Government of Daxia
 | |
| Formation | 1946 |
|---|---|
| Founding document | Basic Law of the Democratic Republic |
| Legislative branch | |
| Legislature | People's Assembly |
| Meeting place | Republic Palace |
| Executive branch | |
| Leader | Chancellor of the Republic |
| Headquarters | National Executive Complex |
| Main organ | Cabinet of the Republic |
| Judicial branch | |
| Court | Supreme Magistracy |
| Seat | Justice Palace |
The Government of the Democratic Republic of Daxia is the national government of Daxia. It is formally organized into three distinct branches of government. Officially a Unitary Republic, where the highest position is the Chancellor who serves as both head of state and of government. The Basic Law was created in 1946 after the fall of the Empire during the military revolt of Dai Hanjian and it establishes the form of goverment as a representative democracy. Several amendments since 1992 have given the office of Chancellor increasingly vast powers to oversee all aspects of governance and gives the position extensive authority in all matters.
The legislative branch of the government is quadricameral. The original body is the five hundred strong People's Assembly. It is Daxia's primary source of legislation. The People's Assembly has no budgetary powers of its own and depends on the Ministry of Finance for its funding. The second chamber is the Chamber of Productive Sectors, it was created by Chancellor Linge Chen to include labor unions, professionist associations and worker and peasant cooperative associations in the tasks of governance. The third chamber is the Delegated Committee that is made up of six hundred representatives of the Party of Daxian Democrats, one from every electoral district plus a hundred specially appointed party delegates. The Delegated Committee does legislate but has the power to revise bills and return them to the People's Assembly for review. The fourth chamber is the Council of Applied Sciences. The Council was created during the tenure of the current Chancellor to make sure that all legislation follows generally accepted scientific principles and is of sound logical structure.
The Supreme Magistracy is the highest court in the nation and the last court of appeal for plaintiffs.
Branches of Government
Executive Branch
Chancellor
Within the executive branch of government, the Chancellor of the Republic who is elected directly by the people serves concurrently as Head of State and Head of Government, has oversight of and directs all of the work carried out by the ministers of the state cabinet and their respective ministries. The Chancellors determines the government program, set of policies to be implemented and prioritizes them accordingly. The Chancellor serves as the supreme commander in chief of the armed forces and therefore has ultimate authority and control on their use and deployment. Elections for Chancellor are held every six years on the first Sunday of June, and Chancellors take office on the first of January of the year following the election. The office of Chancellor has no term limits. The Chancellor may be recalled from office by a referendum that garners the support of seventy five percent of the voters registered on national electoral database. Said referendum can be called only after the first three years of a Chancellor's current term and only if the referendum petition garners forty five percent of the voters registered on national electoral database. The Chancellor has veto on all legislation passed by the People's Assembly, the Chamber of Productive Sectors and the Delegated Committee. As the Council of Applied Sciences is only a supervisory body with no legislative powers of its own, the Chancellor's veto does not apply to its resolutions. The Chancellor has ultimate budgetary authority through his supervision of the Ministry of Finance and its Budget Committee and the Committee of Budgetary Oversight; the legislature has no control of government monies. The Chancellor in his capacity as leader of the Party of Daxian Democrats has control of all party organs and parallel power structures, these are detailed in a separate article. The Chancellor also has direct oversight over the Democratic Christian Church of Daxia and the East through his control of the Ministry of Worship, all members of the Church's hierarchy up to and including its Pope are ministry employees and are theoretically under the authority of the Chancellor. The Chancellor exercises direct control of the Bureau of State Protection, the nation's most powerful security and intelligence agency is outside the normal structure of government and is not subordinated to the Ministry of Interior. The Chancellor has judicial immunity during his period of office, this immunity cannot be stripped away.
Cabinet
The Cabinet is an organ of policymaking and deliberation in which the ministers of state and other governmental agencies participate and receive their marching orders so to speak from the Chancellor of the Republic. Members of the Cabinet who do not hold ministerial rank include the Director of the Bureau of State Protection, the Head of the Institute of National Elections, Polls and Referendums, the Director of the Institute of Human Rights Protection among others. The Cabinet meets at the Chancellor's convenience but typically at th very least three meetings are convened per week. The Cabinet meets in the Republican Chancellery where the Chancellor also has his own offices. Ministers are not required to be elected members of the quadricameral legislature, they are appointed at the discretion of the Chancellor and according to criteria he or she decides upon. All members of the Cabinet have judicial immunity while they are in office, their immunity may be stripped away by a two thirds majority vote in the People's Assembly and the Delegated Committee. The Chamber of Productive Sectors may appoint three of its members to sit in on meetings of the Cabinet, these three members may express their points of view on specific matters pertaining to productive sector of origin, if relevant to the discussion, at the end of the meetings. The three members may be rotated by three other members once a year.
Legislative Branch
Daxia's legislature is composed of four chambers. The primary body is the People's Assembly which is the direct successor of the National Assembly created by the NRF government of Qiu Heng as a rubber stamp for the military regime. The Assembly is led by the Chairman of the People's Assembly. The People's Assembly is Daxia's primary source of legislation and it has the faculty to create legislation on almost any subject matter. The People's Assembly has no budgetary powers of its own and all its activities are funded through the Ministry of Finance. The second chamber is the Chamber of Productive Sectors which is a relatively new body, it was created by Chancellor Linge Chen to give a voice to labor unions, professionist associations and worker and peasant cooperative associations. The third chamber is the Delegated Committee. The Delegated Committee is made up of six hundred local representatives of the Party of Daxian Democrats, five hundred from every electoral district and one hundred more specially appointed delegates. The Delegated Committee does not elaborate legislation of its own but had the power to revise bills and return them to the People's Assembly. The fourth and last chamber is the Council of Applied Sciences. The Council was created during the tenure of the current Chancellor to vouch that all legislation follows generally accepted scientific principles.
People's Assembly
The People's Assembly (潮汐的聚集) serves as the primary house of the legislature and the only one that is elected by the population through direct vote. There is no recorded example in Daxian history of such a body ever existing until the political reforms initiated by Qiu Heng created the National Assembly, the current body's direct predecessor. The People's Assembly is chaired by the Chairman of the People's Assembly who is second in the line of succession should the Chancellor be incapacitated or killed. The national elections for the People's Assembly mirror the Chancellor's election, they take place on the first Sunday of June, and elected assembly members take their oath of office on the first of January of the year following the elections. The Assembly elections take place in the nation's five hundred electoral districts, only a plurality vote for any one candidate is enough to secure their election, this is known as the first-past-the-post electoral system. The Assembly's legislative work in specific committees whose purview is directly analogous to the various ministries of state. There is a Committee of Agriculture to mirror the Ministry of Agriculture and so forth. Members of the public can submit petitions or initiatives to these committees, as can individual lawmakers; the initiatives are analyzed and can make their way to the Assembly floor for deliberation and voting or stay in committee. The Assembly's committees have the power to compel cabinet ministers to appear before them to report on their respective ministry and field questions from committee members; this is one of the main ways the Assembly oversees government work. In the past it was both customary and required by law for the President to go to the National Assembly every first of December to deliver a speech detailing a recounting of government initiatives and the progress of its agenda. Nowadays the Chancellor is no longer required by law to give this speech but is typically invited to do so by the chamber.
The People's Assembly also plays a role in foreign affairs. Its members vote on approbing international treaties that Daxia wishes to be a signatory to. Daxian ambassadors are required by law to swear an oath to solemnly safeguard the national interest at the Assembly. First time ambassadors from other nations are also typically invited to give a speech at a session of the assembly as a welcome protocol. ambassadors from nations with strained ties may be subject to heckling and grilling. The Daxian representative to the League of Nations customarily appears before the Committee of Foreign Affairs to give an accounting of the delegation's work. The Assembly also has the power to declare wars on its own or approve a request by the Chancellor to do so. The members of the Assembly have a number of privileges and perks in addition to their regular salary (consult the tabulator in annex A), they have an antiquity bonus of 285,000 Lire for every five years up to a cumulative maximum of forty five years. They have a vacation bonus of sixty five days of pay per year, an end of year bonus of thirty days of pay, medical insurance paid by the Assembly, provision of legislative aid to hire aides, rent offices in their district and buy computer equipment. They are also provided by the Assembly with vehicles that are renewed every six years, drivers and two bodyguards per assemblyman. Members of the People's Assembly are immune from prosecution for the duration of their term unless a proceeding to strip them of said immunity is initiated and passes with a two thirds majority of the assembly.
Chamber of Productive Sectors
The Chamber of Productive Sectors (生产投入室) is a deliberative body of recent creation. Its three hundred members are drawn from labor unions and syndicates, professional associations, worker and peasant cooperative associations, business chambers and entrepeneurial bodies and think thanks. Its closest historical equivalent was the United Cities's Council of Magisters, a body of powerful plutocrats that ruled that extinct state. That historical body however confined its membership to the wealthiest of society. The Chamber of Productive Sectors was designed to be a venue for all members of the economy to put forward their points of view, air their concerns and debate the merits and drawbacks of legislation passed in the People's Assembly. They can propose adjustments to the national minimum wage in line with inflation, tweak levels of social security contributions, act as a mediating body on large contract renegotiations and arbitrate labor disputes that could lead to widespread strikes. The Chamber also has a codified say on the entry of large foreign multinational companies into the national markets, by law foreign companies have to open a Daxian based subsidiary under which to operate inside the country; the Chambe must approve the subsidiary's application.
Delegated Committee
The Delegated Committee (授权委员会) is the third chamber of the legislature. It is composed of six hundred delegates from the Party of Daxian Democrats, five hundred chosen from the national electoral districts (usually the head of the local party committee) and an extra one hundred chosen from a party list submitted by the First Secretary. These extra one hundred special delegates tend to be long standing members of the Party nomenklatura, relatives of powerful Party bosses and important donors. It is said if you want a who is who of the Party but don't have access to party headquarters, watch the televised sessions of the Delegated Committee. The members of the chamber have their terms renewed ever three years, permanence in this body is subject to internal party dynamics. The Delegated Committee is the Party's way of inserting itself directly into the tasks of governing. The Committee can flag bills originating in the previous two chambers, submit changes if they determine the bills go against the Party platform and send them back for consideration. In this manner the Committee acts as a second layer of defense of hegemony of the Party, should control of the People's Assembly and the Chamber of Productive Sectors be somehow compromised, the Delegated Committee can stop their bills in their tracks. The Committe is headed by a Presidium of the five eldest members of the chamber whose remit is keeping order in the chamber, calling the body to session, setting the day's agenda and the keeping of voting records. The Committee meets in a large spherical structure adjacent to the People's Assembly building named the Hall of the Party Luminaries.
Council of Applied Sciences
Council of Applied Sciences (大脑理事会) is the fourth and last chamber of the legislature. The newest addition to Daxia's legislative quadricameral system, the Council of Applied Sciences is a practical application of Chancellor Prib Dodd's maxim: Nothing above Logic and Reason. Chancellor Dodd's written word demands of lawmakers to always be mindful of the true scientific applicabilty of their legislation to real world situations, attempting to contravene established scientific facts and natural laws with poorly thought out bills is poor politics and a disservice to the people. To that effect the Council of Applied Sciences is conformed by fifty scientists affiliated with Daxia's Society of Natural Sciences, all top scientists in a wide array of fields of human knowledge. As the final chamber of bill review, the Council must determine if the bill's fundamentals are within acceptable parameters of known science; if a bill is determined to have unscientific elements that muddle its applicability the Council has the power to send it back to the chamber of origin where it must be modified. The modified bill then must make its way through all legislative chambers once again. This process can take as many times as necessary until the Council is satisfied its concerns have been taken into consideration.