Council of State of Nouvelle Alexandrie
| Council of State of Nouvelle Alexandrie | |
 Seal of the Government of Nouvelle Alexandrie | |
| Polity | Federation of Nouvelle Alexandrie |
|---|---|
| Type | Collective head of government |
| Established | 1685 AN |
| Constituting instrument | Proclamation of Punta Santiago (Chapter V) |
| Members | 17 (the President of the Government, the Vice-President, and the Secretaries of the fifteen federal executive departments) |
| Chair | President of the Government ("Premier") |
| Current Premier | Marcos Ferreira Gonçalves (since 1760 AN) |
| Seat | Government House, Cárdenas |
| Responsible to | Federal Assembly |
| Opposition body | Shadow Council of State |
The Council of State of Nouvelle Alexandrie (Alexandrian: Consejo de Estado; Wechua: Qharikuna Nisqa) is the collective head of government of the Federation of Nouvelle Alexandrie. Established by Chapter V of the Proclamation of Punta Santiago in 1685 AN, it is a seventeen-member executive council composed of the President of the Government, the Vice-President of the Government, and the Secretaries who lead the fifteen federal executive departments.[1] The President of the Government, styled the Premier, chairs the Council as primus inter pares, first among equals.[2]
The Council forms one of the three parts of the federal executive, alongside the King and the executive agencies established by the Cortes Federales. It exercises executive power on behalf of and with the consent of the King, whom it advises on the exercise of the royal prerogative; the King's acts and decrees take effect only when countersigned by the Premier.[3] The Council is collectively responsible to the Federal Assembly, which approves its appointment and may dismiss it through a motion of no-confidence, while each Secretary leads their department independently.[4]
Appointment rests with the King, acting on the recommendation of the Premier, who is normally the leader of the party or coalition holding a majority in the Federal Assembly. The Council meets weekly at Government House in the federal capital, Cárdenas. The Opposition maintains a parallel Shadow Council of State. Since 1760 AN, the Council has been led by Premier Marcos Ferreira Gonçalves at the head of the Federal Accord coalition government.
History
The Council of State was created with the Federation in 1685 AN and has held executive power since. Its origins lie in the settlement between Alduria and the Wechua Nation, and its later shape was set by the constitutional revisions of the Federation's first years and the governments that have held office since.
Foundation
The Council emerged from the negotiations that created the Federation. Following the collapse of the Wechua Nation, talks on Aldurian and Wechua integration began in 1680 AN, and in 1685 AN the Committee for Aldu-Wechu Integration convened at Government House in Punta Santiago to draft a constitution over forty-eight days. The Alvarez-Campos Summit settled the central question of the new state's form in favor of a constitutional monarchy under a parliamentary system, led by the King of the Wechua Nation, Manco Cápac I. A Council of State, approved by the legislature, was created with the participation of Wechu representatives to hold the executive power that the settlement withdrew from the Crown, leaving the King's role largely ceremonial.[5] The Proclamation of Punta Santiago, ratified in 1685 AN, founded the Federation of Alduria and the Wechua Nation, established the office of Premier, and vested the ordinary business of government in the Council. Alejandro Campos served as the first Premier, appointed by King Manco Cápac in a transitional capacity.[6]
Development
The federal capital was fixed at Cárdenas in 1686 AN, and Government House became the official residence of the President of the Government and the meeting place of the Council.[7] Rather than replace the Proclamation, the Federal Constituent Assembly revised and reissued it, renewing the interim government in 1687 AN and ratifying a final version by popular vote in 1689 AN. The Cabildo de Cárdenas reformed the unicameral assembly into a bicameral Cortes and established a permanent legislature elected every five years; the state was afterward renamed the Federation of Nouvelle Alexandrie.[5]
The first elected government took office under Premier Augustus Strong after the general election of 1693 AN. The premiership passed to Gerhardt Eugen Seydlitz in 1698 AN and to Julio Delgado in 1703 AN, and in 1707 AN the government of Jose Miguel Martin became the only Council of State brought down by a motion of no-confidence, falling the following year. Later premierships included those of Felipe de Almagro, Paolo Antonio Aguilar, Marissa Santini, and Juan Pablo Jimenez.[8]
The premiership carries no fixed term. A movement to limit it to two terms, formalized as the Presidential Term Limits Constitutional Amendment, 1750, gained force after the 1757 Alexandrium market crash and the Recession of 1757, but the binding referendum of 1758 AN rejected the limit by 64.0 percent to 36.0 percent, leaving Premier Montero free to seek a third term at the following general election.[9]
Recent governments
Premier José Manuel Montero led the government from 1749 AN until 1760 AN, when a hung result in the general election of 1759 ended his tenure. The Federal Accord, a coalition of the Alliance for a Just Nouvelle Alexandrie, which unites the Democratic Socialist Party and the Wakara People's Party, together with the Civic Governance Alliance and the Federal Consensus Party, formed a government holding 448 seats.[10] Marcos Ferreira Gonçalves took office as Premier on 15.I.1760 AN, after the Federal Assembly of the enlarged 14th Cortes Federales sustained the new Council by 461 votes to 293.[11][12]
When Montero could not assemble a majority after the election, the King commissioned Ferreira Gonçalves as formateur. Under Standing Order 8 of the Standing Orders of the Federal Assembly, the Assembly elected the President of the Government and approved his Council of State, and the Motion of Address by which the government took office carried the question of confidence in a single vote. Montero remained caretaker Premier, barred from significant policy under the Government Formation and Coalition Act, 1694, until the Address was carried and the King confirmed the appointment.[11][12]
The incoming Council inherited a frozen final tranche of NAX€200 billion, the undrawn balance of the NAX€750 billion recovery package authorized by the Economic Emergency and Recovery Act, 1758, which the Act's debt brake had withheld once public debt passed 65 percent of GDP. Its opening program placed five bills before the 14th Cortes, led by the General Appropriations and Taxation Act, 1760. That Act, which received Royal Assent on 22.IV.1760 AN, repealed the debt brake but left the tranche frozen, to be released only by a separate act of the Cortes.[12]
Constitutional basis and status
The Council of State is constituted directly by the Proclamation of Punta Santiago, which serves as the constitution of the Federation. Chapter V provides that the executive consists of the King, the Council of State, and the executive agencies established by Act of the Cortes Federales, and it defines the Council as the President of the Government, the Vice-President of the Government, the Secretaries of the departments, and other executive officials provided for by law.[13]
The Premier chairs the Council but holds no formal precedence within it; the Proclamation provides that the Council is a body of equals in which the Premier is primus inter pares. The Premier determines the policy guidelines of the executive and ensures the enforcement of law, while each Secretary leads their department and discharges the duties assigned to it independently.[14] Neither a member of the Royal Family nor a judge may serve in the executive.[15]
The Council formally advises the King on the exercise of the royal prerogative and may advise the King to issue decrees and other executive instruments through The Federal Gazette. The King is Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Forces, but authority over their use rests with the Council of State; the King grants pardons and concludes treaties on the Council's advice, subject to ratification by the Federal Assembly.[16]
The King appoints the Council on the recommendation of the Premier, and the appointment requires the approval of the Federal Assembly. The Assembly may remove an individual member of the Council other than the Premier by a majority vote, but the Premier and the Council as a whole can be dismissed only through a motion of no-confidence. This distinction makes the government collectively responsible to the legislature while leaving individual Secretaries separately accountable.[17] Peers and Deputies may be appointed to the Council and may hold both offices at once, a fusion of executive and legislative membership characteristic of the parliamentary system.[18]
Composition
The Council of State has seventeen members: the President of the Government, the Vice-President of the Government, and the fifteen Secretaries who each lead a federal executive department. The departments are the Departments of State, Interior, Treasury, Defense, Justice, Energy and Environment, Social Security and National Solidarity, Education, Sports, and Culture, Civil Works and Transportation, Research and Development, Labor, National Mobilisation, Trade and Industry, Housing and Urban Development, and Administrative Coordination and Efficiency. A department is established, organized, and given its competence by Act of the Cortes Federales.[19]
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Founding Document
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The Crown
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His Majesty's Government
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Cortes Federales
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Judiciary & Law
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Administration
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About the Federation
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As of the 14th Cortes Federales, the Council is drawn from the parties of the Federal Accord. Premier Marcos Ferreira Gonçalves and Vice-President Elena Svensson, the leader of the Civic Governance Alliance, head a Council whose members come from the Alliance for a Just Nouvelle Alexandrie, the Civic Governance Alliance, and the Federal Consensus Party.[10][12]
Functions and procedure
The Council governs collectively, taking joint responsibility for the direction of the Federation while each Secretary answers individually for a defined portfolio. Its executive decisions are carried out by the Federal Civil Service, whose employees serve under the Council rather than the Cortes Federales, a separation meant to keep the permanent administration out of partisan use.[20] The Council keeps offices across the capital, among them the Marco Zimmer Government Building, the Morning Wind Building, Battenworth House, El Fuerte, the East Meadow Government Towers, and the Royal Treasury.
Meetings
The Council meets weekly on Friday mornings at Government House.[7] Its meetings are both deliberative and decision-making, and minutes are drawn up recording the time and place, the attendees, the resolutions adopted, and the reports presented. To protect the privacy of members and the constitutional confidentiality of the Council, the minutes exclude the comments and deliberations of individual members and are not made public. The General Advisory Commission to the Department Secretaries, an advisory body of legal experts and researchers, prepares and monitors the meetings.[7]
The Premier sets the agenda and chairs the meetings; in the Premier's absence the Vice-President presides, and failing both, a senior Secretary. Members may attend by secure video connection. The King may exceptionally chair a meeting, but any session so chaired is consultative only, and no decisions may be taken in it.
Location
Government House houses a dedicated Council building set aside for these meetings. The Council may in practice sit in any city, though it does so rarely and usually for symbolic reasons. Such sittings have included meetings at Punta Santiago in 1693 AN and 1705 AN, at New Luthoria in 1712 AN, and at Parap in 1693 AN, 1705 AN, and 1715 AN.
Ancillary bodies and agencies
A range of offices, councils, and committees support the Council of State and the Premier. They run from partisan political staff to statutory agencies established by Act of the Cortes Federales.
Office of the President of the Government
The Office of the President of the Government (OPG) is a partisan body of political staff that supports the Premier with policy advice, information gathering, communications, and strategy. It is headed by the Chief of Staff, who manages and coordinates its work. Within it, the Office of the President-in-Council, or Council Office, handles the business of the Premier and the Council and liaises with the Cortes Federales and with regional and municipal governments. The Presidential Press Office, led by the government's official spokesperson, issues government information and advises on press relations.
Director of National Intelligence
The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) is a Council-level official who heads the New Alexandrian Intelligence Community, directs the national intelligence effort, and advises the Premier and the Council on intelligence and national security.[21] By law the DNI must be a serving commissioned officer of the armed forces or hold training or experience in military intelligence. As of the 14th Cortes Federales, the office is held by General Émile Vasseur, a career military-intelligence officer of the Federal Forces. The National Security Committee, part of the OPG, is the principal forum in which the Premier and the Council consider national security, military, and foreign policy, and it coordinates those policies across federal and local agencies.
National Economic Council
The National Economic Council of Nouvelle Alexandrie (NEC) is the principal forum in which the Premier and the Council consider economic policy, distinct from national and international security policy. The NEC coordinates domestic and international economic policy, advises the Premier, works to keep policy consistent with the government's economic goals, and monitors delivery of the economic agenda.[22]
Delegated committees
The delegated committees are decision-making bodies of the Council made up of Secretaries and Undersecretaries, to which the Council refers matters it judges suitable for resolution outside its full meetings. The Premier approves and amends them, and they may draw in senior officials from beyond the cabinet. The Federal Defense Committee, established within the Council by the Defense of the Federation Act, 1694, considers the political, diplomatic, economic, and social dimensions of the Federation's defense.[23] Others include an Economic Committee for the economy, the budget, and public expenditure; a Demographics Committee; a Public Administration Committee for the structure of the administration and relations with regional and municipal governments; and an International Development Committee for sustainable development and international cooperation. The Disaster Management Act, 1715 created a Federal Emergency Council to deliberate on disaster and safety management, together with the Federal Emergency and Disaster Management Administration and subordinate coordinating committees.[24]
Special envoys and counselors
The Council appoints Special Diplomatic Envoys to international organizations, among them the Raspur Pact, the Micras Treaty Organization, and the Micras Trade Organisation. It may also appoint Special Counselors, senior advisers drawn from the Federal Assembly who sit without a departmental portfolio and advise the Council and the Premier on the government's legislative program and on questions that cross departmental lines. As of the 14th Cortes Federales, the Special Counselors are Cao Qiang and Alfonso Rivas, both Federal Consensus Party deputies for Alduria, named on the formation of the Federal Accord government in 1760 AN.[25]
Independent agencies and liaisons
Several arm's-length agencies operate within the Council of State:
- the Office of National Records, which maintains the government's publications and records;
- the Office of Executive Appointments Standards, which advises on appointment rules for ministers and officials;
- the Committee for Ethics in Government, which advises on the Ministerial Code of Conduct;
- the Office of the Lobbyist and Consultants Registrar, which keeps the public register of lobbyists and consultants;
- the Office for the Proclamation and Constitutional Affairs, which advises on compliance with the Proclamation of Punta Santiago; and
- the Actuary's Office, which advises the government through the analysis and modeling of risk.
The Council is also served by Undersecretary-level liaisons in intergovernmental relations:
- the Commissioner for Intergovernmental Relations, who advises on collaboration between departments;
- the Commissioner for the Civil Service, who advises on recruitment into the Federal Civil Service;
- the Governmental Advisor on Civic Harmony, who advises on community relations and the promotion of the Harmonious Society;
- the Governmental Advisor on Ministerial Integrity, who acts as the government's anti-corruption watchdog; and
- the Governmental Advisor on Coordination, who advises on the coordination of federal, regional, and corporate bodies.
See also
- Nouvelle Alexandrie
- President of the Government of Nouvelle Alexandrie
- Proclamation of Punta Santiago
- Cortes Federales of Nouvelle Alexandrie
- Shadow Council of State of Nouvelle Alexandrie
- Ministerial Code of Conduct
References
- ^ Proclamation of Punta Santiago, Art. 40.
- ^ Proclamation of Punta Santiago, Art. 40, §3.
- ^ Proclamation of Punta Santiago, Art. 28.
- ^ Proclamation of Punta Santiago, Arts. 30 and 45.
- ^ a b Proclamation of Punta Santiago.
- ^ President of the Government of Nouvelle Alexandrie.
- ^ a b c Government House (building).
- ^ List of past Councils of State of Nouvelle Alexandrie; President of the Government of Nouvelle Alexandrie.
- ^ New Alexandrian premiership term limits referendum, 1758.
- ^ a b Federal Accord coalition agreement, 1759.
- ^ a b "The Accord wins the confidence of the Cortes, 461 to 293, and Gonçalves takes office", NBC Newsfeed, 15.I.1760 AN.
- ^ a b c d Administration of Premier Marcos Ferreira Gonçalves.
- ^ Proclamation of Punta Santiago, Art. 40, §§1 and 2.
- ^ Proclamation of Punta Santiago, Arts. 44 and 45.
- ^ Proclamation of Punta Santiago, Arts. 42 and 43.
- ^ Proclamation of Punta Santiago, Arts. 33, 34 and 35.
- ^ Proclamation of Punta Santiago, Arts. 30 and 46.
- ^ Proclamation of Punta Santiago, Art. 39.
- ^ Proclamation of Punta Santiago, Art. 47.
- ^ Federal Civil Service System.
- ^ New Alexandrian Intelligence Community.
- ^ National Economic Council of Nouvelle Alexandrie.
- ^ Defense of the Federation Act, 1694, §12.
- ^ Disaster Management Act, 1715.
- ^ Cao Qiang; Alfonso Rivas.
