Parliament of Packilvania: Difference between revisions

There are approximately 395 seats in the Legislative Council, that are awarded to constituencies every 5 years as follows:

* The Provincial Legislatures appoint 30 delegates and the Autonomous City Legislatures appoint 15 delegates each.

* The Sultan of Packilvania appoints 20 Princes of the [[Bedonite dynasty]] and 10 members of the [[nobility of Packilvania]].

== Legislative Process ==

{{Main|Legislative process of Packilvania}}

An executive department or agency will normally investigate an issue or approach to policy direction from the Sultan, Prime Minister, Council of Ministers or other source as applicable. It will then publish its findings and conclusions in a report. The department will subsequently prepare a Green Paper which is a draft of potential policy and legislative ideas in response to or based on the outcomes of one or more reports. Typically, this will be followed by a White Paper which states the department's official position based on feedback received from the Green Paper. The White Paper, once adopted by the Council of Ministers, will feed into the drafting of new bills (legislative proposals) by that department. Once the bill has received feedback from various stakeholders and been updated accordingly, it will be presented to the Council of Ministers of Packilvania for approval. The bill can go through several rounds before being permitted to be presented by the Minister to the Parliament based on an agenda set by the relevant Presiding Officer.

Bills are first presented to a committee, but the Parliament is informed of the bill. In some cases, a house of Parliament may elect to set up an ad hoc committee specifically for the bill or for bills falling within a specific topic. Ordinarily, bills are reviewed by standing committees. These bodies will read the law, interview experts or stakeholders, consult with the public through public forums or surveys, and suggest modifications. They will go back and forth with the Minister concerned until the Committee is happy to present the law to the house of Parliament. The presiding officer will set a date and call a plenary. The bill will be read and members will be allowed to comment on the bill. Once one or more members motion to vote on the bill and one or more members second the motion, the presiding officer will call a vote. If the required quorum is met, the law will be presented to the Sultan of Packilvania who will either sign the law thereby granting imperial assent, present the law back to the Parliament for a second vote, do nothing and let the bill lapse triggering a restart of the process, or refuse to sign the law, vetoing it.

This process normally applies to the Legislative Council since it is much smaller and its members serve full time and all live in Bingol. The Consultative Assembly normally only listens to the Prime Minister's state of the nation address and the members do not debate it as would be done in a democracy. Instead, they hold a vote to recognise the State of the Empire Addres. Then the Minister of Finance will present the annual budget. The Prime Minister or another Minister can also present a Constitutional Amendment. While the Legislative Council might have gone through the former process in full, by the time it gets to the Consultative Assembly, the Legislative Council would have passed the budget, or constitutional amendment. The Speaker of the Consultative Assembly will simply initiate a vote for these bills without discussion from the floor. The vote is largely symbolic as the Consultative Assembly has never disagreed with the Legislative Council.

Because members of the Consultative Assembly know of their appointment at least a year in advance of the one week session, they can form working groups and undertake investigations of particular issues and compile reports or statements that they can submit to the Chairperson in advance of the meeting to be adopted as non-binding resolutions by the Consultative Assembly. The assembly's members will then be circulated the proposed resolutions and adopt them without debate. These working groups are not formal committees but they enable members to work together to organise public forums. The Consultative Assembly may not force government officials to appear for questioning. They also do not have access to copies of the budget or a constitutional amendment before it is presented to them except for information available in the public domain.

== Emoluments and Administration ==

The members of the Legislative Council are full-time employees of the Crown. They are paid salaries and granted other emoluments in terms of the Civil List as determined by law. This includes a pension, medical aid, various forms of insurance, and various allowances for transportation and housing. The members are also granted offices and staff, and all the equipment that they need to exercise their duties is provided by the executive branch through the Department of Legislative Affairs. Members are immune from prosecution for the work that they do during their work, but members can be removed by the Legislative Council via a vote of the Disciplinary Committee for an offence. The Disciplinary Committee is appointed by the Speaker. Because the Speaker normally appoint members loyal to the government, in reality members do not defy the executive branch in any substantive way because of fear of dismissal.

The members of the Consultative Assembly do not receive a salary. They do however receive a stipend for transport and accommodation during the week of the session. At the discretion of the Minister of Legislative Affairs, arrangements can be made for the government to provide transport and accommodation where it makes sense to do so and he is expected to do so equitably and fairly to enable maximum participation with a view to empowering the poorest members to participate as far as posssible. The government forbids employers from firing citizens called to the Consultative Assembly because of their absence during the one week session. They do not have immunity for work done outside the session and can be relieved of their right to participate if they are imprisoned, a fugitive of the law, bankrupt, renounce their citizenship, move abroad, failed to appear without being excused in a previous session, or commit certain offences in the course the year of their selection.

== Perception and Public Image ==

The Parliament is generally seen as a rubber stamp by foreign bodies. To a degree, this is true especially in relation to the Consultative Assembly which lacks formal powers to present bills, or which lacks the cohesion, support and protection to criticise the Legislative Council or the executive branch. Nevertheless, in Packilvania, polling of the public by various bodies has found that while they perceive the Consultative Assembly as symbolic. In most polls, the majority of respondents have said that they are "proud" or "honoured" to be summoned to participate. Studies have shown that many people participate in the body because it gives them opportunities to network and present their issues to a larger public audience. In reality, the Consultative Assembly is more of a conference of citizens across cultures, ages, genders, and economic strata to participate in the political system.

Perceptions of the Legislative Council are mixed. On one hand the body provides representation to various stakeholders, and enables the elite in Packilvania to co-ordinate legislative action and debate important issues. On the other hand, the body is seen as exclusionary and undemocratic, offering indirect representation to the citizens through members from provinces and autonomous cities. Some believe that the body enables astute people in various fields to legislate instead of politicians whose primary path to power is popularity. On the other, they feel that the body excludes marginalised groups. Because the body has quotas for demographic representation, most studies have indicated that the majority of people feel that they have some representation in the body. Another poll found that the majority of people are unaware of its work, uninformed of its processes and ways to participate. Attempts have been made by the body to engage the public such as establishing cable and satellite television channels, social media channels, hold public forums, organise conferences and public forums, publish information through its website, send representatives to current affairs and analysis programs, contribute to periodicals and publications etc.

The foreign media and public is generally very harsh in its perceptions of the Parliament. They often describe and perceive it as a rubber stamp body with no real power or influence. They also describe it as a tool used by corrupt and out-of-touch politicians to build networks, gain access to public contracts, to influence legislation to the benefit of themselves, their families, business or political allies. The fact that the body is not transparent about the investments of its members, or that it does open its question times with the executive branch to the public, undermines executive accountability. The body has been parodied by various outlets as a sham and lacking any credibility.