Discussion Ministries of Lazarus Act & Mandate Amendment Discussion

[New Rogernomics]

Original proposal/discussion is here:

Ministries of Lazarus Act (April 2019)

Ministries of Lazarus Act (April 2019) Proposed by: "@"New Rogernomics" Section 1. Existing Ministries of Lazarus (1) The head of government shall appoint Cabinet Ministers to ministries responsible for organizing: a. The foreign relations, cultural exchanges, and world assembly affairs of...

nslazarus.com

I have just included a starting point here, for us to add to/edit:

Ministries of Lazarus Act (2021)

Proposed by: @New Rogernomics​

Section 1. Existing Ministries of Lazarus

(1) The Prime Minister shall appoint Cabinet Ministers to ministries responsible for organizing:

a. The foreign relations, cultural exchanges, and world assembly affairs of the region;

[...]
Section #. Additional Responsibilities

(1) Additional responsibilities may be applied to these ministries through an act or measure of the assembly, or through a directive of the Prime Minister.
(2) Other ministries may be added or removed by the Prime Minister, as allowed by regional law.

To make this clearer and make sure there are no uncertainties around the act there could be an argument made that amending the mandate may be required too.

This is what it is right now:

Establishment of the Cabinet

(4) The Prime Minister will set the course of the Cabinet with such ministries, programs, and activities as they determine are beneficial for Lazarus.

This is what it could be amended to:

Establishment of the Cabinet

(4) The Prime Minister will set the course of the Cabinet with such ministries, programs, and activities as they determine are beneficial for Lazarus, or with any other ministries, programs or activities, established by law.

For this discussion we probably want to decide what ministries should be established in law, and what is best left out.

 

[Clorinda]

Honestly I feel like our ministries our adequately represented in law. All of them are outright mentioned by name except for Internal Affairs really. The military is codified, a “granting official” is legally solidified, and FA of course is too. If this proposal seeks to make ministries (director portfolios) assignable by the Prime Minister, I feel like we’d need to amend quite a few things.

EDIT: Disregard this post, I misread the OP.

 

[New Rogernomics]

I guess to begin with we need to decide:

• How many ministries we realistically need to set into law, and what ones we can just leave for the PM to decide over?
• Should we have an Integration/Immigration Ministry as a separate thing to Internal Affairs or combine the two?
• If not, should we call Internal Affairs something different like Culture & Media, and name a department specifically for immigration/integration?
• Do we need a separate WA department as in the past?
• Finally, following on from the FA department, if not, should those be defined under responsibilities of an FA department?

 

[Clorinda]

Honestly, I’d like to state again what I said on Discord and mention that they’re already codified to the extent of defining their roles to some degree. However, I’d like to add that I’d like it to be up to the Prime Minister to decide the composition of his/her/their cabinet.

 

[New Rogernomics]

Honestly, I’d like to state again what I said on Discord and mention that they’re already codified to the extent of defining their roles to some degree. However, I’d like to add that I’d like it to be up to the Prime Minister to decide the composition of his/her/their cabinet.

That was in here:
(1) Additional responsibilities may be applied to these ministries through an act or measure of the assembly, or through a directive of the Prime Minister.
(2) Other ministries may be added or removed by the Prime Minister, as allowed by regional law.

Though that is already in the mandate:

Establishment of the Cabinet

(4) The Prime Minister will set the course of the Cabinet with such ministries, programs, and activities as they determine are beneficial for Lazarus.

(5) The Prime Minister may issue executive directives to set public policy for executive ministries, programs, and activities. Such directives will remain in effect unless rescinded by the Prime Minister who issued them or a subsequent Prime Minister. Such directives may also be amended by the Prime Minister who issued them or a subsequent Prime Minister.

(6) The Prime Minister may appoint Cabinet Ministers to assist with executive ministries, programs and activities, and must fill any ministries mandated by law. Appointment of Cabinet Ministers will be subject to confirmation by 50%+1 vote of the Assembly.

(7) Cabinet Ministers will serve until the end of the Prime Minister's term or until resignation, removal from office by the Assembly or the Prime Minister, or automatic removal from office.

(8) The Prime Minister may provide for the appointment and removal of Cabinet deputies.

 

[Deadeye Jack]

I think the Prime Minister/Managing Director should be able to maintain as much flexibility as possible when it comes to giving out Cabinet ministry roles. Ideally, we should not really have specialty ministry roles codified into law when there hasn't been sustained activity in that area previously. It seems like we already struggle to fill the positions as they exist now, so adding more positions without a marked increase in people willing to do the work of the roles, seems like setting us up for failure. If a specific Prime Minister/Managing Director has a plan and a minister candidate willing to do the work than it seems like right now they can already appoint them if they want. We can expand when the times are good and contract when the times are bad.

The way I see it there are only 4 distinct ministries necessary at a base level that can encompass whatever you want:

Internal Affairs
Foreign Affairs
Shareholdership because we need a granting Official
Regional Guard

Things like Roleplay, WA, Cards, and more don't really need a dedicated office right now because parts of them can fall under the core 4 ministries. They don't have the necessary activity right now to warrant a position on their own. If they start doing more things then a Prime Minister in the future can appoint someone a role specifically to this.

 

[Domais]

After recent events, I support this idea.

 

[New Rogernomics]

This debate has gone quiet, so I'd probably want to post an update:

Ministries of Lazarus Act (2022)

Proposed by: @New Rogernomics​

Section 1. Existing Ministries of Lazarus

(1) The Prime Minister shall appoint Cabinet Ministers to ministries responsible for organizing:

a. The foreign relations, cultural exchanges, and world assembly affairs of the region,
b. The internal affairs of the region, inclusive of cultural events, media, and welcoming residents or citizens,
c. The Regional Guard, as the military institution of Lazarus.

Supplementary Ministries

(2) The Granting Official shall be considered a position under the department concerned with the internal affairs of the region.

Section 3. Additional Responsibilities

(1) Additional responsibilities may be applied to these ministries through an act or measure of the assembly, or through a directive of the Prime Minister.
(2) Other ministries may be added or removed by the Prime Minister, as allowed by regional law.

 

[New Rogernomics]

The other option, which I've heard objections against in the past is that we elect Ministers directly through regional elections, but the PM is tasked with coordinating and over-ruiling decisions of Cabinet.

In this case, ministers would be forced to put forward proposals on how to better the region in an election, and the PM wouldn't be required to do all the work, as ministers would go into office already having a plan of their own.

The PM could still have their own agenda and set Ministers to do tasks, but Ministerial roles would be more competitive to get.

This would require ministries to be set in law though like through this Act, so that there were ministries defined in law to run for.

 

[Frankender]

I like putting the granting official in the internal affairs ministry as you suggested

Not a fan of electing ministries. I think it should be the PM's directive behind what the ministries are doing. Otherwise the PM can just blame their ministers and act like it "isn't their fault" ministries failed

 

[Domais]

I like putting the granting official in the internal affairs ministry as you suggested

Not a fan of electing ministries. I think it should be the PM's directive behind what the ministries are doing. Otherwise the PM can just blame their ministers and act like it "isn't their fault" ministries failed

It should not be the Prime Minister's job to do everything. Or find replacements when there probably is none. If the Ministers are not doing their job then it is their fault.

 

[New Rogernomics]

I like putting the granting official in the internal affairs ministry as you suggested

Not a fan of electing ministries. I think it should be the PM's directive behind what the ministries are doing. Otherwise the PM can just blame their ministers and act like it "isn't their fault" ministries failed

The CU, HRL, and before that the Emerald Republic, all had Ministerial elections, and that situation never occurred. Ministers who did well, went on to perform higher positions in the region, whereas those who failed, didn't go places.

Usually the Assembly can pretty easily tell when someone has done what they promised in an election, and when they haven't. That goes for Ministers and PMs.

Under this act, assuming the Elections Act and so on is amended, PMs would still control the Cabinet, just it wouldn't be the responsibility of the PM for when Ministers fail to provide what they promised in their own elections.

 

[Frankender]

[BGCOLOR=rgb(245, 245, 245)]Under this act, assuming the Elections Act and so on is amended, PMs would still control the Cabinet, just it wouldn't be the responsibility of the PM for when Ministers fail to provide what they promised in their own elections.[/BGCOLOR]

How do they control the cabinet? By making recommendations basically and maybe have the power to fire them?

 

[New Rogernomics]

How do they control the cabinet? By making recommendations basically and maybe have the power to fire them?

They can fire them, which is in the Mandate here:

(7) Cabinet Ministers will serve until the end of the Prime Minister's term or until resignation, removal from office by the Assembly or the Prime Minister, or automatic removal from office.

If they lose confidence in a Minister they can fire them, after which there would be new elections for that Ministry.

This would have to be changed though:

(6) The Prime Minister may appoint Cabinet Ministers to assist with executive ministries, programs and activities, and must fill any ministries mandated by law. Appointment of Cabinet Ministers will be subject to confirmation by 50%+1 vote of the Assembly.

To something like this:

(6) The Prime Minister may appoint Cabinet Ministers to assist with executive ministries not subject to a regional election, and programs and activities. Appointment or election of Cabinet Ministers will be subject to confirmation by 50%+1 vote of the Assembly.

The Elections Act would have to be amended to describe the process of electing Cabinet ministers though as well.

 

[thechurchofsatan]

Just wanna say this seems like an entirely positive addition. Maybe it's just me, but it seems immensely inconvenient for the entire executive to have to shut down every time a PM resigns or goes through their term. Gotta keep the wheels turning.

 

[New Rogernomics]

Just wanna say this seems like an entirely positive addition. Maybe it's just me, but it seems immensely inconvenient for the entire executive to have to shut down every time a PM resigns or goes through their term. Gotta keep the wheels turning.

It should also be made clear that a PM can still create new ministries if they wish to, just the most critical ministries will undergo regular elections i.e. internal affairs and foreign affairs.

 

[Frankender]

Just wanna say this seems like an entirely positive addition. Maybe it's just me, but it seems immensely inconvenient for the entire executive to have to shut down every time a PM resigns or goes through their term. Gotta keep the wheels turning.

We would have to amend this as well then:

(7) Cabinet Ministers will serve until the end of the Prime Minister's term or until resignation, removal from office by the Assembly or the Prime Minister, or automatic removal from office.

 

[Chanku]

Why not just keep Ministers around until the end of PM elections? Seems awfully simpler than PM elections.

 

[New Rogernomics]

Looking at the Elections Act it looks fine as is, so amending the mandate, and passage of a Ministries Act is what would be required.

 

[Frankender]

Why not just keep Ministers around until the end of PM elections? Seems awfully simpler than PM elections.

I agree with this, but isn't this what we already have?