Usian Parliament
| Usian Parliament | |
|---|---|
| 2nd Usian Parliament | |
 | |
| Type | |
| Founded | 21 July 2014 |
| Type | Tricameral |
| Houses | House of People's Representatives; Senate; State Council |
| Leadership | |
| Chairman | Head of Legislative, Independent Left since 28 July 2014 |
| Structure | |
 | |
| Political groups | Center-lefts: 8 seats Centers: 3 seats Lefts: 2 seats Center-rights: 1 seat |
| Joint committees | Democracy Board |
| Voting system | First-Past-the-Post |
| Meeting place | |
| Parliamentary Chamber, House of the Government, Usipolis | |
| Website | |
| Official Website | |
The Usian Parliament, or Parliament of Usi is the tricameral legislature of the Usian Republic. Its three houses are the the House of the Representatives of the People, the Senate and State Council. The Parliament's chairman is the Head of Legislative.[1] There must be at least eight People's Representatives, four Senators and two members of the State Council for it to function. To prevent the higher houses (which are more strongly influenced by the executive branch) from gaining too much power, there is a constitutional law for proportions between the three houses: There must be at least twice as many voting senators as voting members of the State Council; and there must be twice as many voting People's Representatives as voting Senators.[2]
History
Pre-parliament
Before the Parliament of Usi was formed, every citizen was eligible to vote (direct democracy), but politics were dominated by the Head of Executive. This caused many complaints that the Usian Republic was a dictatorship. It remains a sensitive issue, and there has already been danger of the Province of Eastmoreland-Milwaukie seceding from the Republic.
1st Usian Parliament
The first Usian Parliament was demarchically formed on 21 August 2014. It was decided that a new Parliament would be elected every half a year. Because the number of citizens eligible for becoming a member of the Parliament was exactly the same as the number of seats in the Parliament, the candidates for different Houses were randomly drawn. This measure prevented the wasting of more time by elections, which would have achieved roughly the same thing.
2nd Usian Parliament
| Location on left-right political spectrum | Code | Color | Seats | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entire Parliament | House of People's Representatives |
Senate | State Council | |||
| Moderate left | ML | Light red | 7 / 14
|
5 / 8
|
1 / 4
|
1 / 2
|
| Center | C | White | 4 / 14
|
2 / 8
|
1 / 4
|
1 / 2
|
| Left | L | Red | 1 / 14
|
0 / 8
|
1 / 4
|
0 / 2
|
| Moderate right | MR | Light blue | 2 / 14
|
1 / 8
|
1 / 4
|
0 / 2
|
Legislation
Main article: Usian law
New legislation of any kind may originate from anyone. It is submitted to the Office of the Head of Legislative, who must either introduce it to Parliament (unless it is obviously not serious) or reject it on the grounds of it being unconstitutional. The members of each house all vote regardless of house in most cases, though the constitution makes a few exceptions. Most legislation requires only a simple majority (the Head of Legislative breaks a tie), but constitutional amendments and additions require a supermajority (more than two thirds, that is, over nine members of Parliament, HoL breaks a tie). Then it is given to the Head of Legislative to sign or veto, though a veto can be overridden with a supermajority in each house. The Head of Legislative has a time period set by the Parliament to sign or reject the piece of legislation, but no less than ten days, or the bill is passed without his consent. The Usian Supreme Court then checks the new law for unconstitutional content, and may repeal it, though, again, this may be overridden by more than 2/3 in all houses. A law may be repealed anytime, but there must be an absolute majority in all houses, and the HoL has an unoverridable veto. An amendment or addition to the constitution may be repealed by a supermajority in all houses.
Usian constitution
Pending
- Main Criminal Law Act of 2015 (MCLA, code: 2-101/CriCo-MF/MCLA)
- Correct Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation Legislation Delegating Act of 2014 (CSGPLDA, code: 1-104/GPC-M/CSGPLDA)
- Smoking Proscription Act of 2014 (SPA, code: 1-103/HH-MLF/SPA)
- Legislation Making Act of 2014 (LMA, code: 1-102/GPC-MLF/LMA)
- Usian Constitution of 2014 (UC, code: 1-101/ConCo-MF/UC)
Finished
Numbering
The numbering and naming of bills and Acts of the Parliament is currently being standardized in Bill 1-102/GPC-MLF/LMA-2 and Bill 1-102/GPC-MLF/LMA-3. In this case, the 1 shows that the law was made by the 1st Parliament of Usi, the 102 shows that it is the second bill that is either passed or pending (in this case pending), and GPC shows that it will, when passed, be part of the Governmental Procedure Code. MLF means that breaking the bills in this Act can be a misdemeanor or lower felony, depending on the seriousness, and LMA stands for "Legislation Making Act".