Indecision 19XX PD

Jonathan_S wrote:I'd also point out that Pritchart is, in part, dealing with month+ long communication loops. So while she can govern the planet Haven itself with the speed we're used to

Who says she does? There may be a planetary governor that is responsible for the planet/system itself, like each system probably does. That office may be either a primus inter pares of all governors or, conversely, the lowest of all governors because the federal government is there.

To some extent you deal with that by delegating power to people you can trust who can go there and react without that long communication loop -- but if they need resources from home or something has to go through you (or congress) you're still facing those delays.

That probably means that the system governors and the systems themselves have a lot of autonomy. They have to be mostly self-sufficient, at least when it comes to life preservation (food, healthcare, etc.), and have enough to deal with natural catastrophes and other accidents. A hurricane can form and devastate a portion of the planet before a courier boat can reach the central government, much less bring back aid. Ditto for an industrial accident, or a missing ship bringing supplies.

We've seen in the SEM case that there's a Quadrant Governor in Talbott (Baroness Medusa) and each system has one too.

That doesn't mean the practice matches the theory. While I doubt the Legislaturalists would have let things deteriorate to catastrophic point, I don't think they kept with the proper requirements either. The Andermani Imperial planets are probably the only ones fulfilling the letter of the law; the new Silesian protectorates and sectors are probably second. Meanwhile, the Talbott systems were really poor.

OTOH, whatever the practical realities, I suspect the Pritchart views establishing the precedent of sticking with the old constitution as far more important that whatever she might personally be able to accomplish if given an extra 15 years in office. So I suspect she'd squash any attempts to amend their newly restored constitution to adjust term limits while she's in office.

Indeed. It's been too soon since Hereditary President Harris.

On the other hand, the Constitution hadn't been in effect in centuries, so there may be some reforms needed, and not just because of prolong. Another important difference is that the Republic is much bigger than it used to be before DuQuesne. She will need to get those reforms through.

Jonathan_S wrote:I'd also point out that Pritchart is, in part, dealing with month+ long communication loops. So while she can govern the planet Haven itself with the speed we're used to, attempts to deal with the further flung portions of the nation just take more time. To some extent you deal with that by delegating power to people you can trust who can go there and react without that long communication loop -- but if they need resources from home or something has to go through you (or congress) you're still facing those delays.

That might also be an argument, given prolong, of pushing the term limit on Haven from 15 to maybe 30 years.

OTOH, whatever the practical realities, I suspect the Pritchart views establishing the precedent of sticking with the old constitution as far more important that whatever she might personally be able to accomplish if given an extra 15 years in office. So I suspect she'd squash any attempts to amend their newly restored constitution to adjust term limits while she's in office.

That is also an argument for a federation form of government, the same as in the early days of the US. But pushing for the form laid down in the reinstated constitution takes precedence for now. The problem with governors appointed by the central authority for far-flung realms is that the populace looks upon the office holder as a foreigner, without full understanding of local feelings; unless that person is carefully selected, perhaps from local candidates.

tlb wrote:

Jonathan_S wrote:I'd also point out that Pritchart is, in part, dealing with month+ long communication loops. So while she can govern the planet Haven itself with the speed we're used to, attempts to deal with the further flung portions of the nation just take more time. To some extent you deal with that by delegating power to people you can trust who can go there and react without that long communication loop -- but if they need resources from home or something has to go through you (or congress) you're still facing those delays.

That might also be an argument, given prolong, of pushing the term limit on Haven from 15 to maybe 30 years.

OTOH, whatever the practical realities, I suspect the Pritchart views establishing the precedent of sticking with the old constitution as far more important that whatever she might personally be able to accomplish if given an extra 15 years in office. So I suspect she'd squash any attempts to amend their newly restored constitution to adjust term limits while she's in office.

That is also an argument for a federation form of government, the same as in the early days of the US. But pushing for the form laid down in the reinstated constitution takes precedence for now. The problem with governors appointed by the central authority for far-flung realms is that the populace looks upon the office holder as a foreigner, without full understanding of local feelings; unless that person is carefully selected, perhaps from local candidates.

Right. She's certainly not doing the day to day governing for each system. There's going to be system and planetary governments doing that. And even for some extradentary things between the central government and the remote system she could dispatch effectively and internal ambassador.

But some decisions require coordinating between systems, or the federal government sorting out disputes between various member system, or getting buy in from local system government, or just the system's representatives in the Republic's congress tabling a bill while they seek feedback from their systems.

Anything that involves talking to, or changing shipping for, remote systems has a major time delay. In many cases an even longer one that the early US had -- and with a central government that is likely more involved in system and planetary affairs than the early US Congress was with the various States.

tlb wrote:...

drothgery wrote:Yup, but that hadn't been written in 2014 when the post of mine you're quoting is from (when I was still a single guy with no life instead of married with a small child) ...

Well, congratulations on both the marriage with child and being proved correct that Haven does have term limits.

Thanks.

ThinksMarkedly wrote:Indeed. It's been too soon since Hereditary President Harris.

On the other hand, the Constitution hadn't been in effect in centuries, so there may be some reforms needed, and not just because of prolong. Another important difference is that the Republic is much bigger than it used to be before DuQuesne. She will need to get those reforms through.

The new Republic of Haven at the end of the 2nd war was about 1/2 the size of the People's Republic at it's height, with the 20 planets controlled by Manticore mid wars still to decide their fates. Most of the recent conquests of the PRH decided to walk their own path (and were allowed to by the RoH govt after any former PRH Warlords were removed), though are still in the RoH economic sphere.

So the current size of the RoH is closer to what DeQuesne had than the PRH at it's hayday (But we don't have exact #s).

Theemile wrote:So the current size of the RoH is closer to what DeQuesne had than the PRH at it's hayday (But we don't have exact #s).

Closer, sure, but I suspect still much bigger, possibly an order of magnitude bigger. If at the height of the PRH it had 300 systems and it now has 150, that's still much bigger than the pre-DuQuesne period when it probably had 15-20.