Government Overview: Political Houses and The Prime Minister
Government is divided into the political Houses, which make up Parliament, and the executive branch, which is comprised of a Prime Minister and his or her chosen cabinet and all the people needed to serve them and keep the bureaucratic machine well-oiled. The courts and judicial process are tied up very tightly with the executive branch, so for the most part one can consider them as being under the umbrella of the executive branch's power.
There is no voting public to change how many seats a certain House holds in Parliament, therefore the ratio is always constant. There are 120 seats in Parliament and 4 houses, leaving 30 seats to each House. However, political houses usually contain around 100 members and are governed by their own internal politics. All political Houses have a house leader called the Head, but otherwise their internal structures can vary greatly. House members must quarrel with each other over who gets to participate in Parliament, which bill proposals they should submit, the criteria for accepting new members, who becomes Head of the house, etc.
Considering the Prime Minister remains in power until they die they might remind us a bit more of Kings, but the title of King tends to make us think of a hereditary political system, so "Prime Minister" it is. It is almost always the House Head who is put up as a candidate for election when a new Prime Minister is needed. Political House members are the only people allowed to vote in this election, but their votes can be (and often are) swayed by the bribes given to them by rich citizens of the Upper Layer. Still, members who vote against the wishes of their House too often - in either elections or in Parliament - find themselves punished by ejection or demotion.
The newly-elected Prime Minister will take advisers to serve on their cabinet. Advisers can be drawn from the previous cabinet or from any House, and having accepted their new job must then officially relinquish their position within their House. Nevertheless, their loyalty to the interests of their former House will often remain strong.
The current Prime Minister, Falk, is a rather stately gentleman of some 115 years, elected 30 years ago. Falk was a member of House Albridge but his cabinet - which has remained the same since his election - is surprisingly mixed.
The four political houses are:
House Albridge - A House with a moderate-conservative leaning, popular with the newly-wealthy Upper layer citizens since they tend to act in the interest of businesses, both big and small. The driving interests of House Albridge have less to do with class and more to do with money. This House is mostly comprised of City People. Albridge has been plagued with recent controversy over some anti-Book Child sentiments expressed by former members, although their House policies are decidedly neutral.
House Wolfrich - A highly conservative house that is often demonized among the lower classes because of their exclusively upper class focus. "Wolves" are caricatured as greedy robber barons who pander to the super rich and delight only in squashing the poor under their diamond-buckled shoes while stealing money hand over fist from the middle class. That may not be entirely true, but what House Wolfrich does do is look after its own, and its own are the wealthiest and oldest family lines the City has to offer. Has a higher number of Book Children members than other Houses.
House Greene - The so-called "people's" House. Greene is what we would most associate with modern economic socialists, campaigning for greater government control in industry while attempting to expand and create public work projects wherever possible. Like all political entities their motives, while certainly against the grain, are not always altruistic. A fairly even mix of City People and Book Children. Often sides with House Wardwick, and House Wardwick is not always sure if they like that.
House Wardwick - A socially-motivated political House that often clashes with House Wolfrich. Primarily concerned with expanding rights and opportunities for the lower classes. While not quite as aggressive as Greene in expanding the role of government in the City's economy, many of their proposals are for public projects that would rely on funding drawn from taxing businesses, which tends to make parts of the upper class regard them with some wariness. Comprised mostly of City People.
Parliament and Lawmaking
The creation of new laws is very much like modern British Parliament. Except not. Yeah.
TL;DR bill process:
1. 1 month - fully assembled Parliament. A bill is introduced, its formal long title is read so that the members know what it's about. The bill goes up for review before all members of Parliament and is debated openly. If not voted down, it goes ahead to the committee stage.
2. 3 months - Parliament is broken into committees of 8 ~ 12 people, maintaining an even ratio from each House. The bill spends these months being debated and amended in its assigned committee.
3. 1 month - Parliament comes out of committees. The bill returns for a second Parliament-wide review, open for debate from all sides. It is either voted down, voted into law, or continues to live on in painful political limbo until next "season."
4. If it passes, it goes to the Prime Minister who signs it into law.
Long version:
Parliament is active in 5-month periods, taking a month-long break between each. During those 5 months 3 are spent with Parliament broken up into committees that debate and amend bills, and 2 are spent with most (if not all) of Parliament assembled, which occur before and after the committee stage. During this period new bills are introduced and old bills are either scrapped, sent back to committees for more changes, or made into law. During this time every member of Parliament is able to debate and vote on bills. Debates are supposed to be civil. They rarely are. It can, at times, be hard to hear the "chosen" speaker over the jeers of the crowd. Any kind of verbal abuse, including petty, personal insults, is fair game. Parliament-wide debates are the busiest and most difficult part of the "season."
Sessions occur every day, but not every member can be expected to attend each day given how exhausting the ordeal is, so Houses assign certain representatives to be present for certain debates on certain days. They prioritize their bills - if it's a bill they particularly want to see go forward to committee and they know which day its introduction and review will be on, they assign their best speakers to that day. Particularly important or controversial bills may see the entirety of Parliament assembled, less important ones can get very few members in attendance.
There is a great deal of bribery that goes on. Bill proposals are submitted to an adviser of the Prime Minister's choosing, who then reads out the bills and opens them for debate in the unknown order of his or her choosing. However, it is pretty much expected that each House will bribe the adviser, first to learn the order of the bills and then to influence that order, until pretty much everyone knows exactly which bill is going to come up for debate when. Houses will often attempt to wear each other down by strategically altering the placement of bills so certain speakers will be too exhausted from previous fights to attend certain meetings.
Committees are formed, then bills are assigned to committees by the PM's official. More bribery is used for Houses to influence which committee gets which bill.
Review again, etc etc. If the bill passes it goes the Prime Minister, who can make it into law or - very rarely - veto it. Such drastic action is supposed to only be reserved for particularly controversial bills which the Prime Minister feels were passed unfairly - IE, a lot more money went into it than actual debate.
