Statelessness, Persecution, and More on the Origins of Edan

  The very first piece on this blog that was not the final drafts of the constitution was a discussion of the theory and history behind Edan, That article focused on Edan as a stable, personal, just, non-territorial nation. But it left out a portion of the history of the formation of Edan. That portion was a desire to assist stateless people.
  'Refugee' means 'a person outside of their home nation because of persecution, actual or feared'
  'Stateless Person' means either 'a person that has no legal recognition of citizenship with any nation (de jure statelessness)' or 'a person outside of their nation of citizenship who cannot avail themselves of the benefits of their nationality for valid reasons such as a state of war, loss of documentation, etc. (de facto statelessness or undocumented statelessness)'.
  Not all refugees are stateless and not all stateless people are refugees.
  Without citizenship it can be effectively impossible to travel - a stateless person often cannot cross borders, obtain a visa, or (often) apply for asylum. On a day-to-day level they often cannot legally hold a job, gain licences or certifications, get an education, receive health care, etc. Such people commonly cannot register such events and births, marriages, and deaths. In many nations they may be detained at will. In short, by being stateless they both can't live where they are and can't leave where they are.
  The UNHCR estimates that there are about 11 million stateless people in the world (equal to the population of Belgium) and a large number of these stateless people are multi-generational families in places like Palestine and the Balkans where stateless parents give birth to stateless children.
  One of the goals of the Kingdom is to achieve a level of diplomatic and political recognition as a Non-Territorial Nation that Edan can assist stateless people in finding new citizenship either directly,by offering Edanian citizenship, or indirectly by providing them with the minimum level of identity documentation to allow them to seek asylum/citizenship elsewhere.
  King Richard sees this as 'showing love to the foreigner' in a profound way.

  The King is well aware that many Edanians are eager to aid persecuted Christians in Iraq and other parts of the world.
  So is King Richard. When Edan is capable of helping refugees and the stateless persecuted Christians will be a primary goal for assistance. When Edan was founded in 1999 it was in the face of severe persecution of Christians in Sudan, India, and Chechnya (among many other places). It is well documented bythe International Society for Human Rights (based in Germany), Civitas UK, and many other organizations that 80% of all religious persecution is the persecution of Christians. In 2013, before the attacks in Iraq and the Levant, it was estimated that at least 200 million Christians were being persecuted or outright attacked for their faith. This means that if you were to gather all the world's persecuted and oppressed Christians together it would be the 6th largest nation in the world .
  Putanother way, the number of Christians being persecuted in the world right now exceeds the combined populations of the citizens of all religions of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and Israel combined.

  So what can Edan do?
  Right now we can pray and educate. We are not yet at the 'critical mass' needed to gain the economic and political wight needed to do more. As much as we have grown, as much as we have already done, we need to be much larger before we can reach the point of political and diplomatic recognition.

  Maybe the most important thing you can do is help Edan grow. Talk to others, use the flyers and handouts we have sent in the past. Pay your taxes. Get Edan to the size where we cannot be ignored. A Media Kit will be issued soon so that you can canvas radio, print, universities, and television stations - King Richard will talk to anyone of good will about Edan.
  In a very real way every person, every household that we add to Edan will one day be another stateless family given a new home and another Christian saved from persecution. We can get there, we will get there.

  St. Michael Archangel, defend us in battle....

How Edan Works - Budget and Taxes

  In the most recent post we discussed how the Assembly passes laws. There is a mild exception to this, and that is the budget. There a specific rules about the budget that must be followed;

1) The budget is (almost) the first thing the Assembly does each year (after an election the first step is to elect a First Senator – then the budget).

2) The budget is for the following year, not the current year.

3) The budget can only be based on money already in the Treasury – no debt, no loans, no estimates of future income. If the money isn't already in the Treasury, it can't be in the budget.

4) The budget cannot create a deficit.

5) If the Kingdom has an existing debt (from an emergency or other non-standard event) the budget must reduce the principal each year.

6) The budget can include reasonable fees, but cannot include items that would require nobles or citizens to fund them; i.e, an annual fee for a vehicle operator's license is OK, a requirement that each baron maintain a specific computer system without allocating funds is not.

7) Any budget item that lasts for more than 1 year requires a separate vote and requires a 2/3 majority to pass.

8) No budget item can last more than 6 years.

9) Pay for Senators is a separate item (if Senators are paid) and any changes don't take force until after the next election.

10) Until a valid budget is passed the Assembly does no other business.

The process of passing a budget:

1) The King submits his budget to the First Senator as the first proposal of the first conclave.

2) Unless 2/3 of Senators vote against the King's budget, it is passed and sent to the Council

3) Unless 2/3 of the members of the Council vote against the King's budget, it is passed and goes into effect.

4) If the King's budget is rejected the King or any Senator may propose alternate budgets.

Note: in an exception, even the King's budget proposal are introduced into the Senate, never the Council.

5) These proposed budgets only need a simple majority approval to be sent to the Council and a simple majority to be approved by the Council.

6) If either the Council or the King rejects two proposed budgets a Special Assembly is held where all Senators and all members of the Council meet as a single body.

A) The combined Assembly has one week to propose and approve (by simple majority of the total Assembly) a budget, If the king rejects the proposed budget or they fail to meet the deadline they meet for an additional week.

B) If a 4th budget is rejected by the King or the second deadline is missed the King dissolves the Assembly and elections for new senators are held as soon as possible.

Taxes:

Once the budget for the upcoming year is finalized the tax schedule for that same year as the budget is developed by the Minister of Finance (consulting with the King and the Minister of State). The Finance Minister has one month from the final budget approval to get the proposed tax schedule tot he King; the King has until the Grand Conclave to announce the final tax schedule.

The Result:

While a balanced budget is not a requirement (the budget could expend less money than exists in the Treasury, after all) it does prevent deficit spending or the accumulation of government debt.