Government of Kathia

The politics of Kathia take place under the framework established by the Constitution of 1405 (Amended in 1535, 1569, 1595). Kathia is established as a social and democratic nation, wherein the national sovereignty is vested in the people and its constituent subdivisions, from which the state’s powers emanate.

The form of government in Kathia is a crowned republic, that is, a social representative democratic republic in which the monarch (and family) is an official ceremonial entity with no political power. The Premier is the head of state, while the Prime Minister is the head of government. Executive power is exercised by the Government, which is integrated by the Prime Minister, their deputy ministers, and others, collectively forming the Cabinet, or Council of Ministers. Legislative power is vested in the General Parliament, a bicameral parliament constituted by the National Diet and the National Council. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature, administering justice officially on behalf of the monarchy by judges and magistrates. The Supreme Court of Appeals of Kathia is the highest court in the nation, with jurisdiction in all Kathic territories, superior in all affairs except constitutional ones, which are the jurisdiction of a separate court, the Constitutional Court.

Kathia’s political system is a multi-party system.

Regional governments function under a system known as Semi-Autonomous Federal Zones, a highly decentralized system of administration. Initially framed as a kind of asymmetrical federalism for regions styled as “historic nationalities”, it has evolved in practice into an approach that permits a devolution of powers for all regions. Exercising the right to self government granted by the National Constitution, Kathia is divided into 26 provinces and 2 autonomous provinces. The form of government in each of these is based on a unicameral parliamentary system, in which executive power is vested in a Vice-Premier and a Council of Ministers, elected and responsible to the legislative body.

The Crown
The Kathic monarch, currently Vaszare IV, is officially called Emperor of the Kathics. He serves as a symbol of the nation’s unity and permanence, representing the Kathic state as a whole in relation to the autonomous communities contained within. The title of Emperor or Empress is proclaimed by the National Council technically, but is de facto a hereditary title. According to the Kathic Constitution, it is incumbent upon to sanction all laws passed by the parliament, to award honors and distinctions, to be informed of the affairs of State, to exercise the right to grant pardons in accordance with national law, and to exercise the High Patronage of the nation’s Royal Academies. He may also ceremonially receive diplomats from foreign nations, but has no rights to make deals or sign treaties on Kathia’s behalf, although he can endorse ones already signed by the Premier and ratified by Parliament.

In practical terms, the Emperor's duties are almost entirely ceremonial, with constitutional provisions worded in such a way to make clear the strictly neutral and apolitical nature of his role. In fact, the Kathic Constitution makes careful use of the expressions, “it is incumbent upon the Emperor”, deliberating omitting other expressions such as “powers,” “faculties”, or “competences”, eliminating any notion of monarchical prerogatives within the parliamentary republic. In the same way, the Emperor does not have supreme liberty in the exercise of his aforementioned functions; these are framed, limited, or exercised “according to the constitution and its laws.” The Emperor is also technically commander-in-chief of the Kathic Armed Forces, but has only symbolic, rather than actual, authority over the military.

Succession
The Katic Constitution establishes explicitly that the National Council has the role of acknowledging legitimate heirs to the Kathic throne. It also establishes the monarchy as being hereditary following a “regular order of primogeniture and representation: earlier line shall precede older; within the same line, closer degree shall precede more distant, within the same degree, male shall precede female, and within the same sex, older shall precede younger.” What this means in practice is that the crown is passed to the firstborn, who has preference over his siblings and cousins; women can only accede to the throne provided they do not have any brothers; and finally “regular order of representation” means that grandchildren have preference over the deceased Emperor’s parents, uncles, or siblings. Finally, if all possible rightful orders of primogeniture and representation have been exhausted, then the National Council will select a successor in the way that best suits the interests of Kathia.

Legislature
Legislative power is vested in the Kathic Parliament as the supreme representatives of the Kathic people and nation. This legislature is bicameral, divided into the National Diet and the National Council. As in most parliamentary systems, more legislative power is vested in the lower chamber, the National Diet. The Speaker of the Diet, also called the Prime Minister, presides over a joint session of the Kathic Parliament. Each chamber of the Parliament meets at separate precincts and carries out their duties separately, except for specific important functions, in which case they meet in a joint session. Such functions include the elaboration of laws proposed by the executive (the Government), by one of the chambers, by an autonomous community, or through popular initiative; and the approval or amendment of the nation’s budget proposed by the Prime Minister.

National Diet
The National Diet must be integrated by a minimum of 244 and a maximum of 302 deputies, currently at 277, elected by universal, free, equal, direct, and secret suffrage. They are elected to four-year terms or until it is dissolved. The voting system used is that of proportional representation with closed party lists following a method in which each province forms a constituency or electoral circumscription and must be assigned a minimum of two deputies; autonomous cities are assigned at least one deputy.

The National Diet can initiate legislation, as well as having the power to ratify or reject decrees adopted by the executive. They also elect the Prime Minister before they can be formally sworn into office by the Premier. The National Diet may adopt a motion of censure whereby it can vote out the Prime Minister by absolute majority. On the other hand, the Prime Minister may request at any time a vote of confidence from the National Diet. If they fail to obtain it, then the Parliament is dissolved, and new elections are called.

National Council
The upper chamber of Kathia’s parliament is the National Council. It is nominally the chamber of territorial representation. Four councilors are elected for each province, with the exception of the insular provinces, in which the number of councilors varies: between three and one are elected for each of these. In addition, the legislative assembly of each autonomous community designates one councilor, with another for each one million inhabitants. This designation must follow proportional representation. Councilors serve four year terms or until the Parliament is dissolved.

The National Council has less power than the National Diet: it can veto legislation, but this veto can be overturned by an absolute majority of the National Diet. Its only exclusive power concerns the nation’s autonomous communities, performing a function in line with its nature of territorial representation. By an absolute majority, the National Council may authorize the Government to adopt measures to enforce an autonomous community’s compliance with its constitutional duties if it has failed to do so.

Premier
The Kathic head of state is the Premier. As Kathia’s parliamentary system of government, the Prime Minister runs the government and day-to-day politics, the role of Premier is to serve as the popularly elected representative of the people in government and ensure its legitimacy. Unlike Kathia’s monarchy, the Premier is not obliged to refrain from expressing their political views. They are expected to give direction to general political and societal debates, and most Kathic Premiers were active politicians or party members prior to office. Under the Kathic constitution, the Premier represents Kathia in matters of international law, concluding treaties with foreign states on its behalf and accredits diplomats.

All federal laws must be signed by the Premier before they come into effect; they do not have a veto, but the constitutionality of their exercising a pocket veto is a subject of debate. The Premier’s role in the political system is perhaps strongest in the establishment of a new government and the dissolution of the Parliament. The Premier is charged with the task of selecting a member of the National Diet to form a government or coalition government as the new Prime Minister, and is constitutionally required to select this individual from a group that commands confidence in the Parliament, or as close as they can get to it. The Premier, together with the National Council, can support the government in a “legislatory emergency state” to enable laws against the will of the National Diet, but has never exercised these powers.

Government and Council of Ministers
At the national level, executive power is shared between the Premier and the Government. The Government is composed by a Prime Minister, one or more deputy prime ministers, and all other ministers. The collegiate body composed by the Prime Ministers, the deputy prime ministers, and all other ministers is called the Council of Ministers. The Government is in charge of both domestic and economic policies, with foreign policy largely being the purview of the Premier.

The constitution established that after elections, the Premier, once they have consulted with all political groups represented in the Parliament, proposes a candidate to the “leadership of the government.” The candidate then presents the political program or their government requesting the Parliament’s confidence. If the Parliament grants them confidence by absolute majority, the Premier then nominates them formally as “Prime Minister of the Government”; if they fail to obtain absolute majority, the Parliament waits 48 hours to vote again, in which case, a simple majority suffices. If they fail again, then the Premier presents other candidates until one gains confidence. However, if after two months no candidate has obtained it, then the Premier dissolves the Parliament and calls for new elections. In practice, the candidate has been the leader of the party with the largest number of seats in Parliament.

After the candidate obtains the confidence of the Parliament, they are appointed by the Premier as Prime Minister in a ceremony of inauguration in which they are sworn in at the Royal Palace in the presence of the Emperor. The candidate takes the oath of office over an open copy of the Constitution. The Prime Minister proposes the deputy prime ministers and other ministers, which are then appointed by the Premier. The number and scope of competences of each of the Ministries is established by the Prime Minister. Ministries are usually created to cover one or several sectors of government from an administrative function. Once formed, the Government meets as the Council of Ministers. The meeting may also be presided by the Premier, by request of the Prime Minister or if they are suddenly otherwise deposed, in which case the Council informs the Premier of the state’s affairs.

Council of State
The constitution also establishes the Council of State, a supreme advisory council to the Kathic government. Though the body has existed intermittently since the middle ages, its current composition and nature of its work are defined in the Constitution and subsequent laws that have been published. It is currently composed by a President, nominated by the Council of Ministers, several ex officio councilors - former Prime Ministers, directors or Presidents of the Royal Kathic Academy, the Royal Academy of Legislation and Jurisprudence, the Royal Academy of History, the Social and Economic Council, the Attorney General of the State, the Chief of Staff, the Governor of the Bank of Kathia, the Director of the Juridical Service of the State, and the Presidents of the General Commission of Codification and Law - several permanent councilors, appointed by decree, and no more than ten elected councilors in addition to the Council’s Secretary General. The Council of State serves only as an advisory body, that can give non-binding opinions upon request and to propose an alternative solution to the problem presented.

Judiciary
The Judiciary in Kathia is integrated by judges and magistrates who administer justice, technically in the name both of the Emperor and the people. The Judiciary is composed of different courts depending on the jurisdictional order and what is to be judged. The highest ranking court of the Kathic judiciary is the Supreme Court of Appeals, with jurisdiction in all of Kathia, superior in all matters except in constitutional law. The Supreme Court is headed by a Chief Justice, nominated by the Premier, proposed by the General Council of the Judiciary, and contains within it 21 Justices. This institution is the government body of the Judiciary, integrated by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Appeals, ten members appointed by the Premier for a ten year non-repeatable term, among whom there are twelve judges and magistrates of all judicial categories, seven members nominated by the National Diet, and four by the National Council, elected by three-fifths of their respective members. They are to be elected from among lawyers and jurists of acknowledged competence and with over 15 years of professional experience.

The Constitutional Court has jurisdiction over all of Kathia, competent to hear appeals against the alleged unconstitutionality of laws and regulations having the force of law, as well as individual appeals for protection against violation of the rights and liberties granted by the constitution. It consists of nine members, four appointed by the Premier, three elected by the National Diet, and two elected by the National Council. They are required to be renowned magistrates and prosecutors, university professors, public officials or lawyers, all of them jurists with recognized competence or standing and more than 15 years of professional experience.

Regional government
The second article of Kathia’s constitution declares the Kathic nation as the common and indivisible homeland of all Kathics, integrated by nationalities and regions to which the constitution recognizes and guarantees the right to self-government. Since the most recent constitution, these nationalities and regions progressively acceded to self-government and were constituted into X autonomous communities. In addition, X autonomous cities were constituted from existing historical divisions. The administrative and political territorial division is known as the “State of Autonomies”. Though highly decentralized, Kathia is not a federation since the nation, as represented in the central institutions of government, retains full sovereignty.

The State, that is, the central government, has progressively and asymmetrically devolved or transferred power and competences to uniform provinces and autonomous communities after the most recent constitution came into effect. Each province and autonomous community is governed by a set of institutions established in its own Charter of Autonomy. The Charter of Autonomy is the basic organic institutional law, approved by the legislature of the community itself, as well as the National Parliament. The Charter of Autonomy establishes the name of the province or community according to its historical identity; the delimitation of its territory; the name, organization, and seat of the autonomous institutions of government; and the competences that they assume and the foundations for their devolution or transfer from the central government.

All provinces and autonomous communities have a unicameral parliamentary form of government, with a clear separation of powers. Their legislatures represent the people of the community, exercising legislative power within the limits set forth in the constitution and the degree of devolution that the community has attained. Even though the central government has progressively transferred roughly the same amount of competences to all communities, devolution is still asymmetrical. More power was devolved to the so-called historical nationalities.

Local government
The Constitution also guarantees a certain degree of autonomy to other “local” entities: the municipalities (subdivisions of provinces). Kathic municipal administration is highly homogenous; most of the municipalities have the same faculties, such as managing the municipal police, traffic enforcement, urban planning and development, social services, collecting municipal taxes, and ensuring civil defense. Spanish municipal administration is highly homogenous; most of the municipalities have the same faculties, such as managing the municipal police, traffic enforcement, urban planning and development, social services, collecting municipal taxes, and ensuring civil defense. In most municipalities, citizens elect the municipal council, which is responsible for electing the mayor, who then appoints a board of governors or councilors from his party or coalition. The only exceptions are municipalities with under 50 inhabitants, which act as an open council, with a directly elected major and an assembly of neighbors. Municipal elections are held every four years on the same date for all municipalities in Kathia. Councilors are allotted using proportional representation with the exception of municipalities with under 100 inhabitants where block voting is used instead. The number of councilors is determined by the population of the municipality.