What is our governmental form?

[Kaiser Mors VI]

Kinda curious. But what exactly is our governmental form. We aren't a true absolute monarchy. We aren't a republic. We aren't really a feudal state. We aren't a democracy. Nor a Parliamentary nation.

Officially we are an "Imperial Republic", what ever the hell that is. How would you all describe our governmental form?

[Daniel Farewell]

I guess we're a type of constitutional monarchy. There is a monarch, as there is a constitution, or charter, that puts limits on the monarch.

[Kaiser Mors VI]

But very few. And only he can edit the Charter, with permission.

[Jonas]

Like I said before: a Shirocracy.

[CJ Miller]

Parliamentary absolute monarchy with extensive devolved government.

[Malliki Tosha]

I can't really get how you can call this a "parliamentary" absolute monarchy, but whatever.

We aren't an absolute monarchy since there are checks to the Kaiser's power, although very few. The most accurate description would perhaps be a constitutional monarchy as suggested by Daniel. There is no qualification as to the amount of checks on the monarch's power there has to be to use that description, so I think it works rather well. As for the Imperial Republic thing, that is merely a name. We are not a republic but a monarchy.

[Ryan]

Definitely constitutional monarchy.

The whole "Imperial Republic" thing stems back from earlier times when Shireroth was, indeed, a republic. In all honesty the title should be dropped and Shireroth properly classified as a kingdom. But that is, most certainly, a topic bound to be the source of a whole other debate.

[Daniel Farewell]

Why not just drop "imperial republic" all together and just call our country Shireroth?

[Aurangzeb Khan]

It is an Empire with a Supreme Autocrat propped up in an uncertain fashion by a rather moribund oligarchy and some notional institutions of state no one cares about and several legislative instruments that have grown over-long and redundant. We should probably stop treating the subdivisions as politically viable and instead as more of a culture dumping vomitorium and switch over openly to an elective dictatorship.

[CJ Miller]

Somebody needs to change the logo to say Shirithian Empire or some such then

[Kaiser Mors VI]

hmmm..... elections...

[Malliki Tosha]

No, no elections. Shireroth has survived for very long without them, and I think at least partly because we don't have them.

[Kaiser Mors VI]

Not for the Kaiser.. but for the Steward perhaps? Maybe create some "rotating" Duke titles. Have a few that are be the old ways, appointed, inherited..etc. And maybe 1 or 2 that are elected by the general populous...

[Jonas]

Not for the Kaiser.. but for the Steward perhaps? Maybe create some "rotating" Duke titles. Have a few that are be the old ways, appointed, inherited..etc. And maybe 1 or 2 that are elected by the general populous...

Errr... no!
It's better to solve this by civil war. The more you're going to use elections, the less we will go to war. And if you start this with minor positions it will eventually end with electing the Kaiser.

[Malliki Tosha]

Why elections? What problem would they fix? Tell me that first.

[Kaiser Mors VI]

1. We need more Dukes/ Voting Nobles.
2. We can't sustain more subdivisions/houses to have said nobles.
3. Access to the Landsraad creates activity, in theory.
4. Ability to vote is something people want, thus will work for, fight over, bribe other for...etc.
5. All this could have been done without numbers.
6. Electing SOME seats in the Landsraad would open it up positions for people through an alternate means then the Duchy/House systems.

[Malliki Tosha]

1. Why is that?
2. See 1.
3. It didn't before but rather coasted on a already existing trend.
4. I see no evidence of that since people don't scream about voting rights.
5. So?
6. So what? People don't seem to want it, and we are kind of inactive at the moment anyway.

[Kaiser Mors VI]

Maybe if people felt they had more opertunity to take part in the government, they would be more interested? Right now I feel 2 voting nobles is.. well.... pathetic. That's why I want more.

[Daniel Farewell]

Elections are boring micronationally. A fight is much cooler.

[Andreas the Wise]

When you originally described the house system, it had sounded to me like people could rise and fall under it. That those who were active and contributed to the nations would be made count, and then baron, and then Duke; and those who were at high levels but went inactive would be lowered. That would mean if we had six highly active people (eg Erik, Malliki, Daniel, Allot, Andreas, Jonas), those people would all be Dukes and be voting in the Landsraad; if Leo became active again, he could rise to Duke and we'd have seven; if Andreas and Jonas went inactive, they'd fall down and we'd go to five. That was how I originally understood the system - to free us up from the need to have Duchies based on specific land masses/groups of people and allow individuals to be rewarded for their effort, and maintain those rewards as long as they deserve them.

Obviously that's not where we ended up. Where we ended up was with groups rising and falling. And yes, my interpretation of it definitely does not encourage grouping together in terms of political power (though I always envisaged that there might be a House Kildare, with a House Atterock and a House Windsor within it; and both House Atterock and House Windsor might be Dukes).
If you wanted to nuance the two to get the benefit of individual rise and falls without losing the grouping aspect, you could think purely in terms of Houses - whether the house be an individual or several - and so where a group of individuals works together and is deserving of collective recognition (eg Allot Leo Cho-Gall) they rise and fall as a group, with a hereditary title; and where an individual is worthy of recognition, they can rise or fall as an individual, with a non-hereditary title. And those individuals should be minor houses within a major house, ideally (eg Jonas and I might have non-hereditary titles and be within House Kildare).

There's my two cents for a system that encourages growth. But (and this is important) you have to be prepared to give out land and power regularly. I'll admit, nobody has done much in the last month so there's been no real reason to give out such things; but when people do start doing it again, the Kaiser needs to respond.

[Jonas]

Elections are boring micronationally. A fight is much cooler.

Indeed. That was why I joined Shireroth in the first place.

[Kaiser Mors VI]

Andreas. That was kinda my plan. Things didn't go according to plan. I still have hope though.