Neil - Your post made me smile!
Thanks, sweetie; your support is heartening.
Kor's responses to these were great, so I'll just get the rest and touch on some thoughts I had about the ones he already covered.
Adopting a premise that 'power' can be divided into two catagories; Power to......and Power over.......how might you apply those ideas to an eventual style of governing in Taijitu?
For the purposes of this answer, I am going to assume "power to" means "power wielded for the benefit of" or "power wielded to represent" and that "power over" means simply that; "power wielded to control".
My style of governance would use "power to" almost exclusively, especially in regards to the wishes and well-being of our members. "Power to" would certainly apply to my dealings with other branches of government, as I strongly believe in an independent Legislature and Judiciary. Though the Delegate may appoint Justices (who must, of course, be confirmed by the Senate), he should never wield power or influence over them. I see very little danger of this in the area of the Senate, however, as the Delegate has very little potential to abuse influence in that area.
The only time when I see myself using "power over" is to keep the executive branch in line and efficient.
You state that you would have to rely on formal diplomatic relations with allies...are Taijitu's diplomatic relations exclusive to Military allies? ( perhaps you weren't referring to militaristic allies). If so, how does Taijitu's neutrality effect or limit external affairs?
I do believe we have plenty of embassies exchanged with regions we don't practice with militarily, so no. Our neutrality limits our relations with some regions that refuse to associate with anyone who does not adhere to their particular invader/defender agenda. One example of this is Equilism, as Kor mentioned, who severed diplomatic ties with us after we engaged in a raid.
It does, however, have the advantage of failing to strike allies off the list that are either raider or defender, but do not mind neutral parties (so long as they do not adhere strictly to the opposing side's agenda). It also allows us to recruit members who would like to be a part of one type of military action or the other, but would shy away if we only did the one they didn't like.
What would you like to see (if anything) happening on Taijitu's Embassy Row?
The Ministry of External Afairs is one area in which I would like to see considerably more activity. I would like to have the MoEA issue
at least monthly updates and would consider attempting bi-weekly ones, though that might not be entirely practical. Instead of this, perhaps we would just send out occasional "this important/fun/whatever thing happened" between-full-updates blurb, just to keep things interesting.
As Delegate might you award Bara with a spam king crown?
Absolutely; that boy deserves it! ^_^
What are your opinions regarding diplomacy both internally in Taijitu and externally? What approaches to other nations do you think encourage it? Is the respect for older resident nations any more desirable than towards newer nations?
I'm not sure what you mean by "appraoches", but if my interpretation is correct, I seek to approach diplomatic situations with firm but humble words. I think this encourages further diplomatic relations between regions, nations, members, etc., as it demonstrates both confidence, respect, and humanity.
As to the third question, my answer is no. Respect should be shown towards all people/members/whatever, regardless of their amount of time/effort spent in a region. This goes both ways, of course; I encourage new members to be respectful and polite with older members but also expect older members to do the same towards their newer brethren. Respect should be second nature to all reasonable people, though we all make mistakes in this area and should own up to them when that happens (myself most definitely included).
Apart from appointing hopefully active Ministers, or dismissing ole ineffectual ones, are there other ways you think administrative tasks could be improved in Taijitu?
I want to foster increased communication between admins, cabinet members, VDel, and Delegate. There should be regular IRC meetings comprised of all of the aforementioned as well as smaller groups to discuss particular tasks. Not everyone can get on IRC, of course, and certainly not at the same time, so frequent PM communication should be implemented and I would seek permission from everyone to send logs of meetings to those not able to attend.
Additional rhetoric that I forgot to ramble about last time:
I would heartily like to avoid some of the problems that came up during Taijitu's first (and thus far only) Supreme Court case. It took an extraordinary length of time to hammer down who would take on what responsibilities during the trial, and one step I would like to take to prevent another such occurrence is to appoint more Justices. I would not try to pack the Court just for the sake of doing so, of course; I would seek to appoint competent, reliable individuals so that we would be more likely to have the requisite 3 Justices available at all times.
Speaking of appointments, the thought has been floating around my brain that double-appointees are something to be avoided. I think I will try not to appoint any Justices that are also on my Cabinet, for example, if only to get more people involved.
Lastly, I promise to make myself available to people at all levels of Taijitu's society. Examples follow: If a new member wants help with the game or just wants to chat, I will happily be there for them no matter how "basic" their questions and will never brush them off as beneath my notice. If an established member wants to discuss their ideas for the government, even if they hold no positions and have zero official authority, I will listen and weigh their thoughts/concerns with the same sincerity as those of my own VDel or Cabinet.
Thanks for reading! More questions are welcome!
