Neo-Tribalism

Neo-Tribalism is a form of democratic government devised primarily by Dr. Vlasi Malenkov and Dr. Ovdey Shlomov, two Uralican intellectuals, and is the form of government in Uralica.

It is different from a traditional democracy in several ways. First of all, the head of state (Chief or Heimopäällikkö) is elected for life, and by the members of a tribal council as opposed to the populace at large. The tribal council, however, is elected by the general populace.

The Chief
The Chief is elected for life, meaning that death, resignation, or in the case of corruption, expulsion, are the only methods of the Chief being removed. In the Christian nation of Uralica, the last of these would be a true political death blow.

The role of the Chief (currently Jarkko Salomäki) is that of head of state and head of government. The Chief will cast the deciding vote in the case of a numbers deadlock in a Decree proposed to government, which requires a simple majority. A negative vote from the Chief can veto any proposed Law that has under 75% of the council's vote, however this has yet to happen.

The Chief has authority to act decisively in certain situations that threaten Uralica. For example, if Uralica has a declaration of war made against it, the Chief may bypass the Council and mobilise troops. To date, this has only been done once, in the war against Sexy Soviets, although the retaliatory attack against the same did go through the Council.

The Tribal Council
Uralican Neo-Tribalism (which to date is its only use) has a Tribal Council of 238 members, not counting the Chief. This stems from the fact that there are seventeen tribes in Uralica (Finnish, Estonian, Karelian, Livonian, Western Saami, Eastern Saami, Mari, Mordvin, Udmurt, Komi, Samoyedic, Nenets, Ob Ugric, Hungarian, Russian, Mennonite, and Chuvash) and each tribe votes for fourteen representatives.

Although there are no traditional ministries, the Chief takes advice from any Council member "gifted" in a certain area. For example, Vaido Kuik is knowledgeable in both public services and the organisation of cultural activities. As many Council members are staff at Uralikan Yliopisto, the Chief has a large base to draw on for educational advice. Ulrike Didriksen and Markus Stefanssohn, both Mennonites, are key advisors in the health-care department. And Lt.-Gen. Kirill Zholtok, Air Marshal Kaido Ojastu, and Kari Fisk are defence-oriented.

Laws for the nation can be proposed by any member of the Tribal Council, but they must pass with a 60% or more super-majority, which prevents the instance of deadlocks. "Decrees," such as declarations of war, declarations of peace, treaties, entry into or withdrawal from an an alliance, placement or removal of embargoes against a nation, or any other such things, have to be approved with a simple majority, with the only possibility of a tie being if there is an odd number of abstentions.

If a Tribal Board (see below) cannot solve an issue brought forward by an official petitioner, the petitioner is referred to the Chief and Council.

The Tribal Boards
One tier lower than the Tribal Council are the 17 Tribal Boards (Fin. Heimonjohtokuntat, Rus. Племенное Руководства).

Although the head office is located in a fixed city, there are smaller Board Offices in every settlement above the population of ten thousand people. It is at this level that there is the most interaction between politicians and non-politicians. Petitioners are allowed, and in fact, encouraged, to bring any significant issue of culture, infrastructure, finance, education, environment, or resources (among other important issues) before the Board. As of 15 June 2008, the shortest petitioner session of any board was ten minutes, by a Mr. Yoni Tsyplakov of the Komi tribe, simply requesting funds to rebuild a power main that was severed during Ionizer's attack on Pazhga, which took place 29 March 2008. The longest was four hours by a group of Mordvins that had heard about CCC's attempts to make peace with Beilliran being stymied by a lack of co-operation. The results of this were brought to KingJarkko by Mordvin Council Member Marat Pavlov, and this led to the near-immediate deployment of the Udmurt 1st Battalion into the same nation on reconnaissance.

The "Tribal Seats" are as follows:


 * Finnish Tribe - Kirov
 * Estonian Tribe - Vaahruše
 * Karelian Tribe - Petroskoi
 * Russian Tribe - Yekaterinburg
 * Livonian Tribe - Viipuri
 * Ob Ugric Tribe - Yugrakar
 * Komi Tribe - Ukhta
 * Mordvin Tribe - Saransk
 * Udmurt Tribe - Izhevsk
 * Mari Tribe - Yoshkar-Ola
 * East Saami Tribe - Murmansk
 * West Saami Tribe - Murmansk
 * Nenets Tribe - Naryan-Mar
 * Samoyedic Tribe - Salyakharad
 * Mennonite Tribe - Pazhga
 * Hungarian Tribe - Trakt
 * Chuvash Tribe - Cheboksary

In certain extenuating circumstances, each Board has a "transportation fund" (which is fuelled by taxes) that a member or members of a Tribe who is/are a large distance from their board's seat (an extreme example would be an Ob Ugric living in Enso, Uralica's westernmost major settlement, thousands of kilometres from Yugrakar) can have the Board pay their travel costs. As Uralica is a fairly affluent nation, instances of this are fairly scant, but they do happen.

Checks and Balances

 * The Chief's stipend was set at K$200 000 per year. (The current one takes in a lot more per year, because of his career as a professional footballer, prize money from skiing, and money from being a successful force in the record industry, both solo and in his band Bane of the Machine)
 * The stipend of Tribal Council and Supreme Court members was set at K$55 000 per year,
 * The stipend of Tribal Board members was set at K$37 500 per year.
 * All of the above are prohibited from voting themselves pay raises by Uralica's constitution. The actual number will rise and fall with inflation and exchange rates as stated by the International Monetary Value Board, of which Uralica has been a quarterly member once.

The Supreme Court and Uralican Law
The Uralican justice system is presided over by the Supreme Court of Uralica. This is comprised by seventeen individuals - one representative voted on by each Tribal Board. The Chief chooses the Chief Justice from these based on history, competency, and knowledge of Uralica's laws.

The purpose of the Supreme Court is to uphold the law of the land, whether this be the criminal law, the civil law, or the constitutional law. The last of these three can only be dealt with by the Supreme Court, however Supreme Court Justices will often find themselves taking on high-level criminal cases as well, given the rarity of crime in Uralica. High-profile and/or high-volume civil cases are also presided over by a Justice. Perhaps the best example of this is the fallout from the 2006 Kondopoga race riots, with the criminal case being presided over by the first and only Chief Justice the nation has had, Yuri Shvidki of the Russian Tribe, and the following civil case being presided over by Joonatan Leppänen of the Karelian Tribe.

One of the aspects of Neo-Tribalism in Uralica is that overt bigotry (that is, violence or harassment of an individual based on race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or sexual orientation) is grounds for extension of a criminal sentence or harsher reprisal in a civil case. Therefore if someone commits a violent crime in Uralica and is found guilty of doing so "with bigoted intent," judges tend to add extra time.

In fact, it is possible to receive a life sentence with years added in the case of first-degree murder with bigoted intent (in Uralican legalese this is often called "Murder One WBI") which happened in the aforementioned criminal case regarding the Kondopoga riots, where five Chechens were sentenced to life plus ten years for their role in starting the riot through their actions.

The death penalty was discussed in the early days of the Uralicist Movement, however Uralica has neither practiced, nor intended to practice it. If someone wanted to be implemented, it would have to be ratified by all seventeen Tribal Boards as well as the Tribal Council.