Government:Funkadelia's 45 Theses

On the 11th of October 2019, Funkadelia created a thread on the forum titled "Forty-five Theses - Disputation on the Laws of The East Pacific" that highlighted issues he saw with the Concordat. It was a propaganda document intended on gathering support for the Cabal's goal of amending the Concordat so they could slip subtle changes to their benefit. Despite this atttempt at propaganda, it was taken as a joke and became a meme.

Forty-five Theses - Disputation on the Laws of The East Pacific

1. The entire structure of The East Pacfiic’s legal code glorifies the small number of off-site elites and ignores the wide majority of the nations in the region.

2. The entire legal code is made up of disjointed and discontiguous legislation that does not mesh together, and is often in conflict with itself.

3. The layout of the regional government is such that it is entirely insular. Major changes in law and policy direction are largely subject to political games between disparate factions.

4. There are no codified election laws. The parameters of elections are based on whatever the Viceroy feels like at that time.

5. The magisterium is an exclusive club of nations waiting to join an even more exclusive club of nations as Viziers. All actions taken are incentivised to be absolutely self serving.

6. The Conclave has no term limits on six month long terms, and has the ability to remove any Vizier or even the Delegate from office if they decide that they do not like them.

7. The only process for removing oligarchic Viziers is by the gang of Arbiters, and only for “absence or high crimes,” taking the voice away from the people.

8. The East Pacific Police Service, the fact finder and key factor in justice in the region, is essentially under the control of the Viceroy of the Conclave, an unelected offsite elite.

9. The endorsement cap is constructed to exclude the average nation, and encourage membership in the forum elite.

10. There is no defined consequences against illegal actions taken by the Delegate, or indeed many members of the regional government. The law demands that people should act a particular way, but does not include any recourse or punishments for not acting that way.

11. The Concordat tries much too hard to be the United States Constitution. This forces things that don't make any sense in the context of NationStates.

12. The Concordat claims to appoint the delegate as the head of the region when, in fact, game mechanics do this and the concordat simply accepts this inevitable outcome.

13. The Concordat attempts to establish and protect an oligarchical order through the processes surrounding viziers.

14. The clause in The Endorsement Caps Act regarding Border Control for Viziers is ambiguously worded where the letter of the law states that Viziers are only entitled to Border Control when there is an ejection order, but the Conclave somehow ruled otherwise.

15. The Conclave is a bureaucratic farce which creates the illusion of control by the Magisterium, where it really creates control for the oligarchy and has no legal oversight.

16. The role of the Vizier is largely irrelevant to game mechanics of 2019. No effort has been made to rectify this.

17. The East Pacific Police Service is empowered to conduct investigations for the Conclave, but there is nothing to compel those under investigation to respond.

18. Citizenship applications are suspended during elections, which is an archaic way of handling that issue. It only serves to confuse new members to the forums.

19. The Concordat and other laws are riddled with spelling and grammatical errors unbecoming of foundational documents of a government, and have gone uncorrected for all this time.

20. The Magisterium may enter a “closed session,” hidden from the people at any time they wish.

21. The Concordat states that “All rights not in this Concordat described or reserved to the government shall remain in the hands of the individual nations,” despite the fact that there are several things hidden within largely unread orders and policies that restrict the freedoms of nations.

22. The Viziers have the ability to remove the Delegate at any time, and replace them with one of their own by a vote of the Magisterium, instead of all the people.

23. The Viceroy’s Election Commission does not have its procedures and rules legally outlined, allowing for abuses that can range from election fraud, to discounting legal votes.

24. The Viceroy’s Election Commission has to be approached first before the Conclave and can circumvent any challenge to an election because of this, blocking the Conclave from ruling on election challenges.

25. The Viceroy is capable of appointing/removing people from the Election Commission at their discretion, decreasing the transparency of the operations of regional elections and leaving no accountability for the performance and aptitude of those on the commission.

26. Elections have no standard definition, so the way votes are counted, timelines, and processes can vary between elections on a sole individual’s whim.

27. In practice, the Conclave does not operate through unified rulings of a court, but instead by informal postings by the members of the Conclave that somehow result in judicial review of laws and actions by government officials.

28. Arbiters are mandated to have a six month tenure, but the law relies on their replacement or reappointment after that period. There is nothing binding that requires such a nomination.

29. The Viziers are permitted to remove a delegate for any reason based on an expedited vote of both that body and the Magisterium. This allows for any manner of political plays by ambitious viziers, who are unaccountable to the average nation of The East Pacific.

30. At any time, the exclusionary Magisterium may change the parameters of citizenship, making it more difficult for the average nation to hold those in power to account.

31. Cognizant of the artificial barriers in place to citizenship, the Magisterium allows those in the forum elite to bypass these barriers with the concept of “honorable citizenship,” reserved for those who impress the few in power.

32. Upon the initial ratification of the Concordat, the entire region was polled as to their approval of it. Since then, changes have been made exclusively by the forum elite.

33. The endorsement cap, as currently established, hoards influence for the cabal, and keeps it from the rest of the nations in The East Pacific.

34. The executive ministers of the region are appointed with minimum levels of accountability. Nations at large have no voice in the conduct of these ministers.

35. The legal structure of the East Pacific Sovereign Army is extremely limiting and prevents a wider possibility of policy options for the entire region.

36. The East Pacific Police Service as it currently exists is a political tool for those seeking to take down other members as a piece of self serving kabuki theatre, with no salience to regional policy and goals.

37. The definitions of crimes are nebulous, and have little genuine connection to the rest of the code of laws.

38. The “Identity Act” repeals a law stating that The East Pacific is a defender region, but the extreme limits on the East Pacific Sovereign Army in the curia act keep it this way in practice. This limits the region’s foreign policy range.

39. There is a broad set of laws against the overthrow of The East Pacific, but very few ways to prevent abuse from the top down, encouraging an oligarchic state.

40. The crimes laid out in the “Treason Act” all have to do with generally the same activities, with minor variations between them.

41. The Viziers have no term limits and no reconfirmation, meaning that they have absolutely no accountability to the nations of the region.

42. There is no way to remove Viziers from office, except for by decree by a similar oligarchic body in the Conclave.

43. The “Endorsement Caps Act” requires minimal effort by the government to justify a summary ejection or banning from the region of any nation within their parameters.

44. As it exists now, the Hall of Heroes is a moribund institution that serves to glorify the longest serving members of the forum elite.

45. Many parts of law are hidden within various dictums, screeds, and standing orders that are all somehow considered legal documents. The absolute absurdity of this is highlighted by a 90 page volume covering all aspects of The East Pacific’s law. If the law is that expansive and complex, it will be almost impossible to master and interpret correctly, even by the vaunted Arbiters. This serves the objectives of the forum elite who seek to control the region with such byzantine processes.