Government

-United Provinces comes from Ideology > Sociocracy

-which, in its original form, advocated the union of the world in the form of cantonal regions (aka cities)

-Lee Cheng-chang emphasized this provincialism both from this and to get loyalty of governors

-Supreme President elected by the people for terms of nine years

-very powerful figure who is only limited in terms of appointments by having to appoint National Conference members for cabinet

-does not have a veto but sits on all sessions of the Board of One Hundred and Eight

-can vote in National Conference sessions

-full title: "His Elective Majesty, the Supreme President of the United Provinces of China, President of the Six Boards"

-in practice he's a sort of republican emperor

-even performs rituals to heaven at Temple of Heaven upon getting inaugurated

-a temple that, after having been destroyed by the rise of the Bai, got replicated in Nanjing

-Temple of Heaven is also containing a delegation of the people, to represent that the Supreme President gets authority from both Heaven and the People

-former presidents are supervisors

-six Boards, each board headed by a Minister

-Board of Revenue is in charge of the treasury

-it acts as a financial assembly and approves of budgets and revises accounts

-and in this is bigger than all the other boards

-Board of the Interior is in charge of police and keeping the public peace

-Board of Various Countries is in charge of foreign affairs

-is a pretty large board as well

-which is important because it keeps track of foreign affairs

-Board of War is in charge of managing the military

-Board of Education is in charge of school system

-Board of Trade manages industry, commerce, labor, and agriculture

-pretty large board which manages a state filled with Ideology > Sociocracy

-contains sub-boards for these different sectors

-on occasion meets as a single assembly known as the Six Boards

-presided over by Supreme President

-all these Boards and Ministers appointed by President but require approval by National Conference

-and every member of them must be Conference members

-reconstitution of boards upon every National Conference election

-means these Boards also act sort of like National Conference committees

-all these Boards also have the power to propose new legislation

-legislature is divided into National Conference and Board of One Hundred and Eight

-National Conference consists of members elected direct by the people in individual constituencies

-essentially a dead assembly with few debates and largely mute

-biggest debate is a sort of Inquest session where President and ministers interrogated by opposition

-when it ratifies laws their results already known, or at least is likely

-and when a law put up to a vote it's done with only a few speeches

-for three year terms

-Conference members elected from 2,085 small constituencies

-voters can vote for any candidate nominated in any constituency by writing them in

-winners have as many votes as people who voted for them

-as long as they meet a threshold of 25,000 votes

-a great many officials must be National Conference members

-so this makes it a repository for national officials

-can remove the president upon recommendation of National Censors with vote of three-fifths

-practically-speaking, this means three fourths of national conference members must concur

-the Supreme President can vote in National Conference sessions with a vote equal to as many people voted for them

-this means they have at least as many as half of the votes of the whole

-so at least three quarters vote of National Conference needed to exceed President's vote

-practically speaking this means that with China having multi-party government politics Supreme President is very influential

-only meets 50 days in a year

-and for a swathe of the year they travel in circuit around their constituencies to hear feedback and all

-Conference members may also be recalled by petition

-Board of One Hundred and Eight elected by super-constituencies (merged from National Conference constituencies) from already elected National Conference members

-for three year terms

-may propose laws if supported by 36 members

-having been established by Bai dynasty originally in order to accommodate the pro-democracy movement

-when it liaised with Grand Council and was elected by complex of filtered electoral colleges

-various other Legislative Boards, each of whom constituted by sortition

-but with highest officials excluded from being selected by lot

-Board of Supervisors supervises functioning of all government

-66 members plus ex officio ex-presidents

-selected for terms of twelve years

-candidates are:

-people who have passed jinshi level of examination

-which in practice means that a lot of academics run as Supervisors

-upon election time the current National Conference whittles away its numbers by deselecting one-third of all eligibles, and remainder qualify for election

-elected by the people of province, apportioned by square root of each province's population

-may call byelections in National Conference

-may also exclude National Conferencepeople from eligibility to the Board of One Hundred and Eight

-also supervises examinations and appointments to the civil service

-appointed by Board of Supervisors is the Board of National Censors

-which investigates all officials from other branches as well as civil servants

-may lay charges against government officials and extract fines

-and also to audit all functioning of the government

-may also lay charges against the Supreme President

-also can recommend to the National Conference the removal of a president

-Board of Supervisors also appoints the Grand Secretariat

-of five members

-which heads all matters of the civil service

-Chief Grand Secretaryy sits on the cabinet

-and reports findings to Supervisors which meets in closed session to discuss his findings

-also appoints the Board of Constitutional Review

-which determines constitutionality of law based on cases

-with final constitutionality determined by Supervisors after it presents them

-and may nullify with reasoning, and a draft of good law, within two years of the law's passage

-under the Bai dynasty the civil service examinations got changed from Confucianism to Buddhism

-this gets softened and more Confucianism added after the fact but as a mere supplement

-and also addition of Western canon to it as part of modernization

-because now there's been a hole which can be filled with something

-addition of math and engineering

-degrees also become increasingly specialized

-additionally there's been a dramatic expansion of the number of people who get exams

-as part of Bai wanting to impose itself

-by today civil service less prestigious than formerly due to growth of private sector

-but still hella prestigious and high-paying

-with prestige best retained in less wealthy areas

-also degrees can be important in securing private sector jobs

Juren: At the apex of the provincial system.

Gongshi: Second tier degree, gets almost assured high level civil service job

Jinshi: At the apex of the entire system, assures to whoever gets it one of the position within the bureaucracy and required for Supervisors

-Minister of Justice

-heads all judicial affairs

-Grand Procurator

-manages prosecution through an apparatus of procurators who also accuse and detain

-these are tightly associated with judiciary rather than executive branch

-Grand Court of Revision

-judicial body appointed on dual confirmation of National Conference and Board of Supervisors

-reviews all actions of previous courts and annuls them if necessary

-charges laid by Board of Supervisors are submitted in trial to it

-provinces run by governors

-governors are appointed by the president but require the consent of at least one third of the provincial assemblies

-each province has a Conference from which is elected a Board of 27

-and the Provincial Conference is similarly oversized (a thousand or more on average)

-however, provinces do not have separate civil services, and Board of Supervisors supervises the provinces

-but, civil servants must first be appointed from among Provincial Conferencepeople