Cornuthaum's Constitutional Convention
(Now with 250% More Ritual Fistfights During And After Debates.)
What powers shall be invested in the Upper House? Current Status Quo: Advisory
[x] [UH] 1 PW - Veto
It's not going to be the greatest, but! It is a compromise with the nobility, throwing them a significant bone - the ability to veto royal decrees! - in exchange for them not screwing with us over the rest of the reforms, particular lifetime titular grants to cycle commoners into the government.
Should there be a Lower House and what should it do? Current Status Quo: None (Cannot be stronger than the Upper House this Constitution)
[x] [LH] 1 PW - Advisory (+1 Temp Happiness)
Get them used to advising the king and we will be able to revise this in, say, ten turns and further democratize.
Who has the right to vote or serve in a higher government roles? Current Status Quo: Upper Nobility
[x] [Franchise] 1 PW - All titles
A compromise. I would dearly love the poll tax here - so that anyone who can pay for it can serve in the government- but here, too, we can bestow lifetime, non-inheritable titles to extraordinary civil servants of common birth to allow them to serve in the government at every level.
Who may be an officer in the army or in other administrative functions? Current Status Quo: Noble Only
[x] [Officers] +1 PW - Easy non-inheritable titles
We can literally create an entire order of awards that bestows a lifetime, non-inheritable title of lesser nobility (akin to the old HRE Reichsritter) on those who show great potential but are barred from true greatness in service by dint of their common birth.
Who may own land? Status Quo: Noble Only
[x] [LO] 2 PW - Anyone with the money
You know what you need for independent factories? Land.
You know who can buy that land? The people who would put factories on it (or just the wealthy parts of the third estate in general).
What about freedom of movement? Status Quo: Restricted (Serf)
[x] [Movement] 3 PW - Free Internal Movement (+1 Temp Happiness)
Okay. Do you see Kyberia? All that land? ALL that land? We want people to go and settle it. On their own, without us having to spend for-fucking-ever and heaps of money to do it. This is a crucial part of that. It will also be a very strong draw for immigration and allows us to pass a Homesteading act of our own.
Freedom of assembly? Status Quo: Restricted
[x] [Assembly] 0 PW - Restricted
A necessary sacrifice: Neither us, nor our people, are ready for actual democracy yet, and this is probably one of those areas where shaving off PW is painful but survivable - and it doesn't get in the way of the industrialization. This will be something we must change for the next constitutional convention (which we should have in 5-6 turns).
Freedom of the press? Status Quo: Crown Only
[x] [Press] +1 PW - Free ownership with Crown Censorship (-1 Temp Happiness)
Metternich Austria did this, and it worked out reasonably well. This means we will be able to relax Crown censorship in 20-30 years if things go well, or double that if they don't.
Status of the Guilds? Status Quo: Crown Sponsorship
[x] [Guilds] 2 PW - Fail to increase the regions of their influence (-1 Temp Happiness)
Ho ho ho no go fuck yourself, guild-kun. This sends a strong message about what we intend to do with them in the future- but doesn't outright declare war on the wealthy parts of the third estate.
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There is one final question that is not part of the Constitutional Convention but rather has to do with the Military Reforms
Make a Royal Military Academy?
[x] [Academy] 0 PW - No
We do not have the PW for it. And this is something we can do by bequest after the Hohozyn Wars.
As a reminder, we have 2 days to think up a plan. May I suggest we do not get too vote happy?
At the very least, discuss options before adding 'X's
Gladly, friend!
So, stay a while and listen, while I explain myself:
The Dual Monarchy of Gylruv-Ymaryn is not a democratic state. It is, in fact, an absolute monarchy where the monarch has been culturally conditioned not to be too much of a jackass -but it is still an absolute monarchy. Accordingly, the estates are the clergy, the nobility, the Guilds and then
everyone else.
We are not, socially or culturally, prepared for an immediate transition to democracy. Or even particularly democratic reforms. We are in fact terribly placed for it because we have multiple conflicting factors that are all bad for it - absolute monarchy, very strong nobility, very strong guilds, and the example of revolutionary Republicanism at the border that has poisoned the well for republican sentiment in this generation.
As such, I suggest that we begin to sneak the seeds of more free thought into the people of Gylruv-Ymaryn by way of the one thing we all want: Money.
Once the people currently in power - the Upper house of the high nobility and the Lower house of the lesser nobility - get used to the idea that maybe it's ok that the sufficiently skilled or wealthy of the commoners (the Third Estate, or about 98% of
everyone) have things like lands and titles, paired with the right of free movement (I'll get to that later), they will be much less averse to other democratizing reforms over the coming decades. This is important because it keeps us from having
either absolutist revolts
or Jacobins.
Now, you will note that in my plan I dedicate the overwhelming amount of PW to what can only be called industrial reforms rather than outright full-on democratization. I chose free land ownership, the right to run one's own newspapers (with state censorship, because again, we are still
quite paternalistic) and especially free movement over the rest.
Free movement is incredibly important. It is what lets our people move to where they want - or need - to be. It means they
can choose to get away from the guilds to work for independently-made factories outside the local guilds (and going forward we really need to bank 1-2 PW per turn outside of war because there's going to be be fire brewing) and will also make it easier for us to settle the entirety of goddamn Siberia if our people do it themselves rather than having to be made to do so at cost of PW.
That point of PW can be used if a mid-turn drops or next turn for anything.
