Government of Ebenthal
His Majesty's Government | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Polity type | Unitary parliamentary semi-constitutional monarchy |
| Constitution | Constitution of Ebenthal |
| Formation | August 11, 2014 |
| Legislative branch | |
| Name | Konkrëse |
| Meeting place | Plenum vun Raych |
| Upper house | |
| Name | House of Aristocrats |
| Lower house | |
| Name | House of Councillors |
| Executive branch | |
| Head of State | |
| Title | King |
| Currently | Arthur II |
| Head of Government | |
| Title | Prime Minister |
| Currently | Henri Sãens |
| Appointer | King |
| Cabinet | |
| Name | Cabinet of Ebenthal |
| Leader | Prime Minister |
| Appointer | Prime Minister |
| Headquarters | Kabinett vun Raych |
| Judicial branch | |
| Tribune of Truth | |
| Seat | Malmünd |
|
|---|
| This article is part of a series on the politics and government of Ebenthal |
| Constitution |
The Government of Ebenthal, officially His Majesty's Government (Portuguese: Governo de Sua Majestade) and often referred to as the Central Government, is the structure responsible for the central administration of the Kingdom of Ebenthal. The current construct was established through the Constitution of Ebenthal in 2014, wherein the Ebenthali crown acts as the central piece of the unitary and parliamentary politics, being thus the foundation of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the Ebenthali government. Further elements of governance are outlined in the rest of the constitution, which includes written statutes, court rulings, and unwritten conventions.
Ebenthal is a unitary state formed by 7 provinces and 1 autonomous region governed within the framework of a representative parliamentary system under a hereditary semi-constitutional monarchy. The King of Ebenthal is both the head of state and head of government, the latter position being shared with the Prime Minister. Executive power is exercised by the Cabinet of Ebenthal on behalf of and by the consent of the Monarch, legislative power is vested upon the Konkrëse, a bicameral legislature consisting of a lifetime upper house, the House of Aristocrats, and a partisan and elective lower house, the House of Councillors, while judicial power is exercised by the Tribune of Truth.
The Cabinet is a committee that sets the government's policies and priorities for the country and is chaired by the Prime Minister. The Sovereign formally appoints the members of Cabinet on the advice of the Prime Minister who are usually, but not necessarily, selected from the Konkrëse. During its term, the government must retain the confidence of the House of Councillors. Laws are formed by the passage of bills through Konkrëse, which are either sponsored by the government or individual members of the Konkrëse. Once a bill has been approved, royal assent is required to make the bill become law. The laws are then the responsibility of the government to oversee and enforce.
Government structure
Monarchy
As per Art. 1 of the Constitution, Ebenthal is a constitutional monarchy under a parliamentary system, wherein the role of the King of Ebenthal is both legal, practical and political. The King, also referred to as Monarch and Sovereign, is constitutionally designated as the sole head of state and interpreted as the incarnation of the state itself. All political powers are vested in and derived from the Monarch, being exercised by multiple institutions - the Crown among them - on behalf of the Sovereign. Unlike most constitutional and parliamentary monarchies, Ebenthal's constitution states that the Monarch is also the head of government, but this role is divided between the Monarch and the Prime Minister, making them co-heads of government and making Ebenthal an executive diarchy.
Analogous to the semi-presidential system, the Monarch is the highest executive authority and is entitled to veto or grant royal assent to any legislation at its discretion. He is also responsible for appointing the Prime Minister, summon, prorogue and dissolve the Konkëse, commission officers in the Defense Forces as his Commander-in-Chief, to appoint the members of the House of Aristocrats, to appoint the Adjudicators of the Tribune of Truth, to grant prerogative of mercy and commute sentences, to create corporations by royal charter, to confer honors and titles, to credit and receive diplomats, to recognise sovereign states, to declare war and make peace and to ratify international treaties.
Executive
In an arrangement different from most constitutional monarchies, the executive power in Ebenthal is exercised jointly by the Monarch and the Prime Minister, the latter through the ministerial cabinet which he presides over. The Monarch appoints the Prime Minister most likely to be able to form a Government with the support of the House of Councillors, lower house of the country's bicameral parliament. In practice, this means that the leader of the political party with an absolute majority of seats in the Councillors is chosen to be the Prime Minister. If no party has an absolute majority, the leader of the largest party is given the first opportunity to form a coalition or a minority government. The Prime Minister then selects the other Ministers which make up the Cabinet and act as political heads of the various State Ministries. The Prime Minister is responsible for heading the Cabinet, select its members and formulate government policy.
As in some other parliamentary systems of government, the executive, often referred to as "the government", is drawn from [but not exclusivelly] the parliament. Unlike, however, most parliamentary systems, the Prime Minister's position is answerable to both parliament and Monarch, as his position depends not only on parliament's confidence, but on the Monarch's confidence, and in order to exert with safety his functions, the Prime Minister had to dominate the caprice, the oscillations and ambitions of the Parliament, as well as to preserve always unalterable the favor, the good will of the Sovereign.
Cabinet
The Cabinet of Ebenthal is an institutional collegiate formed a priori by eight ministries; they are the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Interior, Commerce, War, Culture and Education, Information and Propaganda, Science and Technology and Environment. During their tenure, the Prime Minister can dismember the responsibilities of any ministry and create other ministries. The Prime Minister appoints the members of the Cabinet freely from among the members of his party or governing coalition and members of the House of Aristocrats and can freely dismiss them. The minister meets weekly along with the Lord Adjudicator of the Tribune of Truth, which act as Minister of Justice, to discuss government policy.
Legislative
legislative power emmanates from the Sovereign and is vested upon the Konkrëse, the country's bicameral legislature from which government is drawn and to which it is answerable. The Konkrëse is formed by the upper house, the House of Aristocrats, whose members are non-partisan nobles appointed by the Monarch for life terms, and the lower house, the House of Councillors, whose members are elected by universal suffrage for 6-month terms representing the administrative divisions of Ebenthal as constituencies. Each constituency provides 1 parliamentarian for every 0-10 inhabitants, thus determining the number of seats in the lower house. The Prime Minister is selected from the party that has the most seats in the Councillors, but in specific cases where the lower house cannot place its trust in any of its members, the Prime Minister can be provided by the Aristocrats.
The monarch normally asks a person commissioned to form a government simply whether it can survive in the Councillors, something which majority governments are expected to be able to do. In exceptional circumstances the monarch asks someone to 'form a government' with a parliamentary minority which in the event of no party having a majority requires the formation of a coalition government or 'confidence and supply' arrangement. A government is not formed by a vote of the Councillors, it is a commission from the Monarch. The Councillors gets its first chance to indicate confidence in the new government when it votes on the Speech from the Throne (the legislative programme proposed by the new government).
The leader of the party that has a majority in the House of Councillors is formally called the Councillor Speaker, usually simply referred to as Speaker. The leader of the House of Aristocrats is determined by appointment of the Sovereign and is called Lord Speaker. At events that bring together both chambers of parliament, the Lord Speaker presides over the session and takes precedence over the Councillor Speaker.
Judiciary
The Tribune of Truth is the constitutional, supreme and only court of Ebenthal for both civil and criminal cases. The Tribune is composed of five judges, four of which are called Adjudicators and their leader is called the Lord Adjudicator. The members of the Tribuna are appointed for life by the Sovereign, who is constitutionally charged with rendering justice for all his subjects from him, and is thus traditionally deemed the fount of justice , but is not empowered to do so directly. The Lord Adjudicator, however, is raised to position in internal election among the Adjudicators. The Tribune of Truth applies a hybrid system between the civil law and the customary law and employs the inquisitorial system where the judges are actively involved in investigating the facts of the case, as compared to an adversarial system where the role of the judge is primarily that of an impartial referee between the prosecutor or plaintiff and the defendant. The Tribune of Truth is tasked with judicial review, and it may declare legislation unconstitutional, thus rendering them ineffective.
Administrative divisions
Ebenthal is an unitary state composed of seven provinces and one special autonomous region, all of which may be collectively called administrative divisions. The provinces are governed through an executive-led devolved government by a Viceroy appointed directly by the King of Ebenthal based on each province's party representations in the House of Councillors. The Principality of New Switzerland is classified as a special autonomous region, governed by a hereditary absolute monarchy by the House of Scherer-Arrais, owning a degree of political autonomy greater than those of the provinces. The provinces and the special autonomous region are subsequently, but not necessarily, divided into municipalities. Municipalities that do not have provincial status, that is, that are not city-states, are governed by Administrators appointed by the provincial Viceroy. Currently, four of Ebenthal's seven provinces are city-states, and the remaining three provinces are divided into two municipalities each.
Electoral system
Ebenthal's constitution establishes minutely described electoral methods in order to give the population ample chance of political participation. The electoral system adopted in the country is First-past-the-post voting in which voters cast their vote for a candidate of their choice, and the candidate who receives the most votes wins even if the top candidate gets less than 50%, which can happen when there are more than two popular candidates. It is considered a district-based majoritarian representation system where the candidate with the most votes takes the seat using the winner-takes-all principle and in this way provides majoritarian representation. The electoral model, however, often produces disproportionate results in the sense that political parties do not get representation according to their share of the popular vote. This usually favors the largest party and parties with strong regional support to the detriment of smaller parties without a geographically concentrated base.
