How a law is made (Senators and other Alliance types)

[Alexi Hesith]

I would like to put together a thread that tells the story of one Alliance law from start to finish. This would cover everything from the initial idea through to the promulgation of the final act with everything between.

I'd like to do this for two reasons.

(i) It would be an effective way to establish in, one go, various details of the Alliance law-making process.

(ii) It would be an interesting and fun challenge to take on.

Now, back in the day (are you enjoying my Old Fart tone?) we would do this sort of thing in a very deliberate way. The best and most successful Senate threads were the ones put together not as roleplays per se but as acts of collaborative storytelling. We used an OOC thread to set out an objective and agree an outline in advance and, then, to co-ordinate our IC efforts. It was a little slow but it was, I think, a very effective method that produced some excellent results. I'm hoping some others will back me up on that.

*ducks in case of rotten fruit/golden wrench attack*

I'm hoping that this is going to become the OOC thread to an IC thread in short order. So here is what I'm suggesting.

We show a staffer trying to come-up with a solution to the problem of 'x'. They hit upon a possible solution and take it to their boss (one of the Senators) and that Senator carries it forward with the help of his/her staff. We show the negotiations to get together a group of sponsors and an acceptable draft bill. We show that draft bill being introduced to the Senate, moving through the readings and the committee and report stages, and, then, the final debate and vote. Throughout we show the opposition and bargaining around passing the bill.

We would show the action "live" (i.e. as roleplay posting) but move things along and give exposition by linking sections using narrator posts in an informational style. My suggested device would be short snippets from an educational video for students with a jaunty, take pride in your democracy, faux-1950s newsreel tone.

I have an idea for issue 'x' in mind (military types will be interested in it) but, before I get further carried away, I'll stop to take people's temperature. Anyone want to express interest in taking part? Anyone want to tell me to hop it?

[Tell Cho]

SENATOR TELL CHO, the first Senator of the Ossus system has a reply. *old hologram of Tell Cho standing in front of Hesith, before extending a hand for a handshake*

Despite your more fiscally liberal tendencies, Senator, this challenge I accept!

:P

[Captain Untouchable]

If it's something military-related, you can certainly count in the Minister of Defense.

I think it might be helpful to reveal a little bit more about the idea that you have in mind, though: it might be easier for people to get a feel of whether or not their characters would fit in (and thus whether it's something they can / are interested in doing), if it was a bit more in context and a bit less of an abstract.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I would like to play a part if needed, probably with Kalla?

[Alli Tiawarrh]

And or Alli, who is a representative not a full Senator, from Krant.

[Alexi Hesith]

The issue I am proposing that the Senate tackles is civilian interstellar transportation.

*pauses for effect*

Ok, it is not the sexiest topic for a thread but, if you bear with me, I am sure that you will see the potential. Especially when I add that there is military potential.

The way I see it, one of the major consequences of the Treaty for civilians is going to be the disruption of civilian travel between worlds. The Empire-Alliance border cuts across many of the major trade routes along which scheduled freight and passenger transports would normally move. Upshot, if you are a denizen of Esseles and you have relatives and/or business interests on Lantillies you can no longer travel along the Premelian Trade Route on that handy weekly liner or receive your regular shipment of merchandise on that bulk transport that comes by monthly. If you are lucky, the Empire and the Alliance might agree to a series of entre-ports for goods to be offloaded for onward transport or passengers to change vessels but there are all sorts of delays and complications with that.

Now, if you are on the Alliance side of the border you are going to notice this more and sooner than if you are on the Empire side than because the majority of Galactic corporations are headquartered in the Core along with their repair yards. The second tier corporations that ran the shorter distance routes or mustered a few long distance journeys a month are going to try to step in but they are not equipped to do so in the long-term. Eventually, their lack of extra capacity (i.e. the spare ship to rotate on to a route to cover while one of the other two is undergoing repairs) is going to start to tell. There will be intermittent reductions in capacity, cancellations, a loss of reliability, and a general scarcity of berths and cargo bays.

Costs will rise. Not simply the cost of four berths to take your family holiday on the sector’s premier pleasure world but the cost of single berth to reach your dying Gran’s bedside in time or to seal the deal of a life time. And the cost of freight haulage will rise too with a knock on to retail prices. That breakfast cereal you by at your local megamart on your urbanised world is undoubtedly made from grain grown on an agriworld lightyears away and now it costs twenty percent more than last year because the wholesaler cannot ship it in as cheaply as before and by the way the processing plant is still waiting on the parts to repair production lines so output is down so that’ll be another two percent increase next month.

People get upset when this sort of thing happens. It makes everyday life a little harder and they tend to express their discontent to their leaders. Little by little the Senators are going to be coming under pressure to (a) diagnose the problem and (b) fix it.

So they try to pressure the shipping companies to fix it. But the shipping companies argue back. They haven’t the capital, they haven’t the shipyards, and they cannot take the risks of investing in vessels that might be made redundant by a thawing of Imperial-Alliance relations. Border crossing becomes acceptable again and POOF those eight bulk carriers useless in the face of the fifty sent out from Coruscant.

And then someone has a bright idea: subsidies for shipbuilding.

Now, these won’t be straight forward subsidies. They come with some pretty well-defined conditions. And the two big ones will be the type of ships to be subsidised and who gets to use them.

This is where the military types come in.

I am working on the assumption that the military is using most of its budget to construct the ships necessary to hold and patrol the Alliance’s new territory and to deter the Empire from trying any funny business. This being the case, building the troop and supply transports to back up military action in a crisis will be a difficult sell. And isn’t it a bother that they cannot simply take the ships they need like they used to?

So the Bill that would go forward would attempt to solve this problem as part of solving the problem of civilian transport.

Every ship built under the auspices of the proposed law would have to meet certain standards, set by the military, so that they can be converted to military use and there would be (subject to notice and in defined circumstances) provision for the military to requisition such vessels.

In fairly short (if complex and heated) order, the Alliance would be able to restore some normality to civilian travel and prepare for the possibility of future conflict. LOTS of room for debate and opposition and plenty of potential for showing not just the senators at work but also the representatives, lobbyists, staffers, lawyers, and the executive branch too.

Thoughts? Questions? Should I be ducking flying fruit/hauled off to the retirement home for clapped out politicians?

[Alexi Hesith]

*Looks up from retirement home brochures.*

Anyone got any thoughts on this?

[Tear]

So the subsidies would be for constructing potential military craft that would be used to transport civilians and then, in time of need, back into strict fighting shape should the need require. Sounds logical.

While not your topic of discussion it did make me think of something else you might find as a political interest. The idea of economic embargoes and sanctions. Has this topic been discussed?

[Alexi Hesith]

I suspect that there would be those on both sides of the border wanting to restrict trade as a way of punishing the other side. Possibly with punitive tariffs and such. But perhaps someone in the Senate might want to get a bit more hands on by stopping ships built with government subsidies from running routes into Imperial space?

*looks around for a Senate anti-Imperial hawk to have a debate with*