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Government of Laver Island

Konungdómr of Laver Island



Flag of Laver Island



Vulkanerborg castle: Home to the royal family and Alțingi

Government of Laver Island


The government of Laver island takes place within the framework of a parliamentary representative democracy, a constitutional monarchy and a decentralised unitary state in which the Monarch of Laver island, King Vincent, is head of state. Laverian politics and governance are characterized by a common striving for broad consensus on important issues, within both the political community and society as a whole.

Executive power is exercised by the Cabinet of Laver Island (Rægæríngír), presided over by the Prime Minister (stćtsmínístír) who is first among equals. Legislative power is vested in both the executive and the national parliament (Alțingi). Alțingi has 85 seats. Members of the judiciary are nominated by the executive (conventionally by recommendation of the judiciary itself), formally appointed by the Prime Minister and employed until retirement.

Laver Island has a multi-party system. No single party has held an absolute majority in the Alțingi since the middle of the 20th century. Thirteen parties had ballot access for the 2020 Laverian general election. Since no post-war coalition governments have enjoyed a majority, government bills rarely become law without negotiations and compromise with both supporting and opposition parties. Hence the Alțingi tends to be more diverse than legislatures in other European countries. The Constitution serves as the nation's fundamental principles of governance and defining the rights of the citizens.

On many issues, the political parties tend to opt for co-operation, and the Laverian welfare model receives broad parliamentary support. This ensures a focus on public-sector efficiency and devolved responsibilities of local government on regional and municipal levels.

The degree of transparency and accountability is reflected in the public's high level of satisfaction with the political institutions, while Laver Island is also regularly considered one of the least corrupt countries in the world by international organizations.

Monarchy


Vincent with his family on his crowning day

King Vincent of Laver Island (born 16 July 1995) is the King of Laver Island. In accordance with the Laverian Constitution, the Laverian Monarch is the head of state and head of national defence. The Monarch is the theoretical leader of the nation's defence and internal affairs. The role is largely ceremonial but the consent of the Monarch is necessary in order to carry out military actions or to pass a bill.

Historically, Laverian Monarchs have been chosen by a sword-fighting tournament, in which the winner is crowned King or Queen. The Monarch of Laver Island's role was largely seen in military affairs as they would have supreme control of Laverian forces and retain the right to declare war and negotiate peace on the nation's behalf, while internal affairs were largely handled by assemblies (known as țingi) who all had an Earl as their head.
Alțingi at the time was headed by the island's earls who required the consent of the Monarch before the Alțingi could decide something on the national level.

The system lives on in a more modern sense. Monarchs are still crowned by winning a duelling tournament and the Alțingi is still the national parliament.

Contrary to other Constitutional Monarchies, the Laverian monarchy title can not be inherited, the spouse and children of the monarch are given appropriate titles (queen, prince and princess) but the titles are not passed down to the next generation, children of the princesses and princes will not have a title and the royal family steps down when the monarch dies.

Political parties

Laver Island has a multiparty system. Nine parties are represented in parliament, while an additional four have qualified to contest the next general election. The four oldest, and in history most influential, parties are The Liberal Party, the Social Democrats, Laverian Independence party (now the conservative party) and The Pirate Party. However, demographics have been in favour of younger parties (such as the Green Party and the Progressive Party), which has led to constant pressure on the older established parties.

No two parties have exactly the same organization. It is however common for a party to have: an annual convention which approves manifestos and elects party chairmen; a board of leaders; an assembly of representatives; and a number of local branches with their own organization. In most cases, the party members in parliament form their own group with the autonomy to develop and promote party politics in parliament and between elections.

The Executive

Rægæríngíræn performs the executive functions of the Kingdom. The affairs of government are decided by the Cabinet, headed by the Prime Minister. The Cabinet and the Prime Minister are responsible for their actions to the Alțingi (the parliamentary system).

Members of the Cabinet are given the title of "Minister" and each holds a different portfolio of government duties. The day to day role of the cabinet members is to serve as head of one or more segments of the national bureaucracy, as head of the civil servants to which all employees in that department report.

Enjoying the status of primus inter pares, the Prime Minister is head of the Laverian government (as taken to mean the Cabinet). The Prime Minister, the cabinet and Speaker of Parliament are appointed formally by the Crown on basis of the party composition in the Alțingi. No vote of confidence is necessary to begin the government after the election. If the Alțingi expresses its lack of confidence in the Prime Minister through a vote of no confidence, the entire Cabinet must step down. If the Prime Minister has no confidence in the Alțingi, they can call for a parliamentary election.

According to section 12 of the Constitution, the Prime Minister sets the number of Ministers and the distribution of cases between them, that means that the number of cabinet positions and the organisation of the state administration into ministries is not set by law, but subject to change without notice. A coalition of many parties usually means a large cabinet and many ministries, while a small coalition or the rare one-party-government means fewer and larger ministries.

In 2016 in the wake of the parliamentary election, the Cabinet had 20 members including the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister leads the work of the Cabinet and handles constitutional affairs and the affairs of the press. While the 2020 election saw a large decrease to 9 ministries.

The Laverian Executive consists of a number of government departments known as ministries. These departments are led by a cabinet member and known as minister for the relevant department or portfolio. In theory, all ministers are equal and may not command or be commanded by a fellow minister. Constitutional practice does, however, dictate, that the Prime Minister is primus inter pares, first among equals. Unlike many other countries, Laver Island has no tradition of employing junior ministers.

A department acts as the secretariat to the minister. Its functions comprise overall planning, development and strategic guidance on the entire area of responsibility of the minister. The minister's decisions are carried out by the permanent and politically neutral civil service within the department. Unlike some democracies, senior civil servants remain in the post upon a change of government. The head of the department civil servants is the Permanent Secretary. In fact, the majority of civil servants work in executive agencies that are separate operational organizations reporting to the ministers. The ministers also have their own private secretary and communications personnel. Unlike normal civil servants, the communications staff is partisan and do not remain in their posts upon changes of government.


Landstinget

As known in other parliamentary systems of government, the Executive (the Cabinet) is accountable to the parliament (the Alțingi). Under the Laverian Constitution, no government may remain in office with a majority against it. This is called negative parliamentarianism, as opposed to the principle of positive parliamentarianism. It is due to the principle of negative parliamentarianism and its proportional representation system that Laver Island has a long tradition of minority governments. Nevertheless, minority governments in Laver Island sometimes have strong parliamentary majorities with the help of one or more supporting parties.

The current government of The Green Party is stable due to their support by their support parties. This system enables minority parties to govern on specific issues through an ad hoc basis, selecting partners for support based on common interests instead of legislative need. As a result, Laverian laws are born of extensive negotiations and compromise. It is common practice for both sides of the Laverian political spectrum to cooperate in the Alțingi.

Legislature

The Alțingi performs the legislative functions of the Kingdom. As a parliament, it is at the centre of the political system in Laver Island, and is the supreme legislative body, operating within the confines of the Constitution. The Prime Minister is drawn from parliament through the application of the Laverian parliamentary principle (a majority must not exist in opposition to the government), and this process is also generally the case for the government also. The government is answerable to parliament through the principle of parliamentary control (question hour, general debates and the passing of resolutions or motions). Ministers can be questioned by Members of Parliament regarding specific government policy matters.

General debates on broader issues of government policy may also be held in parliament and may also be followed by a motion of no-confidence. The opposition rarely requests motions of no-confidence, as the government is usually certain of its majority; however, government policy is often discussed in the plenary assembly of parliament.

The Alțingi is composed of 85 seats. All 85 seats are contested in elections held at least every four years and in the present parliament, almost all seats are taken up by members belonging to a political party.

All parties receiving more than 2% of the votes are represented in parliament. Comparatively, this is quite low; in Sweden, the minimum level of support necessary for getting into parliament is 4%. Often, this has led to the representation of many parties in parliament and correspondingly complex or unstable government majorities. However, during the last decade, the political system has been one of the stable majorities and rather long government tenures. For an independent politician to gain a seat in parliament, he or she would need about 2000-5000 votes in the electoral district they ran in.

Template by Laver Island inspired by The Free Republic of Ponderosa's template found here.

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