David Johnson was looking for some suggestions about the governent
of the Regency - here's my take on it:
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Government Structure of the Regency
The Regency has three actual branches of government: Legislative,
Judicial, Executive; and the Military. The legislative branch
consists of two chambers, the Moot and the Senate, which share
power. The judicial branch consists of a series of appeals courts
of varying power, and executive branch consists of the various
Governors. The military is not a separate branch, but is not
beholden to the other branches. The Regent is the highest level
of authority for each branch.
Regent <--
R | |
E W --------------------------------|------------------
G I Legislative Branches Judiciary |Executive Military
E D | | | | | |
N E | ----------------------------- | |
C | | | | | Admirals
Y Regency Senate---> Regent's | ----------
Moot | Court | Marshals
----------|-----------|-----------|------------|------------|-----
S Sector | Sector | |
E W Dukes |------> Apellate | |
C I | | Court | |
T D | | | | |
O E | | | | |
R | | | | |
__________|___________|___________|____________|____________|_____
S Sub | | Sub Fleet
S E W Sector |-----------------> Sector Admirals
U C I Dukes | | Governors |
B T D | | | | |
O E | ------------------- | |
R | | | | |
----------|-----------------------|-----|------|------------|-----
W Counts District -->Planetary Reserve
O Marquises Courts Governors Admirals
R Barons ----------
L Generals
D
At the top of this hierarchy, wielding the highest power of the
executive, legislative, judicial and military branches, is the
Regent. The office is held for life and passed on to the
designated heir. The Regent appoints candidates to all executive
and judical posts on the sector and subsector levels, subject to
confirmation by the Senate. The armed forces are controlled
directly by the Regent with no oversight by the Senate or the
Moot. The titles held by the Regent include, but are not limited
to: Lord Regent of the Third Imperium, Archduke of Deneb,
President of the Senate, Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Navy,
and Supreme Marshall of the Imperial Army.
The Moot is the senior chamber of the legislative branch, composed
of the peers of baronial rank and higher in the realm who serve as
long as they maintain their title (usually for life, although
abdications do occur). There is approximately one noble per
planet in the Regency, and as such, the Moot tends to favor the
rights of lower population worlds. The members of the Moot are
predominantly human. Although the Moot does vote to confirm the
succession to the Regency, this power is mitigated by the fact
that they can only vote for, not against a new Regent.
Politically the Moot tends to be dominated by the Aristocratic,
Imperiallist and Sovreignist blocks.
The Senate is technically the junior chamber of the legislature,
although in fact it is more active politcally than the Moot.
Senators are popularly elected representatives of Senatorial
Districts of approximately 1 billion sophonts. Being based on
population, these districts can vary in size from a portion of a
world to a dozen or more entire worlds. Because of this, the
Senate tends to favor the high population worlds, where some 96%
of the Regency's population live. In addition, the Senate is a
more cosmopolitan body, with 29 Llelywolly Senators from Junidy,
11 Gl'lu Senators from Kibushish, one Ebokin Senator from Yebab,
several Aslan Senators from the spinward regions, and even one
Chirper Senator from Vanejeen. Senators serve 10 year terms, and
may be elected to no more than 3 terms in succession. The Senate
has the power to confirm or reject all appointments to the
Judicial and Executive branches made by the Regent. Unsuprisingly,
the Senate tends to hold Democratic/Interventionist views.
The judicial branch exists to decide when (or if) Regency law has
been violated, and consisists of a series of courts at various
levels that have the ability to review the decisions of courts at
lower levels. The lowest level are the Regency District Courts,
corresponding to the Senatorial Districts. These courts are the
base of Regency law, and spend much of their time hearing local
cases dealing with conflicts between Regency law and the local
laws. Decisions of the District Courts may be appealed to the
Subsector Appeals Court, which can in turn lead to an appeal to
the Regent's Court on Mora. The final avenue of appeal is
directly to the Regent, who can reverse the decision of any
Regency Court. Justices of the District Courts are elected from
the district. Justices of the Appeals and Regent's courts are
appointed by the Regent for indefinite terms, but are subject to
confirmation by the Senate. They may be removed from office by
the Regent, or by a vote of the Senate.
The executive branch consists of the Subsector Governors appointed
by the Regent and confirmed by the Senate, and Planetary Governors
appointed by the Senate. It's purpose is to ensure that the will
of the Senate and of the Regent is carried out. Thus the
Governors are responsible for collection of taxes, implementation
of policy and enforcement of Regency law.
The military in the Regency is not an actual branch of the
government, but it funtions in many was as such. The head of the
military is the Regent, and under him are the Admirals and
Marshals of the Realm. Each Sub-Sector has a Fleet admiral
assigned to it, and each high population world has a Reserve
Admiral in charge of the reserve fleet, and a General in charge of
the planet's ground forces. The military, through the person of
the Regent (undoubtedly with advice from the Senate and the Moot),
has the right to decide when to wage war or make peace. It is
effectively outside the the control of the Senate, the Moot and
the Governors on most matters. The military is, however, bound to
uphold Regency law, and thus must obey decisions of the judiciary.
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I have tried to incorporate a few important ideas in this outline,
most importantly the divisions of power between the Senate and the
Moot, and their different focuses (i.e., the population based
Senate v. the planet based Moot), the conflict between
Sovreignists and Interventionists (to use David Johnson's terms),
and the role of the Regent as the font of all political power.
One idea that I would particularly like comment on is the
Senatorial District. It would seem odd to me to allow , say,
Menorb and Pixie the same level of representation given their
different populations. So I have combined Pixie into one district
with Menorb, Yres and Boughene. This gives a fairly compact
district of 3,060,900,800 (New Era figures) which is further
divided into three subdistricts, each of which elect one Senator.
This seems to be more in tune with a democratic body than the
arbitrary sector/subsector designation, as it can recognize
clusters of worlds as sharing common circumstances without giving
them seperate governments. The main problem with this is the
exact nature of the districts (they are a pain to figure out), but
that seems ok to me too..it lets things stay flexible as
populations grow and shift. And just imagine the fights in the
Senate of over redistricting! I can see a whole adventure based
on census taking, and whether the population of Wochiers has
really passed 1 billion. How's that for cerebral adventuring?
Also, this concept gives the minor races more of a chance to have
representation in the Senate. Imagine a Gl'lu delegation
wandering around in insulated suits full of ammonia - how's that
to remind your players that they aren't in Kansas anymore.
So there you go guys... go to town! I'm off to the beach for a
few days...I can't wait to get back and see what you all think!
Wes Esser
[email removed]