Dear citizens of the eNetherlands,
Over the years a lot of tutorials, guides, explanatory articles etc. have been written by different organisations. But this information has been spread out over a lot of media and got split up into way to many articles. That is why the current Ministry of Home Affairs will write a series of articles to wrap up all this information and present it into a few articles. This is the first article of that series and will touch upon one of the most extensive game modules: politics. The following topics will be addressed in this article:
1. Political parties
2. Voting in eNetherlands
3. Congress
4. Government
Political parties
Political parties are the foundation of the political system in eRepublik. You can join existing parties or create a completely new party (costs 40 gold). When you are a party member of a political party you can candidate yourself for party presidency or run for congress.
As party president you have the power to control the parties next presidential candidate. That’s not all however, you can also control the ranking of candidates during congress elections, but more about that later.
Voting in the eNetherlands
In the eNetherlands there are 2 cases in which we vote. The first one and most important one are the elections taking place on the eRepublik website (in-game). The Country President, Party Presidents and the Congress are elected in this way. Every citizen is allowed (and encouraged) to vote in these elections. They take place every month on the following dates:
On the 5th of the month citizens can vote on Presidential elections that are taking place in a country.
On the 15th of the month citizens can vote on Party elections if they are members of a party.
On the 25th of the month citizens can vote on Congress elections in their residential country.
The second case is the decision making by the Congress or Government. In these votes only members of Congress and the Country President have the right to vote. Voting in the eNetherlands happens on two platforms. The national forum (http://www.enetherlands.nl) and in-game. Congress members can vote on in-game laws and on law proposals that cannot be started through means of in-game mechanics. The latter are laws or initiatives that require a forum or in-game vote. Currently we’re still using the national forum to vote on these law proposals and motions. A normal vote is open for 24 hours in which time members of congress are asked to vote.
Congress
Just like in real life, we in eRepublik have a political organisation in which the people are represented: the Congress. The Congress is built up of seats, 10 per region a country owns. For the eNetherlands this means we usually have a Congress of 20 to 40 seats. Every month these seats are divided amongst the top 5 political parties in the eNetherlands depending on how many votes a party gets in the Congress elections. As a member of a top 5 party you candidate yourself as a Congress member. When your party get enough seats you can end up in the Congress.
The job of Congress members is to control the Government and to uphold the laws. Members of Congress can start debates and law proposals, which can be found here. Law proposals are things like the value of taxes, setting minimum wages, signing alliances, appointing natural enemies and impeaching the Country President. The last proposal, an impeachment, is the final tool that can be used when Congress has lost their trust in the sitting Country President and want to get rid of him/her. Whilst only members of Congress can vote, all eDutch citizens can participate in the debates.
Government
The Government is responsible for the daily management of our country. It is headed by the Country President (CP) who is elected every month. The CP can, just like Congress Members, start debates and votes. But since the CP only has one vote, he/she needs the approval of congress to get any laws or motions voted in. These laws include things like declaring war, making alliances, launching airstrikes and signing peace treaties.
At the start of his/her term the CP will present a Government consisting of Ministers, State Secretaries and Advisers. These people will occupy Ministries who all have a specific task to do, such as the Ministry of Finance which sets a budget and handles all money related issues or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which upholds contacts with foreign countries and keeps up with all that is happening in the eworld, in order to have our interests served internationally.
If you want to join the Government can simply ask one of the presidential candidates if they want you in their Government. They can be found here but most of the times they publish an article announcing their candidacy for Country President. Another way is to candidate yourself as CP of course! You can do that by asking your Party President to set you as your parties next CP candidate.
