? A Former User
26 Apr 2020, 00:21

Councillor Becker stood to speak.

"My colleagues, in recent times, there has been a worrying trend toward authoritarianism. As such, I propose the following.

PREAMBLE:

With the recent revolutions and coups throughout the European Union, there has been a distressing trend toward authoritarianism. However, the European Council is thoroughly unequipped to adequately deal with such a thing, as it does not have the capacity to compile information on nations as to have a full understanding of nations in which there has been a radical political change and to ensure that those nations which are democratic can prevent slides toward authoritarianism.

As such, in the interests of protecting free political expression everywhere, this act proposes the following:

Section 1: The Commission on Political Freedom

  1. A Commission on Political Freedom shall be established.

  2. It shall be headquartered in the Free City of Europolis.

  3. said Commission shall be comprised of five members, elected by the European Council on a yearly basis.

  4. This Commission shall have the responsibility of rating political freedom in the constituent states of the Union.

Section 2: The Workings of the Commission.

  1. Member states of the European Union must submit, on a yearly basis and when deemed necessary by the Commission or the European Council, a report on their respective political situations, in the following format:

Parties represented in legislative branch:
Number of seats held by each party:
Number of opposition parties:
Number of seats held by opposition parties:

Electoral system:

Number of polling places per square km:
Turnout last election (percentage):
Percentage of votes for all parties:

List all major media outlets, as well as their political biases:

  1. If a member state or the European Council as a whole has evidence of widespread electoral fraud, voter suppression, or undue influence on political or news organizations by others or by the government, it is obliged to report it to the Commission.

  2. The European Council or the member states may provide additional information or suggestions to the Commission.

  3. Using all information available to it, the Commission is to, on a yearly basis and when needed - a condition to be decided either by the European Council or the Commission itself - issue ratings based upon the following guidelines:

    Full democracy: There exist opposition parties well-represented in the legislature. Turnout exceeds 70%. Representation in the legislature corresponds to vote percentages, within 2 percent. Media outlets ae diverse in ideology. There exist no allegations of election fraud, voter suppression, or undue influence on politics by a power.

    Flawed democracy: Opposition parties are well-represented in the legislature. Turnout exceeds 60%. Representation in the legislature is within 5 percent of vote percentages. Media outlets are diverse in ideology but skew one way. There exist less than two major allegations of election fraud, voter suppression, or undue influence on politics by a power; however, none of these allegations come from the council as a whole.

    Anocracy: Opposition parties have little representation in the legislature. Turnout exceeds 40%. Representation in the legislature is within 20% of vote percentages. Although there exists a small diversity in ideology, media outlets are heavily skewed toward one. There are more than two but less than five allegations of election fraud, voter suppression, or undue influence on politics by a power; however, none of these allegations come from the Council as a whole.

    Autocracy: Opposition parties are not represented in the legislature. Turnout, if elections are still conducted, is consistently within 0.05 percent of 100. Representation is entirely of one party, or of several parties that are affiliated or influenced by one. There exists no diversity of ideology in the media. There are more than five allegations of election fraud, voter suppression, or undue influence on politics by a power, or an allegation from the Council as a whole.

5a. Not all of these attributes need to be in place for a regime to be classified as such, however. Because political conditions can change from year to year, it will be the Commission who will decide the extent to which each of the listed criteria will be considered, in addition to additional information provided through the ways previously described.

5b. The Commission must provide a detailed plan on how it is to weight the information it receives in making its future ratings to the European Council for approval on a yearly basis before it begins work on ratings.

Section 3: Accountability of the Commission

  1. Before ratings become official, they must be presented to the European Council. If any has an objection, they will too present it to the European Council for debate.
  2. If the European Council approves an objection, the Commission must again rate whatever has been objected to, using a new formula that must be submitted to the European Council for approval.
  3. At any time, the European Council may recall members from the Commission. It may also dissolve the Commission as a whole, thus calling new elections.
  4. Such an action will be accomplished through majority vote.
    If the Commission is dissolved while it is working on developing ratings, its responsibilities will not temporarily be passed to any other Union organ; rather, its work will remain in the state that it was in at the time of dissolution until elections take place and a new Commission can convene.

Helga Becker
Interim Councillor for the Confederation of Eastern Haane