Union Executive Council
| Current: Cabinet of Maxim K. Tyroll and Véranil Kontic | |
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| Cabinet overview | |
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| Type | Advisory body |
| Headquarters | Council Room, The Citadel, Saint Vera, D.F. |
| Employees | 18 members:
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| Cabinet executives |
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| Key document |
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The Chancellor appoints what secretaries and officers whom advise him on foreign and constitutional policy, as well as organizing these respective departments. The First Secretary, who is chosen by the Chancellor from the party or coalition in power within the Assembly of the People, appoints their own secretaries or commissioners for the purpose of the domestic running of the state. Together the cabinets of both the Chancellor and First Secretary form the Executive Council of the Florencian Republics.
Executive ministries are typically organized as either departments or commissions. Departments are the primary arm of federal bureaucracy and are focused on specific areas, whereas commissions are less numerous and deal with several aspects of governance. For instance the Department of Agriculture establishes farming guidelines and works with farming cooperatives to ensure the Republics can be feed. While the State Planning Commission is responsible for the establishing the three year plans along with the management and regulation of the greater economy within the Florencian Republics.
Most federal departments work with or through the similarly managed and organized constituent republican governments' departments to implement policy and run the state. Due to the nature of federalism, several Executive Council departments act officially in an advisory and overseeing role to establish guidelines for the republics to meet.
Cabinet of the Chancellor
- Department of Foreign Affairs
Union ministry primarily concerned with advising the Chancellor and leading the country in foreign policy issues. Representing the Florencian Republics on the world stage and negotiating treaties and agreements with foreign and allied polities.
- Department of War
The majority of the Union military establishment is organized under this department. It is tasked with coordinating and supervising all aspects of the Union and constituent republican governments with regards to the defense of the Motherland. The civilian head of this department is the Secretary of War, who is the chief adviser to the Executive Council on matters of national security. The Secretary of War is not the official head of the Department of War, which is officially administered by the National Defense Committee, which includes several other cabinet members in addition to directors and representatives outside of the Executive Council. The operational authority of the Department of War is granted to the Stavka, the chairman of the Stavka being the most senior ranking officer within the Union Defense Forces.
- Department of Justice
The Department of Justice is tasked (somewhat) with the enforcement of Union law and principally the administration of justice in the criminal and civil system. Firstly the department represents the federal state in legal matters (Union Attorneys) and secondarily is tasked with several miscellaneous matter justice matters not covered by the Commission for Security and Order. Those being the All-Union Corrections Agency, the federal penitentiary system meant to rehabilitate criminals who have committed crimes not against the people, the enforcement of prohibited items or substances though the Contraband Enforcement Agency, and enforcing the will of the courts through the Union Marshals Service. The department is headed by the Attorney-General.
Lastly, perhaps almost as equally important as the legal representation and services the Department provides, is the General Directorate of Investigation. The GDI is divided among specific offices for the administration of union law, inter-republican crime investigation, combating counterrevolutionary elements, domestic espionage, counter-terrorism, and counterintelligence. A number of civil servants, suit wearing agents, and special purpose units fall under the GDI to fulfill its obligations to national security. The General Directorate for Investigation is nominally the "secret police" of Florencia and the principle arm of domestic intelligence gathering within the government.
Cabinet of the First Secretary
- Department of Labor
The Department of Labor was separated from the Department of the Commonwealth in 1943 and is responsible for ensuring worker's safety, benefits, and public control of the means of production across the Florencian Republics. The department is responsible for seeing that small scale capitalist businesses, cooperatives, and state owned industries adhere to the Labor Relations Act of 1924. This act exists as the apparatus from which the state upholds the principle of workers' control. To ensure the equity of the Florencian people and prevent the growth of a new reactionary class, the act encourages the growth and power of the trade unions. The Labor Department actively meets with workers' unions to ensure fair wages, reasonable work hours, and prevent workplace hazards. The system of collective bargaining and workplace democracy to ensure the democratic ownership of production is thus enshrined in the Labor Act. In return the trade unions are required to seek out suitable work for its members.
- Department of Finance
Executive cabinet office responsible for advising fiscal policy, managing national finances, and collecting the social dividend—that being the tax payed out from the surplus value of economic enterprises. It's a flexible system allowing for rates to be set progressively and allows for deductions or credit applied to what industries may have less of an economic margin. The bulk of Union revenue comes from the social dividend.
- Department of the Interior
The Department of the Interior is unique to the Florencian Republics. It deals with the conservation and management of public land, natural resources, wildlife, as well as tribal affairs. In tandem with constituent republican agencies the Interior Department grants land, mineral, forestry and fishing rights to the people. The All-Union National Parks system is also run by the Department of the Interior, which maintains and conserves the natural beauty of Florencia's flora and fauna for all persons to enjoy.
- Department of Communication
Department level position within the cabinet responsible for providing quality postal, telephone, and internet service at a good price to all Florencian citizens throughout the whole of the Republics. Such services are provided by the nationalized corporations that are the Union Postal and Package Service (UPPS) and Union Telegraph and Telephone (UTT), which also provides internet connectivity to the masses.
- Department of Agriculture
Responsible for creating and executing federal laws and guidelines in regards to farming, agriculture, forestry, and food. The Department of Agriculture works with farmer cooperatives and private ranchers to promote livestock and agricultural trade. It also works with foodstuff cooperatives and private businesses to ensure safety guidelines are met, and that the Union may be properly and suitably fed.
- Department of Light Industry
The Department of Light Industry largely fulfills the roles not covered by the Labor, Agricultural, and several other departments or commissions. It establishes guidelines and supervises the cooperative sector of the socialist market economy that isn't the heavy industry governed by state enterprises. It also oversees trans-republican trade in addition to several miscellaneous duties like the Patent Bureau.
- Department of Housing and Rural-Urban Development
This executive agency is responsible for community planning and development. In this way it partners with trade unions and construction cooperatives or firms to provision affordable public housing. It also establishes guidelines and regulations for the housing market to follow. Most importantly ensuring an owner or renter is not subservient to the whims of their lender or landlord.
- Department of Transportation
Concerned with the development and management of the national transportation system, as well as ensuring it's efficiency for public usage and the national defense. This includes the nationalized rail and air industry as well as the management of the privatized urban public bus and trolley system. Also establishes safe guidelines and encourages safe motor habits.
- Department of Energy
The responsibilities of this commission include the energy-related research, energy conversation, the safe disposal of hazardous nuclear material, the maintenance and construction of nuclear reactors, and the supervision and regulation of the nationalized major wind, solar, coal, oil, and natural gas state enterprises.
- Commission for the Commonwealth
This department, CommComm ties together all the agencies concerned with health, education, and social services in order to ensure the promotion of the health, safety and standard of living among the Florencian people. This agency runs the All-Union Universal Health Program, the social security net, and sets guidelines for constituent republican run public schools that provide primary, secondary, and tertiary education. The Commission also works with republican and local councils to create and expand public recreational facilitates such as pools or city parks, as well as sports and other extraneous clubs or youth organizations.
- State Commission for the Administration of the People's Economy
This executive department, often referred to as CommAdd, was originally formed as the Department of Manufacturing following the success of the revolution. It oversaw the transformation from private firms to public cooperatives. The 1970's reforms saw about the creation of the State Commission for the Administration of the People's Economy into it's present shape. It oversees and supervises the various public owned enterprises that encompass the commanding heights of the economy. These are mostly autonomous in operation from the state, but still regulated by the Commission or Labor Department to ensure the triumph of workers' democracy. Most importantly the commission approves mergers between firms and sales of stock in order to benefit the Florencian people.
To prevent a a perceived return of rampant capitalism, conglomerates and monopolies are typically shunned, but as are a plethora of petty producers. It is the goal of CommAdd to ensure the major public manufacturing enterprises are efficient, reduce waste, and benefit their workers and the Florencian Republics.
- State Planning Commission
The State Planning Commission, or StatePlan, is responsible for coordinating a rational economic policy for the Florencian Republics. It establishes a system of five year plans, which are macroeconomic roadmaps for economic spending, infrastructure development, and industrial productivity. StatePlan is heavily decentralized and works with Regional Economic Councils to ensure greater productivity. In this way the State Planning Commission is virtually intertwined with all matters of union governance and industry. It leads a small army of statisticians, accountants, and economists to provide data and calculations to further the growth and efficiency of the economy.
- Commission for Security and Order
The Commission for Security and order, CommSec is responsible to be the first line of defense for the Florencian Republics. CommSec's origins lie in the Special Extraordinary Commission for the Revolution that prosecuted the Scarlet Terror following the creation of the UFR. It's divided among several different paramilitary components. The most important being the Security Troops, perhaps better known as the Osnaz.
CommSec Security Troops are the internal paramilitary of the UFR and exercise the duties of armed response to counter-terrorism, counterrevolutionary elements, and riot suppression. Essentially they are the main instrument of upholding internal security and order. Every constituent republic would have its own Osnaz group(s) subordinate to the CommSec. There is limited controversy within the Union and abroad that the Security Troops on occasion act with the extrajudicial extremes that categorized the Scarlet Terror. CommSec continually rebukes these claims.
The The Separate Operational Purpose Division is a rapid response internal security, motorized rifle division of the Security Troops. The division includes an organic special operational purpose center, three motorized maneuver regiments, and a substantial support train. The entire division employs over 14,000 well indoctrinated soldiers, hundreds of light armored vehicles, divisional artillery (mortar and anti-air), and brutally efficient special purpose troops.
The CommSec Frontier Guards are the militarized border troops responsible for the defense of the national border. This includes apprehending/preventing illegal immigrants, combating smuggling, and repulsing armed incursions. The Frontier Guards man all crossings or checkpoints into the Florencian Republics and monitor the border with armed patrols.
And then lastly is the Main Administration For Settlements.
Independent Agencies
- All-Union Central Bank
The All-Union Central Bank controls monetary policy and regulates financial institutions within the Florencian Republics. It works with it's constituent republican branches and those operated by counties or major metro-poles to issue loans and provide services. Subordinate agencies of the Central Bank are additionally tasked with the minting and printing of currency, and protecting the Union gold reserves. The currency issued by the All-Union Central Bank, the Ruble, is a fiat currency backed by the full faith and standard of the UFR.
- National Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Union Space and Aeronautics Agency