Governance and Legal Administration of Andaen

Being a city-state, Andaen is a self-governing entity and not under the rule of any kingdom, empire, republic, or the like. The City-State of Andaen itself does have jurisdiction over tracts of land beyond its city walls, as well as either hegemonic or direct administrative control of several other locales within the Haifatneh Basin and Near Takhet.

Leadership, Succession, and Political Legitimacy

Andaen's rulership consists of a bureaucratic administration headed by the Council of Andaen, a small, self-elected decision-making body of eight prominent citizens plus a Chief Magistrate who leads their meetings and discussions. The eight voting Council members and the chief Magistrate could potentially be any prominent citizens of Andaen, but members are nominated, selected, and eventually given the terms of their retirement by way of non-anonymous votes among the Council; the Chief Magistrate officiates these meetings without personally voting. The appointment of exactly eight Council members is intentional: Should any Council vote come to a tie, it is the responsibility of the Council members to continue to debate the issue until at least one member can be persuaded to change their vote, ensuring that particularly controversial issues will be subjec to sufficient deliberation.
The question of the political legitimacy of this self-elected Council is of much interest to scholars and politicians both within and outside Andaen; the most popular answers point to Andaen's ongoing economic progress and relative political stability, as well as publicity tactics which at least manufacture the appearance of popular support for new Council members.
The Council was founded initially as an emergency measure in the aftermath of the Shame of Waharreh, a massive invasion from Takhet. Although Andaen's defenders successfully fought off the invaders, the city-state's Marshal-Regent (essentially a warlord under a different title) incurred extraordinary economic and human costs in resisting Great Waharreh and used draconian measures to maintain his hold on power throughout his reign. The deprivation that followed the Shame of Waharreh incited mass dissent and anxiety over Andaen's future. A small network of prominent merchants and scholars organized a popular movement calling for the Marshal-Regent to step down; historians debate whether the soon-to-be First Council of Andaen did so merely out of political opportunism or with the purpose of heading off a violent revolution.
Though the First Council still had concerns of military concern looming overhead, they chose to invest in the future of Andaen's long-term development, prioritizing trade missions and the development of new industries to generate revenue. Though Andaen's security remained a cause for anxiety for the first few decades of the Council's rule, their gambit paid off in the long run, forging friendlier relations with states across the Haifatneh Basin and Near Takhet while also generating essential revenues for the city's civilian and military development. The political disunity of the Haifatneh Basin and the power vacuum that opened up in Near Takhet with the collapse of Great Waharreh also ensured that the Council could first prioritize commerce, job opportunities, and peaceful diplomacy, and then bolster the city-state's military might in time to begin asserting over some of its weaker neighbors. Though Andaen's status as a regional commercial capital has led to considerable socioeconomic disparities among its populace, the Council does know well enough to distribute enough resources and subsidies to the lower rungs of Andaen's society to stave off mass discontentment, and broadly speaking, they have successfully pushed a narrative that the Council's daring innovations have been responsible for improving the overall quality of life in Andaen. (For many inhabitants of Andaen, this narrative is broadly accurate.)
The Council also upholds its political legitimacy through a dose of performative politics. Although both nominations and appointments of Council members are decided behind closed doors, the Council has traditionally expected nominees to tour the city of Andaen and publicize their bid for Council membership, strengthening ties with Andaen's various interest groups and getting a reading of public attitudes toward the candidate. This practice is encouraged even when there is only one nominee for a vacant Council seat, though some members of the public may privately complain that this process is ultimately a nicety on the way to a nominee's inevitable appointment.

Legislation and the Judiciary

Andaen's Council and bureaucracy govern the city-state according to the rule of law, with government officials including current Council members being held accountable to existing legislation and judicial precedents. (Whether this is entirely true in practice is another question, given the political and material power of the Council members and the closed-door proceedings through which they make major decisions of governance.)
Major legislation is the product of Council meetings and decrees, with various bodies of the city's bureaucracy being charged with the implementation and enforcement of these laws. For relatively minor matters of city administration, laws and regulations are developed by city bureaus themselves and forwarded to the Council for approval, though in practice, proposals of lesser concern to the Council are seen only by the eyes of the Council's legal advisors and secretaries.
Andaen's judiciary is divided into a High Court and several Petty Courts. The High Court's three judges are selected and reelected by the Council to serve fixed six-year terms; for the purpose of ensuring a measure of judicial independence (thus reassuring the public that the rule of law will be upheld), High Court judges cannot be removed from their posts during their terms unless they are found guilty of serious crimes against Andaen's security (such as sedition). The Council members are officially accountable to the law and can be put to trial. The High Court directly presides over cases of high crimes such as sedition and the most serious financial crimes; the High Court only presides over lesser cases if they choose to accept an appeal forwarded to them from a Petty Court.
The Petty Courts are overseen by judges who are appointed on three-year fixed terms by the High Court judges, though Petty Court judges can be ousted at the discretion of the High Court judges with or without stated reason. The Petty Courts are subdivided into civil and criminal courts; civil courts are typically responsible for settling business disputes that do not involve financial crimes, whereas the criminal courts try and sentence defendants for most property crimes, violent crimes, and minor financial crimes. Petty Court judges organize hearings, hear from witnesses and experts, and decide cases themselves (there is no jury system in Andaen), either declaring the defendant innocent or guilty; in particularly ambiguous or controversial cases, these judges may assent to have a case appealed to the High Court to consult the greater expertise of those judges.

Administration and Bureaucracy

Beneath the Council is a multi-tiered and expansive bureaucracy that is responsible for researching policy proposals on behalf of the Council, carrying out Council directives, and managing the day-to-day governance of Andaen. The Council selects the Magister of each Department and the Chair of each Bureau; these officials, in turn, appoint their own employees.
The bureaucracy of the city-state's government consists of three departments (macro-level bureaucracies which each head multiple bureaus) and several bureaus of smaller, more specialized scopes.

The Department of Commerce is the single largest division of the government bureaucracy, such is the complexity of managing affairs ranging from coinage and minting, to exports and imports, to taxation, to the policing of commercial activities of all sorts.
The Bureau of Coinage and Valuation manages minting facilities and their output of silver coins and ingots, as well as assessing the values of trade goods, including local products and exotic fares, according to the silver standard.
The Bureau of Trade, among the largest bureaus in the entire city government, monitors imports and exports, enforces tariffs, researches trade policy, and manages shipping and external traffic to and from the city's gates and harbors. This includes working with the Bureau of Maritime Affairs to ensure the efficient operation of the dry docks and maritime maintenance facilities.
The Bureau of Taxation collects and conducts bookkeeping for property taxes, business taxes, and tariffs, and it performs tax audits both for routine purposes and occasionally to assist operations of the Bureau of Investigations. In extreme cases of tax evasion, the Tax Bureau petitions the Bureau of Investigations or even the Bureau of Enforcement to ensure compliance.

The Department of Enterprise is chiefly responsible for business and real estate licensing, quality control for each industry. It also works in coordination with the Department of Commerce to set the direction of the development of Andaen's many industries, ensuring that security-critical industries and those industries with great future growth potential receive the support they need.
The Bureau of Banking and Finance was originally established by the Department of Enterprise to deal in business loans and every step of the process of administering them, from accepting and reviewing loan applications, to setting loan payment and interest terms, to ensuring the smooth and timely issuance of loans. Its operations have since expanded to bookkeeping for the city government's foreign investments and working with other bureaus to assess the overall state of Andaen's financial resources. The Bureau of Banking and Finance also houses a robust accounting wing which ensures that loan funds are not being embezzled or otherwise misappropriated.
The Bureau of Urban Planning administers the use of the crowded city's limited real estate. It is also tasked with surveying living conditions across the city's different districts, so as to inform the Council of potential issues with social unrest or future population growth. A significant body within this bureau manages issues related to land and maritime transportion to, from, and within the city proper.
The Bureau of Entrepreneurship, its name seemingly redundant with the supervising Department of Enterprise, is specialized in regular dealings with the city's businesspeople, including the administration of business registrations and subsidies.

The Department of Security was once concerned mainly with Andaen's security against external threats, but these days its chief priority is to control criminal activities and minimize unrest within the city-state.
The Bureau of Diplomacy employs lower-level diplomatic personnel and accommodates Council members when they conduct major foreign missions themselves. Services provided by the Bureau of Diplomacy include language training and cultural advising, intelligence-gathering on regional political affairs, and monitoring and advising on travel conditions.
The Bureau of Enforcement manages the city's patrols and domestic security forces, with the exception of the few instances of Andaen's history in which martial law has been declared and these responsibilities have been handed over to the military. It is sometimes regarded as the "strong arm" of the Bureau of Investigations, given that Enforcement is charged with monitoring marketplaces, canals, the Underchannels, and other parts of the city that are susceptible to petty crimes, smuggling, dealings in illicit substances, and the like. Enforcement also runs stings and other anti-crime operations and staffs the city's dungeons.
The Bureau of Investigations is more or less a twin of the Bureau of Enforcement, but while Enforcement is more concerned with the "rougher" side of law enforcement, Investigations carries out its functions in a more discrete manner and mainly concentrates on financial crimes such as corruption and misappropriation of funds.
The Bureau of Justice mainly performs regular bureaucratic duties on behalf of the Court of Andaen, such as archiving court records, transcribing court proceedings, and studying laws and legal precedents for the purpose of advising judges, other government bureaus, and the Council itself.
The Bureau of Magical Affairs is a small body acting as a liaison between the city government and those of the city's universities which educate and train practitioners of magic, first and foremost the famed Esoteric University of Arts and Lore. The Bureau's other main role is to occasionally offer expert witnesses to weigh in on trials in which defendants have been charged with violating the Four Sanctions.
The Bureau of Mobilization is the civilian body which coordinates with the city's military leadership to ensure proper staffing, supply, and quarters to ensure the smooth operation of the city's army and navy, especially within the city proper and its periphery. The Bureau of Mobilization also propagandizes for voluntary recruitment drives for military and security personnel in times of relative peace and coordinates conscription in times of peril.

Aside from the three Departments, the city government also includes several Freestanding Bureaus. The most prominent ones are listed below:
The Bureau of Agriculture and Fishing is chiefly concerned with ensuring adequate supplies of food to the populous city and its surroundings, including by monitoring the health of fields, orchards, and marine reserves (to the best of its ability, given the limits of scientific advances in Tahuum Itaqiin), as well as providing optimal conditions for the harvest and sale of cash crops and luxury marine resources. This Bureau also provides the official point of reference for Andaen's solar calendar.
The Bureau of Resource Management and Acquisition monitors the reserves of other natural resources, including timber and minerals, that the city-state currently has within its holdings. This Bureau also coordinates with the Bureau of Diplomacy regarding the known available and potential reserves of resources which could be accessed from other polities in the Haifathneh Basin, Far Takhet, and further afield (usually through trade).
The Bureau of Welfare coordinates with the Bureau of Agriculture and Fishing as well as the Department of Commerce to meet the basic living needs of (most of) the populace. One major function is coordinating the distribution of bread and grains to feed the Sojourners serving as manual laborers in the city's shipyards, foundries, agricultural operations, and other key industries. Another is securing group housing for these groups, mainly by petitioning the Department of Enterprise to approve the construction and operation of such housing by private landowners. The Bureau of Welfare doubles as a propagandizing body to an extent, spreading public awareness of its programs to help maintain a baseline level of contentment among the masses.

3690 HE - Present

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Previous Governments

The Warlord State of Andaen

3501 - 3690 HE

The Reborn Theocracy
(The Crusader Citadel of Andaen)

3422 - 3501 HE