Parliament

The **Parliament** is the unicameral national legislature of the Kingdom of Game City. As the central legislative building of the kingdom, it contains the offices of the main members of the Government Monarchy.

Its most recognisable room is the Debate Chamber, where the legislative power is represented by the Government and the Opposition, seated opposite each other on benches. This is where Game City's democracy truly manifests itself, where the various ministers and politicians debate different laws and ideas.

## System

The Parliament of Game City is based on the Westminster system of parliamentary government, in which, instead of taking place in a semicircular debating chamber, the room is formed by two opposing benches in a confrontational format, with the speaker of the house seated in the centre of the chamber. On the speaker's right, the current Government (formed by the party that won the last election). On their left, the Official Opposition (the parties defeated in the last election).

It is not truly necessary to have all 16 seats in Parliament always occupied (in fact, only the party leaders bother to show up most of the time). Most seats are merely an expression of the Government's little or large amount of power, and are the result of a calculation of the election results for each party.

Regarding the approval of laws, there is a system in place to ensure a properly democratic legal structure. When a new law is presented to the members of Parliament, a debate is held to contextualise the current sociopolitical situation and bring attention to any potential issues such laws could bring about, and–if the idea is even remotely realistic–an anonymous vote is cast, where all members of Parliament are permitted to vote 'Aye' or 'Nay'. If the final result succeeds 60% approval, the law is put into action. While this system is generally used to establish new laws or judiciary measures, it can also be used in a similar vein to enact authoritarian actions, though these are considered controversial as they can at times supersede the core values and rules previously installed regarding Government control; much like the King's veto.

## How seats are assigned

There are **16 seats in total** within the Debate Chamber, with eight on each side of the chamber. Their occupancy, however, fluctuates depending on the results of an election.

Seats are assigned depending on the results of each political party. The percentage of votes received by a political party in its decimalised form (e.g. 20% = 0,20) is multiplied by the total number of seats in the Debate Chamber (16). Finally, the obtained result is rounded to approximate an exact unit. The minimum number that can be rounded to 1 is 0.500; therefore, if for a party the final result is 0.500, that party wins one seat in Parliament (e.g. 0.500 = 1; or 6.63 = 7). If a party scores more than an 8 in this calculation, said party simply sticks with 8 seats, having reached the unbeatable total of eight seats on the Government side.

The minimum percentage required to win a seat is **3.13%.**

## Political Parties

Political parties in Game City are organized groups of people who have the same ideology, or who otherwise have the same political positions, and who field candidates for elections, in an attempt to get them elected and thereby implement the party's agenda.

There are four political parties in Game City:

* **Labour Party**: the country's main left-wing party. Following the ideas of social democracy, their goals are to nationalize nearly all services (which means to put in the hands of the government instead of companies) such as the hospital and the railways, to increase taxes in order to improve the maintenance of the city, to distance themselves from tradition and preferring to focus on progress and modernization, and to make Game City more democratic by giving more power to democratically-elected politicians and less to the King.
* **Conservative Party**: the country's main right-wing party. Leaning centre-right, they are a pro-business party that wants to get all of Game City working. They want low taxes, generally support the self-employed, they are defenders of tradition and are strong supporters of the Church and the Royal Family.
* **For a Better World**: a radical centrist, progressive and environmentalist political party which strives to see a greener and more ecological Game City while at the same time defending both the free market and workers' rights. They believe in making Game City green-friendly, improving the city's infrastructure, combating poverty and rewarding those who contribute to environmentalism (such as having gardens and planting trees).
* **Communist Party of Game City**: a Marxist-Leninist political party that wants to lead a workers' revolution through democratic means, with the intention of abolishing private property, placing the means of production in the hands of the working class and redistributing wealth in order to make all players equal and abolish social classes.
* **Free Crafters Party**: a moderate party focused citizens' freedoms, a defocus on the Church of Notch and in favour of protecting and extending individual citizens' construction rights.