Louisianne Government

Louisianne is a largely decentralized Representative Republic. There are three levels of government, The Council comprised of Prefects from each Prefecture and the Premier President who introduces and votes on national legislation and otherwise act as chief of government for their respective Prefecture, the Assemblée Nationale which serves as a ratifying body for legislation passed by the Council, but can also draft national legislation, pending approval from the Council. The Prefectoral and Départemental parliaments handle affairs closer to home.

The Council

History

Following the Summer Revolution of 1832, Armand Beauvais in the period now viewed as the New Beginning was elected to be the Prime Minister. As the Constitution was written at the time, it would have given Beauvais nearly despotic powers to rule, judge and control Louisianne. Unsettled by the precedent this would set, Beauvais in 1834 worked with the prefects of the three extant Prefectures, Dupré Rousseau of Saint-Onge, Daniel de Page of Saint-Louis and Aristide Thorez of the Osage Territory met in Baton Rouge to discuss a more equitable division of power. Fresh in their minds were the failed attempts of the French mainland to negotiate a new government, and they sought to use the good of the past without the taint of Bonapartism.

With very little lobbying a new form of government was passed, decentralizing the government to a more local and accessible level, and by 1836, the new forms were in place, with the Beauvais as First President and the other prefects, Rousseau, de Page, Thorez and Bernard DuBloix from the newly created Préfecture du Nord fleshing out the council.

Current Procedure

The Council is presided over by the First President, popularly elected by the people of Louisianne. The Seven Presidents vote on legislation that is forwarded to them from the National Assembly, which is comprised of Senators elected by the prefectoral parliaments. A majority vote of the Council of 4 to 3 minimum is all that is required to pass a National Bill into law. It must be known, however, that most times of the year there is very little legislation passed directly by the Council. Most legislation takes place on the level of the Prefectures.

The Prefects and First President meet for three to six months in the Late Winter/Early Spring of the year to discuss, prepare and ratify national legislation. Otherwise, the Prefects are located in their prefectures and handle local events.

The Prefects are elected to an automatic term of seven years, each offset so that there is only one major election taking place each year, in theory. Each Prefect and the First President are subject to a vote of no-confidence. Prefects and the First-President elections occasionally require primaries. In the election of 2009 for the Prefecture of Saint-Louis, three candidates stood for election. This resulted in a split of the vote, 52%, 23%, and 23%. An emergency ruling of the Tribunal de la République announced that the two who tied would have to rerun a primary before the final election process in Messidor (late June). This law was later codified as stating that any two candidates garnering less than 35% in a primary of three or more must re-run the primary, provided that there is one candidate who garnered more than 35%. If any of the three (or more) candidates failed to gain a substantial minority (greater than 10% of votes) they were culled from the Primary.

The job of the First President is, as a popularly elected official, to answer directly to the people. The First President maintains a staff of nearly 750 secretaries and statisticians who collate the messages of the people into a cohesive whole so that the First President can truly vote the will of the people, or what he deems to be best for the people.

Should the First President die, be incapacitated, or resign from office, a popular election is held to immediately fill the remainder of the term. By precedent those who run for the position already hold a seat upon the Council.

Although the government is decentralized, it is established in such a way as to allow sweeping legislation from The Council to be passed to the nation at large, with a 2/3 majority of all parliamental representatives consent. The need for this has proven heretofore rare, however, it is not an uncommon occurrence once a decade.

Current Council Membership

Graphic showing the current alignment of the Council.

The council is currently composed of 4 representatives from the Républicains Libres, 1 from the Luthériens Democratiques Populaires, and 2 from the Loi Naturelle. They are as follows:

• First President: Marie-Claire Gildersleeve
• Saint-Onge: Marie Landrieu
• Nouvelle Gaulle: Benct Olaf Norbin
• Osage: Claire Miquasquille
• Saint-Louis: Hilary Rodham Claintaun
• Nouvelle Cournouaille: Johannes Yager
• Nouvelle Navarre: Nefi Ivarsson

Because of the current makeup of the Council, the Républicains Libres have an tenuous majority, with 3 seats, 4 including Mme. Claintaun often voting in agreement with the R.L. block. Mme. Claintaun is likely to play more of a swing vote until the next prefectoral election, with M. Norbin, and Mmes. Landrieu and Miquasquille forming a 3-seat Loi Naturelle bloc. However, with Mme. Miquasquille's centrist leanings, a new balance may be struck in the national legislation.

Louisiannan Election Process

The Louisiannan Election process is very similar to most democratic nations in the world. Two to four candidates are chosen in primaries, or are simply the only candidates for election, and the primary process is bypassed. After primaries, if any are held, the major candidates are scheduled in a general election. If the winner of this election doesn't win by at least two-thirds majority over any other candidates, the top two candidates are moved to a final election, where they run against each other. All candidates are chosen from currently elected officials to the local parliaments, who vote on the elected official.

Because of the oligarchic nature of the Louisiannan government, elections for each Prefecture are held once every seven years, with one election each year, and on the seventh year, elections for the First-President are held.

The rotation is as follows. Election years are listed after each in italics.

1. National First President Election 1999, 2006, 2013
2. Saint-Onge 2000, 2007, 2014
3. Nouvelle Gaulle 2001, 2008, 2015
4. Osage 2002, 2009, 2016
5. Saint-Louis 2003, 2010, 2017
6. Nouvelle Cournouaille 2004, 2011, 2018
7. Nouvelle Navarre 2005, 2012, 2019

Because Louisianne functions under the French Republican Calendar, all elections are completed in the Gregorian month of July, and the elected prefect takes office on September 22 (or 23) of that same year, as September 22 (or 23) is the first day of the French Republican Calendar.

See also Prefects of Louisianne and First Presidents of Louisianne.

Prefectoral and Departmental Government

The populace votes for local representatives who serve in the People's Houses of the Département and the Préfecture. A second house in each prefectures is the House of Lords, composed mostly of those granted political appointment by ancestral nobility, or, more and more frequently, a political appointment by the prefectoral Prefet, or Prefect which is approved by the People's House.

Together these Houses elect the Prefect who is the executive leader of the prefectures, subject to a vote-of-no-confidence. The Prefect represents his or her respective prefectures on a national level in the Council.

The National Assembly

Created by Beauvais and his cadre of leaders, the National Assembly is elected by representative districts in the Prefectures and Departments, consisting of a static number of 449 seats, and are re-appropriated by population each 10 years, following the national census.

Current National Assembly Membership

Numbers in this graph are the number of seats held in the Louisiannan National Assembly, as of the jour d'investissement or Investiture Day, which takes place the 1e Brumaire, equating to the 23rd or 24th of October. If asterisks are used, they are tentative election results, and not the actual seated numbers.

Current Divisions

Numbers in this graph are the number of seats held in the Louisiannan National Assembly, as of the jour d'investissement or Investiture Day, which takes place the 1e Brumaire, equating to the 23rd or 24th of October. If asterisks are used, they are tentative election results, and not the actual seated numbers.

The following legend could help:

Dark Blue -- Christian Morality Legislators (LCR)

Lighter Blue -- Démocratie Libérale (DL)

Dark Green -- Le Parti Ecotopique (PEco)

Lighter Green -- Loi Naturelle (LN)

White -- Republicains Libres (RL)

Pink -- Luthériens Démocratiques Populaires (L.D.P.)

Rose -- Populist Party (PP)

Red -- Front National (FN)

Brick Red -- Droit et Droite (DD)

The yellow seat is the observer seat for the Pays-Lointains. Legislation was presented to committee in 2014 to allow this observer seat to become a fully-fledged voting member of the National Assembly.

Party	L	C	R	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Major Parties
RL		X		71	108	116	132	139	162	160	150	148	137	130	131	131	126	127
LDP		X	X	33	43	48	59	57	87	95	89	88	84	82	80	78	80	78
LN	X	X		61	76	82	78	79	65	66	85	87	82	80	80	81	78	80
PEco	X			10	15	19	18	18	60	65	75	77	90	99	99	100	99	100
Minor Parties
PP		X	X	17	19	22	18	27	27	20	16	23	27	31	30	29	35	34
DD			XX	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	7	15	17	19	23	25
Margin Parties
FN			X	6	9	13	18	16	18	18	15	11	9	8	8	8	4	2
AF			X	23	25	29	30	25	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
ER			X	-	2	1	3	3	7	5	2	0	-	-	-	-	-	-
DL	X			1	3	2	5	6	3	3	3	4	6	1	1	1	2	1
PRL		X		77	27	-	4	3	4	4	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
VPL	X			140	112	104	54	29	5	4	5	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
LMC			X	3	2	3	15	35	2	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
LCR	X			7	8	10	15	12	9	8	6	9	6	3	3	2	2	2