The Atlasian Parliament

[CLARENCE 2015!]

As I have posted about elsewhere and told some of you in the chat room- I have recently been following and trying to learn more about British and Canadian politics. I find these extremely interesting and believe such a system would work very well here in the fantasy board. There are a few benefits I believe it would particularly provide...

1. Allow for party leaders to have a role beyond opening and running the conventions
2. Allow for more meaningful cross -party dialogue with more influence for the smaller parties to become part of a coalition
3. By having the Cabinet officers also be Senators, it will ensure there are no wasted positions
4. Create an exciting new element with more unpredictable elections

The Atlasian Parliament

Key provisions-

1. There are a higher number of Senate seats... I would propose 40. Half are elected at large, half regionally
2. There must be an election at minimum every four months but can be called earlier either by the Prime Minister or by a vote of no confidence
3. The Prime Minister is asked to form a government by the Moderator and will be the person most likely to be able to do so...the leader of the largest parliamentary party after each election
4. The Prime Minister appoints the following officers: Deputy Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer (or Minister of Finance), Foreign Minister, and Home Secretary. These officials are also Senators as is the Prime Minister
5. There is a Speaker of the Senate to fill the role currently occupied by the President Pro Tempore
6. If the Prime Minister resigns or is impeached, the Deputy Prime Minister assumes the role of Prime Minister while the party holds a leadership election to determine the new leader
7. The leader of the largest party not in government will be named by the Moderator as Leader of the Opposition
8. The Leader of the Opposition will appoint a Shadow Deputy Prime Minister, Shadow Chancellor, Shadow Foreign Minister, and Shadow Home Secretary
9. If this is enacted... the President at the time will become Prime Minister as to ensure no bias in the implementation



What do you think?

[Supersonic]

YES.

[Donerail]

As I have posted about elsewhere and told some of you in the chat room- I have recently been following and trying to learn more about British and Canadian politics. I find these extremely interesting and believe such a system would work very well here in the fantasy board. There are a few benefits I believe it would particularly provide...

1. Allow for party leaders to have a role beyond opening and running the conventions
2. Allow for more meaningful cross -party dialogue with more influence for the smaller parties to become part of a coalition
3. By having the Cabinet officers also be Senators, it will ensure there are no wasted positions
4. Create an exciting new element with more unpredictable elections

The Atlasian Parliament

Key provisions-

1. There are a higher number of Senate seats... I would propose 40 20. Half are elected at large, half regionally
2. There must be an election at minimum every four months but can be called earlier either by the Prime Minister or by a vote of no confidence
3. The Prime Minister is asked to form a government by the Moderator and will be the person most likely to be able to do so...the leader of the largest parliamentary party after each election
4. The Prime Minister appoints the following officers: Deputy Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer (or Minister of Finance), Foreign Minister, and Home Secretary. These officials are also Senators as is the Prime Minister
5. There is a Speaker of the Senate to fill the role currently occupied by the President Pro Tempore
6. If the Prime Minister resigns or is impeached, the Deputy Prime Minister assumes the role of Prime Minister while the party holds a leadership election to determine the new leader
7. The leader of the largest party not in government will be named by the Moderator as Leader of the Opposition
8. The Leader of the Opposition will appoint a Shadow Deputy Prime Minister, Shadow Chancellor, Shadow Foreign Minister, and Shadow Home Secretary
9. If this is enacted... the President at the time will become Prime Minister as to ensure no bias in the implementation

What do you think?

20 instead of 40. Other than that, I like it; with the slow rise in activity, as well as the rise of several rather reform-minded candidates for Senate (ie: Marokai) and a desire to spark further activity, another ConCon to adopt this could be just the ticket for permanent revival. And our current party system certainly closely parallels the British system (Conservative (and BNP (only because there's no far-right parties so they're lumped in here))=Whig, Lib Dems=Liberal, Labour (and Respect, and Greens)=Labor, UKIP (and Plaid Cymru/SNP)=Imperial Bloc).

[CLARENCE 2015!]

My concern is that 20 is not enough to have showings from smaller parties and to have a Cabinet and a Shadow Cabinet...

[HagridOfTheDeep]

I'm not going to offer a ringing endorsement right away... but if this were, hypothetically, to happen, could we look at having Atlasia absorb Canada?

[Donerail]

I'm not going to offer a ringing endorsement right away... but if this were, hypothetically, to happen, could we look at having Atlasia absorb Canada?

So long as it doesn't mean more regions (Southerners would actually support this, I think; if regions like the Mideast, Midwest, and Northeast move north to annex new parts of Canada into themselves, the only region that doesn't border Canada would move north into the southern parts of those current regions to maintain balance).

And Clarence, I think we couldn't go much higher than 20 without having inactive regional bodies; besides, shadow positions and such go to Senators so they don't count towards the end total.

[Supersonic]

I'm not going to offer a ringing endorsement right away... but if this were, hypothetically, to happen, could we look at having Atlasia absorb Canada?

I support the change, but why annex Canada? Rather random isn't it?

[Spamage]

I'll consider supporting it..... it does seem like it could become pretty cool.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Why not? We could have complete left-wing domination of Parliament a fresh new change in here!

[HagridOfTheDeep]

I'm not going to offer a ringing endorsement right away... but if this were, hypothetically, to happen, could we look at having Atlasia absorb Canada?

I support the change, but why annex Canada? Rather random isn't it?

Not for a Canadian.

[Redalgo]

I would support this if it included a federalist union of Atlasia and Canada, which is something I thought virtually nobody here (especially those from Canada) would think is a good idea!

[Хahar 🤔]

[Fritz]

Can we have a Queen, too?

just kidding, of course.  Seriously, I don't think this is a good idea, and I don't think it will get the support it would need to be implemented.

[CatoMinor]

To have a larger legislative body would most certainly kill the smaller populated regions of the Pacific and Midwest, not to mention cripple the other regions. We need people populating our regional governments and this would suck them away. Unless the number be made something smaller like 15 I will be opposed.

[Adam Griffin]

At the very least, we should consider annexing Canada - in the context that HOTD and SJoyce discussed.

[Associate Justice PiT]

To have a larger legislative body would most certainly kill the smaller populated regions of the Pacific and Midwest, not to mention cripple the other regions. We need people populating our regional governments and this would suck them away. Unless the number be made something smaller like 15 I will be opposed.

     I agree with this. I must oppose any expansion of federal government on this scale, since it would detract from regional activity.

[hawkeye59]

To have a larger legislative body would most certainly kill the smaller populated regions of the Pacific and Midwest, not to mention cripple the other regions. We need people populating our regional governments and this would suck them away. Unless the number be made something smaller like 15 I will be opposed.

     I agree with this. I must oppose any expansion of federal government on this scale, since it would detract from regional activity.

I didn't know that there WAS regional activity going on at this present time.

[afleitch]

This has been discussed many times in the past. I always think it's an interseting idea but would require a game re-start to be effective.

[Supersonic]

I'm U-turning.

I don't support this anymore.

[Supersonic]

I'm U-turning.

I don't support this anymore.

What a stunner.

[Associate Justice PiT]

To have a larger legislative body would most certainly kill the smaller populated regions of the Pacific and Midwest, not to mention cripple the other regions. We need people populating our regional governments and this would suck them away. Unless the number be made something smaller like 15 I will be opposed.

     I agree with this. I must oppose any expansion of federal government on this scale, since it would detract from regional activity.

I didn't know that there WAS regional activity going on at this present time.

     We have plenty down in the South. One of the wonders of an elected Legislature.

[ZuWo]

To have a larger legislative body would most certainly kill the smaller populated regions of the Pacific and Midwest, not to mention cripple the other regions. We need people populating our regional governments and this would suck them away. Unless the number be made something smaller like 15 I will be opposed.

     I agree with this. I must oppose any expansion of federal government on this scale, since it would detract from regional activity.

I didn't know that there WAS regional activity going on at this present time.

     We have plenty down in the South. One of the wonders of an elected Legislature.

Indeed. The Mideast, the IDS and the Northeast have quite a high level of activity at the moment.

[Napoleon]

To have a larger legislative body would most certainly kill the smaller populated regions of the Pacific and Midwest, not to mention cripple the other regions. We need people populating our regional governments and this would suck them away. Unless the number be made something smaller like 15 I will be opposed.

     I agree with this. I must oppose any expansion of federal government on this scale, since it would detract from regional activity.

I didn't know that there WAS regional activity going on at this present time.

     We have plenty down in the South. One of the wonders of an elected Legislature.

Indeed. The Mideast, the IDS and the Northeast have quite a high level of activity at the moment.

Hawkeye's own region is in the process of creating a new constitution.

[LastVoter]

I would support the idea, but not the proposal for obvious ideological differences in perception of democracy. I proposed this before if you guys remember.
Something along the lines of:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party-list_proportional_representation

[Marokai Backbeat]

In the past I've opposed a parliamentary system and subsequent game restart, but I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to a simple expansion of the Senate to 15 members and a find-replacing of Presidential roles with that of a Prime Minister elected from the Senate. It really wouldn't be that complicated of a process.