The following is an example piece of legislation that has been proposed. It is much longer than most bills, but it gives you a good idea of what goes on inside the Republic.
Proposal 7.19
[It is] proposed that the executive powers of the Republic of St. James
shall be those necessary to carry into operation the legally passed
proposals of the Room of Representatives or to assure the peace, order, or
good government of the ROSJ. These powers shall be vested in three classes
of executive officers as follows: 1) The Speaker of the Room of
Representatives (Speaker); 2) Ministers of the ROSJ (Ministers); and 3)
Deputy Ministers of the ROSJ (Deputies). The offices of Bishop of St.
James, Member of the Room of Representatives, and Judicious Judge of James
are not considered to be executive in nature and are therefore
not defined by this proposal.
Amendments:
7.19.1: The Speaker shall chair the meetings of the Room of
Representatives and is responsible for assuring that the legally passed
proposals of the Room of Representatives are carried out. He shall also
have such other responsibilities as the Room of Representatives shall see
fit to give him. Additionally, the Speaker shall have all executive powers
not vested in any other executive officer.
7.19.2: The Speaker shall be selected by the Bishop according to the
provisions of [Proposal] 7.4.
7.19.3: The Speaker shall cease to hold office if he
resigns, ceases to be a citizen of the ROSJ, or loses a vote of confidence
in the Room. A Speaker who loses his office in any of these ways may not
succeed himself. The Speaker may also lose his office by being replaced by
an incoming Bishop under 7.4.
7.19.4: The Speaker may not hold any Ministry.
7.19.5: The positions of Ministers (Ministries) shall be
created by legally passed proposals of the Room of Representatives, and they
shall have such powers as the Room shall see fit to vest in them.
7.19.6: The currently extant ministries are the Ministry of Media, the
Ministry of Foreign Relations, and the Ministry of Agriculture. All offices
suspended by Proposal 6.2 and not otherwise dealt with are abolished,
without prejudice to the ability of the Room to re-create them.
7.19.7: The Minister of Media shall be, in general,
responsible for the archiving and record-keeping of the ROSJ, and for
official ROSJ websites. He shall also be responsible for selecting, in some
fair, random, and public way, the people to serve as Judges, and to preside
over the Room in the absence of the Speaker, unless other arrangements have
been made. In addition, the Minister of Media may conduct votes of
confidence on the Speaker. [Otherwise the Speaker could avoid a vote of
confidence by the simple expedient of refusing to conduct it.]
7.19.8: Ministers shall be selected by vote of all citizens
of the ROSJ. This election shall take place on the request of any citizen;
however, a Ministry election may not take place within six months of the
last election for that office unless the office is vacant.
7.19.9: The election shall be conducted by the Speaker. As
soon as practicible after receiving the request for election, the Speaker
shall publish a call for nominations. This call shall clearly state the
office being elected, the name of the person requesting the election, and
the deadline for nominations, which shall be one week from the day of
publication.
7.19.10: A Minister shall cease to hold office if he
resigns, ceases to be a citizen of the ROSJ, loses a vote of confidence in
the Room, or loses an election. The Speaker may also remove from office any
Minister except the Minister of Media.
7.19.11: The holder of any executive office may create
Deputy Ministries and devolve to them whatever powers and duties of his
office that he wishes.
7.19.12: The Deputy is appointed by, and serves at the pleasure of, his
immediate superior.
7.19.13: A Deputy shall cease to hold office if he resigns, ceases to be a
citizen of the ROSJ, or is removed by his immediate superior. The Room may
hold a vote of confidence on a Deputy, but it shall have advisory force
only.
7.19.14: If an office is abolished or suspended, all the Deputy Ministries
under that office are abolished or suspended also.
7.19.15: The Room of Representatives has the final authority over all
executive powers.
7.19.16: Only citizens of the ROSJ may hold executive offices in the
ROSJ.
7.19.17: If, for 15 or more days in a calender month, a person holds the
Speakership and/or a Ministry, they may receive credit for a maximum of two
selections when earning Crowns. Otherwise, the maximum is three. This
supercedes the provisions of 7.10.6.
7.19.18: A citizen may formally submit questions to any executive officer
on matters within their sphere of competance. The officer has a duty to
respond to these. The responses shall be published by the Speaker and
archived by the Minister of Media.
When the period of nominations is closed, the Speaker shall
distribute a ballot to each citizen. The ballot shall list all the nominees
for the office in proposing order, and at the end of the list shall appear
an option to leave the office vacant. The ballot must also clearly state
the procedure for voting, the office being elected, and the deadline for
voting, which shall be one week from the day of publication.
The voters shall vote by ranking the candidates (including
"None of these") in the order of their preference, assigning 1 to their
first choice, 2 to their second choice, and so forth. They are not required
to rank all the choices given, but they may not assign the same number to
two different candidates.
When the voting period closes, the Speaker shall assign all
ballots to their respective first-preference candidates. If a candidate has
a majority of all the votes cast, the Speaker shall declare them elected.
Otherwise the Speaker shall declare the candidate with the fewest votes to
be eliminated from the race, and re-assign that candidates ballots to the
remaining candidates according to the stated preferences on the ballots.
The Speaker shall continue eliminating candidates in this manner until one
has a majority of the ballots and is elected.
If it is not possible to tell which of the remaining candidates is
preferred on a particular ballot, that ballot is not considered part of the
total aggregate of ballots cast for purposes of determining a majority.
If a candidate must be eliminated, and two or more are tied for the
lowest number of ballots, the Speaker may freely choose which of them to
eliminate, unless one of the tied options is "None of these", in which case
"None of these" shall be the one eliminated.
Contact person: Mr. Ian Kabell -- kabell@power-net.net
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