The Short Guide to Bureaucracy

The purpose of this guide is to attempt shedding a light on the current government processes in this region, mainly for new members, but perhaps others find something useful in here as well.

So, you have a nation in the south pacifc and you have signed up on this forum. If you have taken a look at the forum, you have seen that it is divided into several sections, one of them is called "Government Workings". Yes, we have a government, and it works (usually). But how?

Our government consists of two important branches:

- The assembly (this is the legislative branch)
- The cabinet, consisting of the delegate and all the ministers, whose departments you can find on the forum (this is the executive branch)

Our government-type is a "direct democracy". That means that we do not have a parliament with representatives of the people in this region, but every member of this region has a say in the legislative process. So you have, too! But again, how does it work?
If you have an idea, you can post it in theforum called Assembly of The South Pacific. There your idea will be discussed, further discussed, and if it is a good idea, it will be written as a bill, in law form. This can either be done by yourself, or someone else. Then it will be discussed some more, until a final version has been reached. The Minister of the Region keeps track of the Assembly; if there's a final version of a bill, he will put it to a vote in the Voting Chamber of the Assembly (a subforum of "Assembly of the South Pacific), in the form of an invisionboard poll. No polls are to be conducted prior to this stage! When a 60% majority vote agrees on it and at least 14 people have voted, the bill will become law and put in the Code of Laws.
The Code of Laws forum is where you can find all current laws of the South Pacific!

But wait, my idea is not a bill but a regulation, suggestion or anything else that is not supposed to become a law, yet affects the whole region! Also in that case, submit it to the Assembly for the idea to be discussed, and discussed some more. If it is something that needs to be put to a vote, the Minister of the Region will do so.

That was the council, but we also have a cabinet. Who are these folks?
Once every three months we have elections for the cabinet positions: the prime minister (PM), the minister of the region (MoR), the minister of foregin affairs (MoFA), the Minister of Security (MoS), and the Minister of Justice (and then we have the position of craziest person in the SP, but that is just a position for fun without any serious responsibilities). They all have distinctive jobs, which are described in the Charter that is found in the Code of Laws. The contents of these jobs can be guessed from the names of the ministries, though: security, consisting of defence and intelligence, protect the region against foreign threats in the game, Foreign Affairs keeps the diplomatic contacts up with other region, the department of the region oversees all internal regional affairs and the justice department is invoked when a conflict arises. The Prime Minister is the head of the government.
In principle, during an election, everyone can run for a position, as long as they are member of the south pacific and don't have any high-ranking positions in other regions. So if you are in the SP and are not involved in the government of another Nationstates Region, you can run for one of these offices, too! And believe me, it will be appreciated if you do. The better people know you, the more chance you make to win, so get active on the boards! The elections are overseen by the Elections Commision (EC); read their rules before you are running for a cabinet position. Their rules are not hard to meet, but the commission is very strict.
Every member of the south pacific has of course also the right to vote in these elections. Please do!

And what about the delegate?
Our delegate can be regarded as the head of state of this region. He/She is above the cabinet, but the delegate's actions are bound by our laws. The delegate is not elected every three months; rather, delegacy is decided by the game mechanics through the UN endorsements. We have some rules in place to ensure stability of the region. To be elegible as delegate, you need to be on the forums for three months, so that you can get to know the people you are going to be delegate of, and the people can get to know you. Naturally, you would need to gain endorsments in order to become delegate. When you come to 50 % of the current endorsement level of the delegate, you will be asked if you are going to run for delegacy. This statement has to be made in a special designated forum. If you do intend to run, be prepared for a lot of critical questions. The detailed rules are in the Martial Law/Law of Succession. If you do not make a statement and have too many endorsements, you will simply be ejected.

That's it for now. If you have any questions, feel free to ask your local cabinet member.

DISCLAIMER: This document is purely informative, it does not grant any legal rights. Although care has been taken on the accuracy of this document, the author cannot be held responsible.

This post has been edited by tsrill on Feb 25 2008, 07:20 AM