Union of Xyon
Background
The Union of Xyon was orignally formed several centuries ago from a coaltion of religious fundamentalists from old earth and a strong breakaway belter miner faction. Its original religious focus has now long since vanished. This relitively small but fiercly independent grouping has always had its own traditions and ways of doing things, drawing on rugged self-sufficiency and independence of thought inherited from it's founders.
Flag
Governance
The Union of Xyon has a bi-cameral government with a 20 member High Council (Hakamim) and 134 member Parliament (Sanhedrin). The primary role of these two bodies is to work together to preserve the integrity of the Union against any possible external threat or internal dissention. The former is to be countered through appropriate defences and alliances, and the latter through promoting peace and prosperity throughout the Union whilst allowing a high degree of autonomy for member systems.
The Hakamim (pl) Hakam (sng)
("The Wise")
The leader of the Hakamim is called the Speaker who, along with 4 other senior members, forms the Quorum. At least one member of the Quorum is required to be present for the Hakamim to function.
The Speaker is chosen by the Hakamim from within its number. The way this has worked in practice is that the outgoing Speaker nominates his successor who is then approved by the rest of the members. The members of the Hakamim serve either for life, until they choose to retire or, in exceptional circumstances, are sacked by the Speaker. The Speaker can only sack one Hakam per year, and the majority must approve anyone brought into the Hakamim from outside. This acts as a check on the powers of the Speaker, not that a Speaker has ever tried to abuse those powers. The Speaker can only be removed by at least 3 Quorum members baked by 11 other members of the Hakamim. There has never been any cause to do this in the history of the Union.
Agama provide 3 members for the Hakamim with the other systems in Quadrant 0 providing 2 each. The remaining 7 members are selected from amongst the largest populations in the outer quadrants.
The Sanhedrin
The citizens of the systems within the Union directly elect their representatives to the Sanhedrin, with elections being held at least every 7 years. The number of seats a system has in the Sanhedrin is related to its population, but each system has at least 2 representatives. The representatives are constituency based, with the top two candidates in an election going through to a second ballot. If, for whatever reason, a seat becomes vacant, a bye-election will be held.
Agama Q0 25 seats
Masada Q0 10 seats
Aggadah Q0 8 seats
New Jerusalem Q0 8 seats
Akhenaton Q2 4 seats
Pineapple Manager Q8 3 seats
Baal Q0 8 seats
Planum Q4 3 seats
Colli Q2 5 seats
Quoheleth Q1 6 seats
Cone Q7 2 seats
Ritchie Q4 6 seats
Deadwood Q8 6 seats
Dec Q1 2 seats
Tiel Q7 7 seats
Drazi Q5 2 seats
V1 Q7 2 seats
Dubai Q5 2 seats
V2 Q7 2 seats
Gum Q2 6 seats
V6 Q7 4 seats
Haggai Q0 7 seats
Hobbes Q1 2 seats
Jagger Q7 2 seats
The Government
The Hakamim appoints a Prime Minister who in turn appoints a Cabinet to form a government. The Prime Minister and Cabinet members can be from either the Hakamim or Sanhedrin, but it has become customary for them all to be members of the Sanhedrin. Indeed, it has been over 200 years since a Hakam held a Cabinet post, and over 250 years since one held the Premiership.
The Cabinet posts, in order of precedence, are as follows:
Government 3223-2330
Prime Minister : Mitsuya Dake (Maskalim)
Commercial Secretary : Neta Iskowitch (Maskalim)
Treasury Secretary : Radwan Bruck (Labour)
Secretary General of the Union : Victoria Chertok (Maskalim)
Secretary of Defence : Yona Shimoni (Labour)
Secretary of External Affairs : Chofit Szinessy (Harikat Amal)
Secretary of Science and Research : Akim Blum (Maskalim)
Speaker of the Sanhedrin : Suzie Quatro (Maskalim)
Executive branch
Director General of MOSSAD : Yitzakh Yogev
Chief Justice of the Federal High Court : Judith Sheindlin
Chairman of ERIC : Dr Kila Marr
Director General of the Robot Institute : Dr Isaiah Asimov
Chief Rabbi (Orthodox): Rabbi Theo Koslov
Chief of the Defence Staff, Office of the Navy of Xyon (Onyx): Admiral Claudia Kashin SoD
Chief of System Defence, Office of Planetary Defence (PDF) : General Ian Haig SoD
Chief of Defence Intelligence, Office of Defence Intelligence (ODI): Vice Admiral Yarno Hornetz RoV
Xyon Controller of Operations : Admiral J T Brokanshah SoD
Xyon Controller of Support : Admiral Petter Wallenberg CoG
Commandant General of the Marines : General Uzi Narkiss SoD UXM
CinC PDF Agama : General S Ivanova SoD
Government 3230-
Prime Minister : Saffron Frostdust (Maskalim)
Commercial Secretary : Radwan Bruck (Labour)
Treasury Secretary : Yona Shimoni (Labour)
Secretary General of the Union : Victoria Chertok (Maskalim)
Secretary of Defence : Yasugome Tokimi (Harikat Amal)
Secretary of External Affairs : Chofit Szinessy (Harikat Amal)
Secretary of Science and Research : Akim Blum (Maskalim)
Speaker of the Sanhedrin : Suzie Quatro (Maskalim)
Executive branch
Director General of MOSSAD : Yitzakh Yogev
Chief Justice of the Federal High Court : Judith Sheindlin
Chairman of ERIC : Dr Kila Marr
Director General of the Robot Institute : Dr Isaiah Asimov
Chief Rabbi (Orthodox): Rabbi Theo Koslov
Chief of the Defence Staff, Office of the Navy of Xyon (Onyx): Admiral Claudia Kashin SoD
Chief of System Defence, Office of Planetary Defence (PDF) : General Okugai Reinomi SoD
Chief of Defence Intelligence, Office of Defence Intelligence (ODI): Vice Admiral Yarno Hornetz RoV
Xyon Controller of Operations : Admiral Rinat Altmann SoD
Xyon Controller of Support : Admiral Petter Wallenberg CoG
Commandant General of the Marines : Taaveti Reinharz SoD UXM
CinC PDF Agama : **General Gabriel Becker* SoD
Exercising Power
The Cabinet has Executive powers. So does the Hakamim, and occasionally it will use them. However, the Hakamim more usually confines itself to an advisory role. Any legislation has to be approved by both the Sanhedrin and the Hakamim, and both have the power to amend legislation.
In an Emergency, the Speaker of the Hakamim can rule by decree, provided he has the support of the Quorum.
Only the Speaker of the Hakamim has the power to dissolve the Sanhedrin and call an election outside of the constitutional requirement of at least once every 7 years.
Political Parties
Political parties in the Union come in 2 flavours: those with support across multiple systems, and those based in one system. The former have the most influence politically and the latter are mainly found in Quadrant 0.
The current coalitions consists of 3 parties:
Maskalim - the second oldest party and the one that has done most to shape the Union over the past 300 years.
Labour - the oldest party, originally drawing the corps of its support from Belters.
Harikat Amal - founded on Akhenaton and drawing support mainly from the Outer Quadrants.
Colonial Government
Each planet/belt has a bi-cameral government: an elected Knesset with Executive and legislative powers, and an appointed assembly (Kahal). The appointees in the Kahal represent a wide variety of interest groups from business to labour, religions to education institutes, the military (must be retired) to legitimate free traders. There categorically are no pirates sitting in any Kahal.
There is also a Governor (Shaliach) appointed by the Hakamim.
The Kahal has to approve all legislation and has the power of amendment, but it cannot introduce legislation. In the event a deadlock between the Knesset and Kahal the Shaliach has the casting vote. In practice this rarely happens as the two normally will reach a compromise rather than see the Shaliach intervene.