About Parliament

The Parliament of WolvHaven is the legislative branch of WolvHaven. It consists of three elements: the President, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The parliament was established in 2012 and is one of the few functioning minecraft parliaments. The parliamentary system used here is modified and simplified so that it fits in with the operations of the server and caters to minecraft’s limitations.

The lower house – the House of Representatives is a democratically elected body whose members are known as Members Of Parliament (MP). 

The upper house – the Senate is a group of specially selected members based on their expertise by the President himself. The senate acts as a house of review and amends any legislation passed by the lower house to improve it or rejects it entirely.

The Sovereign – the President is the owner of the server. The president has the power to veto any passed bills and introduce temporary laws to tackle any emergency situations that may concern the server. Should the temporary law be made permanent, it will have to go through the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Parliament has several functions – to represent the people of WolvHaven, provide a government, scrutinize and hold the government to account, make laws and repeal or amend existing laws.

History

The birth of Parliament

First established in the City Hall of WolvHaven in 2012, the Parliament of WolvHaven – then known as the General Assembly was a Unicameral legislative branch. The then parliament house/assembly hall had a total of 4 seats – excluding the speaker/president’s chair. In 2013 however, this temporarily ended as there was no chamber built in the new world.

Bicameralism

After the NewWolvHaven era city was well established in 2015, a parliament building and chamber was finally built and the MPs were shifted to the Legislative Council (now the Senate).

The new MPs were selected by the Legislative Council – known as Appointed Members of Parliament (AMPs). However, later in 2016 parliament was made open to the public where any citizen could come in and speak, propose & vote on motions/bills.

Shortlived political parties

In mid-2016, a bill to allow the formation of political parties was passed and the WolvHaven Socialist Party and the National Progressive Front were formed. However, all parties were temporarily disbanded by order of the President due to unrest caused by the WolvHaven Socialist Party.

Reappearance of political parties & introduction of General Elections

In 2017, a brand new system was introduced where general elections would be held under a Mixed Member Proportionate system where the percentage of votes a party has determines the percentage of the seats they have in Parliament. 

For more information, visit the WolvHaven Parliament wiki page ➔

How parliament works

In this section:

• How does parliament make, amend or repeal laws?
• Phrases used in chamber

How does parliament make, amend or repeal laws?

The WolvHaven parliament is a modified parliamentary system in order to be functional for the server. Therefore, several processes are simplified while retaining the main function of Parliament.

1. A draft for a law – called a bill is introduced to parliament
2. The bill goes for its first reading – this usually involves the reading of the bill title, summary and opening speech by the bills’ proposer
3. The house votes on whether the bill should be read a second time
4. The bill goes for its second reading – this usually involves the main debate of the bill
5. At the end of the second reading debate,
   1. If the bill is less complicated, the house votes on the bill. If a majority votes in favor of the bill, it is read a third time and is passed by the House of Representatives. The bill will be sent to the Senate for review.
   2. If the bill is longer with many clauses, the house will adjourn the debate. This will give MPs time to look into every clause of the bill and recommend amendments to the proposer of the bill. This also allows the bill to be looked into by select committees The bill will appear before the house at the next parliament sitting and will be debated upon again.

Phrases used in the chamber

Parliament has its own language. These are some of the phrases you will hear in the chamber and what they mean