Bobby Lee
Confederate General
The senate to be effective would have to be separate from the governors entirely. they would represent their provinces so obviously they would have to maintain a tie with the governor of the province but would in no way be subject to mandates by him...
as for policies of the government...let me revise and/or restate what i meant...the ministers would come up with policies which would be officially stated to the senate for approval. this means a general policy would be drawn up. also important treaties such as mutual protection pacts and military alliances would have to be approved but treaties such as RoP, Peace, and trade agreements would not. heres an example of i see it working:
The minister of Trade comes up with a trade proposal to make which will entail trading our extra spices for 2 gp per turn from say persia. this trade is ok without senate approval because it doesnt effect the budget...but if it were reversed it would because we would have to give up gold...
The Secretary of War (officially Military Minister) comes up with a general policy which is: "The military shall be upgraded over time and old units no longer of use shall be cut, furthermore the military will conduct demonstrations on the borders of (certain) hostile parties in order to discourage hostile action, furthermore the military shall engage in strong naval escort activities for our transports to the newly discovered islands and continents to the northwest and north of our position in order to better protect our chances of colonosation there." This policy only requires direct ratification on one point, that is the upgrades and removal of certain military units. This is because it directly involves the treasury...now for another policy of example: "The military wishes to increase its numbers through the recruitment of new units throughout the empire." this policy also requires ratification because of its dircet budgetary effect, if ratified the senate may draft a plan to be sent to all governors for the recruitment of the number of decided upon military units. That is the military can request 10 swordsmen but the Senate may only approve 6 and thereby issue a proclamation to all governors: "The Senate of Japanatica hereby decrees that a new policy of military expansion has been adopted. All provinces shall be required to produce proof of the production of one military unit to be completed no later than <insert in game date here>."
i hope those examples give a general idea of what im envisioning, basically the senate is empowered through power of the purse. as to impeachment trials i still stand behind my idea on how that works (and wish to clarify the whole senate votes on the issue but only 2 reps of senate participate in the hearing) but of course that is not important to the idea of a senate, slider settings should simply be a proposed policy of whatever minister it is who is officially in charge of that which should be proposed with the main policy and subject to a vote of yes or no, not 50, 60, 70, 80, etc...i revise what i said earlier about the senate being able to propose policy...only the ministers of the department but it should be subject to votes....
what i said about laws and ammendments: what i am saying here is they should be first voted on then proposed to the courts...pehaps this is already done by proposeing it directly to the people, and in such case this point is pretty much null/void
if you insist that the senators, separate from the governors will not participate without a province, then i should the logical course would be to simply wait until we have a minimum of 3 provinces and then hold elections for senators
as for policies of the government...let me revise and/or restate what i meant...the ministers would come up with policies which would be officially stated to the senate for approval. this means a general policy would be drawn up. also important treaties such as mutual protection pacts and military alliances would have to be approved but treaties such as RoP, Peace, and trade agreements would not. heres an example of i see it working:
The minister of Trade comes up with a trade proposal to make which will entail trading our extra spices for 2 gp per turn from say persia. this trade is ok without senate approval because it doesnt effect the budget...but if it were reversed it would because we would have to give up gold...
The Secretary of War (officially Military Minister) comes up with a general policy which is: "The military shall be upgraded over time and old units no longer of use shall be cut, furthermore the military will conduct demonstrations on the borders of (certain) hostile parties in order to discourage hostile action, furthermore the military shall engage in strong naval escort activities for our transports to the newly discovered islands and continents to the northwest and north of our position in order to better protect our chances of colonosation there." This policy only requires direct ratification on one point, that is the upgrades and removal of certain military units. This is because it directly involves the treasury...now for another policy of example: "The military wishes to increase its numbers through the recruitment of new units throughout the empire." this policy also requires ratification because of its dircet budgetary effect, if ratified the senate may draft a plan to be sent to all governors for the recruitment of the number of decided upon military units. That is the military can request 10 swordsmen but the Senate may only approve 6 and thereby issue a proclamation to all governors: "The Senate of Japanatica hereby decrees that a new policy of military expansion has been adopted. All provinces shall be required to produce proof of the production of one military unit to be completed no later than <insert in game date here>."
i hope those examples give a general idea of what im envisioning, basically the senate is empowered through power of the purse. as to impeachment trials i still stand behind my idea on how that works (and wish to clarify the whole senate votes on the issue but only 2 reps of senate participate in the hearing) but of course that is not important to the idea of a senate, slider settings should simply be a proposed policy of whatever minister it is who is officially in charge of that which should be proposed with the main policy and subject to a vote of yes or no, not 50, 60, 70, 80, etc...i revise what i said earlier about the senate being able to propose policy...only the ministers of the department but it should be subject to votes....
what i said about laws and ammendments: what i am saying here is they should be first voted on then proposed to the courts...pehaps this is already done by proposeing it directly to the people, and in such case this point is pretty much null/void
if you insist that the senators, separate from the governors will not participate without a province, then i should the logical course would be to simply wait until we have a minimum of 3 provinces and then hold elections for senators