You may have just joined this region - perhaps you got a recruitment telegram that advertised our directly democratic political system, or perhaps you're a NationStates regular who decided to put a nation in Taijitu. If you joined because you were interested in internal regional politics, then this guide will help give you a primer on how things work here in the Citizens' Democracy - how we make laws, how we enforce those laws, and how to participate yourself.
A Brief History of Taijitu
FIG 1: Flag of the Citizens' Democracy of TaijituTaijitu was founded in 2007 by a group of people banned from their home region, [region]The Lexicon[/region], after they protested what they saw as an attack on democracy by the founders of the region. Taijitu's founders vowed to keep their involvement in politics
as founders to a minimum. They wanted, to the best of their ability, to serve Taijitu as average citizens instead of leaders appointed to that position by virtue of their ownership of the founder region.
It was from their experiences in The Lexicon that the framers of Taijitu's first constitution drew on when designing the new region's first legal document. Everyone agreed that the democratic process should be held sacrosanct, and it was eventually agreed-upon that the government of Taijitu would be a representative republic, where people elected by the citizenry at large would make laws.
This republic persisted in various forms, but not without some challenges. The republic survived until 2014, though between mid to late 2013 and summer 2014 activity dwindled.
In summer of 2014, several long-time members of Taijitu who had left for various reasons came back on the urging of Sovereign Dixie, one of the members of Taijitu's founder committee, along with efforts from Taijituans who had stuck around after the 2013 activity drop. Taijituans who worked to bring others back include Eluvatar, Funkadelia, Delfos, and St. Oz.
As Taijitu was trying to get back on its feet, a challenge was posed to the democratic process when Sovereign Dixie was elected delegate and suspended the Senate, which, truth be told, wasn't doing a whole lot anyway. Eventually, though, Sovereign Dixie's activity levels dropped after a month or two and soon he was absent entirely.
The remaining members voted in an informal referendum to abolish the Republic and Sovereign Dixie's government entirely, and instituted in its place a direct democracy consisting of the legislature, named
the Ecclesia, and several elected offices. This event, known as the
Glorious Revolution, is celebrated to this day.
The Ecclesia
FIG 2: Seal of the Ecclesia of TaijituThe Ecclesia is the legislature of Taijitu. It is comprised of all citizens - people who have their NationStates nation in Taijitu and, after taking the
Oath of Citizenship, are approved by the Citizen-Initiator (see section 3).
Once a citizen of Taijitu, you take on the role of
citizen-legislator. All citizens can propose legislation concerning anything they may like. Examples of legislation include the
Citizen-Liaison Act, specifying the responsibilities and election schedule of the Citizen-Liaison (see section 3), or the
Holidays Act, specifying what days are meant as holidays for reflection, celebration, and remembrance.
All citizens can run for elected offices. There is no residency time limit or post count threshold after which you may run for office - any citizen can run for any office whenever there is an election open. There are four major offices, two minor ones, and several staff positions under each. These will be covered more extensively in section 3, but a short list of the four major offices is below.
Citizen-Initiator: Serves as speaker/moderator of the Ecclesia, and is responsible for approving citizens and
initiating them into the Ecclesia. Staff members are called
Citizen-Aides.
Head of government.
Citizen-Delegate: Serves as in-game WA Delegate of Taijitu. Directs foreign policy.
Head of state. Appoints a
Citizen-Diplomat who heads the Foreign Service, made up of Citizen-Ambassadors.
Citizen-Sergeant: Elected head of the Taijitu Citizens' Militia. Leads the Militia and participates in NationStates military gameplay.
Citizen-Liaison: Serves as custodian of the social aspect of the region. Responsible for promoting the forums, guiding new members, and increasing activity. Can appoint
Citizen-Guides to help with these tasks.
Elected OfficesThe legislature elects several officers to help administer the region. Every office has an election every three months, but the elections are staggered so as not to swamp people with votes. There are four major offices and two minor offices. The major offices are listed below, followed by the minor offices.
The
Citizen-Initiator serves as speaker and moderator of the Ecclesia, and approves citizenship requests. In addition, they serve as head of government, meaning they are the elected leader of the Ecclesia - though this does not translate into any enormous amount of power beyond what is symbolically assigned to them via this office. To help with clerical duties such as indexing new laws the Citizen-Initiator can appoint any number of Citizen-Aides. The Citizen-Initiator as well as any Citizen-Aide can be removed by a majority vote of the Ecclesia.
The
Citizen-Delegate serves as head of Taijitu's Foreign Service. They are responsible for directing Taijitu's foreign affairs, negotiating treaties, and practicing diplomacy abroad. The Citizen-Delegate also serves as head of state, meaning they serve as Taijitu's ceremonial leader. Despite their role in setting foreign policy, Citizen-Delegates have no additional powers other than those of a private citizen in the Ecclesia. The Citizen-Delegate appoints a Citizen-Diplomat, who serves as Taijitu's equivalent of Foreign Minister.
The
Citizen-Sergeant serves as head of Taijitu's military, the Citizens' Militia. NationStates gameplay is a complex topic that will be covered in another guide, but the gist of the Sergeant's responsibilities include running missions with the Militia and working with the heads of other regions' militaries on operations. To fit Taijitu's theme as a revolutionary, egalitarian society, the Militia has no commissioned officer ranks, and the fact that it even has ranks at all remains controversial.
The
Citizen-Liaison's duties include proposing new ideas for boosting regional activity, promoting the forums on the on-site regional page, helping new Taijituans acclimate to our region, and being a guide for the community in general. The Liaison can appoint Citizen-Guides, who act as apprentices in these duties and often each focus on a particular aspect of the community - worldbuilding, regional politics, etc.
The
Editor of the Voice of the People, sometimes called the
Citizen-Editor, manages the Voice of the People, Taijitu's newspaper, along with the News Team that they hire to help them. The Editor has a lot of leeway on how to design and edit the newspaper, and each Editor tends to put their own spin on the Voice of the People.
The
Dean of the University of the Glorious Revolution, sometimes called the Citizen-Dean, is responsible for administering and being the nominal head of the University of the Glorious Revolution, a forum where Taijituans can share their personal knowledge with the world.
These six offices are designed to help Taijitu organize itself and keep things running smoothly. Usually, the offices are intended to handle jobs that are too mundane to have the Ecclesia vote on as a whole, though debate continues as to how much power to give the elected offices vs. the legislature as a whole.
A discussion of themeAn integral part of any NationStates region is its theme - usually, a region of decent size with a regional government will model it after some sort of overriding theme that helps to unite the inhabitants. Taijitu has somewhat of a hodge-podge of themes - its name contributes to East Asian aspects of the region, such as the
I Ching inspired trigrams in the regional seal and the use of Chinese in the same seal as well as other logos associated with Taijitu.
There are also aspects of Athens, which had its own direct democracy.
The Ecclesia was the name of the body of all citizens that voted on legislation.
The most prominent part of Taijitu's theme, though, is that of the First French Republic, founded in 1789 in the midst of the French Revolution. Like that nation, Taijitu had a massive overhaul of its political system. In formal settings, the names of Taijituans are prefaced with
Citizen. Taijitu has its
own calendar, just like Revolutionary France did. In dispatches and other public releases from the government, French terms like
citoyen are liberally applied.
The point of all this is to help present a memorable image of Taijitu to the world - to encourage recruitment, and to encourage Taijituans to feel proud of their regional heritage.
