MicrasWiki:Nouvelle Alexandrie/Guide to being a Government Secretary
Playing Nouvelle Alexandrie
| |
| The season game's player guides | |
| Start here | Getting Started in NAX |
|---|---|
| The Paths | Politics Law (the High Court) Press (Media Outlets) |
| The offices | Deputy Party Leader Government Secretary Premier or Vice-Premier |
| Elections & votes | Campaigning Referenda |
| Playing for | Honors and Awards |
| Rules & community | Rules of the Discord Server Community Administration |
| Reference | Legislative Template Setting of Nouvelle Alexandrie |
| All meta guides › | |
A Secretary runs a portfolio in the Council of State, the executive end of the Politics Path. Where a Deputy makes the law and a party leader builds the movement, a Secretary governs: you are handed a department of state, you set its policy, and you answer for it to the House and the country. It is the step from the benches into government, and the work shifts from passing laws to running the Federation by them.
Getting the portfolio
A seat in the Council of State is in the gift of the Premier, who names the secretaries when a government forms and may reshuffle them across the term. You are almost always a sitting Deputy first; the Premier hands you a department, you swear the oath of office alongside the rest of the Council, and the portfolio is yours to run. The departments of state cover the whole work of the Federation, from the Treasury to Justice to Defense, and the brief you are given is the ground you will be judged on.
Running the department
Inside your portfolio you are the government's voice and its hand. You set the policy for your department, bring the bills that carry it into ✒️・the-hopper, and steer your corner of the Federation's business. The Council of State is the collective government, meeting to decide the direction of the whole, but each secretary is individually responsible for their own brief, and a department run well, with a clear agenda and laws to show for it, is how a secretary makes a name.
Answering to the Cortes
A government that cannot be questioned is no government at all, and a secretary answers to the House that made them. Deputies can put questions to you at 🙋・question-time and call you to defend your policy in debate, and you are bound to answer. The bills you bring face the same readings and divisions as any other, so you must carry the chamber, not merely announce a policy to it. Holding your brief under fire is as much of the job as setting the policy in the first place.
Standing with the government
The Council of State rises and falls together. Its deliberations are held in confidence, but once it settles on a line every secretary carries that line in public, whatever was argued behind the door. This is collective responsibility, and it is the spine of a government: a Council that holds together survives, and one that breaks in public invites the vote that ends it. To take a portfolio is to tie your fortunes to the whole government's, for the length of its term.
What you're playing for
A secretary plays for a record in government: a department run well, a policy made canon, a Federation visibly better governed for your having held the brief. Above you sit the Vice-Premiership and the Premiership itself, the natural climb for a secretary who masters the work. Secretaries stand for the season's cross-path honors and the citizen-voted Wilson-Clarke Prize alongside everyone else, all set out in the Guide to Honors and Awards.
See also
- Council of State of Nouvelle Alexandrie, the government you sit in
- President of the Government of Nouvelle Alexandrie, who appoints you
- Cortes Federales of Nouvelle Alexandrie, the House you answer to
- 13th Cortes Federales, the sitting term
