Difference between revisions of "K IX"

Latest revision as of 19:26, 13 June 2005

K IX

Flag of K IX
Motto: Progress in our own direction.'
No Map Available Yet
Region	Furry Federation
Capital	Eruda
Official Language(s)	English
Leader	Richard K Niner, Prime Minister of the Majority, Sharon D. Echs, Prime Minister of the Minority, and Mark L. Pine, Leader of the Senate
Population	over 1 billion
Currency	step
NS Sunset XML

General

Originally founded March 12th, 1960, The Commonwealth of K IX is composed of nine dominions, and can be found on its subtropical archipelago of 15 islands. Currently a member of the Furry Federation, K IX has recently begun to dabble in international politics, most notably by joining the United Nations.

The parliamentary system

The Commonwealth of K IX is run by a democratically elected oligarchy. There are, at any time, three leaders within this group, all of which hold equal amounts of power.

Government

The Commonwealth government consists of five branches: the House of the Majority, the House of the Senate, the House of the Minority, the House of Justice, and the House of Sustainability. Each of the five houses have a specific responsibilty, with the Majority, Minority, and Senate wielding the most.

The House of the Majority is elected using a first-past-the-post system. By utilising constuencies of approximately 2,000,000, separated within the Dominions, and resulting in a house of 500 Majority Representatives. Following a general election, the house then appoints a Prime Minister by secret ballot. This is the Prime Minister of the Majority.

The House of the Senate consists of 45 members: 5 of them come from each dominion. Every senator is appointed to a 5-year term by their Dominion, with 9 dismissals/reappointments pending each year. Within the Senate, a leader is elected by a super-majority of 30 senators, and may hold office until his or her term expires, in which he or she must step down pending reappointment. The Leader of the Senate cannot be recalled except on grounds of incompetence, but may still resign at any time during his or her term. When the Leader of the Senate resigns or is recalled, a new leader is appointed within 5 work days, unless the new round of appointments begins within 10 working days. Following a new round of appointments, the position must then be filled within 5 working days.

The House of the Minority is often considered to be "an elected Senate" by the citizens of K IX. They both have 45 members, split evenly among the nine Dominions, and all members of both branches are subject to 5-year terms. However, the House of the Minority's major difference, as implied by its moniker, is that its members are elected by the citizens of K IX. The Prime Minister of the Minority follows the same rules, in terms of appointments, as the Leader of the Senate.

The two Prime Ministers and the Leader of the Senate comprise an oligarchy in Commonwealth politics, and are often referred to as the "Triumvirate of power". Together, they appoint members of the remaining branches - Justice and Sustainability.

The process

For any bill to pass, it must attain majority support within the House of Majority and the Senate, and consensus in the House of Minority. After this, it will be scrutinized by the House of Sustainability, and enforced through the House of Justice.

After a bill is introduced to The House of the Majority (first reading), it is debated, and then voted on. The initial vote carries no weight - it does not determine whether the bill is passed or not. Following the first vote, the government has the opportunity to incorporate changes into it and reintroduce the legislation (second reading). This time, the vote occurs immediately.

If the bill cannot reach 60% support, the government may elect to hold a referendum on its contents. Referendums are limited to occuring once per year, and if a referendum fails to attain 60% support, the failed referendum is a loss of confidence.

If there is no referendum, the government may repeat the process of changing the bill, and reintroduce it again (third reading). The vote following the third reading is final, and failure to attain 60% support is loss of confidence.

On loss of confidence, the government is forcefully dissolved, and a new election is held. Without loss of confidence, though, the Prime Minister of the Majority can call an election at any time, provided (s)he dissolves government within four years.

If, during the second or third reading in The Elected Houses or The House of the Majority, the bill attains the 60% support required, it is passed. In The House of the Senate, only one reading is conducted on bills, and is followed by debate and a vote requiring 60% support. Failure to pass in the Senate cancels the bill. In the House of the Minority, consensus is required on all bills before they can be passed. However, members of this House must justify their lack of support based on minority rights.

Having passed in the three primary Houses, the Triumvirate is obliged to sign the bill and make it an Act.

The House of Justice runs the court systems and provides funding for police agencys and correctional services, subject to policies written by the Triumvirate. The House of Sustainability monitors the other Houses' actions, as well as those of the Triumvirate. Annually, it produces a report on the financial and environmental sustainability of Acts passed and policies made in the past year, and may express loss of confidence and force an election. Sustainability is responsible for running any election.

History

Pre-K IX

Originally inhabited by its native Canis eruditis, K IX was "discovered" by humans in the late 19th century. Quickly conquering its 15 islands, the Canis were demoted to second-class citizens, restricted to living outide their cities. The conquering humans named their territory "K".

During the great wars of the twentieth century, as the Canis were drafted into the army, death scenes from the wars changed public opinion on some of the islands. Following the first war, the islands divided up into what was known as the 15 domains.

One domain had full equality, while two others continued enforcing segregation, but the majority used a middle ground. It was in these domains that outspoken Canis eruditis spoke to the millions, gradually winning their support until, one by one, the domains gave them their rights. As the rights were given back, many domains merged together to form 8 dominions. The two remaining domains, however, continued to suppress the rights of the Canis.

Three years after the second great war, the two remaining domains attacked their neighbouring dominions, and in the eight years' war that followed, eventually lost. Following the eight years' war, a remarkable trend was noticed: the majority of those killed in the war were human. This brought about a Canis majority on both sides.

The spoils of war were formed into a ninth dominion, carefully under the watch of the other eight. The Canis eruditis, by far the majority of its population, gradually used their new found voting power to shift the political spectrum to the left. After three years, leaders from each of the niner dominions were encouraged to begin discussions on reuniting the country.

On March 12th, 1960, the Commonwealth of K IX was formed, and established, as its capital, the city of Eruda, with its prominent view of the inland sea. "K" was the name of the original nation, and "IX" was a roman numeral representing the number of its members: the founding dominions.

Recent history

In the following 15 years, the armies of the nine dominions disbanded, and formed a much smaller Commonwealth Protection Force, which was eventually disbanded as the Commonwealth was forgotten. On the 25th Anniversary of the Commonwealth, the dominions gave up all autonomy to the commonwealth. However, to this day, they still assume that name. As a newly formed nation-state, K IX began to market itself to the world. This resulted, over the past 15 years, in large immigrations to K IX, inflating its population to 200 million.