Timed democracy

Timed Democracy was a system of government developed largely at the historic Flying Islands of Jasonia. The FIoJ was founded with no constitution or laws, only promises of freedom. However, when it became clear that the first citizens were looking for a new nation rather than a refugee camp, Jasonia began a month-long debate that ended in a public vote to adopt a system of government. The winner of this vote was a late but popular entry: something its founder dStryker had named Timed Democracy. Even before having laws, Jasonia was largely democratic in its decisions. However, recognizing that, as citizenship levels increased and some citizens became inactive, getting every single member of the nation to vote on every single law was largely impractical, the early members of the country realized that they would need a way to keep the legislature moving. Thus it was decided that bills would be considered passed (or failed) when a specific time period had passed rather then when a certain quota of votes were tallied. The details of Timed Democracy were hammered out over the following weeks by both President Jason Steffke and the body of voting citizens. The first system of Timed Democracy can be summed up by the following: 1) Any non-banned citizen of the country could pose any bill they desired.
2) Any and all non-banned citizens were welcome to debate, vote, and change their votes at any time while the bill was open.
3) All votes ended after at least 48 hours had passed and were officially closed at exactly 10 PM eastern standard time. Thus, all votes would be open a period between two and three days. Any vote entered after the closing time was ignored.
4) The votes were tallied. All yea votes counted towards the bill. Nay votes counted against it. Abstain votes were ignored entirely when determining if a vote passed or failed, but still counted in the number of total votes a bill received.
5) A bill passed if there were a certain percentage of yea votes when compared to the total of all yea and nay votes entered.
i) Recognition of a previously unknown micronation or an existing micronation with a new government: 3/7 yea votes
ii) Normal laws: 50% yea votes
iii) Amendments to the Constitution: 75% yea votes
iv) Any action that would involve the FIoJ losing its independence: 100% yea votes
6) All laws were assumed to be in affect the second they actually passed. Clearly there are some unusual elements in the procedures, such as the bizarre 3/7 “majority” and the time a vote could be left open being based on when it was introduced, but this was the basics of the system the FIoJ was governed under. Later on, the Flying Islands of Jasonia implemented several major changes into the system, such as the elimination of the 3/7 oddity and required minimum vote quotas, procedures for extensions and amendments, and “Haste Voting Rules” to quickly pass bills of vast importance. Late in the life of the FIoJ, the Timed Democracy was abused by factions wanting to see their own agendas pushed through. Bills were proposed over real-life holidays to prevent significant opposition, large groups forced laws through that would affect only a small number of people, and other shady voting practices were observed. The Timed Democracy system, as it represents everyone in the nation equally, became clearly susceptible as being a weapon against one’s political enemies. Yet, during many months of Jasonia’s early life when most of the citizens were concerned less about politics and more about the nation’s well being, Timed Democracy proved an exceptionally efficient and satisfying way to pass legislation, and indeed it almost seemed as the very nation itself gained a self-preservation instinct to survive where many other old Apollo nations did not. Timed Democracy was later recognized by [[The United Republic of Tymaria]] and was adapted for use there, specifically the [[Haste Voting]] Rules. Tymaria had a slew of its own problems, but Timed Democracy was not one of them. Democratic elements and entire democratic legislatures exist elsewhere in the micronational world, but there are no known ones that stem directly from Timed Democracy.