9.15.2021

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 Creating a country out of scratch isn't easy, and I get why it's difficult to manage one without encountering problem after problem. We were tasked today to figure out a system of government, starting from voting, judiciaries, the military, and more. It occurred to me so naturally, that we live in a "systematic" nation in which I don't need to re-evaluate the government every second. I was born where there were pre-existing rules and a basic notion of how to live life. This was why getting into groups to talk about hypothetical nation-building was like none other. Just considering one aspect of a government (eg, voting) lead to reconsidering and taking into factor vast topics. Ideally, it would be best for our "country" to meet the needs of every individual. However, throughout the whole process, we came to terms with its impossibility. So, we allowed for compromise and brainstormed the most manageable structure. 

First, we discussed whether we wanted voting rights, and seeing as a majority have lived long in Japan, we decided to agree on that. However, figuring out who gets to vote was a different situation. Deciding that those who are competent are those who enroll in voting courses had its disadvantages in which those making the voting courses would likely be the government, but we thought that this can help provide such education to all people. Another topic we considered was its elections, and at first, we thought of not determining them by years, but hearing the situation with the UK minister, I reevaluated its competency. So, being generic, we decided on 4 years per election. An idea came from one of our group members about allowing for a motion to reelect the minister if they don't abide by the rules. Therefore, we agreed on a recall which reflected our idea. It was unexpected to see that most of our ideas were already considered in society, and more ironic to know that our "new country" is merely based on knowledge of what we currently have. I found it very hard to develop a different system and this made me wonder if we will ever be progressive enough to prevent our worldly issues. 

A new idea that we included though was socialism, as we looked at how Nordic countries had imposed good welfare and services to their people. Since we wanted our people to be respected and treated equally, we thought that it would fit our needs. This would also mean that we would have to raise our taxes, and especially income tax because those were what dominated the majority of sanctioned taxes. There is a worry that ramping up taxes at such beginning stages would discourage our people into working longer, so this means that our policies would have to be transparent to build trust towards the government. Overall, I am still concerned that there are disadvantages to socialism despite its success in certain countries, so by next class, I would like to work on researching socialism more. As a group, we would like to further delve into the role of media, as well as the judicial system.


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