Talk Elections

Atlas Fantasy Elections => Constitutional Convention => Topic started by: Marokai Backbeat on April 27, 2009, 12:27:44 AM



Title: "Department of Economic Affairs" & Term Limits Ideas
Post by: Marokai Backbeat on April 27, 2009, 12:27:44 AM
Hello to all the delegates, I had some miscellaneous ideas in mind and it seemed like trying to bring them up in two or all three of the proposal threads would be tedious, so here I am with some random ideas that may or may not make sense!

1. Consecutive Term Limits:

I'm opposed to outright term limits because not only is that incredibly undemocratic, but Atlasia isn't the biggest place when it comes to members who actively try to take a role in the system. If you term limit people then you're eventually just going to choke the government of responsible candidates. But there are alot of people out there who deserve to take part in the government but are shut out because of more personally popular or long time incumbent candidates.

It's because of that that I would propose delegates in favor of their system of choice propose a system of consecutive term limits, instead. For example, if we implemented a two consecutive term limit, no person could hold any one office for more than two terms (back to back) and have to step down. After stepping down and one term passes, they may run for office again, or they may run for another office. This allows everyone to continue to participate without hampering the democratic process, while putting into place a tool to help other members who aren't always able to get into office. The limit is of course open to compromising.

2. "Department of Statistics" (Or something other):

This is something that struck me in an earlier situation when I had to sue the government of the Southeast because they were issuing their own currency unconstitutionally. Basically, have a Department of Statistics or Department of Economic Affairs, or something. This is the conversation that led me to the idea.

From what I understand, the 'currency' would have the same effects as distributing say gift vouchers or even as 'wacky' novelty theme park money- they are issued by an individual or a compny and only reedemable through agreement with the same company or another company. They are valueless except to those who agree to their value.

In that case any citizen could make a group and claim to have X amount of gold reserves and therefore issue their own currency. It would be anarchy.

So? As long as they actually have gold reserves, I fail to see the problem.

It's a virtual game. There are no actual gold reserves... So you just say you have them and issue currency. It's like when kids play pretend army and one kid gets shot, he claims invincibility, so when he shoots someone they say they can't die, and it goes down-hill from there.

It's true though. I wish we had some sort of rules laid out for that type of thing so this sort of stuff didn't happen, or some sort of "Department of Statistics" to lay out reasonable and realistic economic reports on a semi-regular basis and kept citizens within reasonable fantasy rules. But alas..

Basically, there would be a position in the Cabinet (or maybe a legislative committee to release the reports?) that would lay out monthly or perhaps bi-monthly economic reports (GDP growth, unemployment, poverty rates, tax revenue, etc. It doesn't have to be too extensive) and would lay out and maintain rules about what individuals can do on their own. (Such as business rules or rules on personal wealth.) Basically we have a situation where anyone can make up anything they want, and go from there. I have no problem with people starting their own businesses per se, but it's when people start making up random s**t that things could go wrong.

Claiming to have large amounts of gold, for instance, or to own a huge armed force, is ridiculous, and it can get to the point to where it can seriously warp the game or just seem stupid. Also, this could provide unique instances where certain economic downturns, upturns, or other unrelated "disasters" could occur, which would require legislative reaction, and could keep the legislature in check when necessary. (We all know how they lag behind from time to time.)



I know there is another idea out there being proposed by Dan, about how to elect individuals without regions while still being able to stagger the election dates. So anyone interested should give that a look in the Parliamentary Bicameralism thread.

I just wanted to get these out there without having to take it to several threads struggling to get attention :P Anyone having small ideas of their own are welcome to discuss them here, too.


Title: Re: Miscellaneous add-on ideas to the proposals.
Post by: Associate Justice PiT on April 27, 2009, 12:34:28 AM
     I'd be interested in a Department of Economic Affairs, since I'm a huge statistics nut. It seems to me that it would do well to be a subset of the GM's office, though.


Title: Re: Miscellaneous add-on ideas to the proposals.
Post by: Purple State on April 27, 2009, 08:43:07 AM
Grrrr (https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=94168.0)


Title: Re: Miscellaneous add-on ideas to the proposals.
Post by: Marokai Backbeat on April 27, 2009, 10:09:40 AM
Wow, how in the world did I miss that?


Title: Re: "Department of Economic Affairs" & Term Limits Ideas
Post by: Marokai Backbeat on April 28, 2009, 12:32:39 AM
I just wanted to change the topic so it might get more people involved in the discussion, so: Bump for the Atlas index.


Title: Re: "Department of Economic Affairs" & Term Limits Ideas
Post by: Smid on April 28, 2009, 09:45:00 AM
In real life, I am fully opposed to term limits - elections are the best way for citizens to express their opinion of the Government. For Atlasia, in order to prevent the game from becoming stagnent due to an exceptionally popular president from winning election after election, I am in favour of term limits for the President. Something similar to what Marokai expressed earlier would be probably the best way to go (two consecutive terms, followed by a break of at least one term before being eligible again).

The Department of Economic Affairs could probably be rolled together in a GM's role - which is something the game has been lacking. There really needs to be an impartial judge who can dictate the relationship between Atlasia and the outside world.


Title: Re: "Department of Economic Affairs" & Term Limits Ideas
Post by: Јas on April 28, 2009, 09:50:31 AM
The Department of Economic Affairs could probably be rolled together in a GM's role - which is something the game has been lacking. There really needs to be an impartial judge who can dictate the relationship between Atlasia and the outside world.

Traditionally this has been within the remit of the GM. Some GMs have done such work (Sam Spade and Al come to mind), others have not.


Title: Re: "Department of Economic Affairs" & Term Limits Ideas
Post by: Smid on April 28, 2009, 10:30:02 AM
The Department of Economic Affairs could probably be rolled together in a GM's role - which is something the game has been lacking. There really needs to be an impartial judge who can dictate the relationship between Atlasia and the outside world.

Traditionally this has been within the remit of the GM. Some GMs have done such work (Sam Spade and Al come to mind), others have not.

Yeah, I considered adding the words "of late" at the end of the first sentence, but decided to leave them off as I am still too much of a newcomer to have experienced those two GMs and would only be repeating what I'd previously heard (that it was previously an active role). I am strongly in favour of its reintroduction.


Title: Re: "Department of Economic Affairs" & Term Limits Ideas
Post by: ilikeverin on April 28, 2009, 11:09:43 AM
The Department of Economic Affairs sounds exactly like what the GM was intended to be back in the day.  A wonderful idea in principle, but it's never worked out.

Consecutive term limits I might be willing to support.


Title: Re: "Department of Economic Affairs" & Term Limits Ideas
Post by: Brandon H on April 28, 2009, 08:55:17 PM
We also had the Sec. of the Treasury which was eliminated and his duties given to the President.

I agree that we don't have enough people for term limits for Senators but I do support it for the Presidency.


Title: Re: "Department of Economic Affairs" & Term Limits Ideas
Post by: Marokai Backbeat on April 28, 2009, 08:57:47 PM
We also had the Sec. of the Treasury which was eliminated and his duties given to the President.

I agree that we don't have enough people for term limits for Senators but I do support it for the Presidency.

Not even consecutive term limits?

The Department of Economic Affairs sounds exactly like what the GM was intended to be back in the day.  A wonderful idea in principle, but it's never worked out.

True, but that might be more reason to implement that sort of responsibility in elected office instead of just letting someone do it whenever they feel like. I feel like that sort of structure is badly needed and simple economic reports could make the game more interesting and the legislature more active.


Title: Re: "Department of Economic Affairs" & Term Limits Ideas
Post by: ilikeverin on April 28, 2009, 10:00:03 PM
The Department of Economic Affairs sounds exactly like what the GM was intended to be back in the day.  A wonderful idea in principle, but it's never worked out.

True, but that might be more reason to implement that sort of responsibility in elected office instead of just letting someone do it whenever they feel like. I feel like that sort of structure is badly needed and simple economic reports could make the game more interesting and the legislature more active.

I doubt you would get anyone to run.  I agree that it's necessary and would be a lot of fun, but the fact is that the task itself is no fun at all.


Title: Re: "Department of Economic Affairs" & Term Limits Ideas
Post by: bgwah on May 02, 2009, 10:46:41 AM
I do not support term limits of any kind and would like to see them completely removed on the federal level. I do not support them on a regional level either, but that should of course be a regional decision.


Title: Re: "Department of Economic Affairs" & Term Limits Ideas
Post by: Marokai Backbeat on May 02, 2009, 11:15:36 PM
The Department of Economic Affairs sounds exactly like what the GM was intended to be back in the day.  A wonderful idea in principle, but it's never worked out.

True, but that might be more reason to implement that sort of responsibility in elected office instead of just letting someone do it whenever they feel like. I feel like that sort of structure is badly needed and simple economic reports could make the game more interesting and the legislature more active.

I doubt you would get anyone to run.  I agree that it's necessary and would be a lot of fun, but the fact is that the task itself is no fun at all.

It's a shame, it could really provide some much needed detail and structure to the game, but I doubt anyone apart from myself and only a few others would even be remotely interested in the job.

:(


Title: Re: "Department of Economic Affairs" & Term Limits Ideas
Post by: Smid on May 03, 2009, 12:22:20 AM
I would be interested in a GM position, but I don't think I could devote the necessary time for it. Marokai would probably do a good job of it, BrandonH would be great for the position if he wanted it.


Title: Re: "Department of Economic Affairs" & Term Limits Ideas
Post by: Marokai Backbeat on May 03, 2009, 02:47:28 AM
:) I do appreciate your confidence in me Smid (and I do think you or Brandon would do excellent jobs, as well as others) but it would be alot of work to implement these types of things.

If there ever is order brought to the game in the form of some economic boundaries, it would have to be comprehensive and done on a regular basis, and the GM would have to be granted a certain amount of leeway in determining what is or isn't reasonable.

My idea would be restricting private organizations like the Atlasian Security Services, or just making up random functions of business and pretending to have certain amounts of wealth. Perhaps not something so general but determined on a case by case basis by the GM(s) whether or not it's productive for ____ to exist in the game.

I'd also like monthly economic reports, and maybe some demographics thrown in, modified off of the United States' statistics (with of course some from Puerto Rico and other areas when necessary) and determining our economic climate with things like unemployment rates, average family income (again, could be modified off of the real world's united states, or other countries), population numbers, GDP growth, stock numbers, etc. I think it would be a fantastic idea if properly implemented and could not only bring needed structure, but could introduce things for the legislature to act on and for the GM to determine it's affect on the statistics as he/she sees reasonable. AND it could perhaps stop the constant focus on real-world events or recessions, and we could view Atlasia as an entirely user-generated project.

As I said, it would require ALOT of work, in addition to normal GM duties, whatever those even are these days, and I could perform the job I suppose, but like I said, it would be alot of work (thankless, even) but I think if done properly, could be one of the greatest improvements to Atlasia yet.