Government Overview
The Lutetian Government is a democratic body headed by a Prime Minister, who is responsible for building the rest of his or her government by selecting ministers. The Prime Minister’s government is then in turn accountable to parliament, a legislative body comprised of two branches: the democratically elected Commons, and the meritocratically selected Lords’ Assembly.
The Lutetian Prime Minister comes to power through the election of parliamentary représentants (or just ‘représentants’) to sit in the Commons on behalf of each different area of the country. Members of political parties stand for these seats, and the leader of the party who commands the most seats in the Commons becomes the Prime Minister. There are three-hundred and twenty five seats in the Commons, forty of which are filled by représentants of areas within Lutetia City itself. An election is held once every four years, although it can be held sooner if Parliament passes a vote of no confidence in the current government, which automatically triggers an election.
The Lords’ Assembly is a larger body than the Commons, comprised of (on average) four-hundred individuals, although this number is not static. There are two ways in which one can become a member of the Lords’ Assembly. The first is through religious merit, a position known as a Legate Pastorale. These seats on the Assembly are ostensibly none-partisan: owing no loyalty to nor possessing any affiliation with a political party. In the past, the Legate Pastorale were a majority on the Assembly, but since the secularisation of Lutetia a hard cap on the number of seats that may be filled by religious merit has been set at fifty. The Lords who sit in these fifty seats are directly appointed by the Church, and are largely comprised of the seniormost bishops of the Ecclesiarchy (although rarely Monastic Order Masters or High Inquisitors have been appointed to these seats).
The second means by which to become a member of the Lords’ Assembly is through ‘merit’, as determined by the existing members of the Assembly. Those holding these positions are known as the Legate Meritoire, and come in two further varieties. The first is a hereditary seat: a seat which can be inherited by a chosen heir within the family of the current Legate upon their death (an honour which can not be refused). The second is a non-hereditary seat, wherein upon the current Legate’s death, a by-election is held by the other members of the Assembly to fill the seat. Theoretically, the Legate Meritoire can be selected from literally any part of Lutetian society, provided an individual has demonstrated sufficient merit, is over the age of twenty-one, is a Lutetian citizen, and isn’t bankrupt or previously convicted of treason. In practice, the Assembly is something of an ‘old boys’ club’, wherein only the wealthy, influential and those well-liked by the existing upper classes are ever selected (often without any reason that could even vaguely be interpreted as ‘merit’).
Parliament as a whole is a tiered system, wherein the Commons forms the lower tier, and the Lords’ Assembly the upper tier. Laws and bills must be passed first through the Commons, and then through the Lords’ Assembly in order to be ratified into law. Whilst the Commons can and often does propose laws, the Lords’ Assembly retains the power to reject and force amendments to any laws proposed by the Commons, whilst the inverse is not always true - the Lords’ Assembly can (and at times does) force bills through without the approval of the Commons, although they exercise this power very rarely, so as not to draw the ire of the people.
The vast majority of bills and laws are proposed by the government itself, the ministers selected by the Prime Minister. These bills are usually discussed in both the Lords’ Assembly and the Commons, and the government’s ministers are drawn from both bodies. The majority of the senior-most ministers sit in the Lords’ Assembly as opposed to the Commons, although there have been some exceptions to that rule within most recent governments.
As well as parliamentary representatives, each town and city within Lutetia elects a mayor that is able to pass local regulations and dictate local policy in cooperation with an elected mayoral assembly, although they are subject to being overruled by parliament. Lutetia City is an exception to this, wherein the position of mayor is replaced by a ‘Custodian’, appointed by the Lords’ Assembly rather than elected, who heads a small adminstrative body that fulfills a similar role to a mayor’s office, but answers directly to the Lords’ Assembly. The current Custodian is a [dash’s guy]
Although there are a relatively wide variety of smaller parties, there are only two ‘politically dominant’ parties in Lutetian politics. These parties are: The Lutetian Democrats (socially centrist, economic right-leaning) and The Moderate Party (socially right, economic right). A third, smaller party - the Liberal Unionists (socially left, economically centrist) - is widely supported in the poorer districts of the cities of Lutetia but has so little support elsewhere it is unlikely to ever achieve a majority. The current party in power (and in power since over a decade ago) are the Lutetian Democrats, although they are polling poorly in recent weeks due to their relatively pro-werewolf policies. The current Prime Minister is a man by the name of Édouard Beaumont, who took office in the election last year.
Current named members of the Lords’ Assembly:
- Evangeline Castellane
- Damien Castellane
- Florianne Nuvellon
- Michel Voclain (archbishop of Lutetia City)