Atlas Council
A look at the Atlas Government in Full detail
The Council was once a properly Democratic Organization that was created by Atlas in order to bring peace to the world but after decades of degradation and corruption, the Atlas Council has become a hated government. It is perceived as a body of government designed only to serve the elite, the elite has a name, Jacque Schnee. Most members are sycophantic for him with few exceptions being James Ironwood or Professor Enola Simmons.
The Council as seen in the Volumes since 1 is at its most Right Wing State ever, having a series of disastrous elections with former icons of hope becoming sires of greed and tyranny with many who opposed Jacque steadily losing their elections and getting replaced with his allies. The biggest voice against Jacque after Volume 3 is General Ironwood and while he as far cry from a Defender of Liberty, he is a voice against Slavery and Human Supremacy, still holding onto some of the virtues that Ozpin imparted him with.
By 81 AGW, The Council elects to reinvigorate the position of Lord Stewart with the seat being up for grabs between Robyn Hill and Jacque Schnee, it shan't be hard to figure out which candidate most candidates back but without Ironwood's support, their chances are evenly matched. Depending on who becomes Lord Stewart, it could permanently change the Atlassian Government both in function and type forever and in the process potentially murder Democracy in lonely shadows.
Lower Council
As discussed the Lower Councils pretty much run specific cities or help run industries and parts of the government. The Lower Council is almost entirely right-wing as well with most of the Left Wing Members existing in Mantle constituencies and parts of cities elsewhere in Solitas. The Lower council often resembles the upper due to candidates running as groups rather than just as individuals or parties. meaning that the victory of one councillor in the High council is likely to translate into victories of more or less the lower councillors running with them. Because of this, if the Minister of Finance is an SDC ally then that means the SDC can count on most of the financial council members also being SDC allies and pretty much guaranteeing their influence in the government. There have been cases of High Councilors winning as the sole victors of their ticket but this usually means that election loss next cycle is imminent. The lower councils run everything so it's important for people to pay attention to Tickets. If they don't vote correctly they can end up either helping or harming themselves.How Lower Councils manage Fields
After being elected, a Low Councilor acts as a sort of manager, keeping departments and institutions running according to the demands of their constituents (Or more accurately Donors). Judges who serve tenures in court for instance obliviously decide the legal trajectory of the country with the overall decisions being handled by the Minister of Justice in the upper council. Judges interpret the law so if Autocrats win a lot of tickets in the Justice Departments then Law in Atlas will increasingly shift further into Autocracy the longer that Autocrats hold legal seats. The same is said with development if COrporate interests hold Development seats then obviously development will only favour companies and no one else, it is also likely that the lien between Public and Corporate property will continue to blur. For instance, the Marrigolds are infamous for forcefully evicting people from their homes to tear them down and force the former residents to re-buy the land.On-Going Policy Debates (Post-Vol 3 - Post-Vol 8)
1. National Security Ever since the Fall of Beacon the Government have been passing a variety of Acts in order to fine-tune kingdom security that involves giving ironwood more security powers and authorising militarisation of Public offices like the Police or State Couriers. Censorship laws has also seen a large expansion with Media Corporations finding it harder and harder to criticise the Government without breaching legal requirements. Anti Rights legislation towards Synthetics was also passed as well as a variety of Regulations against Dust Extraction in order to speed up production. Worker's Rights also has taken a nose dive with Police Conduct also getting increasingly militaristic and violent to those seen as undesirable by the state. 2. Faunus Rights While in most countries around the world, Mounting pressure is causing Faunus Rights to take huge leaps in progress with few signs of a slowdown, but in Atlas the supremacist backlash has been harsh. Courts have repealed the rights of Faunus nearly rending them as second Class citizens, forcing most to flee to Mantle or outskirt cities where more Liberty-Minded Governments protect them. This rollback of rights has caused the Sister City of Whitecliffe to sue them multiple times and demand that the Atlas Government bring back Freedoms. Increasingly, Ironwood has been forced to intervene, leveraging his valuable position to protect basic freedom and standards leading him to de-value Atlas' Democracy as a part of Atlas' future. Controversially Wonderfare Entertainment opened a Zoo Park in Atlas that contained a 'Freakshow Circus' where Faunus perform in degrading plays with highly questionable contracts binding them to perform. It is events like that, that lead to Faunus rights being a hot topic that is often sidestepped by the council when not relating some new rollback. 3. Cold War with Whitecliffe The Council is always harping about how Whitecliffe must be contained and stopped. Jacque Schnee has used his influence to cause the government to hate the sister city and engage in many public political spats with The Republic and compete on a geopolitical stage despite apparently still being all one country, a claim that many increasingly doubt with some on the council such as Davinus suggesting Civil War against the Republic. 4. Slavery The Atlas Government has become increasingly more permissive of Bad Contract Laws and allowing functional slavery to be carried out, even on Humans considered 'lesser' for one reason or another. As a result, the Government is often sued and denounced as a Pro-Slavery institution with members of the council denying these allegations and instead simply calling it 'Free market Practices' which his certainly one way to describe the SDC's 'Special Employees' in explosive collars and chains. Many in the corporate elite wish to legalize Slavery to cheapen the supply chain and simplify production order to protect the bottom line and raise profits. There are few voices in the government left to oppose this, with Ironwood as the sole and highly militant opposition to this. Forcefully repealing unfair changes to the legal code through military laws and emergency powers Delaying the possibility of legalisation. 5. Impeaching General Ironwood Even though that Ironwood is numerically outnumbered, the sheer power of his dual positions makes him able to countermand and veto any and all acts and laws if he wishes but has been exercising this power in a limited capacity. Still, despite his limited use of the Veto, he has many threats of impeachment looming over him, depending on his CO staff to back his position as Secretary of Defence. Privately threatening Jacque Schnee multiple times that him and his faction should think about befriending the General more in case things get 'bad'. 6. Maintaining the use of Mega Dust Bombs Despite disarming the other countries, Atlas maintains its stockpile of mega Dust bombs and invents as well as creates new WMDs to deploy against the Grimm, as a result many International attempts, namely by the Sister City has tried to stop this but the Government has been successful so far in maintaining the use of bombs."We Live to Serve."
Councilor Camilla Juno
Councilor Davinus Marrigold
Councilor Sleet Corbin
Professor Enola Simmons
General James Ironwood
Prime Minister Alonso Snowfall (Technically)
Robyn Hill
Jacque Schnee (Temporary Leader)
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