OOC: "Third World" inclusion in the World Congress

[jamescfm]

Below is an archived out-of-character discussion about the position of the non-playable countries in the Security Council. For the current rules of the Security Council, please see the World Congress Information thread.

The so-called "Third World" countries have been excluded from membership and voting for Security Council elections since the institution has existed. The basis for this is entirely logistical: there is no in-game mechanism to record votes for "Third World" countries. Two questions that I would like to pose to the community. What should be the in-character reasoning for the exclusion of these countries? Should the World Congress be reformed to include them?

I have some ideas but would like to hear from other people before I intervene so please share any thoughts or proposals, whether they are well developed or not.

[John Cracker]

well I personally would like to add a F G and H seat to include the third world, and that would be simple, a page would be made for third world countries to cast their votes, I also would like to make the General Assembly a lower house in which SC resolutions are voted on and are required to be approved by the GA but if 2/3 of the SC votes to overturn the GA decision then it is vetoed, I also would like to remove veto power from permanent members.

[Auditorii]

I can say with absolute certainty that I am not in favor of the GA or the World Congress as a whole operating as a world wide legislature in terms of upper house/lower house, overturning, etc. I know we've tried that and I cannot say that it was successful and that was when Classic was far busier.

[Pragma]

I also think it would be good to add at least one extra seat to the security council and we should find a way to reform the World Congress to include them.

A potential reason for exclusion is that they may have been considered, generally, to be insufficiently internally stable to contribute to the aims of the Congress in a meaningful way.

I'm not certain about the idea of an upper/lower house type situation.

[Auditorii]

My idea and one that I know at least some people have shared is that we provide a single Security Council seat for the active (occupied) Third World nations and they can either rotate or take it among themselves to vote on.

[John Cracker]

An upper lower house situation would be perfect for giving everyone a voice while keeping power with the elected security council, I also don't like the veto power that permanent members have, if anything elected members should have veto power, permanent members can't be held accountable for it.

[John Cracker]

Well what were the problems with the Upper Lower house? I wouldn't mean for it to be a world wide legislator, just to make sure countries that are not part of the SC have some sort of voice.

[Auditorii]

The World Congress is modeled off of the United Nations and quite frankly one of the few incentives for conducting RP on such a scale is to have something to show for it, in this case the Permanent Member status in the World Congress. It's a symbol of status and quite frankly hard work that I know players have enjoyed overtime. You also fail to see that the General Assembly is representative of all political parties, countries, political organizations, etc across Terra. It is a way for players that are not currently in government to be involved in world politics and the international order. The GA having any sort of power makes no sense because, like your case, what authority does the Reformed Hosian Church have?

EDIT: Plenty of countries outside of the Security Council have had an influence on world events and that has been done by many players currently involved in the Security Council. A seat on the Security Council doesn't automatically grant some sort of special status where only you can involve yourself in world events.

[Masionette9]

Well what were the problems with the Upper Lower house? I wouldn't mean for it to be a worldwide legislator, just to make sure countries that are not part of the SC have some sort of voice.

mainly because only a handful of countries is active and that would be impractical in terms of overall gameplay.

[John Cracker]

You misunderstood me, I don't want a church or a party to vote in the GA, just the Forgein Minister on behalf of their country, I can say with 100% confidence my church or party shouldn't be voting on SC resolutions, but I can say I would like countries not in the SC to have a bigger voice.