Organization of the Executive Branch

[Hannibal]

This is a general organizational chart I devised for the executive arm of the government of our fledgling republic. It is very similar to an email I sent to our group, but with a few minor tweaks and changes after dicussions with the players... (for example, changed departments into ministries, so Garrett could be a prime minister instead of vp)

The executive branch is run by two individuals:
Chancellor Caligo (#1 in control)
Prime Minister Garrett (#2 in control)

Under the Chancellor and PM, the executive is comprised of several key ministries (just like in Britain today). I'll delve into each a little....

1. Ministry of Foreign Affairs
2. Ministry of the Interior
3. Ministry of the Treasury
4. Ministry of Justice
5. Ministry of Education
6. Ministry of Defense (much of the organizational detail will be addressed in a second thread)

--Important addendum: C/M Manufacturing (the brainchild--or lovechild--of Jack and Caligo) is responsible for the manufacturing of all our military hardware and vehicles... C/M Manufacturing is also at the moment the main income producer for the entire Republic. This business, while generating public funding, currently remains under the ownership of Caligo and Jack (which gives Caligo considerable political clout). At the moment, it is unclear if C/M Manufacturing will remain a private entity or eventually become a state-run endeavor, probably placed under the Ministry of Defense.

Together the head ministers of each ministry compose the Cabinet to the PM and Chancellor. For each Ministry, I'll lay out the key offices/responsibilities:

Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA, handles our foreign diplomatic affairs)

--Office of Public Diplomacy (basically runs/supports our various permanent embassies/delegations abroad, such as in Japan, NGR, Merctown, Tolkeen, etc. Handles all modern-day embassy duties, including trade issues)

--Office of Developing Outreach (handles ad hoc delegations and planning new missions/embassies... once made permanent, gets shifted to the ODP above)

--Office of Foreign Policy Planning (basically handles developing the nuts and bolts of treaties and using subject matter experts to craft effective foreign policies for enactment by our delegations and embassies

Ministry of the Interior (handles all domestic affairs... the various Administrations within the MoI will be working closely together)

--Housing Administration (responsible for housing planning and development for the cities)

--Sanitation Administration (self-explanatory)

--Commerce Administration (1. all private businesses need to register/get licensed through Commerce, 2. keeps track of and manages all government-sponsored non-military production, such as textiles, etc. This will be a big Admin)

--Urban Projects Administration (basically handles all government-run construction and construction of public projects... office buildings, parks, etc.)

--Tax Administration (yes, baby, taxes!!)

--Census and Citizenship Administration (keeps track of population, grants citizenship, tracks immigration trends, etc)

--Public Services Administration (government-provided utility, fire-fighting, and medical services)

--Agriculture Administration (overseas food supply and safety standards)

--Communications Administration (Overseas public provision of communication venues, such as print, internet, radio/tv, phone. Provides licensing to private vendors.)

Ministry of the Treasury (handles budgeting and economic policy)

--Office of Budget Affairs (basically handles the budget for the executive)

--Office of Monetary Affairs (controls monetary policy... ok, we need $$. I think it's probably time to start issuing our own government treasury bonds. People/business's buy them, we pay them back later with interest. Gives us much needed $$ while we get the taxes and other revenue sources going. This office runs the economic policy (working closely with the needs of the Budget Office)).

Ministry of Justice (if we have a juciciary branch, this ministry could be under that. Otherwise, keeping this under the executive [with no judiciary branch] gives the exec another good check against the legislative branch, which my character would support in the near-term)

--Internal Security Force (ISF) (this is our domestic police force)

--Courts (all types of courts: criminal, civil, and constitutional)

--Prison (figure we need one big prison, run by the DoJ and ISF)

Ministry of Education (overseas the education system of the republic, whether public or specialized schools, such as a magic university eventually)

Ministry of Defense (combat forces and intelligence agency)

--Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA... has spies and analysts, inluding a big counter-intelligence center... this is basically a hybrid of today's CIA, DIA, and NSA)

--Office of Military Affairs (OMA, the military, which will be described in further detail in another thread)

[asfenchel]

You speak about checks against the legislative but their is no checks against the executive. I think that we should build a fair and balanced (equal balance of power between the branches). This is not to say that we could not be overly represented in each branch (thereby given us a veto) but it would also set up a democratic foundation that we want while not reliquishing control too quickly. Eventually we can give up power, once things stabilize, and we would already have the institutions set up. What do you think?

[Hannibal]

I've decided that, in character, my dude would not care much about how the Legislative flounders around trying to organize itself. In the short-term, I would concentrate on strengthening the executive, where the policy-planning and implementation is currently taking place.

At this point, I think the power of the legislative will pretty much be defined in the Constitution that Garrett and his folks are writing (presumably with our characters' input... but maybe not, maybe Dweomer is influencing him... dunno).

So, I'm not gonna personally tackle designing the Legislative (unless I become a senator lol)... my character supports a stronger exec to start, so I'm not gonna help organize the "check/balance" ;-)

[ratbastard]

I would tack on a ministry of magic, and not just cause harry potter had one.

[Hannibal]

We can certainly add a Ministry of Magic (MoM)... though I have to ask, what is the goal/function of such a ministry? Because I would envision (perhaps erroneously) that magic would be incorporated into/used in a variety of the pre-existing ministries... what do you envision for MoM's purpose? Do you see it differently?

[asfenchel]

If you wish to design the executive and have a strong one at that you must design the whole government. If you do not design and likely limit the legislative body they will only grow in power. If you want a strong executive branch you will have to get ride of all the player characters (except me). At best you guys are only part time workers (everybody says they are not "desk jockeys" but what the hell do you think a person is who runs a city state or even a department of defense! For instance, you have 40,000 employees and that is by its very nature a completely full time job. Mac and Rick are in even a worse situations because they are both considered to be the heads of the city state. This is by its very nature a completely full time (60-70 hours a week) job. Look in the news at what happen when the executive of South Carolina vanished for 5 days! Even before it was discovered that he was having an affair, people where thinking he should be impeached due to him vanishing for five days. Our situation is by far worse because we have wars going on and we handle international affairs. If you want a strong executive Mac, Rick, and you will have to step down from your positions or create new characters to play.

[Hannibal]

I crespectfully disagree that I have to design the whole government. Someone else can do it, or if not, we can just assume it got done (our characters did it etc) and Tom can just implement the "it's effectively there" GM perrogative. I've just laid out the org chart of the executive b/c it was fun for me to do, that's all. And finally, I think this org structure works regardless of however powerful the legislative winds up being; it's not really dependent on how the rest of the government is designed and reflects some of the basic institutional structure of today's real world Western gov'ts.

As for being desk-jokeys, that's essentially what our characters became for 2 years. Tom essentially moved the game over 2 years (remember the 2-year $$ in a budget he gave us and the options on how we were expanding the military?)... we are basically recapsulating a couple adventures and such that occur in that 2 year period, but by and large, yeah, we're bureaucrats.

I agree ultimately the players need to decide if their characters become politicians/bureaucrats or adventurers. But for now, it seems just like a small sprinkling of adventures among 2 years of bureaucratic work and civ building, which seems reasonable/manageable.

[Hannibal]

Modded the org chart above. Added an agriculture administration and a communications administration to the ministry of interior. MoI is gettin' big.