The Nelaga Territories

Meritocracy Foundation Bill

The following will come into effect on the passage of this bill; in order to facilitate the foundation of a meritocracy in Nelaga.

1. A Department of Merit shall be created, under the Ministry of Interior Affairs.
2. The first Department Head of Merit will be Vur'Alm Xei'Bôn.
3. Merit shall be calculated and awarded for the months of January, February, March, April and May of 2010.
4. Merit shall be recorded by modification of the user stats on the forum.

Meritocracy Bill

1. A merit point is a reward given in recognition of someone contributing to Nelaga as a nation. Merit points can be traded in for rights, privileges and powers from the government.

2. Merit points can be held by all participants in Nelaga, both citizens and non-citizens.

3. Upon beginning participation in Nelaga, a participant will be granted 10 merit points.

4. Additional merit points will be distributed monthly by the Department of Merit, according to the following categories. Merit can be earned each month in any and all of the categories.
• Activity Merits
o Being active at all in the Nelaga Territories (making at least one post): 1 merit
o Filing your own taxes for the month (calculating how much merit you believe you should earn. This will be checked briefly, and if it is on target or close, you earn this bonus): 2 merits

• Legislative Merits
o Voting at least once: 1 merit
o Voting in every proposal of the month (issuing a formal abstain counts as a vote): 2 merits
o Proposing a vote or government discussion debate: 1 merit each (total monthly cap: 3 merits)
o Proposing a vote that passes: 2 merits each (total monthly cap: 6 merits)
o The Department of Merit has the right to discount proposals that are complete jokes that have no lasting use and are pretty obviously designed to simply claim additional merits without benefiting the country.

• Work-based Merits
o Holding a position in the government (speaker, any executive, presidential, judicial): 1 merit
o Providing a significant benefit to the Nelaga Territories at your position in the past month (it must be something that has some lasting power and it must be actually completed within the month, not in progress or speculated): 5 merits


• Territorial Merits
o Posting in your home territory at least once in the month: 1 merit
o Providing a significant benefit to your home territory in the past month (it must be something that has some lasting power and it must be actually completed within the month, not in progress or speculated): 3 merits

• Recruitment Merits
o Recruiting a participant that earns at least one merit in his first month: 3 merits
o Recruiting a participant that earns merit in every month since joining for three months: 10 merits
o Recruiting a participant that earns merit in every month since joining for six months: 20 merits
o Note that no merit is earned at months 2, 4, 5, or after 6

• Cultural Advancement Merits
o Developing a minor cultural work for the Nelaga Territories: 3 merits
o Developing a significant cultural work for the Nelaga Territories: 10 merits
o Developing a massive cultural work for the Nelaga Territories: 20 merits

5. The Department Head of Merit will issues calls in the first week of each month for reasons for merit to be granted for the previous month. Participants are able to provide their own list of merit earned, which will be checked by the Department. After the first week, the Department will calculate all unclaimed merit and distribute all merit points to participants.

6. The Department Head is required to calculate his own merit at the start of the month, and leave it in public display during the week in which other citizens are offered the chance to calculate their own merit. During this time, if the Department Head’s calculations are deemed inaccurate, his merit receipts can be changed by the President; or by a vote of the general assembly.

7. Merit points accrued can be traded in by participants at any time through the Department of Merit. They can be traded for the following things:
• Voting Power
o The right to vote and 1st vote: 10 merits
o 2nd vote: 20 merits
o 3rd vote: 30 merits
o (Xth vote): X*10 merits

8. All matters voted on by the general assembly shall be counted with votes determined in the way outlined in part 7; with the following exceptions:
A constitutional amendment; call for a constitutional convention; any sort of political merger that involves the Nelaga Territories losing its sovereignty; any modification to this Meritocracy law.
In all these areas, only citizens may vote, and the vote of each citizen is counted as 1.

9. General Elections shall not be counted in the way outlined in part 7. In all these areas, only citizens may vote, and the vote of each citizen is counted as 1. Only citizens may stand for these positions.

NAY. Non-citizens being able to vote with merit is absolutely critical to the entire core of the system, which was, in essence, an attempt to get away from crappy distinctions like citizenship. By removing that it becomes another boring exercise in bookkeeping that no outsiders would ever take any interest in.

I know, and I'm still having issues with it. Would you hang around a nation you weren't officially a part of if you could vote in everything, especially the stuff that matters like elections? And wouldn't your hanging around and voting eventually get you more involved in the nation, to the point where it basically didn't matter if you'd officially became a citizen or not? That is the sort of attraction from outsiders I was aiming for here. Politically their influence would be minimal - they wouldn't have as many merits as the rest of us and wouldn't be able to sway the system by themselves. But as a propaganda tool, as a way to lure people in, it's massive. I think anyway.