Governance of the Confederation

[Marco Pittori]

We are months into our re-establishment as our own independent state; however it seems there has been one thing that is still missing in our establishment - the means of a formal government.

I don't know about anyone else, but given the separation of our territories, I think that it may be best for each city to act independently and conduct its own laws, corresponding with Romero when it comes to Confederation matters. We do not have sufficient land or control over the region to conduct a formal parliament, but for now it may be worth separating city matters and nationwide matters, with certain permissions being granted to our city/provinces.

[V.V. Fabbri]

This set-up would be amicable on my terms. A central government would only work to its best with a contiguous territory. Perhaps a situation akin to the United States' states - with a large amount of autonomy in regards to laws and such - would work adequately with the city-states of Tellia?

[Marco Pittori]

If this is the case, we will definitely need to consider the extent of the autonomy of each province/city exercises, as well as what is determined to be a national interest, rather than a provincial interest. For example, defence is most definitely the concern on a national level, so the ultimate power will remain in Romero.

[Giuseppe Fossone]

How would economic matters be handled then? Would regions have the power to set their own budget?

[Giuseppe Fossone]

I think the quickest way to make some progress would be to decide which of these things will be governed nationally, and which will be governed regionally:

Economy
Trade and Commerce
Foreign Affairs
Defence and Security (nationally)
Education
Policing
Healthcare
Transport
Culture
Sports and Leisure

[Marco Pittori]

Here is my proposal:

Trade and Commerce, Foreign Affairs, Defence and Security, Sports and Leisure will all be national subjects, whilst Culture, Policing and Transport will be the regional subjects.

The others will have slightly different rules:

Healthcare will predominantly be a national interest; however it is up to regions whether they want to endorse a public regional healthcare system. Despite the demise of the Republic, we still do have a number of skilled Ashkenatzim medical facilities here, and we should do all we can to appease them and encourage them to open up private healthcare clinics to citizens within their regions.

Higher Education will be a national interest, but regions will have the power to conduct their own education system for school levels below higher education. This is to accommodate the cultural differences across each Tellian region.

With regards to the economy, it will predominantly be a national interest; however the Assembly will assign budgets to each region, of which they are responsible for maintaining their funds to develop their own economy. I believe cities such as Scoglitto, where we hope to see a renaissance of the automotive industry, will need less funding due to its ability to generate an economy through the private sectors.

Regarding defence and security, we have the issue that most of our fleet is now overpopulating the Rossavro naval port and our bases within each city. There are more equipment than manpower and each of our military facilities is running over capacity. These vehicles and equipment will need rebranding with the Tellian flag, and we need to either dispose or sell some equipment to return to a desired state.

I now open the idea to questions, or any alternative suggestions. The faster we can progress with these, the faster we can move to drafting our constitution. The sooner the constitution is formed, the less anarchic the nation will seem and we can make significant progress of stabilising and developing our nation.

[Giuseppe Fossone]

Would the central government provide the funding for higher education, or would that be left to the regions. Also, how would we ensure that students moved into university having the same level of education as everyone else?

On the economy, would regions be allowed to raise their own funds by setting local taxes?

What will happen to the military personnel that will be made redundant?

And finally, do we need an actual codified constitution? I think it would be hard to come up with something that will sufficiently accommodate all of the different cultures we have in Tellia.

[Marco Pittori]

To answer your questions: I guess each higher education institution will be given funding from the central government; however the regions are entitled to add additional funds to their higher education institutions if they wish to invest in this area.

The tax question is a very good question. I am for the idea of separate local taxes, purely on the basis that we cannot expect the level of income and welfare from each region to be identical. Romero is a much more expensive city to live in comparison to the rest of Tellia, and it would be unfair to tax another city the same amount as Romero when they are generally considered a poorer region of the state.

With regards to military personnel, I have another idea. Instead of making members redundant, we can create several new units, specifically founded to aid the expansion of our territories. Once we can seize territory, we can station them elsewhere. The other alternative is to send them on retraining qualifications in order for them to specialise within other industries.

A codified constitution is definitely in the best of interests of the longevity of the Confederation. With Tellia experiencing turmoil throughout its history, its people deserves a stable state that can be trusted and a formalised constitution would be aid this to bring stability to the region.

[Giuseppe Fossone]

I think we should wait until we gain a contiguous territory before codifying a constitution.

[Marco Pittori]

If we go with your suggestion, how will we ensure that our regime can be trusted by the Tellian population?

[Giuseppe Fossone]

We have an uncodified constitution until then, with all provisions enshrined in Law.