The Government of Casari

The Government of Casari is a complicated system, using multiple types of representitives in a single Parliamentary body.

Counts and Representatives

Casari is split up into 109 different administrative regions, called Counties. Those Counties are then split up into a number of Districts. The people of each District is allowed to elect one person to represent themselves in Parliament, named a Representative. As well, all the citizens of the County can elect someone to the position of Count. Together, the Counts and Representatives elected across the country make up the full Parliament. However, as Counts represent a greater population and geographical area than Representatives do, the Counts are awarded an extra vote on Parliamentary votes and nominations. Therefore, the total number of votes cast in any given Parliamentary vote will be 750- 2 for each of the 107 Counts, and 1 for each of Casari's 532 Representatives.

Government Operations

Elections in Casari take place on the First Day of August, usually every year for local and city offices and every three years for Parliament.

Nominations

Beginning on the Sixteenth of May and continuing to the First of June, all of Casari's political parties along with any indipendant canadates nominate Challengers for any seat that they wish to contest. In the early days of Casaran politics before the rise of the party system, a canadate who was doing an adequate job could go several election cycles without someone filing to Challenge for the position. Now, that is usually very rare, as two of Casari's major parties usually nominate challengers to any governmental position held by the third. The incumbant is automatically included in the election lists, unless they publicly announce their decision to step down from their position.

Campaigning

The campaign season starts at 1:00 AM on the Twentith of June, six weeks before the election. At that point, the official lists of challengers facing each incumbent Count or Representative are officially released on both Casaran Radio and Television. At that point up to Election Day, the parties and canadates usually purchase airtime to promote themselves or show their opponents in a bad light. Ususally, the 2 Thursday or Friday nights leading up to Election day are when debates are organized and televised locally or nationally. Traditionally, the final campaigning takes place on the Thirty-First of July, the leaders of the respective political parties meet and hold a nationally televised debate as a last-chance attempt to swing voters toward their own party.

Election Day

All national elections and the large majority of local elections take place on the First of August, usually declared as Election Day, a national holiday. Voting on Election Day runs from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM. All votes are recorded on an approved paper voting form with can either be filled out manually or by a computerized voting booth. Either way, however, a paper record of every vote must exist in the interest of preventing fraud. Immediately after voting ends, the votes begin to be counted. As the final results are counted and confirmed, they are announced and broadcast on Television by the major broadcast and cable news networks. This contiunes through the night and until the next day. In an emergency of unforseen circumstance, Elections would be delayed 2 weeks until August 15th.

Election of a Prime Minister

On the First of September, the first meetings of Parliament take place in order to nominate the Prime Minister. For this process to take place, the parties and independant Barons and Counts attempt to deal and form alliances in order to gain the majority needed to elect a Prime Minister. This usually decides the political climate for the next three years, as once parties form a coalition, they tend to be stuck in the same boat in order to maintain power. When someone, usually the leader of the party with the greatest number of votes in that particular coalition, is put up for a vote and passed, the government is split into 3 seperate parts. The Majority is the group which supports the Prime Minister's Government, while the Opposition consists of all the members opposed to the government. If a member abstains from the vote for Prime Minister as several small parties and independants do, they are considered a Neutral party to the government and do not count for either the majority or the minority. By law, Parliament is only given until the Fifteenth of September to elect a Prime Minister. If the Fifteenth passes without a Prime Minister being elected, Parliament is dissolved and new elections are prepared with the same timetable as normal elections, except Election Day takes place on the First of Feburary. These are termed "Winter Elections," and while they take place outside the normal election cycle, they do not effect when the next regular election will take place.

Nominations

Once a Prime Minister is elected, they have their choice of nomination for the nineteen other ministers which make up their Cabinet. They are:

• Deputy Prime Minister
• Foreign Minister
• Defense Minister
• Justice Minister
• Commerce Minister
• Interior Minister
• Treasury Minister
• Health Minister
• Education Minister
• Culture Minister
• Labor Minister
• Science Minister
• Housing Minister
• Trade Minister
• Agriculture Minister
• Industry Minister
• Environment Minister
• Transportation Minister
• Energy Minister

Cabinet Positions are usually filled by members of the Prime Minister's Party, although often Cabinet positions are used in order to gain votes from other parties to elect a Prime Minister. There are also a variety of other positions that the Prime Minister has direct control over and can give to both MPs or non MPs.

• Head of Parliament - Runs Parliamentary operations on a daily basis.
• Parliamentary Sergeant at Arms - Is in charge of keeping order in Parliamentary talks. Is now mostly a ceremonial position.
• Head- Civil Protection Forces
• Head- Foreign Information Service
• Head- Casari Space Agency
• Head- Global Exploration Service
• Head- Food Standards Agency
• Head- Special Elections Committee
• Head- National Census Bureau
• Head- National Survey
• Head- Federal Sobriety Committee

Daily Operations

After elections, Parliament assumes daily operations. Bills for funding and laws can be proposed by either the government ministries or MPs, who submit them to a body who places them in the program. Each day votes are taken on whether or not to discuss potential laws as they come up on the program, except in cases of proposals made or approved by the Prime Minister which are not subject to a vote to open discussion. If approved by a simple plurality, discussion over the bill can begin and will last for an unlimited amount of time unless a request to limit discussion to a specific time period is passed. Once no more members have anything to say about the potential law or a vote ends discussion, a formal vote is taken over whether to pass the law.

No Confidence Votes

A vote of No Confidence can be made by Parliament at any time and is proposed the same way any law would be. Once the proposal is passed, the Prime Minister recieves the right to defend themselves and their policies on the floor of the Parliament before the vote is taken. If the vote passes, the government is dissolved and new elections are planned for either the First of August or February, whichever will be able to handle a full election cycle the soonest. Therefore, if a No Confidence Vote passes on July 20th, the next elections will be planned for the First of February. In this case, the election cycle will be reset and the election after the one required by the No Confidence Vote will take place on the First of August Three years after in the case of a Summer Election, and Two and a Half years after in the case of Winter Elections. If the No Confidence Vote does not pass, the Majority, Opposition, and Neutral lines are redrawn to reflect the results of the vote.

Major Political Parties

The National Conservative Party (NatCons)

See: National Conservative Party
The National Conservative Party, while it was initally founded as a Right-Wing party over 150 years ago has evolved into a centerist party. For a long time it was Casari's third party, not appealing as a superior alternative to the major Left and Right wing parties. However, the nomination of Meia Winter, a newcomer to Casaran Politics, as a midnight decision for Prime Minister in order to preserve the balance between CasLib and Labor ended up benefiting the NatCons greatly. Winter quickly became one of Casari's most popular Prime Ministers, a proponent of an open government and following the beliefs of the people, and lead the party to many victories in local elections before becoming the Party Leader and winning the NatCons their first national election in Ninety years on the back of many new, young canadates. Their popularity among younger voters makes it most likely that they will win the next National Election as well.

The Casari Liberals (CasLibs)

See: Casari Liberal Party
The Casari Liberals are now coming upon rough times. After emerging with the most votes in 7 of the last 12 elections, their supremacy was ruined in the deadlock which forced the election of Winter as Prime Minister. While still able to win regularly in local off-year elections, the youth vote that they had spent millions of selaris courting quickly left their side with the reemergence of the NatCons.

National Labor Party (Labor)

See: National Labor Party
The Labor Party supplanted the NatCons as a major party 60 years ago in the strongest days of the Labor movement. Then seen as a party which looks out for the Casaran workers, major business interests also abandoned the NatCons to endorse the Labor party as they tried to appear compassionate to the plight of workers. Possibly the most upset by the change in the political scene, the business backing that has ironically pushed Labor to the level it has reached are casually trying to court canadates in the other parties who appear to have a brighter future. However, Labor has taken the oppertunity to throw off its corporate appearance and return to its roots as a party for the common worker.

Minor Political Parties

Green Party (Greens)

The Green Party is dedicated to similar things the rest of the world's Green Parties are. Environmental preservation and preventing Casari's industrial and mining intrests from destroying the environment in their quest for profits. While it was a minor party in the past, lately the Greens have proven successful in electing a small number of Barons and Counts to parliament, and more are expected in coming elections.

Pan-Mountain Party (Pan-Mt)

The Pan-Mountain Party was spawned through the gradual neglact of infrastructure and qualify of life in Casari's highland and mountain areas. As these gradually degraded, support for local canadates with positions of improving the nation's Mountain Baronies and Counties became more and more successful. The Pan-Mts manage respectable showings in national elections and have become rather successful in local elections, forcing the major parties to adopt some of the Pan-Mts phisosophies and beliefs. The party is seen by most as having served it's purpose and now seems to be on a slow decline as the quality of life climbs once again.

Farmers Party (Farmers)

The Farmers Party is a single-issue party with a moderate base of power in the nation's Midlands. The Farmers Party is as old as Casari itself, and seems to undergo a resurgance whenever the market for farm goods and foods takes a turn for the worse.

Socialist Party (Socials)

The Socialist Party has a declared goal of fostering greater economic cooperation between the nation's many competing corporations to grow the Casaran economy and force it to the status of world power. While many view the Socialist party as a group who wants to destory Casaran society, their support continues to grow, albeit slowly.

Hooligan Party (Hoolgns)

The Hooligan Party, a mildly amusing offshoot of the nation's slightly off-the-wall Soccer fanatics, advocates lower police penalties for minor crimes, also known as hooliganism. They rarely get many votes.

Independance Party (IndPty)

The Independance Party is a small, regional party which formed while the nation was still under Colonial Rule. Since then, they have alternately stressed greater isolationism or an agressive foriegn policy, based on claiming currently empty land to develop and improve the nation's economic base.

National Drunkard Party (Drunks)

The National Drunkard Party plays on the nation's love of drink and adopts slightly absurd or ironic positions to important national and international issues. While not particularly intending to get any success, the vote totals for Drunk canadates are usually higher than expected, and on the odd chance of one getting elected, they prove themselves more than capable politians who are often a thorn in the side of major parties and alliances.

The Union Party (Union)

The Union Party is a typical Workers Union party, constantly pushing for greater Worker's and Union rights.

National Front (NatFrnt)

The National Front, while trying to put forth a fasade of meaning well, usually ends up taking a position of racism and extremeism. For a brief time the party was banned, although Grand Court rulings quickly overturned the ban.

Red Hat Party (RedHats)

The Red Hat Party is a gathering place for several canadates who cannot fit into existing parties. While usually moderate adn reasonable canadates, their lack of association with a major party proves it almost impossible for one to get elected around the party's center of power in a few major Colonial cities.

Isolationist Party (Isos)

A hyper-isolationist movement, the party is usually written off and rarely has any success in elections.

Funny Colors Party (FCs)

The Funny Colors Party, stressing the legalization of various recreational drugs, is rarely taken seriously by anyone other than those who partake in recreational drugs themselves.