NATIONAL ASSEMBLY VOTE: Let’s throw the people we’re about to send to horrible deaths fighting France a bone!
Turhan Toraman, Sixth President of the Byzantine Republic
Inaugurated February 11th, 1831
The Julians
Ladies and gentlemen of the National Assembly.
Something perhaps not seen in world history since the triumphs of the Hungarian League against the Ming Frontier Army– a vast and diverse coalition of nations and peoples have banded together in the cause of liberty against a tyranny threatening to impose itself on the whole of the Near West.
And a great many of those diverse peoples live right here in the Byzantine Republic.
The Byzantine peoples will shortly answer the call to arms in the defense the Republic following the implementation of a general mobilization of the citizenry. I am so, so proud to be the president of a nation so willing to lay down their lives for liberty, equality, and victory.
They enjoy a degree of freedom that makes them the envy of the world– only Japan, perhaps, can rival what we’ve built. But did the great Noor Sallajer not enjoin us to always strive to build a more perfect republic?
The Byzantine people are ready, willing, and able to die for their republic. It behooves us to do something to show them what they’re fighting for.
Let us pass a political reform.
You compose only a minority of the upper chamber of the National Assembly– but, in the debate over political reforms that broke out, you were well-placed to influence the course of the discussion. Whoever you choose to back will carry the day and get their reform passed.
The Italian Firebrand
The so-called “literacy test” still required to exercise one’s right to vote is a sad remnant of the deeply flawed Commonwealth of the Romans. Rome is dead! At best, the literacy requirement is a de facto wealth requirement. At worst, it allows corrupt archons to pick and choose whoever they please to be granted or denied the ballot. Let the right to vote be extended to all citizens, without qualification!
##Vote A. Universal Vote Franchise
The Stylish Veteran
What is an archon? A glorified doux! What is a poleis? A fancy word for a theme! And yet we allow the Upper House of the Assembly, with a stranglehold on reform, to be allocated by poleis rather than proportionally by population! A few thousand Croatian dirt farmers in who knows where get the same two delegates as the entire poleis of Byzantion! We need to cut off the power of the archons at the source, not simply make them find a new way to engineer elections to their liking.
##Vote B. Upper House by Population
The Quiet Athenian
I think that a first-past-the-post voting system can never be truly democratic. The loudest voices will drown out the rest. What if we had a system of proportional representation, so that the composition of the Assembly precisely mirrors the will of the people. Wouldn’t that be nice?
##Vote C. Proportional Voting System
The Civil Engineer
Typical romantic Junonian claptrap! What we need is a rational voting sytem. And I happen to know of one, made up by this chap Jefferson– one of those European settler types in the Avalon frontier, you know the sort. The Jefferson system uses a bunch of complicated mathematical formulas to allocate seats in the Assembly proportionally. It’s better than simple proportional representation because there’s equations.
##Vote D. Jefferson Method Voting System
The French Refugee
In France— [pause for five full minutes of boos] in France, the factories are all controlled by Versailles aristo cronies of the king, who treat the peasants forced from their land so work in them so badly their lot is hardly better than slaves. Why, the displaced peasantry who toil day and night to enrich the king are so ill-paid that they cannot even afford culottes, and must do without. We must prevent such misfortune from ever befalling the workers of Byzantium by creating a state-run guild– let’s call it a “trade union”– to look after their interests.
##Vote E. State-Controlled Trade Unions
The Talkative Philosopher
What’s the point of giving the people political rights if they’re afraid to exercise them? Before we can even think about changing any of this other stuff, we should follow the Japanese example and guarantee the secrecy of one’s ballot. It’s just common sense, you know? Otherwise unscrupulous archons can just bully people into voting for whoever they want! That’s kind of bullshitty. Let’s fix that!
##Vote F. Secret Ballot Political Parties
(The in-game effects of the reforms are described here)
A. Universal Vote Franchise
RZApublican
Ghetto Prince
TheMcD
ZearothK
B. Upper House by Population
C. Proportional Voting System
Nuramor
Hutter
Beerdeer
D. Jefferson Method Voting System
E. State-Controlled Trade Unions
GSD
Rubix Squid
Caustic Soda
Tulip
StrifeHira
420 Gank Mid
Jeoh
Ratoslov
Espilae
BwenGun
NewMars
RagnarokZ
Aeromancia
Chief Savage Man
Luhood
Erwin the German
Reveilled
Lynneth
GunnerJ
Ogianres
Flesnolk
Danann
WilliamAnderson
Grizzwold
F. Secret Ballot Political Parties
AJ_Impy
JT Jag
Akratic Method
HiHo ChiRho
WeaponGradeSadnes
Lord Cyrahzax
NGDBSS
Hitlers Gay Secret
Technowolf
YF-23
Clayren
Pacho
Vote closed, E wins