ACPSG/ACDG3: Basic government structure

Maniac · September 20, 2003, 18:00

I would like to put to poll a basic government proposal you see below. It is certainly not meant to be final. Certain parts, names etcetera can all be changed later. However I would like to know if you could agree with the basic structure below. If the majority says "yes", I'd start working on a constitutional proposal. Then we would at least have a concrete document to work around and discuss about, instead of making loose suggestions.

I've made it a simple Yes/No/Xenobanana poll, with five days voting time.

***

First, all participants of the game are members of the party's Central Committee. That organization, together with the politburo and the Central Committee Secretariat had in the USSR a large influence on discussion policy alternatives and deciding the policy that the executive government has to follow. Being all Central Committee members would be the roleplay explanation that secretaries have to poll on what policy to follow instead of just acting on their own. Knowing that:

General Secretary

will be elected at the start of the game and then stay in office until he or she is impeached/purged.
posts nomination and elections thread
guardian of the constitution, and mother-hen of the game in general
tries to find replacements if a government official becomes inactive
moderator of a hopefully newly created "AC - Police State Game*" forum (* or whatever the new forum should be called - as long as it is different from the current forum name)
chairman of the politburo
appoints the full members and candidate members of the party's politburo

Politburo members

Though in reality they had the most power in the USSR, since we're all high party members anyway I would see this here as a mere honourary title given by the General Secretary to the most active and influential members of our faction (thus not those he or she likes most). It would perhaps give the politburo member an informal authority, and the right to brag with that title in his or her signature.
Perhaps when there is a constitution issue, three judges for the Supreme Court could be chosen out of this politburo, consisting of the most respected Hive members?
Perhaps a majority of Politburo members could veto any executive decision? I'll leave this issue to be discussed when we have a more concrete document.

Chairman of the Council of Ministers

This position is the head of the executive government. The turn player in other words.
making turnthreads, posting turnlogs, posting save files...
If a government official didn't give orders, the Chairman may act with emergency power. This removes the need for an Alpha Talent, as the other half of the previous AT duties would be performed by the General Secretary.

The executive government was largely controlled by the party's Politburo and the Central Committee Secretariat, so I would call the different positions "Secretary for blah blah...".

Blah blah being: (keep in mind the names are just general placeholders to be changed later)

Secretary for Science and Social Engineering / Scientific and Social Experiments
Controlling artifacts, tech and SE polls...

Secretary for Factional Defence / Military Affairs
Controls military and probe units, constructs prototypes...

Secretary for Foreign Affairs
Diplomacy.

Secretary for Economic Policies
Makes five-year plans. Maps out regions, divides credits (together with Military and Foreign Affairs), polls base names and base locations, moves colony pods...

Then there are the previous regional governors. If we follow the USSR style, they should be:
First Secretary of a XX Republic
Controls his or her republic's formers, crawlers, workers, build queue, requests credits etcetera...

That's about it.

Corellion · September 20, 2003, 18:52

Overall idea sounds good. It has my vote.

Phenix · September 21, 2003, 05:14

All right, looking good... fine for me

Lemmy · September 21, 2003, 12:19

/me votes yes
1 no vote

At least say why..

Vander · September 21, 2003, 15:38

It also looks like at least one person was drawn into the sexy dance of the banana...

Nubclear · September 21, 2003, 16:04

I voted no, because we need a ton more government positions. I'm thinking somewhere between 20-30.

Maniac · September 21, 2003, 16:09

I would start out with few government positions, but if there's higher than expected interest in the new game, we could always later split up certain positions, eg KGB Chairman.

Nubclear · September 21, 2003, 16:43

I'll only change my vote to yes if you make a "Department of Propaganda".

I love Propaganda

Maniac · September 21, 2003, 18:15

I was thinking of proposing to call the newspaper editor "Secretary for Ideology" or "Chairman of the Ideological/Propaganda Department". Other possibilities are "Chairman or Director of the Main Administration for Safeguarding State Secrets in the Press" (Glavnoe upravlenie po okhrane gosudarstvennykh tain v pechati-- Glavlit), Director of the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (Telegrafnoe agentstvo Sovetskogo Soiuza--TASS

) or Director of the News Press Agency (Agentstvo pechati novosti--Novosti). If my information is correct, those are all real organizations.

Question is, should the position of newspaper editor be included in the constitution, or should I rather be kept informal?

GeneralTacticus · September 21, 2003, 21:38

Keep it informal - it might be fun to have different newspapers competing to be recognised as the official vocie of the Party, and having them periodically shut down for backing the wrong horse...

Nubclear · September 21, 2003, 22:39

I agree. That would be pretty fun.

Mr. President · September 21, 2003, 23:27

This sounds fun to me.

Nubclear · September 22, 2003, 00:12

Oh, and -1 to NO and +1 to Yes

Phenix · September 22, 2003, 12:23

All right, that equals 12 yes and 1 banana

Snowflake · September 22, 2003, 12:32

Thirteen.

Octavian X · September 22, 2003, 18:28

Another YES vote. This form of government is truly glourious, comrades!

MrWhereItsAt · September 22, 2003, 22:48

I hope we're going to vote on all of these except maybe the Party Sec every now and again.

We could also have a game trigger that ousts the Party Sec and has an election to determine the new one (the old one can stand again), so we don't need to have any ill feelings for refreshing the office. This trigger could be a change in SE for example, so the Party Sec election would be a side-effect of a beneficial (and necessary) SE change as opposed to something that might offend the Party Sec of the time. This way we know there will be some times that the Party Sec will be in trouble (RP perspective), and the RP of the ousting and the election could be magnificent! Otherwise ousting the Sec would be on someone's initiative and could cause hurt feelings - this way even the incumbent could get into the RP with no ill feeling, as they knew they would face re-election!

MrWhereItsAt · September 25, 2003, 06:35

Any thoughts on this...?

Drogue · September 28, 2003, 13:33

You mean general secretary? I think there needs to be someway to remove them (revolution

) Maybe changing SE government structure as you suggested. Also, bear in mind that most people who started the last one didn't finish, including both candidates for the first Commissioner. That shows that whoever starts as General Secretary may leave at some point, and need replacing.