Post

• Preamble

• Government

  • Introduction

  • The Executive

  • The Legislature

  • The Judiciary

  • The Electoral Commission & Elections

• Politics

  • Bicameralism

  • Real Life Politics

  • Interregionalism vs Isolationism

  • WA recruitment

  • Partisanship

• Culture

  • Discord

  • Hunger Games, Skribbl.io & Other Games

• Concluding Words

Thaecia is a fiercely democratic user-created region (UCR) founded on January 22nd 2019. Its government structure and culture often confuses many foreigners. Therefore, if you find yourself unable to understand the region, allow me to try to explain. This guide will explain the Thaecian government, some Thaecian culture and some history where relevant. I hope this is helpful, and if not, be sure to send me a telegram asking for further clarification.

The Thaecian government is split into three branches, as is the case with many other democracies: the executive, the legislature and the judicial branch. Each branch has its own function and set of powers, each having their own way of regulating the other two.

In order to serve in the government, you must be a citizen. In order to be a citizen, a resident must be either a member of the World Assembly (WA) or must obtain what is called a WA waiver, where a WA nation sends a telegram to the Prime Minister, President or Home Affairs Minister confirming that a non-WA resident of Thaecia is under their control. WA-waivered citizens may have their citizenship revoked by the Justice Minister if there are reasonable grounds to do so (more on this later).

The executive includes the Prime Minister, Ministers and the President. The legislature is a bicameral congress which is comprised of the House of Commons (referred to as just 'The House') and the Senate. The judicial branch is comprised of the High Court.

All members of government (excluding the Secretaries) are expressly prohibited from holding more than one position in government by the Positions Restriction Reform Act (Legislative Resolution 48)

The executive branch of the Thaecian government includes a wide variety of roles. The most notable of the two are the Prime Minister and the President.

The President is the Head of State of Thaecia, and serves as our World Assembly Delegate. All Thaecian citizens are guaranteed the right to run in an election, so if a WA-waivered citizen runs and wins the Presidential election, they cannot become the WA delegate. Where this is the case, the elected president must pick a vice president to serve as the delegate, whilst retaining all other presidential powers. The president can:

• assume the powers of the Prime Minister if the position is vacant for whatever reason, like a resignation.

• call for a snap election for either chamber of Congress, on the condition that the Prime Minister & their ministers agree to it. Congress can block the snap election if two thirds of Congress opposes it.

• ban citizens in the event of an emergency, on the condition that the Prime Minister & their ministers agree.

• be impeached by the Senate and House with a 2/3s vote

• veto the impeachment of the Prime Minister, if it obtained less than 2/3s support in the Senate

• nominate a citizen to be the Electoral Commissioner (more on this later)

The Prime Minister of Thaecia is arguably the most powerful post in the region. The PM can:

• nominate ministers

• dismiss ministers.

• enter and withdraw the region into and from inter-regional agreements, with Congressional approval.

• assume some of the role of President if the President has been impeached

• be impeached by the House with a 2/3s vote, followed by a vote in the Senate.

• nominate Justices to the Court

The Ministers of Thaecia are nominated by the Prime Minister and are confirmed by the House of Commons. At minimum, there must be a Minister of Foreign Affairs (FAM), of Home Affairs (HAM) and of Legal Affairs (often called the Justice Minister, JM). Other ministries can be created at the discretion of the Prime Minister, like the Interior Ministry. There are also the Secretaries, who are technically not ministers, but are often considered one anyway. The various ministers have various regional powers, like embassies for the FAM, and border control for the JM. Ministers can be fired by the Prime Minister or removed from their post by the House.

The Thaecian Congress is split into the House and the Senate. The House is commonly referred to as Parliament, and it is the lower chamber, consisting of 11 Members of Parliament (MPs). The Senate is the upper chamber and consists of 7 Senators. The chambers have different powers and responsibilities. All legislative resolutions (LRs) must be approved by both chambers in order to become law. The House is elected every 2 months, the Senate every 4. The House can:

• Confirm or refuse judicial and secretarial nominations from the President or Prime Minister

• Initiate the process of impeaching the PM

• Vote to impeach the President.

The Senate can:

• Confirm or refuse cabinet nominations from the Prime Minister

• Initiate the process of impeaching the President

• Vote to impeach the Prime Minister

Legislation which passes Congress requires both chambers to vote, by simple majority, in favour of the bill. A simple majority is defined by the Constitution as 50% of the chamber + 1. Constitutional amendments require the approval of 2/3s of both chambers AND confirmation by public referendum with 60%+ support from the Thaecian populace.

The Senate is led by the Chairman of the Senate, and the House is led by the Speaker of the House. Both positions carry a great deal of authority, as they are responsible for maintaining Congress' documents, setting Congress' agenda and allocating time for the various stages of considering legislation. These leaders are selected by a Chairman/Speaker vote in their respective chamber, conducted immediately after an election. They can be removed from their posts by "constructive motions of no confidence". The motion requires a simple majority to pass and, if successful, automatically replaces the incumbent leader with a new Senator/MP without the need for another Speaker/Chairman vote.

The Judiciary consists of the High Court, which is made up of three justices. The justices, amongst themselves, pick one of themselves to be the Chief Justice, with the other two remaining as Associate Justices. The position of Chief Justice is largely an administrative one. The justices are nominated by the President and confirmed by the House of Commons. The Court is involved when one of 3 number of things happen:

• A law is passed by Congress or an action is taken which is considered unconstitutional.

• Someone or something allegedly commits a crime.

• Someone sues another.

The Justices do not need to accept every case which is brought to the Court. They write their own procedures and, at the end of a case, they will post the Court's opinion. The Court has the power to undo a revocation of citizenship from a WA-waivered resident if it is found the revocation was unjust, the Court can undo a banjection, strike a law from the law registry if it is found to be unconstitutional, and impose punishments pursuant to L.R. 044. Justices do not have term limits and are only removed by resignation, ceasing to exist, or impeachment.

The Electoral Commission is an enormously important job here in Thaecia. The Commissioner manages all democratic exercises (referenda, elections, etc.) and have no political power. They are nominated by the President and confirmed by both legislative houses. The highest standard of impartiality is expected of Electoral Commissioners, and nominations are never considered lightly by the Thaecian populace, the President or the Legislature.

Elections in Thaecia take three forms: general elections, midterm elections and snap elections. General elections take place every 4 months and every elected post (PM, President, Senate & House) are all up for election. Midterm elections take place half way between general elections and only the House is up for election. Snap elections occur whenever an elected official resigns from their post.

The issue of whether or not to abolish the bicameral legislature in favour of a unicameral system has been around for very long time, and has often been a point of contention in the Thaecian community. Bicameralists often argue, amongst other things, that the bicameral system promotes scrutiny and an interest in regional politics, while unicameralists are convinced that it would actually decrease efficiency and scrutiny. The region had a referendum on the matter in April 2020, which was nail-bitingly close for both sides. It resulted in 35 votes being cast in favour of bicameralism with only 33 against it, and so the status quo has been maintained. However, a recent poll conducted by the Federal Post in April 2021 saw a narrow majority leaning towards unicameralism, with 48,3% of the voters in favour of implementing a unicameral legislative system, compared to only 41,4% that voted for keeping the bicameral system and 10,3% of the voters remaining completely unsure. An analytical comment on this poll mentions increasing disputes between the legislative houses as a reason for this shift in stances and predicts that this issue will once again become a major point of discussion in Thaecia in the near future.

Recently, political parties like Solidarity have pushed for the Thaecian government to adopt real life policies, like the declaration of a climate emergency. Proponents argue it is our duty as citizens of the world facing issues like climate change to recognise the issue even though Thaecia itself cannot do anything to help solve the issue. Opponents argue the lack of ability to do anything about it renders the issue moot.

Foreign policy in Thaecia has been dominated by the debate between whether to take an interregional approach or an isolationist approach. In the past, the interregional approach was taken, with membership of organisations like the Assembly of Regions and the proposition of joining the now-defunct Federal Union. Following ugly disputes with the Assembly of Regions, the status quo of Thaecian foreign policy has largely been settled. The commonly held belief is that Thaecia should seek friendship with other regions, but not at the expense of regional sovereignty. The region routinely refuses to change its internal policies when other regions attempt to pressure it, stemming from a fierce sense of Thaecian sovereignty and indepedence.

Linking in with the above, there has been a discussion relating to the region's recruitment policy. Some believe WA-wide recruitment is a useful tool to increase regional population and that the complaints of other regions should be ignored. Others believe WA-wide recruitment is obstructing the region from constructing meaningful friendships with other regions, and believe the policy should not be used in the future.

In May 2019, a group of real-life friends came to Thaecia and founded their own party, the Reformist Party. The months that followed were defined by the toxicity which followed caused by clashes between the Reformists, original Thaecians and inner conflicts within the original Thaecians. It is a time period which many Thaecians look back on with deep regret and sorrow, culminating in the Reformists' banjection from the region in August 2019. The time period, along with a time later on involving a disputed election, have changed Thaecian attitudes towards party politics majorly. Partisanship is scorned at and regularly discouraged as the prospect of returning to something similar to the Reformist era terrifies many.

Thaecia's discord server is, by far, the main communication method within the region. The server is very active, as many people from other regions have noted previously. The Thaecian community is very easy going and enjoys not taking itself too seriously. If you join the server, you will encounter a myriad of inside jokes, regional memes and cultural events. Regional memes include:

We have MEE6 in the server which posts regional memes with custom commands. We take memeing very seriously.

The region regularly holds mock hunger games, hosted by our culture ministry. We also regularly host games of skribbl.io, AtWar, have a Minecraft server, have participated in Paradoxical 2.0, Late Nite and Movie Nights in collaboration with regions like The East Pacific and have an economy bot in discord to play games like poker, blackjack, chicken fights and others on.

Thaecia is a young and great region full of wonderful people and funny jokes. It doesn't care very much if another region or a certain person (no matter how influential) likes it or not, no matter how loudly they rail against it. The region has a very strong sense of pride, independence and sovereignty and will defend its democracy, its community and its members at all cost. Regardless of what you may or may not have heard about the region, I strongly recommend giving it (particularly its discord server) a visit, as many people who come to visit love its relaxed atmosphere and near-constant activity. Thank you for taking the time to read this factbook, and as I mentioned above, if you want clarification on anything, please telegram me.