- Pronouns
- he / him / his
Written by HEM Tiberius
The Europeian Senate was once a shining institution of the Republic. Many -- if not all -- of Europeia's most historic figures passed through her halls, and citizen-legislator debated matters of great regional importance.
Nowadays, you'd be more likely to find a tumbleweed in the Senate than a grand debate.
Taking inventory of Senate accomplishments this term isn't hard, especially considering there are only four active threads in the Senate forum. The first -- most recent -- thread is a bill discussing the judicial branch (which may end up being unconstitutional), the second is a tabled criminal code amendment, the third is a bill from the Citizen's Assembly (which failed to pass), and the fourth is -- wait for it -- Speaker nominations.
While there has been not insignificant discussions behind closed doors (i.e. Senate Preliminary Discussions forum), there is no doubt that this current Senate hasn't had much to do. The question is whether this fault lay with the current Senators, or the system as a whole.
Many people have attributed Senate inactivity to the near perfection level status of our legal system here in Europeia -- and those people would have a point. However, the Citizens' Assembly -- which has no amount of power even comparable to the Senate -- still has managed to keep all topics on the first page within the last two weeks. The Senate couldn't even fill up a first page with topics.
There's also the matter of electorate expectations. Most current Senators got elected on a platform of "I don't really have any plans" and the people were okay with that. Those Senators that did offer any sort of agenda, suggested that there may be a need for laws regarding Anumia's Great Architecture Project -- but no legislation so far have surfaced. Who cares? Nobody really.
Voters tend to vote for candidates with the greatest name recognition, abandoning candidates who are new or somewhat controversial. Many Senators are only representing Europeians in the Senate part-time -- their day job being in Cabinet. The Senate used to serve as a stepping stone for new members, but new members would be more likely to find a Cabinet post through the junior ministries rather than an election to the legislature. As it sits, The Senate currently is as a democratically elected Old Boys Club -- highly regarded, holding enormous power, but not bothering to find anything to do.
Efforts to reform the Senate have died on their face. The highly anticipated Europeian Reform Coalition has died, efforts to revive it have been unsuccessful. Europeians never truly had the stomach for reform, perceiving any change to be more work than what it was worth. Marginal changes have been suggested, but nobody really cares enough to follow through with any of them: especially not the Senate itself.
Without the need to act, or the will to reform, what is the point of the Europeian Senate as it stands?
The storied institution has been reduced to an accountability board that Europeians trust to approve Presidential appointments and make sure the executive does anything too crazy (i.e. retain the VoNC). Carefully note, that neither of these functions are legislative.
The time to retire the Senate may be before us. Practicality may suggest that we should extend terms to six months, elect a board of "trustees" to keep the executive in check, and allow the Cabinet to run the region without a legislative branch. Any needed legal changes -- as few that exist -- could be easily put into place via Executive Order, which the Board of Trustees could veto if need be.
There is another option: that we drudge the discussion of Senate reform up once again. That we create an institution that -- like the Citizens' Assembly -- has purposes outside the legislative. I wish we could do that. I would be excited and thrilled for that discussion. However, my heart of hearts tells me that Europeia isn't really that keen on change, and that making this the final term of the Senate may be the only reformative course left to try.
We haven't really had much movement on that as of late, and we've got more than a few other pieces of pre-legislation on our plate right now in the CA.