Balder - State Opening of 19th Storting

[Belschaft]

My degree is in Political Science. It doesn't turn off.

I would never take another Pol Sci class again. I did a second year one which covered Socrates, Plato, Aquinas, Machiavelli, Hobbes & Locke. My first essay I got like 64%. So I worked twice as hard on my next essay, and got 66%. I loved the material, but the TA just hated my writing. I likely should have talked to her about it but instead I ended up with like a 71% which was my worst grade that year. So yeah, never again.

Thus I'm glad though no one noticed I quoted Aristotle in my defense of of elected government, and then called myself a Philosopher King which is a Plato concept. Locke though definitely influences me the most when it comes to NS though.

We all noticed, it's just no one thought it worthy of mention; this is NS, we're all arrogant enough to think ourselves as smart as Socrates

[Solorni]

I would never take another Pol Sci class again. I did a second year one which covered Socrates, Plato, Aquinas, Machiavelli, Hobbes & Locke. My first essay I got like 64%. So I worked twice as hard on my next essay, and got 66%. I loved the material, but the TA just hated my writing. I likely should have talked to her about it but instead I ended up with like a 71% which was my worst grade that year. So yeah, never again.

Thus I'm glad though no one noticed I quoted Aristotle in my defense of of elected government, and then called myself a Philosopher King which is a Plato concept. Locke though definitely influences me the most when it comes to NS though.

We all noticed, it's just no one thought it worthy of mention; this is NS, we're all arrogant enough to think ourselves as smart as Socrates

Or rather, the version of Socrates that Plato invented xD

[Unibot III]

So the purpose of the elected legislature is to draft and introduce legislation to be voted on, then? And what about constitutional amendments? Genuinely curious, Balder's laws aren't typically available to the public.

No constitution or charter. We've used what we called basic laws which have acted as our law book since June/July 2012 and the concept of which was devised by the Vice Delegate at the time By Night with the assistance of myself. How to put it, for example a constition or charter will be posted for people to see in a single thread, while each of our basic laws get their own thread. Basic laws act pretty much the same as a constituion.

As for the function of the Storting, the storting appoints the Statsminister from one of the elected MP's. The Storting can also vote on treaties and declarations of war without a public vote along with minor laws that don't conflict with basic laws.
Example, we have a basic law regarding citizenship. If the Storting wants to change it it must first pass a vote in the Storting and then pass a citizen vote in order to become law. If it fails the Storting vote it wont go to a citizen vote.
However the Storting can pass a law on something like the regulation of political parties without a citizen vote, as long as it doesn't conflict with any basic law.
The Storting also has the power to remove the Statsminister and ministers.

A body of Organic Law? How rare. Is there a basic law dictating this legislative process? Or is it uncodified?

[Alvalero]

Is there a basic law dictating this legislative process?

Yes

[Unibot III]

Is there a basic law dictating this legislative process?

Yes

Cool. Thanks for clarifying.

[Icecream Princess]

Elections are underway with 18 people running for 7 seats! Challenge moving forward will be to ensure this momentum stays. A few good ideas have been suggested on the forums and it is the good type of challenge.

[Ambroscus Koth]

the good type of challenge.

Wow, you guys really brought back duels for political power? That's awesome!

Oh, never mind

[Icecream Princess]

the good type of challenge.

Wow, you guys really brought back duels for political power? That's awesome!

Oh, never mind

This was brought up on the skype chat, how would NS duels even work? xD

[Zaolat]

Wow, you guys really brought back duels for political power? That's awesome!

Oh, never mind

This was brought up on the skype chat, how would NS duels even work? xD

I do random Skype chat Mortal Kombats. Syl, successfully took out Souls, Tye, Tim, Cormac, and Avakael. COE survived but did nothing so he's disqualified. So, if it was a duel then Syl would have been elected.

[Icecream Princess]

Whoever posts shoot first wins?

[Ayvari]

Whoever posts shoot first wins?

That actually sounds like fun. Narrow it down to two candidates and have a post-off.

[Siberian Districts]

Wow, you guys really brought back duels for political power? That's awesome!

Oh, never mind

This was brought up on the skype chat, how would NS duels even work? xD

Pokemon Showdown. Would make everything much for fun

[Icecream Princess]

Whoever posts shoot first wins?

That actually sounds like fun. Narrow it down to two candidates and have a post-off.

Yeah! You could give the people a % of success. Have a neutral count to 10, then the first person to type shoot at the end goes first. Say it's a 70% chance of success. Then the first person gets a random roll, if they get 1-7 they win. If they get 8-10, they "miss". If they miss, the next person gets the same %. If they hit, they win. If they miss, they tie.

[Ayvari]

That actually sounds like fun. Narrow it down to two candidates and have a post-off.

Yeah! You could give the people a % of success. Have a neutral count to 10, then the first person to type shoot at the end goes first. Say it's a 70% chance of success. Then the first person gets a random roll, if they get 1-7 they win. If they get 8-10, they "miss". If they miss, the next person gets the same %. If they hit, they win. If they miss, they tie.

It would definitely spice up the fun level involved.

[Icecream Princess]

Controversy during the election! A 19th person posted a platform but did not post in the standing thread and thus was left off the ballot...

[Dalimbar]

Sorry if I missed it, but how many seats are there up for grabs?

[Kyorgia]

Sorry if I missed it, but how many seats are there up for grabs?

7 seats are up for grabs

[Dalimbar]

Cool. If there were 17 seats, having 17 folks running wouldn't have seemed quite as impressive

[Of Goats and Men]

Elections over

The following were the top 7 out of the 18 running when it came to obtaining votes, with Avakael beating out a potential run off with Sentinel Optik by 1 vote. There was a slight controversy during the election when it turned out that a potential 19th candidate had forgotten to sign up in the standing thread and was thus left off the ballot.

Caroline with 22 votes
Helle Thorning-Schmidt with 21 votes
Arastaoir with 20 vote
Zander Cerebella with 19 votes
Kajan 2.0 with 18 votes
Theoden Sebastian with 16 votes
Avakael with 13 votes

The interest in the election demonstrates the continued growth of Balder. As well Skypefication continues its course, with 46 members of Balder on the group chat and daily message totals of around 1,000. The chat continues to expand. Forum activity has been steady between 70 and 200 posts per day. Balder barely beat out Osiris however to get over 1,000 pages of RMB posts.

Finally, for the second time ever Balder is approaching the 200 mark in endorsements.

[Almonaster Nuevo]

Congratulations to all the winners, and to the region for the activity levels.

[Dalimbar]

That's a fine looking bunch of MPs.

[Pierconium]

Congratulations to the winners and to Balder.

[Warzone Codger]

Congratulations to the losers too. I remember you, even when the others don't.

[Of Goats and Men]

201 Endorsements & New Lawspeaker

For the second time ever, the Delegacy of Balder has reached 200 endorsements. This feat was confirmed during today's minor update. It represents a huge turnaround from the period in which Balder struggled to get over 100 endorsements. Furthermore, the legislative body the Storting has chosen Caroline to be Lawspeaker. This was confirmed via 6/7 Storting members supporting her including Arastaoir who was the previous Lawspeaker. Despite Arastaoir being Lawspeaker previously during the most active period in Balder's legislative era, Caroline was chosen to replace him. Balder's spirit appears fearless when it comes to running for positions as three people ran for Lawspeaker despite it seemingly being safe in the hands of the incumbent.

Currently, the Storting is also choosing who will lead the cabinet as Statsminister with 3 people confirmed so far in the race with Zander Cerebella, Kajan & Theoden Sebastian.

[Zenny]

Congrats to Balder for the big milestone and to Caroline, super talented