Järvalaimaa

The Parliamentary Republic of Järvalaimaa Järvalaimaa
Flag
Recognised national languages	Finnish, Cherokee, Muscogee
Demonym(s)	Järvalian
Government	Parliamentary Republic
• President	Aukusti Vennamo
• Prime Minister	Alarik Harjula
• Speaker of Parliament	Taija Häkkinen
Population
• 2013 census	23.7 million
GDP (PPP)	2015 estimate
• Total	£743.54 billion
• Per capita	£31,373
Currency	Järval Punta (£)
Time zone	UTC+3 (SMT )
Date format	mm/dd/year; CE(AD)
Driving side	left

Järvalaimaa, was officially made free in 1914 from Hallia,

Geography

Administrative Divisions

Järvalaimaa is divided into 14 estates, which serve as

Government and Politics

Structure

The government of Järvalaimaa is confusingly styled both as a parliamentary democracy while also fusing elements of a presidential republic into the system. The college of electors will select the President after being elected from their own estates. The Parliament works like typical parliaments, with members being elected and then attempting to form a majority coalition who selects the Prime Minister, who then remains under scrutiny of the President.

Elections

After massive abuses of power by previous prime ministers, in 1947 the estates were assigned a certain number of electors they could allot to the college of electors, who would then choose the President. For the Presidential elections, the different candidates must win electors from the different estates, up to #, needing just over half (#) to win outright. If nobody wins in the first round, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and their electors are then freed to choose another candidate to support. The system is widely criticized for allowing Presidents to be elected with less than 30% of the popular vote, and also for the inconsistency in the ways that estates divide up their delegates, with some opting for proportional representation, and other option for winner takes all. Further, there are usually widespread allegations of corruption after the electors of a defeated candidate switch.

For Parliamentary elections, there are 300 individual districts, with approximately 79,000 residents in each, where parliamentarians are elected by single member district plurality. However, for the other 200 seats, parliamentarians are selected through open list proportional representation, which allows party elites to keep seats and smaller national parties to win a few seats. For each parliamentary election, the ballot will contain candidates for the resident's district and the party they wish to vote for. Both must be filled out for the ballot to count, though "None of the Above" is kept as an option on both questions.

Legislature

The 500 seat Parliament is home to several larger parties with a swath of smaller, regional parties that will combine forces and coalition build for the majority. Currently, the majority coalition is made up of x, y, and zed large parties, with the x y and zed regional parties involved as well. There is a 54-46 ratio of males to females, and many speculate that with further elections there may be a majority female parliament.

Executive

The Executive branch is technically headed by the President, who acts as head of state, but as the head of government, the Prime Minister does most work in the executive branch. The President simply oversees the Prime Minister and is granted veto power for a bill, which can be overridden by a simple passage of the bill once more. In modern times, Presidents have sent back an edited version of the bill, though more often than not the edits are simply ignored.

The Prime Minister heads the government, meaning that they are also in charge of the bureaucracy. They will appoint several different cabinet members from among their peers in parliament to assist them with policy and with using the agencies. Ministers, who are also cabinet members, will head a specific government department and work with the Prime Minister to set policy for it. Commissioners will simply advise on policy for a specific department, but cannot set policy or interfere with it, as these departments are intended to fulfill regulatory or inspectionary functions, which undue political interference would be inappropriate.

Cabinet posts and departments

The different ministerial departments include:

Minister of Foreign Affairs

Minister of Internal Affairs

Minister of Justice

Minister of Defense

Minister of Finance (treasury)

Minister of Education and Culture

Minister of Agriculture and Forestry

Minister of Transportation and Communication

Minister of Economic Affairs

Minister of Health and Social Affairs

Minister of the Environment

Minister of Estates

Minister of Trade

Minister of Development

Minister of the Cabinet office

Non-ministerial Departments

Antitrust Authority

Food Standards Agency

Land Registry

Revenue and Customs

Federal Reserve of Järvalaimaa

The Supreme Court

National Archives

Järvalaimaa Statistics Authority

Office of Budget Management

Estate Politics

Each of the 14 estates is run by a commission, in which 11 elected commissioners assist national executive agencies in executing the law within their estate, and also run local services, despite those services being funded and created at a national level. The commissioners are elected through ranked choice ballot, and elected once every 3 years on the first Tuesday of June. Most people don't care about the commissioner elections, seeing as they have little to no direct consequence on their quality of life, so turnout for these elections averages 13%. Once elected, the commissioners will select a head commissioner, whose only additional duties are to chair meetings. Commissioner elections are largely ignored by national parties, and are mainly seen as an easy path to a Parliamentary seat.

Education

Educational policy is set by the Minister of Education and Culture,

Military

The minuscule military of Järvalaimaa suffers from chronic under funding and a lack of strong military leadership.

See also

• Septentrion