots. I want a way to recall officials, and allowing the "boss" to remove inactive leaders is a must.

About treaties. 72 hours is a bit long I think. And I would like there to be a way to ratify treaties a lot faster if needed.

 

[Hygro]

Where's mention on publicly electing ambassador's and not having excessive council votes?

 

[Cheetah]

As long as someone can appoint someone as acting ambassador until we have elected one, that is ok for me.

 

[Ankka]

I say that sounds way cool! Nice that someone at last got the point on what to do with the constituion.

And a few points what I think should be there:

- A fast way to remove unwanted people from offices
- No council votes
- Only active people should be voted for ministers etc. (How is it possible to change that in the constitution? )

 

[Yndy]

One tiny comment: Don’t give Domestic (me) the power to name Military. Even if Military and Domestic should be closely related I don’t see one being more important than the other. I’d say the same for Science.

 

[Ankka]

So would I.

 

[Cheetah]

I agree with Yndy and Wizard here. Let FA name ambassadors, but let the President name the rest.

 

[Octavian X]

This constitutional amendment is really only for small things that need fixing. I see the following two items mentioned as major changes. They should be dealt with their own amendments, not added onto this one.

Originally posted by Yndy
One tiny comment: Don’t give Domestic (me) the power to name Military. Even if Military and Domestic should be closely related I don’t see one being more important than the other. I’d say the same for Science.

This was done to set up a chain of command that was more dynamic than a simple list. Most notably, it sets up the domestic and FA ministries, arguably the two most important ministries in the game, as coequals.

The idea is that the domestic ministry ultimately has total control over the military and science ministries. It would the domestic ministry that builds units for the military, as well as sets the science rate.

Lastly, it's a check on Presidential power. We know that many people have many different views on how we should run this game. If the President appointed all the ministers, he could fill up the government with people favorable to his position.

Where's mention on publicly electing ambassador's and not having excessive council votes?

We have council votes to keep the time required for getting new officials into vacant office quickly. For example, if we didn't quickly get a new official into, say, an ambassadorial office, constant communication from our nation could break down, which would irresversibly hurt relations.