Ruleset Proposal "civic Elections"- Working Copy

[Provolution]

RULESET PROPOSAL "CIVIC ELECTIONS"- WORKING COPY

CIVIC ELECTIONS

WHEN TO HOLD CIVIC ELECTIONS

Civic elections are called for whenever 2/3 or more of the active players vote for a CIVIC change. This change also mean that several structural changes of the nations regime will take place at once, such as national leader, civics structure, the nations laws, appointments and future plans for developing the nation. This vote is called the CIVICS POLL.


HOW TO PREPARE CIVIC ELECTIONS

Whenever a civic change has gotten enough support, a week from the CIVICS POLL have closed, there will be held CIVIC ELECTIONS. The period between the CIVICS POLL and CIVIC ELECTIONS is called the FACTION RACE, where various political platforms find each other and determine their leader, civics, appointments, vision for the development of the nation as well as a basic constitution they want to put forward. Whenever a FACTION PLATFORM is complete, the FACTION PLATFORM in full is submitted to the Election Organizer, which could be a moderator or appointed person. The FACTION PLATFORM must be posted election organizer within the deadline and include the following points to be valid:

1. Candidate for National Leader (poster)
2. Civic choices for Government, Legal, Labor, Economy and Religion civics
3. Constitution Proposal
4. Future plans for the development of the nation
5. Appointments according to powers derived from CIVIC choices
6. List of Elections derived from CIVIC choices

HOW TO RUN CIVIC ELECTIONS

Whenever all of the FACTION PLATFORMS have been posted to election organizer, each of the FACTION PLATFORMS are posted as separate threads in the main forum, so people can comment the proposals, which cannot be changed midstream during the election, but are manifest contracts presented to the votersm, carved out in stone once posted to election organizer.

The election organizer must be neutral for duration of the election, not allowed to run for a position, be appointed or vote. Election organizer can also be the previous leader, which is not allowed to run for leadership again.

The election platform is then set-up as a single private poll lasting 3 days, with only FACTION PLATFORMS (no abstain or "none" option available), where players can vote for their preferred platform. If there is a tie between two options, or none of the options gain 50 % support, there will be a run-off between the two leading candidates.

WINNER OF THE CIVIC ELECTION

When a FACTION PLATFORM wins a CIVIC ELECTION (also called CIVIC PRIMARIES), the National Leader is declared with the proper title (Emperor for Despot, King for Hereditary Rule, Consul/President for Representation, Dictator/General/President/Fuhrer/Father for Police State and President/Prime Minister for Universal Suffrage, titles are free to choose in the Platform, but should be in character for the government civic. Theocracy may be High Priest as well).

The FACTION PLATFORM constitution is then enacted and made law of the nation, appointments that are allowed to make without elections are made and finally another set of elections are made. If there is Despotism, less elections are announced and with Representation, more elections are announced. These are direct elections. Legal Civics determine how many regional elections there will be (less elections with vassalage, and more elections with bureaucracy for example). Economy Civics could also provide a Banker election as well. These elections, following CIVIC ELECTION are called DIRECT ELECTIONS

In the interim of this election, the National Leader is allowed a free turnchat of reorganizing the realm according to the main election. This reorganization for the first turnchat is more or less told in the FACTION PLATFORM already, if those plans are divulged there.

DIRECT ELECTIONS

Depending on the choice of civics from the CIVIC ELECTION, there will be a number of vacant positions that can be filled, such as Governorships for provinces, mayor positions as well as 1-3 Supreme Court Positions, and depending on the choice of civic, Banker and High Priest. The Cabinet will normally be reserved to appointments, unless the type of Representation Government or Universal Suffrage Government leave out a couple of Cabinet positions for DIRECT ELECTION. Despotism, Hereditary Rule and Police State are always Cabinet appointments only.

Direct elections are announced at once there is a CIVIC ELECTION winner. There will be a three day nomination process and a three days vote, where the last day in the week will allow the candidates to post their Office threads.

GAME DEMOCRACY IN THE CIVIC ELECTION SYSTEM?

Demogame traditionalists may fear that emulating history in the CIVIC ELECTION system may deprive players of "democratic rights", or even worse, meaningful participation and in-game influence.

This is not true. Each player can run a FACTION PLATFORM during an election, or be part of the appointment structure, or influence the FACTION LEADER that runs the PLATFORM. Beyond that, there is a good chance to win a seat in the DIRECT ELECTIONS. Yet, there has to be less positions than players, or there will be no competition, and no interest in the game.

In opposition, non-officials can do a lot, already from the beginning of the game. In the early game Despotism may be a totalitarian government form, yet the legal civic, "Barbarism", open for local influence on the mayor-level and citizen level for military units, and the economy civic, "decentralization", open for the people at large to decide on the choice of city location and choice of technology route.

The people would have less influence on the choice of military movements, build queues and worker actions, which has been a source of unnecessary conflict in several demogames. Also, military actions should be limited to the official in charge. Yet, since each player got an adopted, named unit they own, the general in charge need to persuade the individual citizen to transfer power for military action in times of barbarism and vassalage.

Therefore, there will always be an element of negotiation and voting throughout all eras, but the nature of civics will be closer to historical comparisons than other demogames, which were more based on a mini-version of US constitutional thinking throughout all eras, irrespective of time period.

 

[ravensfire]

Immediate question - define "Active Player", and please define in a clear and precise manner.

-- Ravensfire

 

[Provolution]

Active player is a registered citizen that votes in that particular vote.

 

[ravensfire]

Active player is a registered citizen that votes in that particular vote.

So why not just say that?

-- Ravensfire

 

[Provolution]

I have seen people using that term before.

 

[GenMarshall]

How will this effect the normal elections of officals? Because again I am not too keen on the whole Civic-Centric idea (Even less soo since I was blown off of it when I voice my opinion about it )

 

[Provolution]

There will be elections, in particular in the more democratic civics. I am sorry for being blunt on the attempts to cajole us into a civ3 demogame or a traditional set-up demogame, but we actively seek a radical shift to a very novel demogame within the framework of CIV4 BTS. I am sorry you do not share that sentiment, but I will try to see if we get enough critical mass to support the idea.

If someone is willing to work within a historical and civic-centric election framework, I am willing to amend a lot in the model to make it work.

If you want your opinion to be taken seriously, work within the concept, not just only try to kill it off by negative comments. I know I am negative to traditional demogames, which is why we try to seek something new.

 

[Black_Hole]

I'm slightly confused which thread I should discuss this proposal in if I were to discuss it. Every day it seems a new thread about your proposal pops up Provo, perhaps we could consolidate some of these threads?

 

[Provolution]

I have gotten limited input, quite a few good ones, but also traditional demogame retrostyle, some Civ3 stuff, some outright negations and some pejorative comments.

I think we will land on only Government Civics for now as a structural guideline, allow Legal Civic to be at the discretion of the chosen Leader and finally let Labor, Economy and Religious Civics be material for in-character roleplay gaming for various factions groups and so on (I do not see us as citizens, but more like the powerful men and women of the nation, the small Civ-people in the computer screen, they are the real people and citizens).

I will await a few comments from more people first, but I get the idea, not too complex, not too many variables, yet not traditional. This means a very simplied civic-centric system could fly, with only the 5 Government Civics as a base. It is also a fallacy/lie/misconception/misunderstanding (pick one) that this will be too complex. Point is, we get one civic at a time due to technology development. Police State and Universal Suffrage would only come in late game. Most of the game will be a shift between Despotism, Hereditary Rule and Representation. Police State will play out closely to Hereditary Rule/Despotism and Universal Suffrage would play out closely to Representation.

Legal Civics:

The legal civics would still play a role in organizing the governors throughout the eras, but this will be at the discretion of the Leader/Cabinet, as long as they are true to the core concept of historicity (decentralized in Tribalism, state oppression under slavery, regional oppression under serfdom, strong sense of class system under caste system and finally a very liberal and democratic free press). The legal civic, hence regional organization would be left to the cabinet to organize, but should be true to the core civic concept.
This is, if we want to have the roleplay element to have any bearing at all.

For the labor, economic and religious civics, we can allow the people setting up factions seeking to establish a certain way of rule through civics and other means, and we leave this to the players.

If this is not simple, then the previous demogames may have been bloody nightmares in comparison. The very slimmed down civic-centric model can fly. And yes, we keep the monthly terms, but subject to government civic and eventual lines of succession. Besides, we should self-impose the limit to only shift civics during the first turn of the newly elected cabinet, so we poll these at once.

 

[Provolution]

I have gotten limited input, quite a few good ones, but also traditional demogame retrostyle, some Civ3 stuff, some outright negations and some pejorative comments.

I think we will land on only Government Civics for now as a structural guideline, allow Legal Civic to be at the discretion of the chosen Leader and finally let Labor, Economy and Religious Civics be material for in-character roleplay gaming for various factions groups and so on (I do not see us as citizens, but more like the powerful men and women of the nation, the small Civ-people in the computer screen, they are the real people and citizens).

I will await a few comments from more people first, but I get the idea, not too complex, not too many variables, yet not traditional. This means a very simplied civic-centric system could fly, with only the 5 Government Civics as a base. It is also a fallacy/lie/misconception/misunderstanding (pick one) that this will be too complex. Point is, we get one civic at a time due to technology development. Police State and Universal Suffrage would only come in late game. Most of the game will be a shift between Despotism, Hereditary Rule and Representation. Police State will play out closely to Hereditary Rule/Despotism and Universal Suffrage would play out closely to Representation.

Legal Civics:

The legal civics would still play a role in organizing the governors throughout the eras, but this will be at the discretion of the Leader/Cabinet, as long as they are true to the core concept of historicity (decentralized in Tribalism, state oppression under slavery, regional oppression under serfdom, strong sense of class system under caste system and finally a very liberal and democratic free press). The legal civic, hence regional organization would be left to the cabinet to organize, but should be true to the core civic concept.
This is, if we want to have the roleplay element to have any bearing at all.

For the labor, economic and religious civics, we can allow the people setting up factions seeking to establish a certain way of rule through civics and other means, and we leave this to the players.

If this is not simple, then the previous demogames may have been bloody nightmares in comparison. The very slimmed down civic-centric model can fly. And yes, we keep the monthly terms, but subject to government civic and eventual lines of succession. Besides, we should self-impose the limit to only shift civics during the first turn of the newly elected cabinet, so we poll these at once.