Senate

From Silver Sun Republic Codex

SEE ALSO Signoria

The Senate is made up of citizens elected from within the Republic. Each Great House is granted a representative to the Senate to appoint however they wish. Some directly appoint their Senator while others hold elections within the Great House. Additionally, Senators may be elected at-large to represent the main body of the citizens of the Republic.

Purpose

The purpose of the Senate is to act as a voice of the people providing feedback from the general membership to the leadership of the Republic. The Silver Sun Republic is a Crowned Republic, although there are formats in which the structure is organized in a more democratic manner to include eras referred to as the Free Republic, which is a more modern US-like version and the ancient Greco-Roman inspired Classic Republic with considerations for sci-fi, futuristic games in the form of the Galactic Republic. Each era or epoch of the Republic has been implemented in various games and contribute to the overall History and Lore of the nation maintaining a running timeline. The Senate always plays a role in some way making the Republic one of the very first to implement a republican style of government and make it effective.

The Senate acts a connection between the lowest ranking member and the highest echelon of leadership to advise on various issues that are of concern to the general membership of the community. In the Crowned Republic format, the Senate passes resolutions to suggest courses of action to the Doge and the Ministries. The Doge can adopt the resolution making it binding and compelling the Ministries to carry out and implement the actions suggested in the legislation. This allows for perpetual control and stability of the community while giving access to the wider membership to influence the direction and nature of their government.

Structure

The Prime Minister chairs the Senate and oversees Senate business only voting in the event of a tie. The Doge maintains the ability to outright veto legislation and has delegated that right to the Prime Minister. In more modern and ancient formats of the Republic there are ways to override the veto, but the feudal version of the Crowned Republic allows the Doge to exercise an absolute veto. The reason for this is in order to maintain control and stability of the community in the highly competitive and often times overboard metagaming associated with conquest PvP sandbox games in which this system is generally applied. What tends to happen most of the time is that a compromise or elements of the legislation will be implemented after meeting with the Senate to develop a plan.