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Bill: Condemnation of the State of Emergency
Details
Submitted by[?]: Imperial Pluralism Party
Status[?]: defeated
Votes: This bill is a resolution. It requires more yes votes than no votes. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: November 2498
Description[?]:
| Recently we Sekowans have witnessed certain events-- the unlawful declaration of the state of emergency, the tyranny in Kasmenai, the unprecedented expansion of Federal power, the ex post facto or retroactive justification for the Head of State’s actions, the general disregard for normal Republican or Democratic values-- all of these things must be addressed and must be answered for. Sekowo emerged into the light of democracy as a nation of free and independent city states, a nation where local government could easily address popular wishes, a nation where no one group could so easily accost the popular sovereignty. With the influence of the DSP and others, the city-state system was demolished and, in the last decades, we have gone through the generally beneficial and useful process of centralization. We will not deny that a unified nation is a productive one, and that our current place in international trade and politics is in large part due to centralization. However, as the Federal Government has grown in strength, several complications have arisen. Primarily, the competing interests of our diverse and varied peoples have more than once thrown the Federal government into a dead lock. Most recently, the government was trapped in a massive deficit because the conservative and liberal factions would not yield. Although this crisis has since been resolved, the increasing reliance of our economic institutions on a centralized authority resulted in violence and civil conflict in the capital and elsewhere. We learned during this debacle that-- --Our constitutional and administrative mechanisms are not adequately developed to deal with centralization, and this crisis will repeat itself unless changes are made. We cannot afford that our Head of State produce arbitrary legislation and then try to ratify it after the fact. We cannot allow for the mere assumptions, for the mere rumors of executive authority to allow something as severe as the suspension of civil liberties in Federal territory. We cannot allow for political indifference and apathy to justify the illegal actions of a dysfunctional administration. But most of all, we can NOT say that the Head of State can do anything not banned by the law! The Head of State can only act with the powers with which he is invested by the legislature. Otherwise, a massive avenue of undefined and terrifying authority is within reach of our government, with nothing to stop them from misusing it. A clear-cut constitution defining the powers of our officers is desperately needed. However, we cannot justify the Head of State’s actions just because there was no pathway for action: declaring a state of emergency where neither precedent nor legislative approval exists is clearly an overstepping of power not suitable for our democratic system. Therefore, we propose that the Tenno Otaru Komei be censured and reprimanded for his actions and that his power to produce a state of emergency with out prior legislative approval be denied. Furthermore, if this legislation passes, the government will urge all parties to revoke support for the DSP in the Head of State elections. |
Proposals
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 04:46:10, December 09, 2007 CET | From |  Revolutionary State Socialist Party | To | Debating the Condemnation of the State of Emergency |
| Message | The crisis was not caused by federalization, but by short-sightedness on the part of the former minister of economy. |
| Date | 05:17:08, December 09, 2007 CET | From |  Imperial Pluralism Party | To | Debating the Condemnation of the State of Emergency |
| Message | OOC: I'm trying to apply some sort of historical analysis. "Short sightedness" may be true, but the HDLP's desire to cut taxation was based on its constituents' advocacy for smaller government. However, cutting programs was not seen as an option by other portions of the population that supported social programs. In a less federal system (in RL, maybe not in particracy), budget issues could be decided on a local level and deadlocks like this would not occur. These same sorts of geographically partisan deadlocks are also prevent in early American history. The various regions had different economic interests, and economic plans like the American System favored some areas at the expense of others. Ultimately, the Civil War was the result of two competing economic systems and the deadlock they created. The US political system was simply incapable of reconciling Wage Labor and Slave Labor. Thus, we are not blaming Federalization: this is a necessary process (as we said). We are blaming our under-developed constitution. If we made the necessary reforms, we could deal with the inevitable deadlocks. |
| Date | 05:18:24, December 09, 2007 CET | From | å¸å›½å…¬æ˜Žå…š (Teikoku KÅmeitÅ) | To | Debating the Condemnation of the State of Emergency |
| Message | Coming from a party that is openly Archonic, has been a known supporter of Aretism and was the single party to vote against condemning the Deltarian regime, hypocritical would be to kind a word to use. Beyond that the only place that the Tenno can even call for a state of emergency is Kasmenai, as it is a Federal Capital and therefore no uniform law exists effecting it. Besides that, the only civil rights denied were to rioters, and unless the AUP wanted to see death and destruction form the rioting, we'd remind them of their place. |
| Date | 05:39:26, December 09, 2007 CET | From | Imperial Pluralism Party | To | Debating the Condemnation of the State of Emergency |
| Message | Do most political terms retain their original meaning? Does "conservative" mean the same thing in America that it did a century ago? Has the word "Republic" meant the same thing since the Romans used it? Of course not! We are a reformed party, and we have demonstrated a consistent advocacy for democracy and permissive rights values ever since we became a democratic nation. We would hope that the deeds of our predecessors are not held against us. And please, do not criticize us for mere words, when you have assulted the integrity of our democracy with your actions! Furthermore, we think that it is more than merely suspect that the DSP claims "the only place that the Tenno can even call for a state of emergency is Kasmenai" when it also claims that "no uniform law exists effecting it." How is that possible? If Kasmenai has an ambiguous legal stance, then how can the DSP then make legal judgments on the matter? The simultaneous existence and absence of a coherent legal system is disturbing, as is the fact that our highest politician should misuse this discrepancy instead of striving to solve it. |
| Date | 12:09:38, December 09, 2007 CET | From | Normand Pluralist Party | To | Debating the Condemnation of the State of Emergency |
| Message | We agree with the Archonic Union on this matter. |
| Date | 19:25:53, December 09, 2007 CET | From | Am Echad, Pays Libre | To | Debating the Condemnation of the State of Emergency |
| Message | We apologize for butting in on this matter but we would like to say that we will help in anyway we can. For now our hopes and prayers are with the people of Kasmenai and the weeping people of Sekowo. |
| Date | 19:28:01, December 09, 2007 CET | From | Revolutionary State Socialist Party | To | Debating the Condemnation of the State of Emergency |
| Message | OOC: Its a blast from the past :O |
| Date | 23:56:18, December 09, 2007 CET | From | Sekowan Communist Party | To | Debating the Condemnation of the State of Emergency |
| Message | Oh lawdy lawd, not this bitch. |
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Voting
| Vote | Seats | ||||
| yes | Total Seats: 247 | ||||
| no |
Total Seats: 445 | ||||
| abstain |
Total Seats: 58 |
| Random fact: Don't put "the" as the first word in your party name, because when parties are referred to in news reports, their names are preceded with "the", e.g. the [Socialist Party] has lost. |
| Random quote: "All within the state; nothing outside the state; nothing against the state." - Benito Mussolini |