Commonwealth Government

Government in Vekllei is a federation without a single executive authority, uniting 83 sovereign island republics scattered between both poles, from the high Arctic to the South Atlantic. It is a sui generis state with no immediate precedent or comparison, practicing new ways of living and governance.

Federal political authority is held by State Secretaries, each for one defined programme, and the everyday work of the state is done by the devolved ministries, the ministerial parliaments and the republic assemblies, none of which answers to a minister. The constitution dates from the reconstruction after the war, and treats the 83 republics as the basic units of democratic life. Most of them are small islands, though, and a lot of revenue, infrastructure and national standards are decided federally as a result. The federal government plays an important role in Commonwealth life, and is both highly centralised and loosely confederated simultaneously.

Because of this the federal government can look strangely quiet. Between commissions the ministries carry on under established law with nobody directing them, the Mandatory Ecclesia reviews mandates and constitutional questions, and the republic assemblies see to their own affairs. The Consilia preside over the Ecclesia and represent the Commonwealth abroad, but have no executive power. Most of the excitement in federal politics, such as it is, comes when a State Secretary is commissioned.

Constitutional Foundations #

Read more: Constitution

Core Principles #

Three constitutional principles govern Vekllei’s federal arrangement at every level.

1. Consensus governance – executive offices at every level, from municipal councils to the federal Consilia, are held by a man and a woman together, who must agree before they act. It makes for slower decisions, and is generally thought to make for better ones.

2. Concurrent sovereignty – each republic writes its own laws, so long as they do not conflict with the federal constitution. The federal government plays a major role in Commonwealth life, but much of their political activity is experienced through municipalities and republics.

3. Devolved administration – a ministry sets the standards, and its offices in each republic apply them.

The 83 republics run from the industrial cities of Oslola to single islands in the Antilles, and the constitution was written with both in mind.

The Separation of Administration and Commission #

The constitution separates the permanent administration of the state from political authority, which is only ever provisional. The devolved ministries administer continuously under established law, and State Secretaries have authority across ministries only for the length of a commission. Law can be made in three ways:

• by a ministerial parliament, within its own field, without going to the Mandatory Ecclesia;
• by a devolved ministry, within its own field, with confirmation by the Ecclesia;
• by a commissioned State Secretary, for law that crosses ministries.

In each case somebody is named as responsible for a law before it is proposed.

The Consilia #

Main article: Consilia

The Consilia constitute the Commonwealth’s single federal executive office. One man and one woman are elected jointly by popular referendum across all 83 republics, standing together as an undivided office and incapable of acting except together. Candidates are nominated through the Mandatory Ecclesia, and it is customary to stand as pairs and to keep the field small. Past Consilia have included jurists, diplomats and scholars, and now and then a painter or a scientist, and there is no qualification for the office besides election.

The Consilia serve terms of approximately eighteen months, determined by the migration of the humpback whale. A term starts when the first humpback of the year is seen off the north coast of Oslola, and ends when the first whale coming south reaches Sude, so no two terms are quite the same length.¹ This becomes something of an event, and around the expected time many boats take to the water in hopes of spotting one. The first is customarily awarded a bottle from the outgoing Consilia’s cellar.²

The Consilia maintain a consultative Cabinet drawn from the cultural, intellectual and scientific life of the Commonwealth. It has no part in legislation or government, and advises the Consilia and the civil service and goes with them on state occasions.

Most diplomatic responsibilities of the Consilia are customs firmed by time. They generally receive foreign representatives, participate in international forums and speak for the Commonwealth’s interests in general terms. Particularly unusually, they hold no power to ratify treaties, commit federal resources or direct the ministries. In this sense they are both mediators and diplomats with an unusually impartial character, which has historically advantaged the Commonwealth in many areas. They are also an excellent liaison for foreign interest (and commerce) in the country.

In the Mandatory Ecclesia they preside and speak for its decisions, but do not vote.

The Mandatory Ecclesia #

Main article: Mandatory Ecclesia

Powers of the Mandatory Ecclesia include:

• Confirmation of State Secretary appointments and definition of commission
• Review and passage of inter-ministerial federal legislation
• Constitutional arbitration between federal and republic governments
• Formal closure of commissions upon civil service certification of completion
• Petitioning for constitutional referendums on federal matters

The Mandatory Ecclesia (commonly the chamber) is the federal chamber of the Commonwealth, comprising 83 delegates, one from each republic, who together confirm State Secretary appointments, review inter-ministerial legislation and arbitrate constitutional questions. Its name (the chamber of mandates) reflects its primary function in the management of commissions. It holds no power to generate law on its own motion.

A republic’s delegate is chosen by its First Secretary and speaks in the First Secretary’s name, much as an ambassador would, and so the chamber stays close to the republic governments. On appointments and constitutional questions each republic counts the same. Legislation is voted on by population instead, since a law affects more people in a larger republic.

State Secretaries #

Main article: State Secretaries

State Secretary commissions include:

• Standing commissions that persist across Consilia terms (commonly federalisation management, nonaligned foreign policy coordination, etc.), whose work never really finishes
• Programme commissions for a particular piece of work, such as a census or a railway, which end with it
• Commissions of crisis, raised in emergencies and in war

A State Secretary can call on any ministry whose work touches the commission, and can put legislation for it before the Mandatory Ecclesia. A commission ends with its work, when it is not renewed or when the Ecclesia withdraws its confirmation.

Commissions can start in three ways.

1. Cascade petition: Citizens can petition for a commission through their municipality. A petition carried by its republic assembly goes on to the region’s First Secretaries and from them to the Ecclesia, and a State Secretary appointed this way can fairly claim a mandate from the people the programme affects.

2. Civil service proposal: The senior officers of the ministries concerned can propose a commission together when a programme is too big for any one of them, and this is how most long and technical programmes begin.

3. Constitutional trigger: Known as wrenching in Commonwealth political jargon, a programme touching more than two federal ministries, or affecting more than one Regional Commonwealth above a specified budget threshold, requires a State Secretary by constitutional provision. The need is set by the constitution itself, and the Ecclesia only confirms the person. The declaration of war is the best known of these.

Re-commissioning is common, and some State Secretaries have held the same programme for many years, since there is no limit on the number of terms. Legislation that stays within one parliament’s field never needs a commission at all.

Federal Parliament #

Ministerial Parliaments #

Main article: Parliaments

Commonwealth Parliaments

• Parliament of Bread and Roses
• Parliament of Education
• Parliament of Health
• Parliament of Law
• Parliament of Milk and Honey
• Parliament of State

The six ministerial parliaments (sometimes called superior ministries) govern the professional service domains of the Commonwealth on industrial principles: each serves as both the legislative authority for its domain and the body that administers its services directly. In this sense the Parliament of Education is both the legislature and the administration of the schools and universities, and the Parliament of Health and the Parliament of Law are the same for hospitals and courts. They have their own finances and answer to no ministry at all, which foreign observers tend to find strange.

Their 28 seats are split three ways. Half go to professionals, who are elected through their own bodies (the Commonwealth Medical Association for doctors, the Commonwealth Law Society for advocates, the teachers’ unions and the agricultural cooperatives, and so on). Seven are drawn by lot from the people who actually use the service, on the reasoning that everybody uses a school or a hospital at some point. The remaining seven are held by Commissioned Secretaries drawn from the Mandatory Ecclesia, as dedicated political officers. Their brief lapses when its specific purpose is fulfilled; their concurrent Ecclesia membership ensures they carry the position of their republic’s First Secretary into the parliament’s deliberations.

A parliament that fails its field can be put under a State Secretary, either by a finding of the Ecclesia or on a petition from the republics affected, and the State Secretary may then require reform and propose remedial law. Dissolving a parliament outright, known as sacking, would need a constitutional referendum, and in the meantime the field would be run directly by the federal government. It has never happened.

Devolved Ministries #

Main article: Ministries

Devolved Ministries

• Ministry of Accounts
• Ministry of Commerce
• Ministry of Culture
• Ministry of Defence
• Ministry of Industry
• Ministry of Landscape
• Ministry of Light and Water
• Ministry of the Commons
• Ministry of the Commonwealth
• Ministry of the Interior

Ten devolved ministries form the permanent administrative infrastructure of the Commonwealth, each led by a First Minister elected internally from within the ministry. Their size and character differ a lot. Most of the staff of the Ministry of the Interior are railwaymen, seamen, postal workers and telephone engineers, while the Ministry of Light and Water is the third-largest by persons employed, and the Ministry of Accounts is mostly clerks, enumerators and inspectors.

There is also no cabinet minister over any of them (the Ministry of Defence included), and First Ministers answer to their own staff and to the parliaments’ law. A State Secretary can direct several ministries at once, but only for the length of a commission, and with no rank over them. As a rule, policy is set at a ministry’s headquarters and carried out by its bureaus in the republics, which know local conditions better.

Services #

Main article: Services

The senior posts of the ministries, parliaments and republics are filled from the services, permanent corps of civil servants that belong to no single institution. Four mandatory services (administrative, military, police and judicial) are constituted by the Mandatory Ecclesia and serve the federal government and the republics alike. The statutory services are constituted by a single ministry or parliament and serve only it. Officers are posted to bureaus and constituent organisations, seconded to interwork detachments and returned to their service when the posting ends.

Regional Government #

Main article: Regions

The eight Commonwealth Regions each coordinate between two and twenty republics, grouped by geography and broadly shared culture. The regions cannot tax or make law, and cannot overrule a republic. Their main part in federal politics is in the State Secretary cascade, where a petition carried by a republic needs the support of its region before it goes on to the Ecclesia.

The Regional Assemblies are made up of the First Secretaries of their republics, and give a measure of coordination between them. This usually consists of shared infrastructure, resource allocation and regional emergency services beyond the capacity of individual members.³

Republic Government #

Archipelagic Subsidiarity #

Main article: Republics

Each of Vekllei’s 83 republics is a self-governing democracy with its own founding document (called a compact, often adapted from previous documents), assembly and First Secretary, sovereign in local affairs and subordinate to federal authority in the domains specified by the federal constitution. They are the primary unit of political life for most Vekllei people.

Republic Assemblies comprise 15 to 25 members elected by municipal delegates, rising to over 50 for Oslola. Each assembly elects a First Secretary as its head of government. The First Secretary’s representative to the Mandatory Ecclesia acts entirely in her name and at her direction.

Republic powers include:

• Local law, so long as it agrees with the federal constitution
• Republic taxes and the republic budget
• Coordination between municipalities
• Carrying out federal programme law in the republic
• The charters of municipalities, and the incorporation of firms
• Cultural policy and heritage, and things particular to one island
• The petitions that begin a State Secretary cascade
• A delegate to the Mandatory Ecclesia

Municipal Localism #

Read more: Municipalism, Municipalities

Municipal Assemblies are where most Commonwealth people actually meet politics, and are the basis of municipalism, the country’s doctrine of local government. They are small, generally between 500 and 2,000 people, with borders drawn along walls, rivers or forests, so that a village, a neighbourhood or a small island is usually one municipality. Céleste Martineau, a former First Secretary of Karu, once called nationalism “a basis for modern schizophrenia”, and most Commonwealth people would rather their politics were done where they live.

A municipal assembly is responsible for:

• local law and the use of common resources;
• the election of delegates to the Republic Assembly;
• petitions, including the first stage of a State Secretary cascade;
• much of civic education.

Most municipalities also have councils of their own:

• Civic Ecclesia – the town’s services, from the library to the refuse robots, run by its officers and some appointed citizens
• Industrial Ecclesia – representatives of the workplaces and the municipal corporations
• Heliaea – the community court, for local disputes and minor crimes
• Voluntary Councils – anything from a chess club to a historical society, with an advisory voice

Democratic Participation #

Electoral Practice #

Elections in the Commonwealth are frequent, since every body has its own cycle (the Consilia follow the whale calendar, the Republic Assemblies run for three years, and Ecclesia delegates are staggered), and the Commonwealth Electoral Commission is rarely without one.

• Constitutional referendums are held every quarter on the bills the Mandatory Ecclesia has passed, usually five to eight of them at a time, and each needs a simple majority. Citizens can also ask for a referendum on a commission or a constitutional question by petition.

Civic Engagement #

• Compulsory service (Corsosva) is four years of civic and military conscription, served at some point between 18 and 32. It is not always welcome, but it has to be done, and most people sit in their municipal assembly at some point during it. Since 2040 it has ended with a National Tour, a half-year holiday on the cruise ships of Commonwealth Lines.

• Sortition is used throughout the system. The Constitutional Tribunal is staffed by a lottery of citizens and lawyers, and a quarter of the seats in each ministerial parliament are drawn by lot, as are some members of advisory bodies across the federal system.

Legal Framework #

Constitutional Authority #

The constitution divides jurisdiction between the federal government, the republics and the municipalities, instead of handing it down from the top. Defence and foreign relations are federal, and so are large parts of health and education, while most other matters belong to the republics. Municipal rights are strongly protected, and neither the republics nor the federal government can ordinarily override them. Constitutional questions go first to the Mandatory Ecclesia, and in the last resort to a referendum. The judges of the constitutional courts are elected from nominations made by the legal profession, through the republic assemblies and federal bodies.

Judicial Independence #

The courts are administered by the Bureau of Courts, and their judges are officers of the Commonwealth Judicial Service. Most civil and criminal cases are heard by republic magistrates, in the law and language of each republic, with appeals to the Regional Appeal Courts and constitutional cases to the Supreme Constitutional Court. Small local disputes go to the municipal heliaea, which prefer restitution to punishment and keep minor offences within the community, and the Constitutional Tribunal, staffed by lottery, decides challenges under the Firming Laws.