The Constitution & FAQ

[Pedrunn]

C O N S T I T U T I O N

Table of Contents

Article I - Bill of Rights

Article II - Executive Branch: The Ministers

Article III - Judicial Branch: The Court

Article IV - Polling Rules

Article V - Government Changes



F A Q

FAQ - Common questions



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[Pedrunn]

Article I: Bill of Rights

1. Any person who has registered to participate in this Democracy Game in the CtP2 Democracy Game CivGroup is considered a Citizen. No person shall be denied the right to become a Citizen.

2. No Citizen shall ever be in any poll denied the right to vote and to keep this vote private. No Citizen shall ever be forced to vote in any poll.

3. Freedom of speech and the right to associate into any form of organization shall not be denied unless it violates Apolyton rules.

4. No citizen may be punished in any way without the consent of the Court. Still no one shall be banned permanently from participating in the Democracy Game, excluding those who are permanently banned from Apolyton. Note that people may still be banned for any amount of time, as long as it is not permanent.

5. The government may not knowingly hide information or give false information to the people. Therefore all citizens shall have access to the saved games. However, no Citizen shall ever 'play ahead'.


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Article II: Executive Branch: The Ministers

1. General Contents


(a) The members of the Executive Branch are called ministers and the positions in the Exective Branch are called ministerial offices or executive offices.
(b) Any citizen become a candidate for an executive office by expressing his desire to in the thread started by the Court as described in Article V, paragraph 1(e).
(c) An elected minister is charged with the duties explained in this Section 2 of this Article until the end of the term for which the minister was elected.
(e) The terms for all elected offices last one month. All ministers will remain in office for this period unless they resign or are impeached before the end of it.
(f) If a minister will be unable to perform its duties for some part of the term, this minister is obliged to choose a willing citizen as delegate, who will act on his behalf, until further notice from the minister or the end of the position term, whichever is the sooner. This delegate will still be subordinated to the citizen being replaced. A minister can be delegate of a fellow minister.
(g) A minister who expects to have to appoint a delegate for a significant portion of the term is encouraged to resign.
(h) Every in-game action made or recommended to the President by a minister must be posted to the forum, no matter how insignificant it is.
(i) All resolutions passed by the citizens through a resolution poll declared valid by the Court will be obeyed by all ministers and will overrule all decisions made by ministers in order to make its content part of the game.

2. Government Positions

I. The President
(a) The President shall physically play the game on a regular and scheduled basis whenever possible and post the save and a complete report of the game events to the forum.
(b) The President is encouraged to use turnchats, turnthreads, or any other similar method while playing the game.
(c) The President must follow the instructions of the Court, the Ministers and their delegates while playing the game and doesn't hold any veto powers unless specifically named in the constitution. If an instruction is clearly erroneous, or by changed circumstances made impossible or harmful the President may decide in the best interest of the game.
(d) In case of missing orders for a whole turn from a minister and all his delegates the President may not play on.
(e) The President is responsible for the naming of all new cities of the empire regardless of how the cities were created or assimilated. A name has to be evaluated by the citizens through an Official Poll (Article IV, Subsection 3-II) before a city is named.
(f) The President is in charge of all the Empire settings and sliders, including Rations, Workday, Wages, Public Works rate and Science rate.
(g) The President has the power over the monetary reserve. Therefore every money spending decision must have the approval of the President in order to be act.

II. The Minister of Domestic Affairs
(a) The Minister of Domestic Affairs is responsible for managing all cities. This includes their distribution of specialist citizens and production queues, rushed production requests and disbanding.
(b) The Minister of Domestic Affairs can only disband a city after this action has been evaluated by the citizens through an Official Poll (Article IV, Subsection 3-II).
(c) The action of Rush buying items can only be perfomed with the President's approval.
(d) The Minister of Domestic Affairs is responsible for settlers, choosing site for new cities and moving these units to this site.

III. The Minister of Infrastruture
(a) The Minister of Infrastructure is ultimately responsible for the placement of tile improvements, choosing the best tile and the best improvement, with the current reserve of public workers.

IV. The Minister of Diplomacy, Trade and Science
(a) The Minister of Diplomacy, Trade and Science is responsible for gifts, requests, exchanges and agreements with other nations.
(b) The actions of the Minister of Diplomacy, Trade and Science are subject to the following further restrictions:
* Any payment of gold in gift or tribute must be approved by the President.
* Exchanges of cities must be approved by the Minister of Domestic affairs.
* Disarmement treaties must be approved by the Minister of Defence.
(c) The Minister of Diplomacy, Trade and Science is responsible for all unconventional units, except settlers. Spending gold with the unconventional units orders must be approved by President. Any action which would result in a declaration of war has to be evaluated by the citizens through an Official Poll (Article IV, Subsection 3-II).
(d) The Minister of Diplomacy, Trade and Science is responsible for all internal and foreign trade.
(e) The Minister of Diplomacy, Trade and Science is responsible for research.

V. The Minister of Defense
(a) The Minister of Defense is responsible for all units and their orders including the disband order, except settlers and all other unconventional units.
(b)Any action which would result in a declaration of war has to be evaluated by the citizens through an Official Poll (Article IV, Subsection 3-II).
(c) The Minister of Defense may name any army to ease discussions.


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Article III: Judicial Branch: The Court

1. Purpose:

(a) The Court is constituted to rule upon: contested disputes involving legal interpretation, validity of polls and elections, violations of the Constitution, or any other legal dispute involving the game.

2. Construct of the Court

(a) The Court is composed of 3 Judges who will serve a three month term of office. There is no limit to the number of terms a Judge may serve.
(b) Each Judge has to be elected by the people in a seperate election poll. Every month one of the Judge positions shall be open for election. This positition shall be the one of the Judge who has reached the end of his term.
(c) When the election of a Judge position starts, the Judge who enters the last month of his term becomes the Senior Justice.
(d) Paragrah 2(c) only applies to regular elections at the end of a Judge's term. It does not apply to elections that take place to replace impeached Judges. The replacement for an impeached Judge shall serve for the remainder of the term that their predecessor served. If the Senior Justice is impeached, the new Judge shall become the Senior Justice. If another Judge was impeached, the Senior Justice shall keep his position.
(e) A Judge may not serve in other governmental posts.

3. Cases

(a) The Court can only rule on cases filed. A case may be filed by any citizen who is not a Judge, by publically notifying the Senior Justice. This case must involve a dispute that the Court is empowered to rule upon.
(b) The Senior Justice will either accept or deny the case. This decision cannot be appealed. If the case is denied, the Senior Justice will publically inform the filer of the case, explaining the reason for the denial.
(c) If the case filed deals with the constitutionality of a poll, the judges may make an immediate ruling without the use of a public hearing if all the judges agree with the ruling. The ruling may be challenged by either the owner of the thread or the person who filed the case. A public hearing will then be commenced to hear the case.
(d) Upon acceptance the Senior Justice is to open a thread with the description of the case. A public hearing will be held in that thread lasting three days.
(e) After three days, the thread will be closed and the Senior Justice will organize the Court's ruling. At least two Judges must vote on any ruling that is made. Any ruling is immediately official and final as soon as two Judges have voted in favour of it.
(f) The only possibilty of an appeal is a Resolution poll put up by the citizen that filed the case, the respondent or by a Minister or by the President. In that case, the current verdict is placed on hold until after the appeal is voted upon. The ruling of the Court can be declared void by means of a Resolution poll.
(g) If a ruling is declared void by appeal, a new public hearing will be held in accordance with paragrahs 3(c), 3(d) and 3(e), with the exception that the public hearing may be closed in less than three days if the Court deems this appropriate.

4. Rights and responsibilities

(a) The Court may make its own rules of procedure and enforce them upon citizens who are before it, so long as such rules are in accordance with the constitution.
(b) The Court will keep a record of all disputes, issues, and hearings before the Court. The Court will also keep a public record of the Constitution in its current form. The Court may appoint a Clerk of the Court to keep these records.
(c) If the Court rules that the actions of certain Citizens are in violation with the Constitution or other rules of Lemuria, it may hand out punishments to these Citizens if it deems this appropriate. The Court will determine for itself what kind of punishment is applied, the punishment must fit the crime. However, no punishments may permanently affect a Citizens participation in the Democracy Game, the Court may not dismiss active members of government (although it may start up impeachment procedures as described in Article V) and the Court may not alter the Constitution (although it may start an Amendment poll, as described in Article IV Subsection 3-IV).
(d) Punishments the Court may hand out include but are not limited to: warnings, impeachment procedures, barring Citizens from specific or any government offices in future elections, banning Citizens from the Democracy Game, declaring resolutions void, closing threads or polls, deleting or editing posts or threads, declaring polls invalid. Punishments which require action from the CtP2-Democracy Game forum moderator must be approved by this moderator, who shall offer an explanation to the Court if approval is not given.
(e) The Court may issue an injunction to halt any aspect of the game for up to 72 hours if at least two Judges agree to do so. Injunctions may only be issued for good cause. An injunction may only be continued beyond 72 hours if all three Judges agrees to do so. An injunction may be overturned at any time by a majority of the Court.
(f) The Court is responsible for organizing elections. It shall post election polls and nomination threads whenever this is needed, as defined in Article IV and Article V.
(g) In case the number of active posters severly differs from 20 the court may change the quorum of 7 votes in favour for resolution and ammendment polls in a unanimous vote.

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Article IV: Polling Rules

1. Definition and validity:

(a) All official decision making will be done through polls, in which Citizens can express their opinion on issues. A poll is the standard vBB poll feature in which people can anonymously vote for one of a list of options.
(b) There are 5 types of polls: Election polls, Official polls, Resolutions, Amendments and Unofficial polls.
(c) Any Poll that is not Unofficial (see Section 3, particularly Subsection V) and that violates any of the rules specified in this Article will be declared invalid.
(d) Any polls not declared ELECTION, RESOLUTION, AMENDMENT, or OFFICIAL will be considered Unofficial.
(e) The Court has the right to rule over the validity of polls. Invalid polls should be considered Unofficial and may be closed if the Court requests this.

2. Poll Organization:

(a) The first post of all polls must contain the following elements:
* A clear and unbiased explanation of the question and the answers, if needed;
* Expiration date, if applicable;
* Links to related threads or other information sources, if any;
* Type (see Section 3) and purpose of the poll (for example: information gathering or decision making).
(b) Two types of poll organization are allowed: Yes/No polls and multiple choice polls.
(c) Yes/No polls must have three options of which only one can be chosen. The three options must be:
* Yes, meaning that the voter agrees with what was stated in the poll;
* No, meaning that the voter does not agree with what was stated in the poll;
* Abstain, meaning that the voter does not have a specific opinion on what was stated in the poll or does not wish to express it. Abstain votes may not be considered to say anything about what was stated in the poll.
(d) Alternative terms for 'Yes' and 'No' may be used in a Yes/No poll, as long as their meaning is along the same lines as 'Yes' and 'No' (examples: 'I agree'/'I don't agree' or 'In favour'/'Against'). Terms are along the same lines as 'Yes' and 'No' when the question in the poll can be rephrased so that it can be answered with 'Yes' or 'No'.
(e) Multiple choice polls must have at least three options. Such polls must have an Abstain option as defined in paragraph 3(c). All other options are open for the poll creator to fill in as he wishes, as long as they are clear and unbiased.
(f) All polls except unofficial ones must have options of which only one can be chosen. Multiple selection polls (which are described in the vBB poll system as 'multiple choice') are expressly forbidden.

3. Poll Types:

I. Election polls:
(a) These polls must be started by the Court. They serve to elect the persons who will fulfill the official positions of the executive and judicial branches of the government, as defined in Article II and Article III.
(b) The subject line must contain the word 'ELECTION', written in capital letters, and the name of the office for which the election is held.
(c) They have to be multiple choice polls with only the names of the candidates as options. They can only be decision-making polls, they cannot be used for not information gathering.
(e) They must follow the rules as defined in Article V.
(f) Election polls in accordance with Article V paragraph 1(h) shall expire in five days and the Court must include the expiration time in the first post of the poll.

II. Official polls:
(a) These polls must be started by members of the executive branch of the government, as defined in Article II of this Constitution, and relate to the game.
(b) The subject line must contain the word 'OFFICIAL', written in capital letters.
(c) They can be either Yes/No or multiple choice polls and can be used for either information gathering or decision making.
(d) The government official who started the poll may or may not follow the opinion of the majority of the voters. In case (s)he does not follow what was decided, (s)he must make this decision public. Failure to do so will be regarded withholding of information, as defined in Article I Section 5, and can serve as grounds for Impeachment (see Article V).
(e) Official polls shall only expire at a time chosen by the officer who opened the poll. And if the poll has an expiring day the same officer who started it must include this information in the first post.

III. Resolutions:
(a) These polls can be started by any Citizen, including members of the governement, and must be used to propose resolutions. Resolutions, if passed, modify the rules that clearly affect the course of the game or the policy of the executive branch of the government (as defined in Article II of this Constitution). Except in the case of impeachments which shall be decided according to Article V Section 2.
(b) The subject line must contain the word 'RESOLUTION', written in capital letters.
(c) Resolution polls must be Yes/No polls. Multiple choice polls are not allowed as resolutions.
(d) Resolutions may not violate or change the Constitution. Resolutions may change, amend or remove any existing resolutions or judicial decisions regarding resolutions.
(e) If there are more votes in favour than against, at least 7 votes in favour and the Court does not declare the poll invalid, then the resolution is considered passed. All Citizens must from that time on obey it.
(f) Resolutions must be recorded by the Court. The person who proposed the Resolution that has been passed must inform the Court of this as soon as possible.
(g) The Court will resolve all conflicts of resolutions. The Court’s ruling on an interpretation of a resolution is of the same power and authority as that resolution.
(h) Resolution polls shall expire in three days and the citzen who started the poll must include the expiring day in its first post.

IV. Amendments:
(a) These polls can be started by any Citizen, including members of the governement, and must be used to propose Amendments to this Constitution.
(b) The subject line must contain the word 'AMENDMENT', written in capital letters.
(c) They have to be Yes/No polls. Multiple choice polls are not allowed as Ammendments.
(d) Amendments may change/append/override any existing Laws, judicial decisions regarding Laws or any part of the Constitution.
(e) If there are more votes in favour than against, at least 7 votes in favour and the Court does not declare the poll invalid, then the Ammendment is considered passed. All Citizens must from that time on obey it.
(f) Amendments of the Constitution must be recorded by the Court. The person who proposed an Amendment that has been passed must inform the Court of this as soon as possible.
(g) Amendment polls shall expire in five days and the citzen who started the poll must include the expiring day in its first post.

V. Unofficial polls:
(a) These polls can be started by any Citizen, including members of the government.
(b) They may only exist to debate or gather information. Their outcome should not be used by the president to make choices during game play, but may be taken into account by the ministers when providing instructions for the president.
(c) Unofficial polls are the only polls in which more than one option may be chosen from the list of options.
(d) They do not have to follow all the rules specified in this Article. However, rules specified in Article I of this Constitution must still be obeyed.

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Article V: Government Changes

1) Elections.

(a) The Court is empowered to oversee all elections and is empowered to resolve any election disputes according to the rules in this Constitution.
(b) An officer can leave his office in three ways:
* The term of the office ends.
* The officer is impeached.
* The officer resigns.
(c) An election process must be initiated by the court before the end of any government position term. The previous officer will remain in office until the end of the term or until a new candidate is elected, whichever is the later.
(d) If an officer resigns or is impeached, the timing of the election process and allocation of duties is as described in Sections 2 and 3.
(e) At the start of the election process, the Court must start a nomination thread. All citizens who wish to be candidates for an office must themselves publicly express their nomination in this thread. For this they have seven days.
(f) No citizen may be a candidate for an elected office if such candidacy might cause this citizen to be in more than one elected office simultaneously.
(g) If no candidate is nominated the Court shall extend the nominations for a further three days. This extension can be repeated indefinately.
(h) Once the time in which citizens may express their candidacy for a given elected office has expired, the Court will create an Election poll (see Article IV, Subsection 3-I) for the office, with the names of the candidates as options. The poll shall expire in five days.
(i) If only one candidate is available for an office, a Yes/No poll shall be held to decide if this person may serve in this office. This poll shall expire in five days.
(j) If the single candidate is rejected by a majority of voters then the Court shall reopen nominations for that office.
(k) The candidate who has received the majority of the votes when the election thread expires will be declared the new holder of the office for which he was a candidate.
(l) In case of a tie in the election poll, the other newly elected members of the same branch of government position in question whose election polls were not tied will vote again to decide which one of the tied candidates will take over this position. If all polls for executive branch positions are simultaneously tied then the Court (including the newly elected member, if there is one) shall select the President, and the President shall select the other ministers from the tied candidates in their respective election polls.
(m) In case of a tie in the election of a judge, the newly elected president will vote along with the two judges already in office in deciding who will be the new judge.

2. Impeachment

(a) Any Citizen may bring the case of impeachment of an elected Minister, President, or Judge to a member of the Court.
(b) The Court shall review the allegations made, allow an answer by the accused, and by a vote determine if there are proper and legal grounds to hold a Resolution poll to decide on impeachment. If the accusations are found to be without legal merit, the allegations shall be dismissed.
(c) Should a member of the Court be the subject of impeachment, he shall not take part in the decision by The Court. The President shall sit in this Court member place for the sole determination of whether the impeachment has merit, and shall be considered a “Judge” for that vote only.
(d) If the Court decides there are grounds for impeachment, it shall start a poll in which it clearly states the person to be impeached and outlines the events that led to the request for impeachment. If the impeachment is confirmed by a majority of the voters in the poll, the officer in question shall be removed from the office, losing all rights and responsibilities thereof.
(e) Elections for a replacement shall be started only if they could conclude at least one week before the end of the term for the office. If elections are not started a temporary replacement can be chosen as described in paragraph (h).
(f) The Court may open nominations for a replacement for the impeached official at any time while the impeachment poll is open if it considers that the impeachment is likely to occur. In this case, the nomination thread must clearly state that the election is conditional on the impeachment of the official.
(g) If the impeachment poll closes and the officer is impeached and nominations have not yet begun, then the Court must start them as soon as possible.
(h) The Court may choose a willing citizen to fill that office until a replacement is elected. The chosen citizen will have the word temporary as a prefix to the name of their office.

3. Resignations

(a) Any officer may announce his desire to resign at any time.
(b) Elections for a replacement shall be started be the court upon this announcement only if they could conclude at least one week before the end of the term for the office.
(c) The officer who wishes to resign shall be requested to remain in office until a replacement is elected.
(d) If the officer is unwilling to remain in office, then the Court may choose a willing citizen to fill that office until a replacement is elected. The chosen citizen will have the word temporary as a prefix to the name of their office.

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FAQ - Common Questions


1. What is a Democracy Game?
In the CtP2 Democracy Game (CtP2DG), the whole community plays the same game, and the same Civ. Many people decide commonly what we should do next. Nobody has the same absolute power as a player has when playing CtP2 alone.
This is called "Democracy" Game because we all participate, and we all give input on how we want the game to be played. For example, nobody has the power to declare war to America, it needs a vote. If a majority of citizens want war with America, than war is declared.

2. Who plays the game?
Technically, this is a single player game. Only one player gets to play the game physically: the President (elected every four weeks). Everyone can access his savegame. Nobody is allowed to "play ahead" on this savegame, meaning acting before the president actually does it on his own computer.
But the President has to obey the Ministers (also elected every four weeks) who give precise orders each turn. Each Minister is specialized in a specific field: military, economy, foreign policy, etc.
The Ministers often consult the people via polls on what policy they should promote. When they poll the people, Ministers dont need to follow the poll, but they very unlike will do that since there is a risk of losing all popularity.
The people can also express their views whenever they want and start their own polls to force the Ministers to follow the policy they desire. To do this they just need to explain what policy thay want to be follow and write in capital letters the name "RESOLUTION" at the very beginning of the poll title obtaining more than 1/3 of the number of citizens voting.

3. What are the rules?
A DG is a game, and thus it has rules. These rules are called the "Constitution". The Constitution can be modified by half of the votes whenever an amendment is felt needed. The rules of the Constitution (as well as other Laws) are enforces by the Court, a group of players who have been elected for this purpose. If the rules are broken, the Court can punish offenders as it sees fit.

4. Can I form (political) parties?
In a Democracy, you can't hinder people who think the same to unite. So if you want to, you can start your own policial party, or join existing ones (if they exist). Just post the new party's goals and policies, and (hopefully) people will join.

5. How do I join this Democracy Game?
You must register yourself in the CivGroups feature (see link at the top of this page to join the CtP2DG). If you don't do this, you won't be able to vote and other rights may also be restricted (the feature is currently still under development). Once you've done that, you're a Citizen.

6. Why would I join by entering the CivGroup if I can just post and vote as it is?
Because in the not-too-distant future, voting and/or posting in this forum will no longer be possible for people who are not a member of the CivGroup. Also, since some of the rules in the Constitution require that a certain portion of the population is involved in certain events, it's important to keep track of the size of the population. The CivGroup is the easiest way to do this.

7. What do I have to do if I join?
All you have to do is just vote in polls and express your views in the forum whenever you think it's good. If you want to, you can join a party, run for President, volunteer to write a news paper, or do all sorts of interesting things. But none of this is compulsory, you can spend as few or as much time on this Democracy Game as you want.

8. Do I have to own a copy of CtP2 to be able to play?
No, you don't. As long as you don't run for office of President , you can probably join without owning the game. You may not have the necessary knowledge to vote in some of the polls but you'll probably manage just fine hanging around as a Citizen.

9. What settings is the game played on?
Mod: Super Apolyton Pack v2.0 + GoodMod v1.0
Difficulty Level: Impossible
Barbarian Activity: Marauders
Number of Civs: 12
Map Type: Earth
Map Size: Gigantic
Pollution: On
Bloodlust: Off

Humidity: 4
Temperature: 5
Land Mass: 7
Continentality: 8
Diversity: 9
Good Presence: 10

10. Who moderates this forum?
Locutus is the official mod for this Democracy Games. If there are any issues regarding topping/untopping, opening/closing, editing or deleting threads, you can contact Locutus about such issues, as well as about any other Apolyton- or CtP2-related issues (if he can't answer them, he can at least tell you who can).



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Done. Please Top

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Anothe reserved post just in case