The Executive Branch of the Teknianian Government

(We recommend reading “The Inner Workings of the Teknianian Government” before reading this)

So far these Factbook chapters have talked mostly about the legislative branch of the government, that is, the General Council. Directly associated with it are the people who run the various Departments of Government, those being the Issue Committees, commonly referred to as Commissions, as we shall do here and the Departments themselves (List of Departments in Appendix A).

There are, in total, 16 Departments, each presided over by one of these Commissions. Commissions can be thought of as “mini-councils”, each with no more than 50 members. These Commissions then implement the laws agreed upon in the General Council, but with the caveat that they can’t themselves submit law proposals, thus keeping the branches of the government separate.

Every Commission has its own meeting hall in its Department building, which are all located practically across the street from the General Council. Thus, it’s common to see Councillors rushing from the General Council to Departments if there’s an important vote or debate in the Commission today.

In order to represent them, each Commission appoints a Commissioner of (department name), who talks to the media, represents their Commission in the General Council and out in public and sits on the Special Council, ex officio. The job of a Commissioner usually rotates between the most experienced members of a Commission, but its members are free to decide who and for how long they want someone to represent them.

Commissioners are also, in emergency situations, such as if a large scale disaster has occurred and most of their Commission is unable to assemble or if a state of emergency has been declared, allowed to make orders to their Department single-handely, without approval from the Department’s Commission. Outside of these emergency powers and regular duties, Commissioners (as an office) don’t do anything else.

Departments are known for their lavish and architecturally interesting buildings, which, in some cases, have become tourist attractions, the revenue from which goes back into the Department. For example, the Department of Sea Affairs has a large set of fountains in their atrium, above which they’ve hung the skeleton of a whale, just to really bring home that they are THE Department of Sea Affairs, and these fountains are now a part of some tours of the Government Ward of Tekniania City.

After the government was set up after the Acts of Unification and the birth of the Allied States, most Departments also set up regional offices on most islands to better connect with more rural and far-away places. Some Departments, like the Department of Space, only have offices on the major islands, seeing as they don’t have much connection to everyday life. Others, like the Department of Sea Affairs, can be found on almost all islands, seeing as they run a majority of Tekniania pretty much by themselves (almost 90% of Tekniania is an ocean).

Departments enact laws via “Executive Orders”, which order the creation of new institutions, the elimination of old ones, etc. An Executive Order always begins by stating on the basis of which law the Department has the right to even issue it and what makes its contents legal.

For example, one of the most famous Executive Orders in Teknianian history is “Executive Order 02457-T” (The T indicating that it came from the Department of Transport, full list in Appendix B), which banned the sale of automobiles and driving them, exactly 2 hours after the law banning them came into effect. The order began by stating that it was ordering this by the right given to them by the Teknianian Constitution and Law of Commissions, and that its contents were legal by right of the Law Regarding Automobiles.

All of these Executive Orders are readily available online as soon as they are accepted and also in paper format at their Department building in Kivoli and any other Departmental office.

This system, isn’t, of course, without its caveats. Executive Orders can take hours, on occasion days, to be written and approved. There have been occasions when Commissions have been unable to decide how soon to begin executing a law or how to best execute it, and so the Special Council has had to step in and decide in their stead, which they have the constitutional right to do if a Commission can’t make up its mind within 3 days.

This slowness, however, can also be a major upside, depending on how democratic you like your Tekniania. Each Commission is staffed by the same Councillors that the people elected, and so these long deliberations can be interpreted as either the Commission being unable to make up its mind or as democracy at work. Either way, as of the latest surveys, 65% of Teknianians are fine with how their government is structured.

Appendix A; List of Departments: Economy, Finance, External Affairs, Interior, Energy, Transport, Climate, Sea Affairs, Space, Peace, Justice, Culture, Tourism, Immigration, National Cohesion, Defence.

Appendix B; List of Executive Order Department determinants: (Economy) EO, (Finance) F, (External Affairs) EA, (Interior) I, (Energy) E, (Transport) T, (Climate) C, (Sea Affairs) SA, (Space) S, (Peace) P, (Justice) J, (Culture) CU, (Tourism) T, (Immigration) IM, (National Cohesion) NC, (Defence) D.