Citizens Assembly
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Citizens Assembly of Deseret | |
|---|---|
| 1st Congress | |
| Type | |
| Type | |
| History | |
| Founded | June 6, 2022 |
| Preceded by | Deseret Congress |
New session started | June 6, 2022 |
| Leadership | |
President of the Assembly | |
Speaker of the Assembly | |
| Structure | |
| Seats | 419 |
Political groups | United Socialists of Deseret (226) |
Length of term | 1 year |
| Elections | |
| Ranked Voting | |
Last election | 23 May 2022 |
Next election | 22 May 2023 |
The Citizens Assembly of Deseret, often shortened to the Assembly, is the unicameral legislature of the federal government of Deseret. The Assembly was created after the reorganizing of the legislative branch in 2022, during which Congress was consolidated into a single chamber with more explicit powers with the goal of creating a more unified, streamlined, and representative government.
The Assembly is unique in that the voters themselves officially introduce and vote on legislation, with the Assembly itself taking care of specific issues outlined in the Constitution and as directed by the President. The Assembly is led by the Speaker of the Citizens Assembly and is composed of multiple political parties.
History
The first idea for a unicameral legislature dates back to the drafting of the Constitution, where a single body similar to the United States House of Representatives was proposed. Unicameralism was thought to be to prone to corruption and abuse of power, and so was never implemented. Despite this, support for a single, more powerful legislative house to more efficiently and effectively vote on legislation and respond to immediate issues continued to hold is small portions of society. The support for a unicameral branch was strong among historically disinfranchised groups, who viewed a single house as being more open and quicker to react than two separate chambers, and rose steadily in the wake of heated debates on slavery and the American Civil War.
In 1860 Frederick Cook, a representative, introduced an amendment to combine Congress into a single legislative body with the goal of weakening the power of pro-slavery American immigrants in the Senate and responding quicker and more decisively to the pressing issues of slavery, American, Mexican, and British aggression, continued population growth, and national cohesion. Critics were quick to publicly shun the amendment, calling it un-democratic, un-republican, un-Christian, and both pro-slavery (by anti-slavery activists) and anti-slavery (by pro-slavery activists). The amendment was never voted on as the more pressing matters of the American Civil War and Mexico's aggressive military actions, but was reintroduced in 1873, 1900, 1915, 1930, and 1946.
A national movement to intoduce a unicameral legislature came about in 1983 after the Senate blocked a House-passed bill that would have recognized same-sex couples as domestic partners. The bill was blocked by Senators from Bountiful, Ephraim, Mojave, and Utah, all low-population states which were seen as being over-represented in the Senate. The support for a unicameral legislature came from the ideas that the Senate under-represented larger states and over-represented smaller states, that Congress was prone to partisan gridlock, and that it's powers were too separated, as both houses were seen as being different and distinct rather than similar and unifying. The most popular idea of unicameralism in the 80s and 90s was a chamber much like the House of Representatives; however, critics of the House claimed that, since representatives were apportioned among the states by population and geographic areas, a House-like legislature would continue to have districts of unequal size, would continue to encourage regional divides instead of national cohesion, would separate similar people along state lines and lump disimilar people together into districts, and would increase gerrymandering. Public opinion was swayed by prominant congresspeople and politicians in favor of a proportional system, although many critics attacked the idea of a party-based system as opposed to a "person-based" system.
The idea for the currently-implemented Assembly came about in 2014, where it was championed as being the "people's chamber" and was aimed to reduce costs, political gridlock, the dominance of two or three larger parties, gerrymandering, and corruption. The idea for the assembly was authored by senior political analyst Kristinna Hsu and was endorsed by the Deseret Union Party, several smaller political parties, and by many in the Reform Party. Hsu's proposal placed most legislative power into the hands of the general populace, with the Assembly being mostly ceremonial and voting on issues of impeachment, war, taxes, the budget, and treaties. The name 'Citizens Assembly' was coined by Hsu in 2015.
Public support for the Assembly rose to around 60-70% during the 2020 presidential election, where Nicole Young, then Speaker of the House of Representatives, endorsed the idea. An amendment to implement the Assembly was submitted on 14 August 2020, with a deadline on 31 December 2021. The Deseret Union-Reform coalition held a 2/3 majority in Congress and passed the amendment on 2 September 2020. Three-fifths of states (eight) needed to ratify the amendment before the deadline for it to take effect, six states (Columbia, Arizona, New Israel, California, South Madison, and North Madison) ratified the amendment within two weeks after it passed Congress. Sonora ratified the amendment on 12 February 2021. Colorado became the eighth state to ratify the amendment on 7 April 2021. The amendment's ratification was verified and put on record on 9 April 2021. The following election on 23 May 2022 was the first using the new voting and Assembly system.