- Pronouns
- he / him / his
"Nobody Is Qualified For Anything"HEM Tiberius
Managing Editor
In the summer of 2007, Europeia was having some trouble staffing the government.
Speaker Verteger and Vice President PRA had both recently left the region. Verteger became busy in real life, while PRA grew impatient at Europeia's resistance toward his proposals for a direct democracy.
Serving as our first President, I had to find a Vice President. Most members were already double booked between the Cabinet and the Senate, and there was no obvious successor. So, when a new member by the name of NasalivesII joined the forum and started hanging out in Europeian MSN Messenger chats, we suddenly had a nominee.
Welcome to "Getting Into Europeian Government Circa 2007."
Things have changed a lot since then, and mostly for the good. It's a very good thing indeed that we are no longer picking our Vice Presidents randomly out of a crop of names. However, what does the path of getting into government look like these days?
The easiest path to getting into government is being an old member. The path is easier still if you are a recently returned old member. The region loves returning old hands to positions of prominence. At the conclusion of the last Senate election, 50% of the body was made up of recently returned old members. As of today, all of those members have since resigned or are being removed by public referendum.
A generous interpretation of the "new member" category might suggest that two of the Senators were new—Senator Punchwood and Senator Leo Mountbatten. While perhaps not star-spangled perfect Senators, both are set to conclude their terms looking relatively good compared to the rest of the body.
For new members, the path into government is fairly treacherous. And typically, you are either fast-tracked into government by older patrons, or sidelined—maybe permanently.
Part of this is politics, but another part of it is an insane bout of "experience inflation" that Europeia has endured for the past few years. Essentially, Europeia has come to expect increasingly unrealistic amounts of experience from their governing officials.
Some of this might have to do with the age of the region. Because the community has lasted over a decade, there is an accumulation of members who have been here for years and will always seem to be more qualified than newer alternatives.
Another part of the experience inflation problem might actually be training programs. Designed to help newcomers become more prepared for offices, these well-intentioned institutions might actually be encumbering new members from taking higher level positions. The easiest shortcut for people to decide if someone is qualified has been asking themselves if the relevant training program has been completed. Veteran Senator Aexnidaral Seymour was skewered by many for being nominated to a judicial position without going through the law clerk program. This might be prolonging the distance between joining the region and being able to participate in the (arguably more fun) upper level positions.
Deputy Minister Le Libertia has been questioned by many for being nominated to a Cabinet-level position with "only" a month and a half of experience. For new members, or members seeking to try new areas of government out, the bar to be able to participate is intimidatingly high.
Earlier this term, new members Coherbia was nominated for a Cabinet position and questioned intensely by the Senate. During his confirmation hearing, he made a very interesting point:
A common theme I've noticed in the region recently, that was mentioned during the EBC Discussion of Cabinet Nominations, is that there are a core of qualified older players who for one reason or another, cannot take up their old niches or positions. This presents a problem and an obvious skills gap, you have your core disappearing with a small population of people who could replace them.
But maybe it isn't necessarily a "skills gap" maybe it is just an experience gap? And maybe our expectations on how much experience someone has are just unrealistic?
Whether by a product of the region's age, or the region's numerous (maybe too many? maybe not good enough?) training programs, the amount of experience expected for any given position keeps going up, and up. An ENN survey from March suggested that 50% of members who were interested in the Senate, but hadn't ever run, felt like they didn't have enough experience.
Many older members in the region—myself included—have bemoaned how many new members seem more interested in social activities than being in government. But recent events should lead us to ask, can they even get in government? And is a system where players of a game have to wait 4, 5, 6 months before they can enter government ultimately sustainable?
Meanwhile, the same old faces rotate in and out of government with nothing except a, "You'll be active this time, right?" while newer members sit on the sidelines, wearily waiting for a turn that might not come.