Post by lemmingtopias on May 25, 2019 22:07:28 GMT
Lemmingtopias consists of around 1,000 autonomous polities with varying forms of governance including republics, elected monarchies, City Councils and theocracies. The polities range in population from just a few thousand inhabitants to nearly 100 million.
The Lemming Sage
His Holiness the Lemming Sage is the formal Head of State in Lemmingtopias as well as the head of the national religion. The amount of power the Lemming Sage has over the government is flexible with some Sages being only titular and others possessing the full authorities of the Head of Government. The role of the Lemming Sage is generally negotiated at the start of his reign with the agreement being put to the people in a referendum. The current Lemming Sage has almost no role whatsoever in the affairs of government and rarely offers advice to the Secretary of State.
The Secretary of State is usually the Head of Government, depending on how much power the Lemming Sage possesses. He has all the powers of the Head of State and Government that the Lemming Sage does not posses himself, carrying out his duties and powers 'in the name of His Holiness the Lemming Sage'. The Secretary of State is officially appointed by the Lemming Sage, though, unless the Lemming Sage has considerable powers, he asks the Pan-Lemmingtopian Co-Ordinating Committe to make a nomination and always appoints whom they select.[/ul]
The Lemming Sage or the Secretary of State:
The Administrative Service
The Administrative Service consists of most Departments of State. Notable Departments that don't fall under the Administrative Service are the Foreign Office and the Finance Office as well as some less prominent departments. The Departments of the Administration are almost exclusively staffed and headed by monks. The Monks assigned to the Administrative Service usually begin their career in young adulthood after excelling at administrative matters in monasteries. They begin their career by taking a personality test which is used to assign them to various roles. They spend many years shadowing low level officials before actually taking a junior position. Monks are selected for advancement based on evidence of having the required skills and any hint of ambition is quickly crushed by removing offenders from the Service.
Assignment of roles and promotions are overseen by the Bureau of Monastic Affairs, which also has the role of arbritrating disputes between monasteries, temples and other holy sites.
The general oversight and direction of the Administrative Service is headed by the Monastic Cabinet, the members of which are selected by either the Lemming Sage or the Secretary of State.
The Lay Service
Unlike the Administrative Service, the Lay Service consists almost exclusively of non-monks and includes the Foreign Office and most Finance offices as well as some other departments that have been gradually removed from the Administrative Service over time. It is far smaller than the Administrative Service. Members of the Lay Service are typically persons with experience of a similar role in a Polity. While ambition is frowned upon and there are minor attempts to curb the advancement of ambitious officials, it is not as harshly dealt with as in the Administrative Service.
The Lay Service is lead by the Lay Cabinet, consisting of 4 Members. Three of these are Lay persons, appointed by the Lemming Sage or the Secretary of State from a list of andidates proposed by the Members of the Cabinet itself. The fourth Member is a Monk Official appointed by the Monastic Cabinet in order to liaise between the two cabinets. The Cabinet appoints the Leaders of each of the Departments within the Lay Service with the exception of the Finance Bureau, the four Members of which are appointed by the Lemming Sage or the Secretary of State from a listed of candidates proposed by the Lay Cabinet.
The Large Bureau
The Large Bureau consists of the Members of the Monastic Affairs Bureau and the Members of the Finance Bureau. It exists to facilitate issues on how policies are affected by financial concerns and religious concerns, as well as to provide a forum for reconciling any friction between the monastic and lay services. It is also often used by the Lay and Monastic Cabinets in order to involve the Members of the two Bureaus in discussing policies proposed by the two Cabinets in the hope that it will gather further support before it is presented to the Lemming Sage or the Secretary of State,
The Pan-Lemmingtopian Co-Ordinating Commmittee
The Co-Ordinating Committee is the main policy body in Lemmingtopias and makes day to day government decisions as well as urgent decisions on foreign and domestic issues. There are 16 Committee Members and they are selected by sortition from the Standing Committee of the Pan-Lemmingtopian Assembly. Their terms are open ended. Each year the people of Lemmingtopias vote for one of the Members in an "election" and each Member of the Committee carries the same amount of votes in Committee Decision Making as the amount of votes they received in the election. The election also serves as a vote of confidence. Any Member that receives less than 1% of the vote is replaced.
When Selecting new Members, each Member of the Standing Committee of the Pan-Lemmingtopian Assembly fills out the same personality test as is used by the Administrative Service. There are 16 Personality Types designated from the test and each Member of the Committee has a different one of these types. The Members of the Committee that are of the appropriate personality type are candidates for the vacant seat (candidacy is compulsory) and the winning candidate is drawn at random.
The Pan-Lemmingtopian Assembly
The Assembly, consisting of 6000 Members, approves or rejects the decisions and proposals of the Co-Ordinating Committee (including post ex facto after they make urgent decisions without prior approval of the Assembly). It is also split into many Sub-Committees to discuss different thematic issues and make reccomendations to the Co-Ordinating Committee, scrutinise the Administrative and Lay Services and to assist in policy development.
Members of the Assembly are selected by sortition. Every resident in Lemmingtopias (not just citizens) are mandated to be candidates. An algorithm randomly selects 5,500 Members ensuring the Assembly is as a close as possible in demographics to the demographics of the nation, taking into account ethnicity, religion, sexuality, gender (including non-binary and transgendered persons), language, social class, occupation and education level. Members sit for one year. At the end of the year, 500 Members are drawn by lot from the Assembly to serve a further year as Members of the Standing Committee which facilitates Assembly business, chairs and liases between sub-committees and provides spokespersons and assembly officials.
Citizens Initiative Mechanism
The Citizens Initiative Mechanism is a website where any resident (not just citizens as the name implies) can propose policies and work with other interested persons to negotiate them. Once a policy has been agreed upon people can sign it and if it recieves signatures totalling the square root of the population (around 30,000) it is presented to the Pan-Lemmingtopian Co-Ordinating Committee for consideration. The Committee will vote on whether to dismiss or consider the postion - though if it recieves 100,000 signatures they must consider it. If they vote to consider it, the Committee will form an expert panel to negotiate the policy with the signatories. Together they will compromise to reach a Second Draft which the Committee will vote on, either dismissing it or sending it to the Assembly (if it recieves 1 million votes they must send it to the Assembly). At this point it is treated as any other policy and will need to be approved by the Standing Committee (if the Policy has 10 million signatures the Standing Committee must approve it) before being put to the Assembly for decision. If the Assembly rejects the policy but the policy has 100 million signatures, a referendum is triggered and if a majority of the nation vote in favour (constitutional changes must be approved by 70% of the voters) it will be automatically approved.
The Lemming Sage
His Holiness the Lemming Sage is the formal Head of State in Lemmingtopias as well as the head of the national religion. The amount of power the Lemming Sage has over the government is flexible with some Sages being only titular and others possessing the full authorities of the Head of Government. The role of the Lemming Sage is generally negotiated at the start of his reign with the agreement being put to the people in a referendum. The current Lemming Sage has almost no role whatsoever in the affairs of government and rarely offers advice to the Secretary of State.
The Secretary of State is usually the Head of Government, depending on how much power the Lemming Sage possesses. He has all the powers of the Head of State and Government that the Lemming Sage does not posses himself, carrying out his duties and powers 'in the name of His Holiness the Lemming Sage'. The Secretary of State is officially appointed by the Lemming Sage, though, unless the Lemming Sage has considerable powers, he asks the Pan-Lemmingtopian Co-Ordinating Committe to make a nomination and always appoints whom they select.[/ul]
The Lemming Sage or the Secretary of State:
The Administrative Service
The Administrative Service consists of most Departments of State. Notable Departments that don't fall under the Administrative Service are the Foreign Office and the Finance Office as well as some less prominent departments. The Departments of the Administration are almost exclusively staffed and headed by monks. The Monks assigned to the Administrative Service usually begin their career in young adulthood after excelling at administrative matters in monasteries. They begin their career by taking a personality test which is used to assign them to various roles. They spend many years shadowing low level officials before actually taking a junior position. Monks are selected for advancement based on evidence of having the required skills and any hint of ambition is quickly crushed by removing offenders from the Service.
Assignment of roles and promotions are overseen by the Bureau of Monastic Affairs, which also has the role of arbritrating disputes between monasteries, temples and other holy sites.
The general oversight and direction of the Administrative Service is headed by the Monastic Cabinet, the members of which are selected by either the Lemming Sage or the Secretary of State.
The Lay Service
Unlike the Administrative Service, the Lay Service consists almost exclusively of non-monks and includes the Foreign Office and most Finance offices as well as some other departments that have been gradually removed from the Administrative Service over time. It is far smaller than the Administrative Service. Members of the Lay Service are typically persons with experience of a similar role in a Polity. While ambition is frowned upon and there are minor attempts to curb the advancement of ambitious officials, it is not as harshly dealt with as in the Administrative Service.
The Lay Service is lead by the Lay Cabinet, consisting of 4 Members. Three of these are Lay persons, appointed by the Lemming Sage or the Secretary of State from a list of andidates proposed by the Members of the Cabinet itself. The fourth Member is a Monk Official appointed by the Monastic Cabinet in order to liaise between the two cabinets. The Cabinet appoints the Leaders of each of the Departments within the Lay Service with the exception of the Finance Bureau, the four Members of which are appointed by the Lemming Sage or the Secretary of State from a listed of candidates proposed by the Lay Cabinet.
The Large Bureau
The Large Bureau consists of the Members of the Monastic Affairs Bureau and the Members of the Finance Bureau. It exists to facilitate issues on how policies are affected by financial concerns and religious concerns, as well as to provide a forum for reconciling any friction between the monastic and lay services. It is also often used by the Lay and Monastic Cabinets in order to involve the Members of the two Bureaus in discussing policies proposed by the two Cabinets in the hope that it will gather further support before it is presented to the Lemming Sage or the Secretary of State,
The Pan-Lemmingtopian Co-Ordinating Commmittee
The Co-Ordinating Committee is the main policy body in Lemmingtopias and makes day to day government decisions as well as urgent decisions on foreign and domestic issues. There are 16 Committee Members and they are selected by sortition from the Standing Committee of the Pan-Lemmingtopian Assembly. Their terms are open ended. Each year the people of Lemmingtopias vote for one of the Members in an "election" and each Member of the Committee carries the same amount of votes in Committee Decision Making as the amount of votes they received in the election. The election also serves as a vote of confidence. Any Member that receives less than 1% of the vote is replaced.
When Selecting new Members, each Member of the Standing Committee of the Pan-Lemmingtopian Assembly fills out the same personality test as is used by the Administrative Service. There are 16 Personality Types designated from the test and each Member of the Committee has a different one of these types. The Members of the Committee that are of the appropriate personality type are candidates for the vacant seat (candidacy is compulsory) and the winning candidate is drawn at random.
The Pan-Lemmingtopian Assembly
The Assembly, consisting of 6000 Members, approves or rejects the decisions and proposals of the Co-Ordinating Committee (including post ex facto after they make urgent decisions without prior approval of the Assembly). It is also split into many Sub-Committees to discuss different thematic issues and make reccomendations to the Co-Ordinating Committee, scrutinise the Administrative and Lay Services and to assist in policy development.
Members of the Assembly are selected by sortition. Every resident in Lemmingtopias (not just citizens) are mandated to be candidates. An algorithm randomly selects 5,500 Members ensuring the Assembly is as a close as possible in demographics to the demographics of the nation, taking into account ethnicity, religion, sexuality, gender (including non-binary and transgendered persons), language, social class, occupation and education level. Members sit for one year. At the end of the year, 500 Members are drawn by lot from the Assembly to serve a further year as Members of the Standing Committee which facilitates Assembly business, chairs and liases between sub-committees and provides spokespersons and assembly officials.
Citizens Initiative Mechanism
The Citizens Initiative Mechanism is a website where any resident (not just citizens as the name implies) can propose policies and work with other interested persons to negotiate them. Once a policy has been agreed upon people can sign it and if it recieves signatures totalling the square root of the population (around 30,000) it is presented to the Pan-Lemmingtopian Co-Ordinating Committee for consideration. The Committee will vote on whether to dismiss or consider the postion - though if it recieves 100,000 signatures they must consider it. If they vote to consider it, the Committee will form an expert panel to negotiate the policy with the signatories. Together they will compromise to reach a Second Draft which the Committee will vote on, either dismissing it or sending it to the Assembly (if it recieves 1 million votes they must send it to the Assembly). At this point it is treated as any other policy and will need to be approved by the Standing Committee (if the Policy has 10 million signatures the Standing Committee must approve it) before being put to the Assembly for decision. If the Assembly rejects the policy but the policy has 100 million signatures, a referendum is triggered and if a majority of the nation vote in favour (constitutional changes must be approved by 70% of the voters) it will be automatically approved.