Museum of the Empire, Eveari, Ananto

[Doc]

The Imperial Government


In this map, black lines show direction of the exertion of power, red lines show the direction of the provision of advice, and blue lines show the direction of results of elective processes. The relationships are always directional toward the arrow.

Institutions

The Monarch

The Monarch exercises fiat authority over all legislative and administrative bodies in Kalistan, either directly, or indirectly, through Intermediaries that the monarch controls. This is the case in the Legislature, (Both the House of Deputies which is controlled through the Government and the Office of the Chancellor of the Empire and the House of Peers, which is controlled through the appointment of life and Hereditary Peers.) The Monarch therefore also controls the Institutional Party (through the Chancellor of the Empire who serves as Speaker of the Institutional Party) and the subnational Governments (via Monarch's control over Hereditary Peerage, who controls the Ducal Council, made of Dukes, who then control County and Baronial Governments.) She has least direct authority over Lords and Ladies Mayor and Free City Councils, who are freely and popularly elected in non-partisan elections, and govern the lives of more than a third of the population, and of Land Peers, who are appointed and governed by the County Governments.

The Monarch also controls House Ananto, and directs their affairs through the appointed Director.

The Legislature

The National Assembly is composed of two houses: The Lower House or the House of Deputies, which exists to represent the voice of the constituencies to the Government of the Empire and turn the Imperial Fiat into actionable and enforceable policy, and the House of Peers, which acts as an advisory body for the House of Deputies to ensure that the peerage has buy in to all legislation.

The Chancellor

The Chancellor of the Empire is a semi-autonomous actor in the Government. While the Chancellor directs the activities of the House of Deputies through absolute control of the legislative calendar, they are also always a peer, and so may sit in the House of Peers as a member. They are the chief policy architect in the Nation and their sole job is to direct the translation of Imperial Fiat into Law. They may also, from time to time advise the Monarch, but in fact, this is not their function. They are both the (second) most politically powerful political actor in the Empire, and the actor with among the least amount of independent agency in the entire political system.

The Chancellor also controls the Institutional Party, and within the Party, they are an almost absolute ruler in their own right: they may veto any resolution, may disqualify any candidate (with a majority vote) from running for office, and may freely move their allies into positions of authority and power. But the Institutional Party itself also only exists to provide candidates and platforms for election to the Lower House. They do not possess independent political power on their own. Chancellors are often appointed for life (barring retirement, early or otherwise).

The Chancellor acts as the voice of the Monarch, and it is assumed that what the Chancellor says is the policy of the Monarch. Chancellors get into trouble when their words contradict the policies of the Monarch, and they may be forced into early retirement if the breech is too egregious.

The Government and the House of Deputies

The Government represents the heads of the Bureaucracy. These are the ministers charged with enacting the policies developed by the Legislature. They are also the Monarch's chief advisors and representatives on respective issues to the nation and to the Legislature. They translate Imperial fiat to the Legislature and help the Chancellor in crafting and passing bills. Though they are still also Deputies and are therefore elected by the People, they work for the Monarch, specifically. Their titles are "His or Her Imperial Majesty's minister for..." As such they work with the Chancellor, but not for them.

The House of Deputies is the primary legislative body in the Empire. They have two roles. They create legislation, following the Chancellor's directives, from Imperial Fiat. And they represent their constituencies to the Government and the Chancellor. This is all they do. As such, their second task is the most important, because they can use those mandates from the constituencies to craft policies in such a way that their constituents' interests are also represented. The Interests of the constituencies do not trump Imperial Fiat, but a well crafted policy that takes into account the interests of the people via the civil society organizations that nominate the Deputies for election can modify the Imperial fiat to make it broader in scope and more beneficial to more citizens. There is no term limits in the House of Deputies, but the House of Deputies can be vacated by Imperial directive for any or no reason whatsoever and new elections may be called.

The House of Peers
All Peers may hold a seat for life within the House of Peers, which forms the upper House of the National Assembly. The Chancellor does not control the House of Peers, and they elect their own officers by their own rules, and conduct business according to their own order. The Monarch and all Royal Family Members are members of the House of Peers, as are all Hereditary, Life and Land Peers.

The House of Peers possesses no legislative authority on its own. The Peers instead act as an advisory board for the House of Deputies. They may exert some pressure on the House of Deputies, but their primary function is to ensure that the House of Deputies also considers those who control land and subnational administrative governance in Kalistan. Most peers are such because they serve in a legislative or administrative role, so it is a way to ensure that the bureaucrats and the Gentry are consulted on legislation that is about to pass through the House of Deputies. There is no term limit or term length for the House of Peers.

The Peerage and Subnational Government

There are three types of peers in Kalistan: Life Peers, Hereditary Peers and Land Peers

Hereditary peers are primarily Dukes, and some lower ranks. There are very few Hereditary peers in the Empire. All ranks of Duke or Higher (Duke, Grand Duke, Prince and Emperor) are Hereditary, and remain within Ducal Families to be passed to chosen successors. Some Marquisates and Viscounties ranks have also been made hereditary by special Imperial warrant. Very few lower ranks will ever be made hereditary--The ones that are are usually given as a reward to a foreign Monarch and are attached to an estate, equivalent to a land peerage.

Hereditary Dukes are considered close confidential advisors to the Monarch, and and those at the level of Duke form the Kalistani Ducal Council. They also act as the top political official within their demesne, name all counts and other offices below them, and oversee all lower officers and peers within their demesne. The Grand Duke of Kalistan acts as Viceroy of Kalistan, and within that Demesne, has authority over all other Dukes. The Grand Duke of Kalistan also convenes and presides over the Ducal Council.

Life peers are primarily so because they perform some service that requires peerage. These are often people who are assigned as lieutennents in Ducal Governments. Counts and Barons are all life peers, appointed by Dukes and Grand Dukes. Non Landed titles are almost always Life peers primarily because these titles are either awarded for service of some sort and come with a sinecure, or are awarded as part of a job. Life peers, as the name suggests retain their peerage for life, and it may not be heritable.

Land Peers are a special category of Peer who have earned their rank by purchase and improvement of land in rural areas in Kalistan. This is also considered the Landed Gentry. Much of the improved land in rural areas which is being utilized for economic purposes is controlled by a land peer or a group of land peers. More often than not, the land is being managed by a hired employee, while the Land peer lives most of the year in the City, and nearly all land peers belong to their respective Grower's Syndicates, which are absolutely dominated by land peers. All Land Peerage falls under administration of the County Governments to which they belong and there are strict laws regarding size of holdings that one Land Peer can acquire. Land Peerages are heritable as long as they are maintained, but can be lost or forfeit if the land is abandoned or if there is no heir--at which point it reverts to the County.

County and Baronial Governments are sub Duchy units which carry out the Duchy Government's policies at more local levels. Baronial Governments are the primary access point for individuals who do not live in one of Kalistan's five Free Cities, and most people access the Baronial Government for everything from drivers' licenses to business licenses, to building permits, to schooling and medicine. The Baronies are the work horse of the Nation.

The Free Cities

The Lord Mayor

Within Kalistan's five Free Cities (Kaliburg-Port Davon, Port Swedes, Vrassa City, Eshar and Sulari) democracy is the name of the game. The Lord or Lady Mayor is called when the previous Lord Mayor has retired, and is then elected for the life. This is the only popularly elected peer in the Nation--The Lord Mayor sits at the rank of a Marquis, and may overrule directives from the County Government within City limits.

Their primary role is to administer the cities and act as the chief executive within the City Government. The Lord Mayor oversees the activities of the Free City Councils and may veto any laws passed by the City Government. The Lord Mayor is subject to National Law and is expected to cooperate and coordinate with the Duke of their respective duchies, but ultimately are accountable to the Monarch via the Chancellor and the National Assembly.

The Free City Councils

The Free City Council is also elected at regular intervals. The City Council is a strictly non partisan election, but is designed to independently craft legislation responding to the demands of the Citizens and realize a sense of self government for the people of the Free Cities. This makes the Free City Councils the most directly popular offices in the nation.

The goal of the Free City Governments is to handle issues that are specifically related to large scale urbanization through home rule. The argument can be made that the situation in Kaliburg is not the same as the situation in Sulari, so there should not be one set of policies applied to both. The only limitation on the laws that the Free City may enact is that they may only be enacted within the jurisdiction of the free city and they must conform to all National laws. Councils are not accountable to baronial Government (but are to County Governments).

Free City Governments are limited therefore in what they can actually do: They are not free for alls or hot beds of radicalism. Instead, they serve the purpose of being laboratories for innovation in policy for the Nation, and since they represents 30 percent of the population of the nation, their innovations affect the lives of a significant portion of the country.

The People

The guiding principle is that as long as the Citizens perform their duties to the nation, they shall receive the benefits of living in an organized society. Those duties are to perform mandatory national service, either in the NSP or in the Regular Force, pay all taxes and obey all laws. If they do this, they should not be harassed or prevented from doing as they please, have their civil liberties unnecessarily infringed upon, or be hindered from achieving their full actualization.

The people directly elect Lords Mayor and the Free City Councils. They do not possess the right to recall, but they can vote against someone in the next election. They also form civil society organizations, the primary function of which is to allow them to organize for interests and concerns that matter to them. But these civil society formations also serve the purpose of nominating candidates to the Institutional Party, and to stand for election: The Institutional Party may only accept nominations from civil society formations or alliances that have membership of 1000 unique individuals or more, and so the civil society formations form the basis of these candidacies. And then they vote for different candidates from their constituencies, based on the lists created by the Party.

The People may also advocate more directly by protest and demonstration. They may freely petition the government for redress of grievance, they may organize around any idea they wish and may build workers organizations. And they may form social and political clubs to discuss issues of the day. Some of the more powerful political clubs are the Democracy clubs found in every Free City, as well as the Nationalist Clubs in Kaliburg, Sulari and Lucid, the Orthodox Club in Vrassa, Port Swedes and Kaliburg, and the Socialist Club in Kaliburg, Sulari and Yoshimi. Identification with social clubs forms an undercurrent of social organization within the society, and their influence extends to Government in indirect ways, but its influence is nonetheless unmistakable.