Some Questions About the Main Plot

(Sorry if there is already a thread up for this, I just had a couple of queries and maybe a major one which will come last)

So I understand that the overarching plot for the site right now is going to lead to a Civil War between the rebel and Ministry supporters, but what are the actual, substantive demands of the rebel group? Why doesn't the Ministry concede to them, or make compromises?

My big question, however, is how do you guys picture the Ministry working in the Harry Potter universe. Like, how is the Minister selected? Is he elected by a vote from every Witch and Wizard in the UK, or appointed by Wizengamot, or selected by the Heads of Department at the Ministry? Further to that, how are members of Wizengamot picked?

I have a couple of suggestions that I think could provide some something interesting.

Wizengamot serves as the judiciary, or court, arm of Wizarding British Government. Their role is to judge their peers to see if they are in breach of crimes, nominate and elect Ministers of Magic, and the majority of the Wizengamot must consent to the appointment of any Departmental Head. It is meant to be comprised of the best witches and wizards in the UK; however, when the council was first formed, this consisted solely of the major heads of pureblood families, plus other rich, noted members of Wizarding society. As only the Wizengamot can elect new members to the council, these old men and women have chosen to continue this tradition.

The problems here which I can see people being really frustrated with:

• Purebloods run the Wizengamot. Give lenient sentences to their peers, usually former Death Eaters
  
• Little to no Muggleborn or Half-Blood representation
  
• No non-human entities on the council
  
• Full of proud, old people who refuse to change; exacerbate situation. Keep blocking reformists from positions of power.
  
• These rich people receive an allowance for the position, then don't rock up to most of the meetings
  
• Overly-harsh punishments to dissidents
  
• Since the Minister of Magic is the Chair of Wizengamot, other government heads can also be in the council, which means if the Ministry breaks Wizarding law, no one can hold them accountable
  
• Rewards generous donors (ie. people who bribe) with positions of authority, council positions, etc.
  

What do you guys think? I just feel if there's going to be a government overthrow, there needs to be a clear picture of how it works.

I think your right. The biggest problem we have now is this - the Ministry doesn't really operate IC much anymore, so everyone has a different version of how it operates. When I write about the Ministry, I talk about how it takes weeks for the simplest of paperwork to process, that there are people like Lucius Malfoy buying out opinions, etc.

But other people write about the Ministry as though they are doing their best and have a few bad eggs, yes, but so does every organisation.

Before the plot continues, we need to establish a PA Canon for how the Ministry is operating right now. Otherwise, the Rebels look like idiots for trying to change a good system, and Supporters look like idiots for supporting prejudice - in other people's writing of course.

^Agreed. I also like my proposed system because it offers the chance to have a sympathetic Minister of Magic, who's trying to cause reform through the institution but is having trouble negotiating their way around the Wizengamot.

Everyone does have different opinions on the Ministry, which is kinda confusing but could be a problem in itself. Do the rebels want to reform the entire Ministry, or just like a section like the Wizengamot? I'm trying to figure out where Jemma stands on this (and she's confusing me atm too), so more clarity would be useful.

And if you read through the factions threads, you see how even people on the same side view it differently.

I want multiple political parties. Like, some really kooky ones... e.g. The Wingtown Warblers .. which sounds like a choir or a debate group. There are also choirs and debate groups with similar (the same) name.

Some important things that still really hasn't be answered yet is how does the Ministry and the Wizengamot even work. How does the Minister come to power, and how are the members of the Wizengamot selected? What can the Wizengamot do that Minister can't, and vice versa? I just feel like this is important stuff for people who want to make Ministry characters, but also I'm a massive nerd and am curious as to the site's canon.

That's not an easy question to answer, really. But I will give it a try.

Part of the issue is in trying to translate the typical canon role of the ministry and its departments into a forum based site. It doesn't transfer easily. The things that are set up by typical canon structure, such as elections, a bezillion different departments, etc., havent' worked well in the past on PA and have resulted in dwindling and then non-existent participation. So we have had to base a lot of how things are set up more for OOC reasons than IC reasons.

The Ministry has always seemed to be almost a feuding faction unto itself, and has more action on the site when it is involved in the actual site plot. Otherwise, we've seen it more prudent to allow the Ministry to take somewhat of a backseat to where the real action in the story is. So it vacilates quite a bit.

The wizengamot has been, for us, mainly a mechanism to move either site plot or personal plot along by putting a character on trial and then deciding whether or not they should be sentenced to Azkaban. The court is used for little else. And the role of minister and chief warlock have always been separate here, so far as I know.

Most of the ministry jobs are simply applied for, ooc, like any other job. We have set some jobs aside b/c they require players who are on the boards more consistently. It is sometimes hard to keep any location or plotline moving forward if the threads stagnate because players arent available to keep them moving. So the admins have had to keep an eye on some of those sorts of jobs in order to keep the plot moving. That sometimes translates into IC weirdness when we've had to alter something for an OOC reason. And the ministry seems to get more of that than some of the other playing locations on the boards.

We'd love for it to align perfectly with canon, but it just hasn't been possible for us to do, given the whole forum rp venue and the uniqueness of our own member base (which is constantly changing.)

So, yeah...that's the loooong explanation of it. Now--totally confused, are you? LOL

I can understand how the site mechanics and everything works OOC, that's all cool. My all schtick is that there really isn't much in the canon on how the actual allocation of power in the Ministry works, which is sort of important if somebody were to completely hypothetically wanting to make a Ministry character who wants to become Minister.

So Wizengamot is purely judicial, awesome. Since all they do is judge, I guess it would be up to the Minister or some other group to appoint members to it then, and amongst themselves they would vote for their Chief Warlock?

But, IC, how is the Minister selected? Is there elections, and if so, who can vote? Might it be an oligarchical thing when only people in key positions can vote on it (heads of department + chief warlock, etc.), or it is a completely open process, or somewhere in the middle?

In the UK, we vote in our Prime Minister via everyone 18+ voting for whichever political party they believe is best, then the leader of the party becomes Prime Minister. The leader of each party is voted by members of said party.

I would assume it would be a similar thing in the wizarding world, it would make sense for them to have based it off of the muggle system originally.

EDIT: I'm not an admin, so don't know if this is right. Just the perspective of someone British, as to how the general UK system work.