Hegemony of Periphery States

The Beginning
In the beginning there were eight lone souls who carried with them an idea and a vision for a new way of life. Leaving the Browncoats in search of a better home Flyingscotsman, Veneke, Mechanus, Asriel Belacqua, Kodiak, Straightupnobull, Atoms and Theoroshia eventually founded the Hegemony of Periphery States to reflect their desire to remain on the very cusp of civilization. On March 27th, 2008 the Hegemony was established, creating a refuge from the turmoil in the centre of the CN world, out here on the fringe.

Goals
Our goals are simple: to grow and prosper. Friendly relations with other alliances is also desirable. By using technology rings and trade guilds, both in-house and with other alliances, we hope to grow into a strong, respectable alliance.

Greetings
Well, this here is the Code of the Hegemony of Periphery States. Should you sign up to join us, you'll be expected to follow this to the letter, and ensure that everybody else does too. We've all come here from different places, and that means very little here. What matters here is the work you do for this Hegemony of nations, nothing else.

Duties and Freedoms
In this alliance you are more than welcome to say what you want to other people in this alliance. 'course, if one of them takes offense to that and decides that they want to run their sword through you, then well, we're as likely to sit back and watch than anything else.

You go outside this place though and get yourself in some heap of trouble, well... we're likely to save your sorry ass if we can, but we aren't gonna lose any sleep over it if it's all your fault and they gonna take you down.

We're a relatively easy-going bunch here, orders ain't exactly our cup of tea. That said, you volunteer for something and your superior tells you to go and do something, well, you're gonna do it and that's that.

You get hit by some other bloke with more guns than brains and you can count us all in to take him out. There ain't any questions on that score.

Now, we have a democratic element of a sorts here, and we're gonna make sure that those that can vote, do. Else you might find yourself without a vote next time.

It's all common sense really.

Membership
So, how do you join, and what happens then?

Well, it's simple to be honest. You sign up to join with us, we'll give you some guides to go and look at, make sure you know what you're doing, and then we'll assign a mentor of sorts to you, he'll show you around, answer any questions you might have and all that. Second you sign on and are given permission to fly our AA, consider yourself an Enlistee. If, however, you decide that you're not for the Hegemony, then you're free to leave, no hard feelings. Also, your mentor can refer your application for review to the Hegemon for Home Affairs, if he feels that your acceptance would be detrimental to the Hegemony.

After that "training" period, (which terminates when both you and your mentor agree) you get promoted to a Loyalist. At this stage, you're a fully fledged member, able to vote in elections and gain access to the member only areas. You can propose changes for people to look at at this point, and stand for election. You also get to see what's going on in Foreign Affairs and other such things too.

Want to specialize a tad? Offer yourself to the Councilor whose department you want to get involved in to work as a specific Director. Propaganda, Recruitment, Trade, Head of Diplomats, Regimental Commander, where-ever you think you'll do the most good, just volunteer and see what the Councilor says.

Running for a Council position? This is the ultimate power one can attain. There are three Council position available. Councilor for Home Affairs, Councilor for Foreign Affairs and Councilor for Defense. Only a Loyalist can run for these positions, but all can vote in the event of multiple candidates. No one can run for more than one Council position in the same election.

The Government of the Hegemony
The Government is a limited democracy of sorts. Well, I'm sure you'll pick up once I've explained it all.

The Hegemony Council:

Consists of three members, the Hegemon for Home Affairs, the Hegemon for Foreign Affairs and the Hegemon for Defense.

As you can see, each has a specific portfolio, but the Council makes decisions as a whole. A two-thirds majority is needed to enact any Hegemony Council decision.

The Councilors:

There are three Councilors. Each is responsible for their own department and no one else's. We catch you messing in someone else's department without their approval, and well, we won't take kindly to it. Nor will they I'd reckon.

Council for Foreign Affairs: Runs the day to day job of the Foreign Affairs. Recruiting diplomats, organizing and obtaining treaties and organizing the Foreign Affairs ministry of the alliance are the types of activities that the Councilor is expected to do during this term in office. The Councilor may appoint officials to help him run the ministry in the manner that he sees fit.

Council for Home Affairs: Runs the day to day job of managing the alliance's economy. Recruiting, developing nations and making sure the mentors are doing their jobs are the types of activities that this includes. The Councilor may appoint officials to help him run the ministry in the manner that he sees fit.

Council for Defense: Runs the day to day job of managing the defense of the alliance, including running drills, organizing the alliance's fighting strength and keeping an up to date record of the fighting abilities of all member nations. The Councilor may appoint officials to help him run the ministry in the manner that he sees fit.

Councilors are allowed to make any administrative change as they see fit to their ministries, without any interference. Any change such as a treaty, war declarations or changing the code of conduct for all members however, requires Hegemon approval.

The Magistrate:

The Magistrate is the judge of the Hegemony. A minimum of three candidates are chosen by the Hegemons and the elected government, they are then voted on by the general membership. A Magistrate serves two electoral terms. He cannot be impeached, but can be removed by a two-third majority vote by government, that is to say, all Hegemons and Councilors, not including their Attaches. The Magistrate holds no power other than that outlined in "Impeachments, Punishments and the Courts".

His primary duty is to uphold the Charter in both the spirit and letter that it was written. He has duty is to act as an impartial judge of all judicial matters that are referred to him. To attempt some conformity within the law, Magistrates are expected to follow the decisions of prior cases where similar facts occur. The Magistrate is charged with documenting all judicial cases for both himself and future Magistrates to learn from. He is also charged with distributing the results of all decisions so that members know where the law stands on any decided issue.

The Attaches:
These are all appointed, and are divided into two groups:

The Council Attaches:

These are the Councilor's deputies. They take over from the Councilor when he is either incapable of doing his job, is absent, or is impeached. They are to assist the Councilor's in the day to day running of the alliance and are expected to maintain any Council security protocols.

The Ministry Attaches:

These are officials appointed to head a particular department inside a Ministry, such as the Director of Recruitment, or Regimental Commander, or anything of the like.

The Decision Process:
Decisions regarding the administration of a particular Ministry are left in the hands of the Councilor in question.

Decisions regarding the legislative side of matters, such as treaty signing, war declarations or the like, requires the approval of at least, two of the three Hegemons.

Elections:
Elections are open to any Loyalist to run, and everybody, from Loyalist and above, votes. They are held on the first week of January, April, July and October. Candidates announce themselves the weekend before voting. The period from when candidates announce their intention to run for a Councilor position, until voting, is to be given over to debates and questions & answers and the like. Voting commences on Thursday at update and continues until Sunday at update. During the whole voting process the existing Councilor is expected to continue in his duty.

Once voting has commenced (i.e. from Thursday on) no further discussion may take place regarding the upcoming election. This is to ensure that there is ample time for members to make up their own minds, without any interference. Violation of this by a candidate will result in his candidacy being removed from the election. Violation of this by a member will result in the loss of their vote. These cases are also to be referred to the Magistrate, he must however, hand out the punishment as outlined here, in addition to whatever else he thinks is just for breach of this code.

Impeachments, Punishments and the Courts:
Impeachments:

Any Councilor or Hegemon may be impeached from his or her position. Any member, of Loyalist and above, can propose a motion to impeach a Councilor or Hegemon. All such proposals are done in secret and any and all evidence is forwarded to the Magistrate. The Magistrate reviews the evidence and can decide whether there is a case for said impeachment. If the Magistrate does find that a case exists then he is to announce the charges and evidence.

A time period for all members to review the evidence is to be decided by the Magistrate. It must, however, be no longer than one week. This open viewing of the evidence can be revoked by the Magistrate if either he, or two or more Hegemons demand that it be kept secret.

Either the Councilor of Home Affairs or the Hegemon of Home Affairs is to act as prosecutor, unless he offers an objection, in which case the Magistrate can order another to act in his stead, the prosecutor, however, must be from a different Council of government to the defendant. The Hegemon of Home Affairs, for instance, cannot prosecute another Hegemon.

The defendant may nominate a defense counsel to help prepare his case.

The duration of the trial is to last no longer than one week. The trial takes place immediately after the viewing process is complete.

Once the trial is over, and the Magistrate has retired to consider his verdict, a minimum of three days and a maximum of one week and three days may be allocated to the decision process.

There is no appeal from the Magistrate's decision.

Punishments and the Courts:

The Magistrate is the sole power to hand out sentences of ZI, perma-ZI, expulsion, fines and rank revocation. Note that this does not include dismissal from service. A Councilor may, for example, dismiss a diplomat from the diplomatic corps, or even replace his deputy, but he may not demote him to a lower rank. Likewise, the Magistrate cannot demand that a member be dismissed from service.

For crimes referred to the Magistrate by a member, the Magistrate must adhere to the time policy laid out in the above section under Impeachments.

There is no appeal from the Magistrate's decision.

Nukes, Spies and Wars:
1. Nuclear weapons are to be used in retaliation only. Even here nuclear weapons clearance must be given by both the Councilor of Defense and the Hegemon Council. Member nations are encouraged to develop and maintain nuclear weaponry to help defend.

2. Use of spies is to be cleared by both the Councilor of Defense and the Hegemon Council.

3. Wars aggressive in nature require a unanimous decision by the Hegemon Council, and a two-third membership agreement. War defensive in nature are to be met with full rigor and every available resource in defense of or her allies. Tech raids must be approved by both the Councilor of Defense and the Hegemon for War for approval.

Amendments
Any Loyalist, or above, can propose a change to this document. Changes require a two-third approval of Loyalists and above, and a two-third agreement of the Hegemon Council.