Magecastle
Wolf of the North
- Pronouns
- He/Him
- TNP Nation
- Magecastle_Embassy_Building_A5
- Discord
- red_canine
The United Nations started off when Maxtopia submitted the first UN resolution Fight the Axis of Evil. This resolution was submitted before the site was even launched -- and to that end the resolution itself only got a grand total of 3 votes and is - I believe - the only resolution to pass (or fail) by only 1 vote.
Back in the "Olden Days," the rule was - you pass it, you live with it. There were no repeals back then ... and believe me, there was plenty of crap being passed on a regular basis. Of the first 25 passed resolutions, only 6 remained "in effect" until all UN resolutions were repealed with the passage of WA#1 - The World Assembly.
As many may know (perhaps more from storytelling than from experiencing it), as the 2008 April Fool's Joke, it was announced that Max had received a Cease & Desist letter from the real United Nations. Haha, very funny, absolutely hilarious joke, etc.
Except ... it wasn't a joke. (NS news posts) The Jolt forums are gone, but Antarctic Oasis (a fairly active UN region at the time) has made their thread on the subject public, for those that would care to peruse that.
After the World Assembly was created in April of 2008, things ran ... fairly smoothly for awhile. The re-creation of the World Assembly was a chance to start from scratch - and to finally be rid of a lot of those early (and awful) UN resolutions. Many of the quality UN resolutions were quickly resubmitted and generally passed successfully.
However ... in May of 2009, the admins came up with a Grand New Idea ... that was not met happily by many of the WA regulars. For starters, the entire concept of the Condemn and Commends (Liberations were not yet a part of what would eventually become the Security Council) contradicted a lot of the already-existing WA ruleset. More details on this controversy can be found here on the NS forums. This is [violet]'s forum announcement on the subject.
Eventually, the Security Council and General Assembly were split out of the World Assembly entity, but - originally - they had to share one proposal queue, as only one proposal would be At Vote at one time. The concept was that the two chambers would "take turns" being at vote. If there wasn't a different chamber's proposal in the queue, the next proposal in line would be At Vote.
This was frustrating to many proposal authors who grew sick of the lengthy proposal queue. In February of 2010 the separate voting "channels" were introduced, which helped a lot of the controversy die down. Of course, a lot of this is more because those who have no interest in the [insert chamber of choice here] could just ignore those votes ... more or less. There have been some calls for an "Abstain" button - to turn off the New Vote notification if the nation in question has no intention of voting on a particular topic, but that has not been added to the game thus far.
I personally believe that the quality of UN/WA/GA resolutions has gradually improved over time. Oh, sure, the are some quality resolutions scattered throughout the older UN archives, but there are also some doozies. (UN#3 - Education for All - has a one-line Description: To give every child under the age of 16 the right to a free education) I know that I can be ... pretty insistent on quality prose when it comes to voting and, as time allows, I like to assist other proposal authors with their text and phrasing. (And I know I'm not the only one who feels this way.)
What do GA Resolutions Do?
There are a number of ways to "play" the WA when it comes to evaluating a proposal or resolution.Some players are what might be called "Stat-Wankers." They are those who want their stats to do a certain thing for a certain reason. They might be strong believers in education and want their education stats to be really high. Or, they might want to keep whatever WA classification that they've "earned" for their nation. These nations often don't care about the actual text of a resolution and instead look at the category and strength of a given resolution.
Different categories affect different stats. The details have long been hidden, but some impacts are fairly obvious. "Strong" resolutions are going to have a greater impact than a "Mild" resolution - which may be a good or bad thing, depending on who you're talking to. "Education and Creativity: Education" resolutions are - *gasp* - going to affect your nation's education scores. "Political Stability" resolutions are going to decrease your nation's political freedoms. "Repeals" are going to reverse whatever effects the original resolution's passage had on nations, although the statistical effects of repeals are scaled down compared to that of their targets. (This is even true if your nation wasn't a WA member when the original resolution passed.)
Other players are "Role Players." They really think about the text - what it means, how it can be interpreted, and how to make it better. They often have "ambassadors" or "representatives" in the GA chambers that speak on resolution topics. They may include actions or "events" within the text of their forum posts that go beyond a mere statement of support/opposition, etc.
The "Role Play" rules within the GA are pretty straightforward - there is "mandatory compliance" with all GA resolutions. After a resolution is passed, your nation is required to promptly commence compliance as per GA #654. Should your nation fail to do so, your nation can be subject to coercive fines from an office of the World Assembly; or, if such fines are not paid, immediate trade sanctions from member nations en masse.
Some loopholes are left in legislation intentionally. This is done for various reasons, such as believing that there are some details that can be much better covered by individual member nations than by WA dictate. A common saying in the GA is "One size fits none." If you try to make all WA member nations the same, exactly, you'll often end up with a lower quality proposal that may not even apply to all WA member nations by the time you're through.
Mandatory Compliance
It's not uncommon for member states to try to loophole resolutions as best they can, to try to avoid complying with resolutions they find particularly distasteful - for whatever reason. It's also something of a game for some for certain nations. (*coughcough*) Kenny's nation even has a Creative Solutions Agency - started during the UN days - which is in charge of determining the best way around less than optimal resolutions.In addition, some nations ("Orcs") roleplay themselves as being non-compliant; there have been entire documents signed by dozens of member nations proclaiming their refusal to comply with certain pieces of legislation. However, non-compliance, especially refusing to acknowledge the fines and trade sanctions received by your nation if it is non-compliant, is often stigmatised. Refusing to acknowledge these fines and sanctions can also be treated as godmodding, which is extremely frowned upon. The In-Character punishments for non-compliance were established in GA #440.
It must further be noted that there is an explicit duty for member nations to comply with World Assembly law as swiftly as possible and in full good faith. This duty was originally established by the now-repealed GA #2; it is now mandated by its replacement, GA #654.
Assignment:
A lot of these questions - and those for future assignments - won't necessarily have "right" or "wrong" answers. One of my goals for this class is to really make you guys think about the General Assembly and what it all involves. As such, there will be a lot of short-answer questions that are more about the content and information than being "right" or "wrong." Feel free to post your answers to these questions in this thread at any time -- whether it be the day that this lesson is posted or a decade on -- or just keep your answers to yourself if you do not wish you post them here!
- How do you think of General Assembly legislation? Are you a "stat-wanker," a "role player," or something I've overlooked? How do you feel that you fit within that "grouping" ?
- Check out the Historical Resolutions. (NS archive) Pick any proposal (passed, failed, repealed, withdrawn, deleted, etc.) that catches your eye. What made you look more closely at that proposal? What did you like/dislike/etc., about that proposal?
- Take a look at some of the other GA proposals in the GA forum and leave your comments as to what you think of the proposal for the author to consider. Are there loopholes that you're concerned about? Is the topic something you think is appropriate for the GA to legislate on? I'm not asking or expecting you to be able to handle rule-breaking, but do you have any concerns about the legislation in question? Or, do you support it wholeheartedly? I don't expect you to repost your comments here, but if you want to include a link (or two or more, if you're feeling industrious!) here, that would be fabulous.
Specific questions to think about include:
- Are there loopholes that you're concerned about?
- Is the topic something you think is appropriate for the GA to legislate on?
- I'm not asking or expecting you to be able to handle rule-breaking (especially not so early on in your GA education!), but do you have any concerns about the legislation in question?