July 2020 Senate Election: Question on Balance of Powers

[Flying Eagles]

Louis brought this topic up to W-H. However, I’ve decided to expand on it and bring it up to all candidates.

In the thread 10000islands.proboards.com/thread/39523/legal-question-establishment-regional-holidays, Paffnia criticizes Markanite’s decision to unilaterally declare a holiday without consulting the Council of Nine. Markanite rebuffs this criticism and a bunch of people try to get the two to reach a midpoint.

1. Did Markanite overstep his authority when declaring the holiday?

2a. How would you help XKI citizens better understand which powers belong to the Chief Executive?

2b. How would you help XKI citizens better understand which powers belong to the Council of Nine?

[Paffnia]

I raised the issue of the holiday in the Lobby in order to get what I saw as a procedural irregularity rectified, not as a campaign issue. So I personally won't hold it against any candidate who wishes to skip answering question 1.

[Free Las Pinas]

Good morning again Flying Eagles ! I'm here to provide answers to questions 2a and 2b.

I believe that a simple reminder from time to time could be put in place to remind everyone of how decisions are made in XKI. How I understand it, the CE's primary functions is to make the major decisions and act as the main communication point of the Co9. On the other hand, the Co9 functions as a legislative body whose function is to make decisions collectively concerning various categories such as Houses, Diplomacy, and like you are concerned about, Honors and Holidays. Continuing on with this, the reminder can be in the form of an RMB post answering questions to any interested Islanders who have questions. I also propose having some sort of Outreach Office nation, which can be operated by the Senators to handle questions from new Islanders who aren't in the forum yet. This can work together with the beginner's guide I've mentioned in other answers. The reasoning behind why I'd prefer for this to be operated by Senators is simply because these are elected positions, and I believe that they should have the public interest at heart.

Now, the reason why I chose not to answer your first question is simply because I don't see the need to. There would've been no visible change if the Co9 had a vote, and Markanite simply wanted to honor Kanta Hame, who I believe is completely deserving of that honor.

P.S WH (running for HW) has mentioned one of the things I stated here. I just wanted to add that I didn't mean for it to be limited to the game-side community, and I'd be fine if it would be used in the forums as well.

I've again decided to elaborate on this. I'm pretty sure that the Cultural Office is not only tasked with planning events, but also serving as an Outreach Office. However, I don't exactly think that this was completely implemented especially to new game-side nations who have little knowledge of how XKI operates. This is why I proposed a Senate-operated nation, available to both the off-site and game-side communities. Another possibility would be to integrate the Cultural Office a bit more to the game-side community to act as an advocate for either side of the community. The latter may be a more favorable decision for the game-side community since it works semi-independently of the regional government, so a wider staff consisting of both game-side and off-site members could possibly work.

[Krystalveil]

Jul 8, 2020 11:29:51 GMT -5 Flying Eagles said:

Louis brought this topic up to W-H. However, I’ve decided to expand on it and bring it up to all candidates.

In the thread 10000islands.proboards.com/thread/39523/legal-question-establishment-regional-holidays, Paffnia criticizes Markanite’s decision to unilaterally declare a holiday without consulting the Council of Nine. Markanite rebuffs this criticism and a bunch of people try to get the two to reach a midpoint.

1. Did Markanite overstep his authority when declaring the holiday?

2a. How would you help XKI citizens better understand which powers belong to the Chief Executive?

2b. How would you help XKI citizens better understand which powers belong to the Council of Nine?

Thank you for your patience waiting for the answers - here they are =)

2a/b. I belive the best way to help XKI citizens better understand the powers that belong to CE and Co. of 9 would be, apart from creating 2 documents (or if existing - advertising them more), the session of Q&As, as it happened then the influx of nations happened after Drew. I belive that the citizens would also get more involved when in a discussion with them and let them express their thoughts. While I understand that such a Q&A would be very time-consuming, we could have a place where the citizens could post their questions and once in a while, answers to their questions to be posted. As I mentioned in my answers to HumanSanity, I belive joint actions between HW and the Cultural Office would definitelly improve the events planned, therefore I belive that a joint action between other administrative parts of XKI and the Senators could offer the people clarifications regarding the various roles and powers of certain positions.

[Thedairos]

1. I had a closer look at the constitution and while it does not explicitly state who has the right to establish regional holidays, the clause 3. "The Legislative authority of 10000 Islands shall be vested in the Council of Nine of 10000 Islands." comes closest to it. However, clause 2.1 which announces the "duties, rights, and obligations of the Chief Executive" doesn't by far describe all his powers and duties, like the forum administration to name only one example. This is why we can't simply go by the constitution when examining whether the CE holds the right to establish a regional holiday, as the constitution only describes the most important and unchangeable rights, otherwise we would have to change the constitution every time another duty is added to the CE's portfolio. At least this is my interpretation of the constitution, I don't know how the clause was intended when it was created. This is why I can't tell you if Markanite overstepped his authority. I can only say that I do not have an issue with Markanite establishing Kanta Hame Day or with the right of the CE to create holidays.
I hope I didn't step on anyone's toes and I'm always open for critizism concerning my point of view on this matter.

2. It is difficult to take any steps to inform XKI citizens to better understand the powers of the CE and the Co9 if even the Council itself is divided over this matter.
This is why I think the first step would be to rediscuss the rights and powers of the Chief Executive to set things straight for the future. After this, measures can be taken to inform all XKI citizens about the new insights and to make sure that this confusion won't happen again, as it showed to have a quite high conflict potential.