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Ok...this is the big one. Discussion regarding the Government of Wintreath...hopefully at the end of this process we will have a draft Charter/Constitution/Base Legal Document, and we'll be able to start bringing on other government officials.

I'm somewhat opinionated on this, so here's my initial idea.

I've made it no secret that I would like to head an unelected Executive in the form of a Monarch or Emperor. I was also thinking of bringing on an appointed Cabinet who would both serve an office similar to Minister and form an upper legislative council. This would basically form the nobility. And then an elected lower council which would serve as the voice of the people.

Obviously, that's a long way from a Constitution, and I'm certainly open to different ideas as to how the government should be formed. These are just my first thoughts.

May I write a draft document for this?

If you want to subject yourself to that kind of work, by all means.

Challenge, Accepted.

Just don't forget, my basic ideas may change as we discuss the government further and such.

Yeah, the best idea really would be to wait until we reach a point where we all agree on what we want and then draft, lest you become so inundated with edits that the document looks like a jigsaw puzzle gone horribly wrong.

Head of State and Executive: Chieftain/Konungr (King) - Hereditary, no term limits

The Executive Body: Jarls (Ministers) of x, y and z.

Upper House (Legislature): Overhuset (Literally translates to Upper house. Appointed by Chieftain/Konungr. May amend bills passed through the Lower House, as well as introducing their own bills. The speaker of the Overhuset may veto a bill on the C/K's behalf.

Lower House (Legislature): Underhuset (Literally translates to Lower House. Elected by Citizens every three months. May introduce bills to the floor, and amend those introduced by the Overhuset. The Speaker of the Underhuset may veto a bill approved by the Upper House.

Judiciary: Rettvesenet (translates to Judiciary. Comprised of three Retten who are appointed and serve until they are stepped down or dismissed by the C/K.

Notes:
The Parliament as an entity would be referred to as the Storting, and its houses referred to by the names listed above.
The language used for all translations is Norwegian.
A bill must be signed by both Speakers of the Storting before becoming an act of law.
A clause should be set aside in the Constitution to allow the C/K to suspend the clauses of the Constitution during times of crisis - in effect, instigating Martial Law.

Yeah, that was off the top of my head. Thoughts?

That's pretty damn awesome for being off the top of your head.

I'm going to do some research tonight and post back.

Hooray

Sounds cool, but I honestly really hate permanent executive positions. I don't want to be associated with decisions Moot may make I don't agree with and not be able to do anything about it. I also don't want an oligarchy of recycled government officials which is sure to occur in the system proposed. And if we're going to have an appointed legislative body, it should have a lot less power than the elected one.

I've been giving it some thought, and I'm not sure it would be practical to have two legislative houses or an appointed branch. There may be people that want to run the equivalent of a Ministry, but don't want to be bothered with legislation. I would hate to add more stuff for our Ministers to do, especially if they don't want to do it. On the flip side, I imagine that those who would be appointed would be unable to run for elections in the lower house, draining our pool of potential candidates down.

And besides that, the Monarch could simply endorse certain candidates in elections...

Perhaps we should only have one legislative branch, and just have the king sign or veto any legislation. In effect, legislation couldn't pass without approval of both branches of government.

Any thoughts on that idea, or would a bicameral legislature still be preferable?

Personally, I like bicameral legislatures better than Unicam with exec vetoes. Perhaps I'm biased though, living with one and all.

At any rate, we could look at adoping the British system. We could have an elected lower house (5 members?), and a smaller (3 perhaps) upper house, which is appointed by the King. The King would offer a member of the lower house the chance to form a Government, and they would need to be confirmed by a majority vote of the lower house. In the event a Government can't be formed in the lower house, the King may ask a member of the Upper House to form a Government. This is almost guaranteed to work, with only 3 members. The King, much like our Queen, would have powers such as being able to dissolve Parliaments and choosing the Prime Minister.

MOAR LINGUISTICS
In Old Norse, 'Sovereign Ruler' translates to 'Allvaldr'. Might be a cool title for Wintry.
In Danish, 'Scribe' translates to 'Skriftlog'. Title for legislator maybe?
If we went with Skriftlog, we could refer to a bill or decree as a 'Skrifa'
I bloody hate these fangled languages.

And I like power and vetos.

I was just thinking a unicameral legislature would make more sense...it's what we're familiar with on Spiritus, and my idea of a king with veto power was drawn from Imperial Russia. It's also simpler than a Parliamentary system...but I really have no strong opinions on how many houses we have. Any other thoughts from anyone?

Also, nice names.

Thanks! I reckon about half of Google Translate's web traffic in the last 24 hours has been my doing.

It's not good enough though, I still don't know what I'd call a Prime Minister. Or your heir apparent, for that matter. >.>

Or your heir apparent, for that matter. >.>

Hmm...I wouldn't mind calling him Charchar.