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| An Assembly With Balls Is Essential To The Long-Term Survival Of Europeia; ENN Opinion | |
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| Topic Started: Jul 29 2016, 02:01 AM (389 Views) | |
| HEM | Jul 29 2016, 02:01 AM Post #1 |
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former substitute senator to aexnidaral seymour
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![]() ENN - "Analysis: An Assembly With Balls Is Essential To The Long-Term Survival Of Europeia" Written by Klatonia Lecturer at the University of Europeia The author is a former Mayor of the defunct City Council, a former Senator, Speaker and presidential candidate. His opinions do not reflect those of the E-News Network. So this is a continuation of this thread. I just finished reviewing the whole CARP saga and... well, it was instructive, to say the least. Here's a post-facto, summary, institutionalist (and probably wrong) sub-analysis, in line with my previous comments. The very existence of the CARP underlines that there might have been a downside in the shift towards educational purpose of the CA. When CA leaders or up-and-comers are educating, they are not... how shall I say this... capitalizing on their newly-acquired political capital. When the CA is deprived (and I use it in a non-derogatory sense) of a stated or informal role/influence in policymaking (and that goes WAY beyond ordinances and pre-acts and the technical stuff), the whole system suffers because the CA is no longer training future leaders through experience. That's the point I think HEM was trying to make: if the lay-level, non-elected entity only aims at educational goals, then it fails to provide proper real-life experience (as opposed to simulated experience) to members and, thus, fails to nurture advanced political skills like negotiation, leadership and responsibility. Thus, the CARP. From a remote and more historical perspective, it seems as if one of the unstated reasons for its creation was the inability of the CA to ''stock the shelves'' with new leaders. It provided more technically skilled citizens but less politically proficient members. In institutionalist terms, Europeia's political structure lost one of the two predominant ways to create an intermediary output of leadership (the other being straight importation from other Regions). The system thus has to create a ''new'' toy to compensate for such systemic failure. So where to go from here? Well, three possibilities immediately come to mind. First is to reestablish the CARP, thus providing the system with what seems to have been a rather reliable output of leaders. Second would be to establish a new program with comparable objectives. Third... well, third goes back to the question HEM and Notolecta were arguing about: what's the role of the CA? Should the CA once again assume (in part or in whole) the purpose of providing a close-to-reality political simulation forum, or should it remain a technical institute for political bureaucrats? The first option would both force the Region to lend some legitimacy to the Assembly and force the Assembly to assume a more political role - with every possible calamity that comes with it: conflict, confrontation, negotiation, power trips, intrumentalization of somewhat clueless members, and other predicted disaster. It carries the risk of gravedigging the old guard/new guard bullshit. However, it provides the opportunity (nothing more) for the development of leadership skills. Never for the many, only for the few who thrive in that kind of environment. Cost, benefit. Reading the CARP archives, I wondered why the CA was limited to an educational role and why the leaders were basically selected for political upwards mobility. Is it that the Region has become confrontation-averse and wishes to streamline the rise of potential leaders through means that exclude troublemaking? I don't know, I'm just thinking out loud. The second option seems to be working to a lot of people's satisfaction. It actually works as intended, apparently, with the usual ups and downs. The sheer quality of the educational resources is mind buggling. My concern is that the curriculum (and some feedback and comments I've seen posted) aim almost exclusively at developping what are known as (and sorry, it's a translation because I don't know the English term for it) compliance skills. Correctly understanding, discussing and drafting legislation is not related (in theory) to personal style of leadership. Europeia, through its freaking awesome legal architecture (and the individuals that built it), has corporatized, streamlined and standardized almost every aspect of government related to legality, including the vocabulary and writing conventions of policy. So the educational resources and support provided seem, to me, like they strive to teach citizens how to comply with established norms... and THAT ISS FINE. Im a freaking lawyer, I can relate and appreciate. What you get is an active population that hosts a larger proportion of legal- or legislative-literate citizens. But it does not nurture leaders. We need a lay-level entity, whatever its freaking name, that allows both objectives to be attained at the same time. Everything I've read and lived through so far here reflects what I would shamelessly call a Europeian truth: we are only as vibrant a Region as the quality of our leaders. If you don't like that statement, that's too bad. Engaging people in activity and creativity is only possible when the right levers are activated: when high-yielding recruitment leads to a larger population, and therefore a larger potential field of active members, who are then activated by either their past experience (a minority) or by the experience they live once they're admitted. All these levers - recruitment, integration, animation - are in the hands of the Executive. Yes, individual initiative can foster a punctual spike in participation. Yes, RL trends directly affect the activity level of the board. But in the end, looking through history, it is very difficult to disprove the thesis that we are a leader-driven region with strong democratic roots (which makes us a republic, really, what a coincidence) and a very steady, very influencial internal culture. On that last point, it's only since I came back two days ago and skimmed the archives that I've come to truly appreciate the 'old guard' for what they are: a cultural safenet. This steadiness in our political and social culture is what allows Europeia to avoid having to reinvent the wheel every year, or to regularly fall under the spell of ill-faithed demagogues (it has happened but very rarely considering the lenght of our terms). So I'll take this opportunity to address a public apology to Lethen, Anumia, HEM, Lexus, Neo and Asianatic: if I had understood THAT in 2009-2011, things would have been different. I don't regret stirring s*it up. I don't regret confronting the 'establishment'. Hell, I don't even regret the intent behind the Extreme Measures Act. The way it was done and the sometimes blatant dismissal of your contribution, however, were inexcusable, and I apologize for that. To survive in a context of high citizen turnover, Europeia needs a steady supply chain of politically activated, lucid citizens (which includes utopists, by the way) who are given the chance to learn not just through scholastic exercises but through the experience of situations that are as close to the 'real' leadership as possible. For some, it's to champion a bill they really care about once they learn how to frame it. For others, it'll be the learning of the ropes of political maneuvering through a seemingly absurd revolt against, let's say, the Senate's lack of transparency. Whatever the case, every citizen should have an easy access to a resource where political experiences can be lived and experienced to the fullest in order to exercise an honest judgement of their will to 'climb up the ranks' or 'make a name for themselves'. For the record, I think the CARP narrowed that access by 1) cementing the role of the CA to purely 'educational' purposes and 2) putting in place a recruitment system that limits the number of 'chosen people' and the ways they can learn. It hinders the emergence of out-of-the-ordinary, somewhat unexpected leaders. In short, it skews the necessary diversity of the leadership supply market. Its disbanding was a good thing, but it does not solve the issue at hand: if not the CARP, then what? Does that mean the CA is the only way to create leaders? Of course not. But since all others rely on voluntary participation that hinges on a combination of personal volition and leaders' capability to create/rally interest, the CA presents a very high potential for systemic leadership and citizenship development. That should be its mission, and we should be able to accept that it can, in time, take forms we personally don't like. Accepting a loss of control is a skill many should learn. |
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| Malashaan | Jul 29 2016, 02:22 AM Post #2 |
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Supreme Malassimo
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A very thoughtful analysis. Thank you for presenting it. It generated a couple of thoughts for me. 1) I agree that one of the problems with CARP was that it made experiential learning available to a few, when ideally we want it available to everyone. With that in mind, I think the CA should be educational body, but there is no "just" about it. It should be more of an entry level position them a school. Newcomers should have access to both training materials and active mentoring, but it shouldn't be "just" learning, it should be working towards a bassist contribution. The CA should be contributing pre-legislation regularly, and I would love to see a return to the Senate delegating the first pass at non-urgent legislative ideas to the CA. 2) I think the eventual move to universal membership can play a role in elevating the CA. One of the advantages that led me to float the idea in the first place is that it allows the CA to take on the constititional role of "the People." That means the CA has the power, via referenda, to veto legislation and remove officials. While I hope these powers will not be needed and will be used sparingly, giving the CA these teeth elevates it as an institution. |
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| Klatonia | Jul 29 2016, 02:41 AM Post #3 |
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F*ck off D'Lo
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Thank you for the relevant comments. Regarding the first one, forgive the caricature, but one question I did not ask in the op-ed was about this obsession with training people to do things the 'right' way. I must have missed the epidemic of ignorant citizens whose ignorance of legislative procedures and culture almost brought the region to its knees... did I ? It's a crude caricature, but you get my point.As for universal membership, well, it runs into one of those beliefs that make me a Conservative: if everyone is a member of a body that holds no real power, why create that body at all? Expand the legal voluntary training to those willing, close down the CA, direct everyone to the Great Hall and allow citizens to submit pre-Acts to a popular vote... no? None of the two comments I just made were thought out, so feel free to criticize. EDIT: actually, I always welcome criticism and debate, so don't be shy - and above all don't be impressed cuz of the lenght of the text or the size of the words. Edited by Klatonia, Jul 29 2016, 03:12 AM.
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| Malashaan | Jul 29 2016, 03:11 AM Post #4 |
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Supreme Malassimo
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Regarding my first point, as I said privately, we have had problems lately with poor legislation. More generally, we have been seeing a skills gap where some new members have struggled to bridge the gap from newcomer to senator-level legislator. Re universal membership, I have a few thoughts. First, I totally agree that training should be open to anyone who wants it. As to doing everything in the grand hall, that's viable, but I don't think it's the best solution. The CA,and in particular having the Chair and the ordinances, provides a structure that is absent from the Grand Hall. Ultimately, we could provide that structure there but then it's just about naming forums. I also think there's value in reserving the grand hall for higher level, free-form policy debate, which more often than not focuses on the executive rather than the legislature, and leaving the knitty-gritty details of legislative drafting to the more structured environment of the CA. |
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| Klatonia | Jul 29 2016, 03:20 AM Post #5 |
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F*ck off D'Lo
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Point well taken. I skimmed some threads and so must have missed the problems with the quality of the legislation. Thank you for the information; indeed, a skills gap in basic legislative skills must be addressed, and I agree with you that the Assmbly is a relevant forum for such training. On the topic of universal membership... yeah, the Grand Hall counter-proposal was not good. This :
is particularly convincing. Point taken. I'd like to emphasize that I have no problem with tasking an Assembly with an educational purpose. I'm just convinced that the CA has other missions that are not incompatible with educational purposes but that are being structurally phased out of the entity. That being said, there's a fourth solution I hadn't thought about. My hypothesis is that the CA/CC's role of providing a 'proving grounds' (as Notolecta said) political arena for up and comers actually defeated the purpose of political parties, which usually assume this role. Fourth solution (and a Conservative one to boot): 'privatize' political bootcamping, let political parties (private organizations) take care of it and the invisible hand will provide. Except that I think it would be the death of us. |
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| Malashaan | Jul 29 2016, 03:35 AM Post #6 |
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Supreme Malassimo
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Good talk. I certainly agree that the CA can become more involved. It feels very self contained at present. |
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| hyanygo | Jul 29 2016, 01:13 PM Post #7 |
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Along with Writinglegend's article on Survivor this may be one of the strongest exhortations for change we have seen in a while. It is disappointing that this metapolitical discussion is buried beneath a DNC live thread and ignored. The usual suspect of Malashaan has engaged but we can't rely on him to be the sole intellectual driver of the region. I have grown very uneasy with how I used to think of training and how the region views it now. Principles that made sense in a wide variety of situations but not all have now become universally applicable rules. Incremental commentary has now become the only commentary and then given intellectual sainthood. Templates which were meant to draw the focus onto principled and substantative discussion are now placed at the head of the table. Klatonia, a dear friend and colleague, is right that we train for compilance. And that is the most silly thing about it all. There is a lot of energy poured into inducting newcomers to The One True Way. When you look at The One True Way you will almost always find that it is often one person just going "perhaps we should try this way for our region at this time". Because our induction is without context or qualification we elevate what is quite simple into something mystically arcane. This is not to say we should not have some technical induction but we ought to be far more critical of it than we are now. It is with great sadness however, that we are not. We are not as critical because as Klatonia has pointed out we lack leaders who have a well developed sense of criticality in an NS context. Our leaders are less critical, less organisationally competent and less inspiring than ever. How can we make them more critical, more organisationally competent and inspiring? Klatonia is right that we should be giving more leadership experiences but I do not think he goes quite far enough in setting the full vision. Leadership exists within a framework both lived-in and theoretical. How you lead change depends on your actual circumstances and your theory-of-action (your beliefs and prejudicies about how humans are). We should acknowledge both. We acknowledge both by devolving the realisation of theory-of-action into the institutions. How to lead change in the CA is qualitatively different to how to lead change in the Judiciary but they may use the same assumptions from the same theory-of-action. Theories-of-action are general and they should be clearly expressed from time to time in a central repository. This central repository should be the University. I know I have put it on the backburn for a while now (because of a last minute move of RL job) but I think we're overdue the University playing a slightly bigger role. We already have seminal articles on power and influence in NationStates and we should add to that the brilliant frameworks of Kuramia (her dashboard strategy for leading change in the Ministry of Communications) and Lethen (in his stint as Culture minister a while back). There is so much to leadership in an online volunteer setting that we can explore --- we have had near a decade of experience. Along with the ancient regions of NS we are in the best position to, in a carefully studied way, induct people not into mere technical compliance, but into a way of thinking that is critical, organised and inspiring. |
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| Klatonia | Jul 29 2016, 01:20 PM Post #8 |
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F*ck off D'Lo
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1) Bravo. Yes. This. 2) Did you just go full Parsons on me? Cuz that kinda turned me on. |
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| hyanygo | Jul 29 2016, 01:26 PM Post #9 |
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The discussions that we are having now that you have come back are timely since I have just moved into a leadership role in curriculum design inside my school. A lot of what we have spoken about, are speaking about and will speak about is professionally relevant to me. 2) Maybe (if I knew which Parsons you were talking about) Edited by hyanygo, Jul 29 2016, 01:27 PM.
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| Klatonia | Jul 29 2016, 01:32 PM Post #10 |
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F*ck off D'Lo
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This crackhead motherf***er : Parsons' Second Gospel. A Relatively Acceptable Overview of Action Theory If you're veering into Bourdieu territory, I'm afraid we can't talk anymore. |
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| hyanygo | Jul 29 2016, 01:50 PM Post #11 |
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Ah, social theory is definitely something that I am not inducted to so I did not realise that I was talking about something which already had its own specalised discourse. I am teacher who is mainly interested in curriculum and assessment. I am heading into central London now to the Institute of Education, got a good reading list?
Edited by hyanygo, Jul 29 2016, 01:51 PM.
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| Klatonia | Jul 29 2016, 02:01 PM Post #12 |
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F*ck off D'Lo
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... are you sure you want this? |
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| hyanygo | Jul 29 2016, 02:21 PM Post #13 |
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Yes. Summer is my most productive time (I am away from the kids). |
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| Trinnien | Jul 29 2016, 11:07 PM Post #14 |
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Fluffy
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I'm glad you've posted this analysis! And bumping because it should definitely be seen/read by a greater audience. I'll comment more fully when I'm home later tonight. |
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| Lethen | Jul 30 2016, 03:03 AM Post #15 |
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Remember when I was famous? Neither do I.
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This is a brilliant and fascinating conversation above me. At least the parts of it that I feel I understand. Also Hy I think you greatly overrate my approach for Culture in 2011. It was considered wonderful at the time, but I think that was more because Culture as a Ministry had been so inconsistently (and sometimes poorly) managed up to that point and less because I had somehow found the perfect approach to leadership. |
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me, basically (click) A letter to a friend By the Prophetical Blessing of Nethel, Supreme Chancellor of the Republic of Europeia and the states within, Destined Overseer of His rightful yet forgotten realms of Estalcia and Old Europe and Crystal Falls, Defender of the Faith and New Jersey, and Heir to the concept of Sarcasm | |
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It's a crude caricature, but you get my point.

2016 EurOlympics Foreign Affairs Gold Medalist

