Debate: Prime Minister & House Elections, October 2019

[Renegalle]

Debate: Prime Minister & House Elections, October 2019

Candidacy Announcements close on October 10th at 11:59 PM EST.

Brief Overview

The Debate period is intended to be a time in which citizens can assess the competence of candidates running for office and make an informed decision in the voting period that follows. All citizens may ask questions to the candidates and while the candidates are not legally bound to answering these questions, it is highly encouraged. Candidates are however legally bound to answer all questions asked of them by the Founder.

Candidates for Prime Minister

Salibaic
New Legland
The Chariot

Candidates for House of Representatives

Zamperial
Atharia
Loomburg
Libertatis Regalis

Relevant Law

1. As a candidate, you are required to answer all questions asked to you by the Founder (Renegalle) during this Debate or you will be automatically disqualified (§B.4.1).

Required: Founder's Questions for All Prime Ministerial Candidates

1. Suppose that you have just assumed the office of Prime Minister. Without prior warning, our closest ally decides to cut relations and spread misinformation about our region and the activities it has partook in. What steps do you take in order to resolve or at least mitigate the damage from this event and what steps do you take to prevent such a situation from occurring in the future? Be detailed in describing each step and its likely effects.

2. Suppose that the Founder nation, without prior notice, ceases to exist, due to something other than being left inactive for 28 or 60 days. What do you do in order to maintain regional security and what plans do you make to safeguard the region's existence and continued well being in the future? Ensure that these steps are achievable, detailed, and try not to contradict any existing law if possible.

3. The Union has seen a recent slump in activity, despite the usual summer inactivity coming to an end. If elected Prime Minister, how do you plan to bring back much needed activity, increase citizen participation in government, military, and other venues, and what long term strategy would you plan on bringing forth in order to secure this well beyond the conclusion of your term? Ensure that these steps are detailed and realistic.

4. The Union territories have always been a hotbed for inactivity, with few exceptions. If elected Prime Minister, how would you plan to combat this high level of inactivity and better integrate these territories and their citizens into the Union as a whole? Ensure that your plan includes all major territories (States and Elevated Provinces), is achievable, and is sufficiently detailed.

5. The Union's military has been relatively inactive in recent weeks. Even when it was more active, it's largest missions only boasted a few members and regular missions often consisted of no more than two people. If elected Prime Minister, what steps would you take to recruit more people to serve in the military, increase the activity of its current members, and ensure its long term growth and success? Do you even see a role for the military? Cite reasons for each of these steps and viewpoints, be specific in your descriptions of them, and ensure that any steps are actually realistically achievable.

Required: Founder's Questions for All House of Representatives Candidates

1. The House of Representatives is the sole legal body with the ability to remove a Prime Minister from office. Under what circumstances would you support the removal of one and what constitutes 'going too far'? Cite specific legal passages if necessary and ensure that your answer is sufficiently detailed.

2. What do you believe the House's primary function should be - as a body to prevent abuse of power by the Executive and uphold existing law or as one that should primarily focus on far-reaching reforms? Ensure that your response is detailed in a way so that your stance can be clearly ascertained.

3. If you were given the power to change any law - be it the Constitution, a House Bill, etc - which one would it be, what would you change about it, and why? Ensure that this is a detailed and sincere answer.

4. A particular House Bill gives the Speaker the power to modify House Bills presented by members of the House, before they are put up for vote. Which Bill is this and to what extent can modifications be made?

[Sir Salibaic]

1. For number one I have to say if our closest ally decided to cut relations and spread false information about Force. I would contact our other allies to share our side of the story and try to diplomatically solve this issue. I would then contact our former ally to try and see why they did it and try to be as diplomatic as possible and being pragmatic but while also upholding our dignity. If they refuse to cooperate we will cut ties and spread our story in an official government announcement to all our embassies.

To prevent this in future, I will try to keep our allies close and try to be as transparent with our allies as possible. We will try to also keep lots of communication with them for them to see us in a better light and keep our union secure. Lots of communication between people is the best way to keep healthy relations with our allies and will help keep us on good terms with them.

2. If the Founders nation were to cease to exist, I would get the WA delegate under the PMship to secure the region and keep its new executive power under safe control. I would attempt to contact the Founder via Discord and Forums or even Email. If there is no response I would them move to keep WA delegate under permanent PMship hands until the Founder was to come back.  If the Founder did not come back it would stay under PMship unless there was a major crisis where we as a region would found a new region to preserve our Unions security and make sure all nations in Force are safe from raiders. We would also contact our allies to warn them of our situation to keep clear communication through what could be easily said would be the biggest crisis Force would ever face.

3. If elected to tackle inactivity, I would try to reform many of the services Force offers and update them to make them streamlined as one the things that turn nations away from Force is our inactive Roleplay. To fix the Roleplay I would re-establish the ministry of Roleplay to create teams of people to run say adding people to the map which would help get more people registered to the RP. We also create geographic maps and resource maps to incentivise new playing methods and give more flavour to the RP as well as create new war mechanics as the current system is boring and rather bland with just rolling and the fact that war does not cost the player turns people off using the RP.

Another big change I would make is to incentivise people joining political parties whether it be the Imperial Party, New Force Party, etc. Also, encourage more to create new parties to encourage more nations to get interested in Force politics. I will also encourage the creation of new media outlets in Force to share news much more clearly in Force which can incentive voting inside Force as well. All government programs would be advertised as well to make sure our clear message is out there.

I would also like to expand the Force’s social media capabilities to bring in new and active people into Force. These platforms include Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Steam Groups and even nation-states itself. This we will use to advertise Force outside of NS and help grow our community to new highs. We will use Steam especially to play games together and help build our community as not just NS but as something more and offer more than just Force politics or RP. Games could include Hearts of Iron 4, Minecraft, Crusader Kings 2 and everything in between. This will hopefully encourage people to join the Force.

The final long term strategy is to build Force more than an NS region which will encourage more people to join Force and then use the recruits to get them interested in Force politics of which then they will help get more people into Force created something more than just a community but something better. That's the dream and it can be achieved with enough effort which is what I plan to do and hopefully if I am elected my successors.

4. My main plan for terrorises in the Union is to help integrate them more with the capital and help offer different things to the capitol at the same time to help create them an identity that is similar to Force proper but has its own culture. I would do this by advising the regions as alternatives to the capitol but while keeping as many people in the union as possible and with that it should help create activity. This altogether will help give aim to my bigger target of which would be the creation of a Senate to help build a bilateral system inside of Force. This is a long time away but we must work towards this as this will help get more people hopefully interested in Force politics and participate in it. Once a region reaches a certain amount of activity we can permit our states and elevated territories to have their Discords and even twitters depending on how active they are.

5. The army has been rather inactive but there is no easy solution for this but we can work towards making it more active. My main policy is to create a temporary policy of non-intervention where would not raid or defend until we have sufficient numbers in the army and at that at least a few active members in the army. I feel by training the best of the best it can make the army more enjoyable and encourage more people to join. Once we had enough active nations in the army we can permit the use of our army on outside activities. We will create an independent but defender leaning military policy in Force. We will also try to create a new Force alliance to have inter-regional cooperation with our mary to help bolster numbers during raids, or defender ops. This should help give the desired effect of more active military.

[TrueParanormal]

1. The House of Representatives is the sole legal body with the ability to remove a Prime Minister from office. Under what circumstances would you support the removal of one and what constitutes 'going too far'? Cite specific legal passages if necessary and ensure that your answer is sufficiently detailed.

It would take quite a bit of malpractice , nonfeasance, and malfeasance, defined in Article I, Clause 5. This would include being inactive for too long a period of time (As little as a day or two), which is an infringement on Article G Clause 1. If the PM, or another government official, committed any of the other actions listed in article I, I would be forced to take action against them. I will NOT remove a PM for conflicting views or personal issues.

2. What do you believe the House's primary function should be - as a body to prevent abuse of power by the Executive and uphold existing law or as one that should primarily focus on far-reaching reforms? Ensure that your response is detailed in a way so that your stance can be clearly ascertained.

I believe that the House's primary function is to prevent abuse of power by the Executive whilst upholding the law, HOWEVER I also feel that if a far-reaching reform is neccessary the house should be involved in creating and passing said reform. I do not feel that the House should be only involved in situations that contain a far-reaching reform, as this House was designed to uphold, protect, and update the Constitution of Force as needed by the citizens and founder.

3. If you were given the power to change any law - be it the Constitution, a House Bill, etc - which one would it be, what would you change about it, and why? Ensure that this is a detailed and sincere answer.

I would make changes to Article B. First things, Freedom of Speech needs to be more clearly defined. In Article B Clause 1.1, it should list ALL rules. Being specific is everything in law and loopholes are created by not being specific enough. Article B Clause 2: Fair trial. In the constitution of Force, what constitutes a fair trial? I believe it should be specifically stated that it refers to Article F Clause 3. Article B Clause 3: Protest and petition freely. What sort of protests are protected before it becomes treason? I feel that only a peaceful (no talking badly about members, using violent languages such as insulting people of certain ethnicities, religious affiliation, or sexual orientation) should be protected by this clause and violent protests should be considered conspiracy for treason, defined in Article I Clause 1 and Article I Clause 3. Article B Clause 5: Freedom of Press. What does freedom of press entail? I believe that this should be specified. Citizens should be able to talk openly about how they feel, even about the founder. Now, if it becomes antagonistic, there should be another Clause added to Article I addressing harassment and hate speech. Article B Clause 7: Previous Crimes After Being Made Criminal. I feel like this clause should be removed and replaced with a double jeopardy clause instead of allowing a criminal to be completely pardoned of their previous actions. 

4. A particular House Bill gives the Speaker the power to modify House Bills presented by members of the House, before they are put up for vote. Which Bill is this and to what extent can modifications be made?

House Bill 8, where the Speaker can only modify the House Bill to correct formatting errors and asking for clarification when a section of a Bill doesn't make sense. This also includes posting it on the forum before it is put up to vote.

[Trisword]

1. The House of Representatives is the sole legal body with the ability to remove a Prime Minister from office. Under what circumstances would you support the removal of one and what constitutes 'going too far'? Cite specific legal passages if necessary and ensure that your answer is sufficiently detailed.

I believe that the necessary actions taken by the Prime Minister that would require me to begin the process of removal includes...
- Ignoring the majority's voice
- Ignoring/Bypassing regulatory laws that were put in place to prevent the Prime Minister from performing certain actions. (This includes using loopholes)
- Inactivity
- Corruptive Behaviour

2. What do you believe the House's primary function should be - as a body to prevent abuse of power by the Executive and uphold existing law or as one that should primarily focus on far-reaching reforms? Ensure that your response is detailed in a way so that your stance can be clearly ascertained.

I believe that the prime function of the House is to prevent abuse of power first and reformations second. My reasoning behind this is that without the laws already set in place not being withheld and maintained we would be taking a step backwards for every step we take forwards.

There is however a definite place for focus on far-reaching reforms and it should certainly not be forgotten about.
3. If you were given the power to change any law - be it the Constitution, a House Bill, etc - which one would it be what would you change about it, and why? Ensure that this is a detailed and sincere answer.

In sincerity, I personally believe that the entire constitution needs to be altered in one way or another to combat Force's main problem right now, the idea that politics and overly complex government structures are preventing the ensured continuation of Force as a whole. What the constitution itself speaks about is perfectly fine and agreeable, however due to the current situation regarding Force; it is too much and personally in my opinion, should be reverted to a basic amount of laws and regulations to compliment the current stance of Force itself.

4. A particular House Bill gives the Speaker the power to modify House Bills presented by members of the House, before they are put up for vote. Which Bill is this and to what extent can modifications be made?

The House Bill number 8. It entitles the Speaker the ability to make modifications to House Bills prior to voting during times of crisis and only when the House Bill in question is deemed unclear or if it holds any errors (IE: The House Bill in question is contradictive or holds typo's).

[Libertatis Regalis]

1. The House of Representatives is the sole legal body with the ability to remove a Prime Minister from office. Under what circumstances would you support the removal of one and what constitutes 'going too far'? Cite specific legal passages if necessary and ensure that your answer is sufficiently detailed. I would support the removal of the Prime Minister if his behavior became erratic or endangered Force. No need to cite a legal passage because you do not have to break a law to be removed as PM.

2. What do you believe the House's primary function should be - as a body to prevent abuse of power by the Executive and uphold existing law or as one that should primarily focus on far-reaching reforms? Ensure that your response is detailed in a way so that your stance can be clearly ascertained. Well, you basically described the job description of the House, why do we have to pick which we should do. The House should focus on passing new laws and holding the Executive branch accountable.

3. If you were given the power to change any law - be it the Constitution, a House Bill, etc - which one would it be, what would you change about it, and why? Ensure that this is a detailed and sincere answer. Hard to say which bill I would change. The beauty of a democracy is that it is ever changing and as a House member you need to adapt to that change. A bill that was passed in the past might not work in the future. I would not change any past bills right now but instead look to the future and eventually replace outdated laws.

4. A particular House Bill gives the Speaker the power to modify House Bills presented by members of the House, before they are put up for vote. Which Bill is this and to what extent can modifications be made? No House bill gives the Speaker the right to change the text of a bill. The Speaker of the House is responsible for correcting format errors before posting the bill on the forums (House Bill 8 – Article 3.3).

[Sir Salibaic]

For All House Candidates:

1. Do you plan to run for the position of Speaker of the House if elected?

[New Legland]

1. Suppose that you have just assumed the office of Prime Minister. Without prior warning, our closest ally decides to cut relations and spread misinformation about our region and the activities it has partook in. What steps do you take in order to resolve or at least mitigate the damage from this event and what steps do you take to prevent such a situation from occurring in the future? Be detailed in describing each step and its likely effects.

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2. Suppose that the Founder nation, without prior notice, ceases to exist, due to something other than being left inactive for 28 or 60 days. What do you do in order to maintain regional security and what plans do you make to safeguard the region's existence and continued well being in the future? Ensure that these steps are achievable, detailed, and try not to contradict any existing law if possible.

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3. The Union has seen a recent slump in activity, despite the usual summer inactivity coming to an end. If elected Prime Minister, how do you plan to bring back much needed activity, increase citizen participation in government, military, and other venues, and what long term strategy would you plan on bringing forth in order to secure this well beyond the conclusion of your term? Ensure that these steps are detailed and realistic.

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4. The Union territories have always been a hotbed for inactivity, with few exceptions. If elected Prime Minister, how would you plan to combat this high level of inactivity and better integrate these territories and their citizens into the Union as a whole? Ensure that your plan includes all major territories (States and Elevated Provinces), is achievable, and is sufficiently detailed.

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5. The Union's military has been relatively inactive in recent weeks. Even when it was more active, it's largest missions only boasted a few members and regular missions often consisted of no more than two people. If elected Prime Minister, what steps would you take to recruit more people to serve in the military, increase the activity of its current members, and ensure its long term growth and success? Do you even see a role for the military? Cite reasons for each of these steps and viewpoints, be specific in your descriptions of them, and ensure that any steps are actually realistically achievable.

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[TrueParanormal]

1. Do you plan to run for the position of Speaker of the House if elected?

If necessary, yes. Otherwise, I'd gladly allow someone else to have that position.

[The Chariot]

1. First, I would reach out to the region to see if those actions were official. Miscommunication and rogues exist, and are quite common in NationStates. Should this be the case, I would immediately get them to issue an apology and clarify the situation to the public. If it was official, I would first try to find a cause for the region’s actions, and then contact our allies and explain the situation. After this, I would wait a bit and collect information, and based on it, release an official statement describing our side of it, and dispute any negative rumours spread.

To prevent similar situations, I would first try to eliminate the original cause of the issue, if possible. I would check in on our allies to ensure overall support for Force, and try to strengthen our bonds with them.

2. To maintain regional security, my first action would be to declare a state of emergency and order all citizens to cross-endorse, preferably with the trusted native with the highest influence as delegate. I would then instruct the Minister of Foreign Affairs to reach out to as many allied regions as possible to send in pilers and secure the delegacy. Once a high amount of pilers are on the delegate, I would order for all citizens to retract all endos except on the delegate to build up enough influence to pile. While this is happening, I would be contacting the founder to see if he could either transfer the account to me, or to get him back in the game. In addition, I would have created a backup region to have our citizens move to in case of catastrophe.

3. To reinvigorate Force, my plan of action is to bolster culture. I would make daily questions both on the RMB and Discord an official program. I would try to host weekly game nights or debate nights. These could be anything from Discord-based Uno to Scribbl to Minecraft, and debates could be on contentious topics such as gun control or environmentalism. Furthermore, I would order a revamp of the roleplay. I would create and enforce maximum times for an RP request to be accepted, as well as create/move an RP to the RMB, as an RMB RP is necessary to attract new players. I would also start to get the Revitalisation Movement in motion. Setting deadlines, working on it myself, and encouraging citizen participation are all in plan. Interacting on the gameside with nations to see what they want from Force would also be a priority to draw them into our culture. Having these programs go on continually would ensure at least a modicum of stable activity.

4. This is a difficult issue to address, but I believe the best option would be via roleplay. Creating separate genres of RP and having our provinces host it would encourage interaction amid the Union. This would also offer more options for prospective and respected RPers. I would also advertise Force’s cultural programs in our territories to try to get them interacting with our capital.

5. To boost military activity, I would reach out to other militaries and try to perform joint operations, trying to have relatively consistent piles. By piling often, we would give those with low dedication an activity to partake it. Should one get more interested in R/D, I would try to slowly usher them into larger tag operations. I think that the main function of the military should be to give our citizens something fun to do, with spreading Force’s influence as a side. This, for players like me, is evident, but the amount of players like me is small. Therefore, I would try to recruit people into the military, slowly getting them to see how fun military gameplay can actually be.

[Renegalle]

The debate period is now over.

In accordance with §B.4.1 of the Constitution, New Legland and Zamperial are disqualified.