Governance and Politics of Easway

The Common Union of Easway is a semi-direct co-operative directorial federal republic. Supreme legislative power is vested within the unicameral United Common Assembly. Executive power is held within the secretariat of the collective head of state Imperative Council, and the collective head of government National Directorate, two autonomous collegium-based bodies, which meet to form the Cabinet of Ministers and Directors. Direct representation of the people is guaranteed through the Popular Committees, and the encouragement of independent trade unions. The High Court of Justice is Easway's superior court.

Easway's political theatre is strongly governed through the 2020 Directorial Federation Constitution and the principles of diminishment of power, co-operative socialism, and multi-ethnic tolerance, most notably realised through the Seven Masts Philosophy, contained therein. Easway's directorial system allows the Co-operative Government of Easway to operate often as a grand coalition, much in the same way a legislature is made up of multiple parties through proportional representation.

## Commonwealth and Municipal Democracy

In the micronation of Easway, Commonwealths and Municipalities make up the core Administrative Divisions. Two commonwealths act as the highest administrative division beneath the Union, both containing a council, headed by a chairman of the commonwealth who each gets a seat in the Imperative Council, called Aldermen. Together with Prefects, the commonwealth councils have federative legislative functions. Municipalities act as federative divisions of the commonwealths with large amounts of local autonomy, being able to elect their own executive Marquis to the Council, ability to set their own languages, decide its own district borders, select its own Prefects, nominate its own judges & its own Police Commissioner.

## Imperative Council

   The Imperative Council, established through the third amendment, is a seven member collective head of state body, composed of the heads of the commonwealths; known as Alderman; municipalities; known as Marquis; and the head of the Common Union; known as the Grand Councillor; who are all directly elected by their constituent electorate.

### Secretariat

The Secretariat of the Common Union is the federal executive body which carries out matters of core state affairs. Included within is the Grand Office; containing the Grand Councillor; the Regency Office; containing the Regent Councillor; a Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a Ministry of Home Affairs and a Ministry of Finance & Economics. With the exception of the Grand Councillor, who is popularly elected, the Secretariat is elected by the United Common Assembly national legislature. Two Regent Councillors are elected by the UCA to serve rotational three month terms, and together with the Grand Councillor carry out matters of foreign affairs. Governance of the national militia and national security are maintained not by a Ministry, but by the Easwegian Defence Council, headed by the Grand Councillor and the Grand Marshal.

### National Directorate

The National Directorate, established through a 2019 act, is a six member collective head of government body, composed of members of the United Common Assembly. It manages the day-to-day affairs within the Co-operative Government and its members and their legislation are answerable to the UCA and the commonwealth councils. The National Directorate is headed by a first-among equals General Director. All executive Directors are elected by the UCA.

## Dedicated Legislative Body

The Prefectural Assembly is the dedicated Municipal and Commonwealth level legislature. The body votes on policies to be enacted by the Municipal Councils and the National Directorate since the NDMPATRIOTICPC Referendum, although it does not vote on policies to be enacted by the Imperative Council which is assembly independent. Originally being a civil service union, it greatly expanded its powers as Easway became more democratic including implementation of a dedicated legislature.

The Prefectural Assembly is elected in full once every 6 months coinciding near the elections of the National Directorate.

## Political Conditions

Easway has a stable government in which Marquis and Aldermen fulfill their duties and tend to hold thier position throughout their term. The Directorate although politically diverse is able to come to agreements to decide which bills should be passed and which should be ignored. The Prefectural Assembly is the least active body as most citizens try to aim for higher offices. Most tend to unite around the Emperor Emizerri which allows him to keep corruption and diversion of the constitution at zero. If a Director is to resign from their post, by-elections have often able to be quickly held and parties make their case for election in a non polarising manner, with clean democracy.

Before the disbandment of the Homonationalist Party of Easway there was some tendency for authoritarian parties & policies which caused some alarm for the Realm, this manifesting in bills such as the Mandatory Military Bill, introduced by the Mutualist Ouroboros Party (pre Etchasketch era), the Anti-Homophobe Act introduced by the Homofascist Party of Easway, and a Libertarian-Authoritarian power struggle was one of the main party political debates within the Nation, often causing coalitions such as the now defunct described authoritarian Homonational Axis between the Homofascist Party of Easway & National Republican Party of Easway. Both parties are now defunct and efforts have been made to outlaw extremism, such as Fascism and Stalinism. The Homonationalist Party after much turmoil disbanded at the beginning of 2022 and the Mutualist Ouroboros Party which had been making headway become hegemonic within the government, causing other parties with less authoritarian tendencies to pop up such as the Pomory Reformist Party to compete. There were occasional calls for the title of Emperor in English to be changed to something non monarchical, which had culminated in the "transitional movement" advocated by Director of Business & Labour Etchasketch of the M.O.P. and Alderman of Bear Island Gaia Grìbhinneach who wished for the English translation of Emperor (in Ezerryen Easwegian the title Zerrich is not considered explicitly monarchical and is the same word for an Easwegian Chancellor) to Chancellor, like the translation uses for the position within the Imperative Council. The Emperor Emizerri has not made any official stances on this matter but he has previously iniated bills within the Council which changed its name from Imperial Council of Easway to Imperative Council of Easway on 27th May 2022 whilst on the same day using his Imperium over the constitution to remove all explicit references to a monarch. The Emizerri claimed this was to reflect the reality of the current directorial and democratic system which is in contradiction to a monarchy. In response to the announcement by the Mutualist Ouroboros Party that as part of their campaign promise for the June 2022 Seventh National Directorate Elections they would attempt to pass a referendum changing Emperor to Chancellor, the Emizerri said "if the public wants it, [changing the title] which I'm not sure they do, but if they really support a referendum to change the title of Zerrich from Emperor to Chancellor in English then I will support the referendum."

## Foreign Relations

Foreign relations is still dominated by the Emizerri, the first & only Emperor of Easway, who's will for the externals direction of Easway is usually accepted by the Regent Marquis. The Emizerri whilst holding dominant power to make his own decisions in this sector always consults the Council before making any final actions.

The Emizerri's policies in regards to other nations can be described as pragmatic but incredibly pro human rights. For example, the Emizerri co-ordinated the complete embargo of goods between Easway & the People's Republic of China for its Dictatorship centralised government & mass human rights abuses in Xinjiang. On the other hand, the Emizerri wants the best for the Realm in economic terms which led to him abstaining on major criticism of Russia's domestic policies, a vital trading partner & only made occasional formal statement's on its foreign expansion. This ended in February of 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine. Statements of denouncment were made and an embargo was placed on certain goods that could assist the Russian military in their invasion. Nevertheless, the Easwegian culture has significant ancestral roots within Russia such as the Finno-Ugric, Pomors and Nenets peoples and the name of Easway, containing the root word of Eastern is a subtle nod to that.

The state does not often comment on the administrative affairs of other countries, but the Emizerri did comment on the Country merger of Troms og Finnmark of which he calls "a big soulless merger", making note of Easway's part Saami heritage.

## History

### Provisional Government

The Provisional Government of the Mainland of the Realm of Easway on Bear Island was the transitional government of Bear Island set up on the 14th of December by the Ouroboros' Serpents of Easway Party who created a National Committee with the purpose of electing a head of state. The people appointed Emizerri, the then leader of the OSEP as the head of Easway, with the official title of Chief Curator of the Easwegian Realm, and the English honorary nickname of "Emperor", who created the who created a chief executive, sometimes nicknamed the "Imperial Branch", as its highest body, acting as the head office of state.

The Provisional government's first act was appointing Commissar of Easway Aleksou Maximus Desourrë as the second Grand Marshal of the Easwegian Militia, then known by its revolutionary term as Chaape (serpents). Maximus would hold the title of co-commander in chief during the entirety of the Provisional Government, although when he became President of Easway on June 12th 2018, the position became merged with President and so fell out of use, instead being officially replaced with "co-commander in chief".

The main task of the Provisional Government was to realise the economic advantages of Bear Island and create a political and economic philosophy which allowed the Easwegian people to leave the feudal state they had been left in due to the Norwegian policies surrounding the island during their occupation, especially since 2002, and bringing fourth a stable, democratic, and human rights focused society which allowed suffrage for the Easwegian people as well as maintaining the equal co-operation with Norwegian speaking inhabitants who remained on the Island. The main vehicle that was originally used for this was the People's Committees who acted as local Governmental organs of the original National Committee and were made of people each advocating and implementing their own policies for the nation. This included nationalist, communist, and capitalist factions. National policy advocated by the committees was to be recommended to the Chief Curator who implemented it both by its merit and popular backing. Emizerri was often focused on building the cultural state as well as reforming and creating a new written Easwegian language and so left governmental matters to local polities, arbitration when necessary. During the provisional government Easway was described as an adhocracy.

#### The Great Silence

The period of the termed 'Great Silence' from early June to mid September, where Emizerri travelled away from Easway for important personal matters saw President Desourrë granted more autonomy within government. Desourrë abolished the direct democratic people's committees, citing various reasons; such as being too localist, stopping the provisional government from achieving stability and the conditions needed to move forward, and opposing political agendas and the belief that peoples' committees would subvert electoral processes and cause manufactured division between communities. Political theorists often point towards the era that Easway was in during this time, which involved the creation of the Easwegian Constitution, which has reached a stand still without Emizerri's direct mediation between libertarian right elements and communist influences who both wished for radically different contents. This led to a social democratic direction taken by both President Desourrë, which has been theorised as a middle road, whilst the responsibility of the constitution was freed up to be created by Emizerri, Desourrë, a special committee of the National Electoral Commission and the newly created National Directorate, which Emizerri set up whilst away to replace the People's Committees on 10 August 2019. Csyeigo acted as it's inaugural holder. The National Directorate was integrated within the Chief Curatorial branch and Csyeigo helped define it as an increasingly independent and important governing body.