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Bill: Foreign Policy Act of 3121
Details
Submitted by[?]: Socialist Party of Kalistan (SPoK)
Status[?]: defeated
Votes: This is an ordinary bill. It requires more yes votes than no votes. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: June 3122
Description[?]:
| The Socialists call for a small change in our country's foreign policy, for the purposes of promoting fair trade and for the purpose of opening boarders and allowing free movement of people and services across the world, both for foreigners entering Kalistan and for Kalistani's traveling freely abroad. |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change The government's policy concerning diplomatic immunity.
Old value:: The government grants no diplomatic immunity and foreign diplomats are subject to arrest and prosecution and civil action under all laws of the host nation.
Current: The government grants no diplomatic immunity and foreign diplomats are subject to arrest and prosecution and civil action under all laws of the host nation.
Proposed: Diplomats are exempt from prosecution for criminal acts but not from civil lawsuits, but may still be expelled because of criminal acts.
Article 2
Proposal[?] to change Government policy concerning immigration.
Old value:: Quotas are based on individual applicant's qualifications.
Current: Everyone is allowed to reside permanently in this nation.
Proposed: Everyone is allowed to reside permanently in this nation.
Article 3
Proposal[?] to change International trade (this is a default in the absense of a specific free trade agreement or specific trade embargo)
Old value:: The nation does not impose any tariffs or quotas on imports.
Current: The nation imposes reciprocal tariffs on imports, with no tariffs imposed on states which impose no tariffs on our exports.
Proposed: The nation imposes reciprocal tariffs on imports, with no tariffs imposed on states which impose no tariffs on our exports.
Article 4
Proposal[?] to change The government's policy regarding the treatment of prisoners of war.
Old value:: Prisoners of war are treated according to the national laws of the captor power.
Current: Prisoners of war are immediately returned to their own government.
Proposed: Prisoners of war are immediately returned to their own government.
Article 5
Proposal[?] to change The national refugee policy.
Old value:: Only refugees that are victims of extreme circumstances are welcome; they are given integration-aid.
Current: All refugees are welcome, regardless of their reason, and given aid in integrating them into the country.
Proposed: All refugees are welcome, regardless of their reason, and given aid in integrating them into the country.
Article 6
Proposal[?] to change Travel by foreigners to the nation.
Old value:: The nation imposes minimal border controls on visitors, with cursory security checks, to confirm visitor identities.
Current: The nation imposes no border controls on visitors.
Proposed: The nation imposes no border controls on visitors.
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 17:49:34, May 16, 2011 CET | From | Socialist Party of Kalistan (SPoK) | To | Debating the Foreign Policy Act of 3121 |
| Message | This bill proposes knocking down barriers to foreigners entering Kalistan, but also proposes a change in trade policy to one that is both the normal Kalistani position of fair trade, and one that protects Kalistan from malicious trade practices of foreign nations. |
| Date | 17:53:37, May 16, 2011 CET | From | People's Party of Kalistan | To | Debating the Foreign Policy Act of 3121 |
| Message | This would weaken Kalistan. It must also be said that Article 4 is not fair trade, the current policy is.. |
| Date | 18:00:56, May 17, 2011 CET | From | Socialist Party of Kalistan (SPoK) | To | Debating the Foreign Policy Act of 3121 |
| Message | No, the current policy opens the doors to us losing out when other states decide to raise tariffs to our goods but we aren't allowed to raise tariffs to theirs. Or when they decide to use our open markets to dump their products on us and drive Kalistani industry out of business. Fair trade is doing to others what they do to us. |
| Date | 18:36:02, May 17, 2011 CET | From | People's Party of Kalistan | To | Debating the Foreign Policy Act of 3121 |
| Message | The current policy will encourage other nations to follow our policy and encourage free trade. What has happened to socialist internationalism? |
| Date | 00:38:21, May 18, 2011 CET | From | Socialist Party of Kalistan (SPoK) | To | Debating the Foreign Policy Act of 3121 |
| Message | We are not internationalists to the point where we damage our own economy in the process. Sure we can "encourage them" but the Socialists are realists when it comes to foreign economic policy. We know that most states will always do what is in their own interests, and if they can get over on us, they will. If we lower trade barriers, that puts a target on our heads; it doesn't make us great examples, unless the example is that of a sucker. Reciprocal trade is the only way to protect us from being economically taken advantage of by other nations. |
| Date | 00:39:49, May 18, 2011 CET | From | Socialist Party of Kalistan (SPoK) | To | Debating the Foreign Policy Act of 3121 |
| Message | But that doesn't matter, I guess. We are just a lonely voice, crying out in the wilderness anymore. I am happy only to note that the SP will not be responsible for the demise of Kalistan, because we at least tried to stop legislation that hurts our country... |
| Date | 00:46:41, May 18, 2011 CET | From | People's Party of Kalistan | To | Debating the Foreign Policy Act of 3121 |
| Message | If I've learnt anything from you, its how not to behave as an opposition party. |
| Date | 02:47:46, May 18, 2011 CET | From | Socialist Party of Kalistan (SPoK) | To | Debating the Foreign Policy Act of 3121 |
| Message | If I have learned anything from you it is how to avoid even the appearance of working with the opposite side, because it is far better to be ideologically pure than to pass good legislation. I've tried to compromise on bill after bill, for the sake of moving legislation. All I have gotten is a stone wall. I hope you enjoy being in the majority. Then you'lll actually have to be held accountable for your Party's positions for once. |
| Date | 11:18:13, May 18, 2011 CET | From | People's Party of Kalistan | To | Debating the Foreign Policy Act of 3121 |
| Message | Thats because no other party currently supports your political ideology! |
| Date | 11:19:29, May 18, 2011 CET | From | People's Party of Kalistan | To | Debating the Foreign Policy Act of 3121 |
| Message | Also, the fact that you advertised positions in Kalistan to people who want set-up left-wing parties was extremely laughable.. (OOC: This is a game! ?I think you'll find its much more enjoyable, particularly for people like yourself, to criticise the government rather than being in power!) |
| Date | 17:30:08, May 18, 2011 CET | From | Socialist Party of Kalistan (SPoK) | To | Debating the Foreign Policy Act of 3121 |
| Message | The goal is not, as you repeatedly and incorrectly assert to achieve power. It is to roll back the anti-social political, economic, and social agenda. More leftist Parties will help assure a leftist majority, which will then be used to make life VERY uncomfortable for conservatives in Kalistan. It is the Socialist Party's platform, recently passed in convention, to abolish conservatism as a viable ideology in Kalistan. The more people we can get to help out with that project, the better off the people of this nation will be. Whether we sit in government or not is ultimately inconsequential. (OOC: We have been here long enough to know that there will be times when we don't sit in government, and when we are in the opposition. It's happened before and it will happen again. The right's unwillingness to compromise on anything, even if the programs offered are more rightist than leftist, is typical of the right wing Parties that occasionally visit our country. Eventually they all get tired, after they get their way and wreck the country, and the game isn't fun anymore for them, and they all leave the country, and then we spend a few centuries undoing all the damage that they did. That process continues until some rightist player realizes that the left has returned to power in Kalistan, and feels the need to destroy yet another country. But: I'm perfectly happy waiting you all out. And as long as I can't do anything because neither of you will condescend to work with me on anything, the current, but ultimately temporary status quo will remain. That's the problem, as you will soon learn, with getting exactly what you want. You end up stopping proposing legislation, because to do so ends up screwing your positions. It's a lesson I have learned in the years that I have played in this country. Eventually you will all either get bored, or you will have to moderate; either way, socialism will return to Kalistan. As it should be.) |
| Date | 20:17:29, May 18, 2011 CET | From | People's Party of Kalistan | To | Debating the Foreign Policy Act of 3121 |
| Message | So you don't tolerate a pluralist society? You're willing to attempt to drive out a party that has almost 30% support? Thats a bit extreme, and of course, desperate. Never before have I seen a country advertised.. (OOC: Why should parties compromise with you if they don't agree with your compromise proposals? They don't have to agree with your party, its not illegal. This is my first account. I didn't spend much time here originally and move around a lot. However, I reactivated this because I want to stay in a country, thus I am here to stay, whether I get crushed or not. I've never known anyone so defeatist) |
| Date | 00:21:35, May 19, 2011 CET | From | Socialist Party of Kalistan (SPoK) | To | Debating the Foreign Policy Act of 3121 |
| Message | (OOC: For the sake of the game, man. You are right. You're Party doesn't have to agree with my Party. Most of what I say and write is IC. But I gotta say that this game really suffers from the fact that there is no revolt engine built into it, because as I have said before, if there was such a radical shift in policy as this country has seen, there would be an active and very bloody revolution in any country in the real world. People just don't give up their rights so easily. Especially as large a group as my Party continues to represent. There would be general strikes, and protests and everything like this, until the government was either forced to compromise, or it would be cancelled by the people. This game comes fairly close, I think to simming the Westminster system of government, but even in Britain, they can't get away with completely privatizing a completely public National Health Care system in just a few years: I am following a little what the Cameron government is and is not able to accomplish, and the jury is our on whether or not it will be successful. You know that: and it is only the residual of an imperfect game engine that allows you to get away with it here. Look. At the end of the day, almost everything I write is IC. I don't have any personal feelings toward you as a real person one way or another. I imagine that this is how the SP would react if the government was taken over by the hard right. As for my OOC comments, they remain, and so does my call for other left wing Parties to come here from other countries. This is how rightist Parties generally come here too: people have accounts in several states, and they deactivate one Party and activate a different Party elsewhere. This way they get to play rightists in several countries at a time, just not at the same time. It is a blight tat Kalistan has suffered from for a LONG time, which prevents anything like long standing or coherent national policy. Everyone once in a while, a rightist Party will pop in, pick up where his Party left off, stay for a while, change all the laws to suit his temperament, and then leave. It happens ALL THE TIME. I just thought it was about time that leftists started doing that too. Because it isn't against the rules to do so, as I have discovered, and we need more leftist Parties in this State if we are ever going to have a chance to slow the rightist juggernaut down here. As you demonstrate, that is why you are back here, having moved around from country to country. And it is not defeatism to point that out. It's about time that leftist Parties started doing exactly the same thing that Rightists have been doing constantly for AT LEAST the three years that I have been associated with this Game. Beyond that, again, don't take any of it personally, because I don't mean any of it personally. I'm serious about that. And please don't make anything you say to me personal. Neither of us know either of us, so there's no reason to get personal about a game. We can be as vicious as possible IC, but again, at least on my end, none of it is personal.) |
| Date | 00:23:11, May 19, 2011 CET | From | Socialist Party of Kalistan (SPoK) | To | Debating the Foreign Policy Act of 3121 |
| Message | IC: Whatever sort of society we support, we support a socialist society first. If the Right is willing to support that, we welcome them. If they are trying to destroy that, we oppose them and seek their abolition. So yeah, when it comes to socialism or pluralism, we support socialism first. |
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Voting
| Vote | Seats | ||
| yes | Total Seats: 263 | ||
| no |
Total Seats: 366 | ||
| abstain | Total Seats: 121 |
| Random fact: In order for a Cabinet bill to pass, more than half of the legislature must vote for it and all of the parties included in the proposed Cabinet must support it. If your nation has a Head of State who is also the Head of Government, then the party controlling this character must also vote for the bill, since the Head of Government is also a member of the Cabinet. If any of these requirements are not met, the bill will not pass. |
| Random quote: "Every month we do not have an economic recovery package, 500 million Americans lose their jobs." - Nancy Pelosi |