Meronnian Directory

The Meronnian Directory La Directoire Mèronais
Leadership
General Director	Cédric Figuier
Elections
Voting system	Reverse STV

The Meronnian Directory (Mèronais: Directoire Mèronais) is an executive council of the Federal Republic of Meronnia which formerly served as the collective Head of State between 1774 and 1922, and has since existed in a reduced state as an organ for oversight of the Meronnian federal government. Members of the Directory are referred to as directors.

The Directory, uniquely, has variable size. Starting from nine members, annually one member - the chairing member referred to as the General Director - is ejected from the Directory, and after three years an election process adds three new members, meaning depending on the year the Directory has anywhere between six and nine members.

History

The Directory was established to be the collective head of state of the government formed by the Communard (or black) faction of the Second Revolution. During the 1774 Congress of Communes, the Directory replaced the prior Committee of General Defense which was largely answerable to the Senone Commune Council, and the initial nine members where elected from the representatives of that Congress. This was part of the enshrining of the new Federal Constitution which also established the existence of a permanent Chamber of Senators to serve as a legislative chamber.

In 1799 the Directory passed an Institutional Act to establish the Chamber of Deputies as a lower house of the legislature and following the Great Continental War in 1822 this chamber was significantly empowered, with its consent necessary to declare war, and with the establishment of the role of First Deputy who served as the most senior government minister and would have responsibility for appointing State Secretary positions previously decided by the Directory directly.

The next century would see the gradual undermining of the Directory as a legitimate source of authority as more decision-making was made in the legislative branch and the Council of Government chaired by the First Deputy. The constitutional reforms spearheaded by First Deputy Pierre-Marie Jaubert in the early 1920s culminated in the establishment of the position of the Premier. While this change was initially blocked by the Directory, this was dropped following threats of an organization of a Congress of Communes to force through further constitutional changes. In 1922, the office of the Premier was established, assuming the role of Head of State and taking a number of the Directory's remaining responsibilities, particularly in the scope of foreign affairs.

The Directory was not abolished by the Constitutional reforms, instead remaining as a mostly ceremonial body with some emergency and oversight responsibilities, including the theoretical right to veto bills passed by the Chamber of Deputies, though this right has only been exercised very infrequently.

Membership

The Directory varies between nine and six members, which each have a vote on the decisions collectively made by the body. The Directory is chaired by the General Director, elected from within the body at the start of each year, who sets the procedure of the body and is counted as two votes for the sake of breaking ties. The General Director is ejected from the Directory after their year chairing the body. Because the position is elected and not rotational, some directors can serve on the body for very long times by avoiding being elected to the chair.

Despite common assumptions otherwise, the membership of the Directory is unlike the position of the Premier, in that there is no requirement that members of the Directory remain politically neutral and do not hold party affiliation. However, the body is not organized on partisan lines, and while general leanings are often clear it is traditional for directors to not confirm their membership in any specific party.