Why does Sortition policy remove Devolution & Term Limits?

[Schealdistan]

As the title says, I recently got Sortition but it removed the Devolution and Term Limit policies from my nation. This doesn't really make sense to me as they don't seem incompatible, sortition just says that parliament positions are filled by random lottery, term limits just puts limits on how long representatives can remain in parliament. Where's the conflict?

I also don't see why the government couldn't be divided into multiple jurisdictions with each local government elected through sortition, but I guess this is a little more complicated than the somewhat simplified scope of the game. Still though, surely they don't need to be in conflict?

[Frisbeeteria]

Since policy choices are set by Issues, moved to Got Issues.

[Trotterdam]

As the title says, I recently got Sortition but it removed the Devolution and Term Limit policies from my nation. This doesn't really make sense to me as they don't seem incompatible, sortition just says that parliament positions are filled by random lottery, term limits just puts limits on how long representatives can remain in parliament. Where's the conflict?

Well, term limits would only matter in the case that the same citizen is selected by lottery several times in a row, which is extremely unlikely. You technically could make a special provision for that situation, but it's probably not worth the effort.

I also don't see why the government couldn't be divided into multiple jurisdictions with each local government elected through sortition, but I guess this is a little more complicated than the somewhat simplified scope of the game. Still though, surely they don't need to be in conflict?

Yeah, I agree with you. Logically devolution should be perfectly compatible with both sortition and autocracy (historical feudalism was essentially a form of devolved autocracy, although the "Feudalism" policy in NationStates is more about serfdom than the general form of the government), but currently it's coded to only be possible on democracies. Dunno why.

[Schealdistan]

Well, term limits would only matter in the case that the same citizen is selected by lottery several times in a row, which is extremely unlikely. You technically could make a special provision for that situation, but it's probably not worth the effort.

Maybe I don't fully understand, but I kind of thought that without term limits, citizens would be randomly selected for parliament and then like, remain in that position for life afterwards. If there are no term limits, doesn't someone's "term" just end with their death? Or do I not understand how parliaments work? Forgive my ignorance, I'm an American.

[Haganham]

Well, term limits would only matter in the case that the same citizen is selected by lottery several times in a row, which is extremely unlikely. You technically could make a special provision for that situation, but it's probably not worth the effort.

Maybe I don't fully understand, but I kind of thought that without term limits, citizens would be randomly selected for parliament and then like, remain in that position for life afterwards. If there are no term limits, doesn't someone's "term" just end with their death? Or do I not understand how parliaments work? Forgive my ignorance, I'm an American.

Term limits affect how many terms a person can hold office, not the length of the term. So for sortation it would be one term, since you can't be reelected without elections. Except as Trotterdam pointed out you could theoretically be picked twice in a row

[Schealdistan]

Term limits affect how many terms a person can hold office, not the length of the term. So for sortation it would be one term, since you can't be reelected without elections.

Ah of course, that makes a lot more sense.

[Trotterdam]

Maybe I don't fully understand, but I kind of thought that without term limits, citizens would be randomly selected for parliament and then like, remain in that position for life afterwards. If there are no term limits, doesn't someone's "term" just end with their death? Or do I not understand how parliaments work? Forgive my ignorance, I'm an American.

In a democracy, "term limits" refers not to the length of a term in office (which pretty much always has a limit in any democracy), but rather to the number terms that a politician can serve (which some democracies have limits on while others don't). The best-known example is the US presidency, which is always elected for four-year terms at a time, but with the additional restriction that no president is allowed to serve for more than two four-year terms (for a total of eight years).

So I would assume that a sortition would function likewise. Much like how pretty much any democracy has a limit on how long you can stay in office from being elected once, pretty much any sortition would have a limit on how long you stay in office from being selected once. The difference is that, while a popular politician being elected multiple times is fairly common in democratic countries, a citizen being selected multiple times, while technically possible, is extremely unlikely to happen under sortition.

[Schealdistan]

Yeah, this seems sort of obvious now that it's being explained to me. I guess term limits really aren't relevant in a Sortition system. I still think Devolution should be compatible though.