SL Virtual Government

With the Australian Federal Election called for August 21st 2010, it got me thinking... should Second Life have a community based government?

Having thought about some of the mayhem of hackers and what not i have thought up a basic government strategy.

Linden Labs

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Virtual President

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Virtual Vice President

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Virtual House Of Representatives

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Virtual Senate

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Virtual Council

This is obviously very extensive, and we could not START like this.

They way it works is like this... The Virtual Council is the largest government faction, each 1/4 region in SL will have 6 Councilors who will decide amongst them who should be the Mayor of their respective 16,384 Sqm block of land, Councilors and Mayors do not have direct control of regions, but represent their "town" and will usually work with their Representative in the HoR.

The next one up is the Virtual Senate, now the Senate do not have any specific "regions" to work from, the 21 senators represent all of Second Life's community and will play a part in changing rules and monitoring the world.

The House Of Representatives is the next one up from the Senate, basically for every region on Second life 65,536 Sqm of land, will have a Representative, being a Rep will allow you access to higher forms of government, if the Virtual President presents a rule to the HoR's, then they have to vote on whether to pass the rule or not, if it is not passed the Rule is dissolved and put into the archives, if it is voted in, the rule will then be presented to the Senate, if the Senate rejects the Rule, the government will need to modify the Rule and send it back through the HoR, if it gets through it is passed to the Senate, if they reject it again, the rule is dissolved and put into the archives, but if the pass the rule, the President sends the new rule to Linden Labs, and LL can either implement it or reject it at that point.

Apart from LL itself, being in government is the highest you can get, basically in a Virtual Government there will be a President, a Vice President (who will jointly run the world) a Minister for Propaganda (ads and such) a Minister for Community (who will quiz the community on what they want improved) and a Minister for Economy (who will control economic decisions and run government funds)

The second biggest party in the HoR will be known as the "Opposition" they are the next in power, they have a Leader (the winner of their last Primary election or leadership ballot) a Vice Leader (Chosen by Leader in last Primary election, or runner up in a leadership ballot) a Shadow Minister for Propaganda, Shadow Minister for Community and a Shadow Minister for Economy.

The opposition will challenge Government bills and decisions and propose their own policies to gain favour.

Elections, a term of Government shall be a fixed 6 Months (HoR and main government only) in the last two weeks of Government the Election shall begin, while the Election is on, the HoR is dissolved and the Government is placed in low power to prevent power issues, The Senate may or may not be dissolved, one term in the Senate is 12 Months and therefor will only be dissolved every 2nd Election, the Council may or may not be Dissolved, one term in the council is 3 Months and 2 local council elections will take place by the end of the General Election.

In the first week it is the Primary's for each party, after the Primary vote takes place the Leader will select a Vice Leader and together will select the people running for the HoR (they will either keep the incumbent and have them up for re-election or will replace them either because they don't like them, or they are not re-contesting the election.)

In the second week, there will be debates between the party leaders and vice leaders and finally the General Election vote, voting is not compulsory but a person must enter their home region and vote for a HoR candidate and in some cases a Senate candidate and Council candidate.

The new government or continuation of the Incumbent government will require that they have a majority of reps elected into the HoR's, once the day has ended, the vote results are displayed and the new government is immediately put in place and the start of the term begins.

But of course this is all for kicks, i doubt it will happen.

Regards, Darkmaster Topaz