Council of the Union (Tepertopia) (Pacifica)

Council of the Union Bundesrat
History
Established	14 December 1889 (1889-12-14)
Preceded by	Council of the Union (Harmonist Tepertopia)
Leadership
Protector of Tepertopia	Gerhard von Selingen, Independent since 08 March 2002
Councilor for Defense	John Collins, M since 15 August 2022
Councilor for Domestic Affairs	Christoph von Ottenburg, C since 25 August 2014
Councilor for Finance	Robert Scheffelmann, GUILD since 15 August 2022
Councilor for Foreign Affairs	Jane Aldwell, M since 25 August 2014
Councilor for Justice	Ulrich Gütcke, M since 15 August 2022
Councilor for Progress	Andrea Rouxel, FiO since 20 August 2018
Councilor for Special Affairs	Jade Hayes, W since 20 August 2018
Councilor for Welfare	Frances Emerton, W since 30 August 2010
Structure
Seats	9
Political groups	M (3)      W (2)      GUILD (1)      C (1)      FiO (1)      Protector (1)
Length of term	4 years
Elections
Voting system	Evaluative Satisfaction System
Last election	17 July 2022
Next election	On or before 12 July 2026
Meeting place
Palace of the Union Adaca

The Council of the Union (Alman: Bundesrat, [ˈbʊndəsˌʁaːt]), colloquially simply called the Council, is the collective head of government of Tepertopia. Its nine members comprise the Protector of Tepertopia ex officio as well as eight directly elected representatives of the Constituent States of Tepertopia.

Under the Tepertopian Articles of Union, every Councilor heads one of the eight executive departments of the federal administration in their own authority, but is required to coordinate with their fellow Councilors in good faith. The Protector, while legally speaking a member and chairperson of the Council, traditionally does not interfere in its business and delegates the chair to another Councilor in order to prevent implication in political decisions.

Elections to the Council take place every four years using the Evaluative Satisfaction System. The Articles of Union require that each State of Tepertopia be represented with at least one (elected) Councilor. Once in office, the Articles grant Councilors extensive immunity, with no possibility of recall or motion of no confidence during their term; only a High Court conviction for wilful violation of the Articles can involuntarily remove a Councilor from office.

Origins

First Protectorate

The Council of the Union as an institution was first established with the Tepertopian First Protectorate. Staffed with the leaders of the States, it served as a check on the powers of the Protector of the Union, the common monarch of the newly-established union, which it also elected.

Election and composition

The selection of Councilors is governed by Articles 32 and 32a of the Articles of Union. They require the Councilors to be appointed by the Protector as a result of an election, with the Council Elections Act (Bundesrats-Wahlgesetz) regulating the details. The status of Council elections as direct elections contained therein is thus codified only as federal law, but not on a constitutional level.

Mode of election

Councilors are elected to four-year terms simultaneously, using the semi-proportional Evaluative Satisfaction System. The Constituent States of Tepertopia serve as electoral districts for the election, each sending a single member. In addition to the five seats thus elected by a (relative) majority in the States ‒ the so-called Majority Mandates (Mehrheitsmandate) ‒ three additional seats are awarded to the best losing candidates from underrepresented parties in a compensatory manner, called Compensatory Mandates (Ausgleichsmandate).

The biggest parties usually nominate one candidate per State. Often, due to the required State-wide recognition of candidates and the high esteem of the office, esteemed long-time party members who have served in the parties' highest offices are nominated; in practice, most Council members will have served in the Presidium of the Tepertopian Assembly, head of government of the respective State, or their party's parliamentary faction leader. Members' prospects of nomination are greatly helped by fluency in both Austral and Alman for ease of communication in the close collegial setting of the Council.

If elected, party members are allowed to remain in their party, but are expected to relinquish any leading office within it. While not uncommon in the Federal and State legislatures, independents have seldom been successful in bids for a seat on the Council.

The winners of the election are required to be formally appointed to the Council by the Protector before a session of the Tepertopian Assembly. Between election and appointment, the Councilors-designate negotiate among themselves over who will head which department. Traditionally, they choose their departments in descending order of seniority (measured by when they were first appointed to the Council), but majority votes can be called to settle cases of otherwise unresolvable disagreement.

In order for the Councilors-designates to take their seats, they must swear the following oath of office during the appointment ceremony:

I solemnly swear that I will bear true allegiance to the constitutional order, that I will govern in faithful service to His Grace The Protector with a righteous heart devoid of fear and hatred, that I will dedicate my efforts to the well-being of the people, their protection and welfare, and that I will do justice to all.

Removal from office

Once appointed, Councilors enjoy great political immunity under the Articles of Union. Art. 32a forbids the Protector from involuntarily removing a Councilor prior to the election of a successor, and Art. 61 explicitly exempts them from the otherwise far-reaching recall powers of the Tepertopian Assembly. Only the High Court of Tepertopia can remove a Councilor from office involuntarily, by finding them guilty of a wilful breach of the Articles (Art. 72 and 73). Voluntary resignation is possible at any time, with the seat then allocated anew like a Compensatory Mandate, using the result of the last election.

Current members

Following the 2022 Tepertopian executive election, the members of the Council are, in descending order of seniority:

Member			Party	State	Mandate	Since	Department
	Gerhard von Selingen		-	Lotze	(ex officio)	08 March 2002	-
	Frances Emerton		Welfare Party	Valetria	Majority	30 August 2010	Welfare
	Christoph von Ottenburg		Canon	Grimmen	Majority	25 August 2014	Domestic Affairs
	Jane Aldwell		The Moderates	Vickel	Majority	25 August 2014	Foreign Affairs
	Andrea Rouxel		The Future is Ours!	Grimmen	Compensatory	20 August 2018	Progress
	Jade Hayes		Welfare Party	Pluvy	Majority	20 August 2018	Special Affairs
	John Collins		The Moderates	Lotze	Majority	15 August 2022	Defense
	Robert Scheffelmann		Merchants Guild	Vickel	Compensatory	15 August 2022	Finance
	Ulrich Gütcke		The Moderates	Valetria	Compensatory	15 August 2022	Justice

Operation

The operation of the Council is governed by its rules of procedure under the fundamental directions of Articles 37 and 38 of the Articles of Union.

Chair of the Council

Art. 37 Sec. 1 S. 2 stipulates that the Protector themselves is the chair of the Council. Sentence 3 however also allows the nowadays exclusively practiced option for the Protector to delegate the chair to another Councilor. By convention, this role is filled by the longest-serving Councilor.

The chair does not give the respective Councilor additional powers in law. At the original adoption of the Articles, the possible authority to render urgent decisions alone until a meeting could be arranged rested with the chairing Protector by virtue of his office as Protector; today, with the Protector's powers themselves largely subject to countersignature by the Councilor whose department would be responsible, this power was factually assumed by the respectively responsible Councilor, who doesn't necessarily have to be the Council's chair.

Furthermore, the chairperson is not the head of government, since this function is carried out by the Council in its entirety. For practical reasons in receiving foreign official visits and conducting own ones, however, the Councilor for Foreign Affairs acts as the official representative of the whole Council; at receptions for foreign heads of state, the whole Council will be present.

Accordingly, the chairperson nowadays is simply primus inter pares.

Sessions

Session room of the Council

As demanded by Art. 37, the Council meets weekly, usually on Fridays. Meetings are held in the Palace of the Union in Adaca, the formal seat of the Protector's court. If at least two Councilors request an extraordinary session, the Council's chair is obligated to convene one as quickly as possible.

During sessions, the Councilors update each other about important developments within their departments and discuss their common policy. While Councilors are empowered to propose bills before the Assembly in their own right, such proposals are usually debated and filed together by the Council as a whole, since this already conducts some balancing of the different parties' viewpoints and thus raises the bills chances in the legislature.

The contents of sessions and the results of votes taken by the Council are not open to the public, remaining sealed until all Councilors party to them have left office. While subject to criticism, the Council maintains that this is necessary to ensure the political independence of Councilors and a collegial, trustful working atmosphere. In a 1997 case, the High Court last denied a legal duty of the Council to release a session protocol to a committee of inquiry of the Assembly.

Decision-making

Collective decisions of the Council get prepared by the Councilor whose department is responsible. At its sessions, the Council then decides by voice vote of the present Councilors. Unless the law requires otherwise, a simple majority suffices; by convention, Councilors are expected to try reaching a consensus opinion first, however.