Government and politics of the Holy Luthori Empire

The Holy Luthori Empire was a constitutional monarchy.

Administrative Divisions
When it was still an empire, Luthori was divided into a number of Fiefs. The largest subdivisions were Duchies, of which there are six, although the Duchy of Adlerberg was not administered like one and was in practice counted as part of the Duchy of Utagia, administered both as a Marquessate and an Earldom. Marquessates were the second subdivision and there were two in every Duchy with the exception of Utagia, where Adlerberg filled the role of that Marquessate. The third subdivision was the Earldom, of which there were two in each Marquessate, with the exception of the Marquessate of Kensdale, which had three and was thus considered the most powerful and prestigious in the country. The last and smallest subdivision was the Barony of which there were twelve in each Duchy and sixty nationwide.

Duchies were ruled jointly by a popularly elected Governor and the ruling Duke, who head a Duchy's executive and a Ducal council which was elected by popular vote. Marquessates are governed by the ruling Marquess, which heads the executive, and a noble council which is elected by the Earldoms' legislators which acts as a legislative branch. There is no elected executive in Marquessates which means that Marquesses are powerful individuals. Earldoms are ruled by an Earl and a Bailiff who is appointed by the popularly elected Earl's council, which is quite powerful because it also elects the members of the noble council. Finally, Baronies are jointly ruled by the Baron and a town council. In reality, most real power and authority is concentrated at the Ducal and Earldom levels with the Marquessates' noble councils only meeting a few times a year while town councils only take care of very local issues.

Government (as an empire)
The structure of Luthori's political system is extremely complicated and is notorious for its layers of bureaucracy and high numbers of important positions. Though in recent years, attempts to simplify the governmental structure have proven successful.

Government
The Holy Luthori Empire is a constitutional monarchy. It is defined as constitutional because the its government operates within the confines of the 3rd Imperial Constitution(-Abolished-) and is defined as aristocratic to distinguish it from other constitutional monarchies where the monarch is merely a figurehead.

The Holy Luthori Empire is governed by the Head of State (the Emperor), the Heads of Government (Imperial Chancellor), His Majesty's Cabinet, His Majesty's Privy Council, and the Imperial Diet. Luthori is divided into five subdivisions named "Duchies", each with an elected assembly of 129 members. Each Duchy is led by a Premier.

The Head of State and ruler of the Holy Luthori Empire is the Holy Luthori Emperor. While he is not directly involved in the day to day details of the administration of the Empire, he does have major discretionary powers and the right to intervene when necessary. The Emperor's will is represented by two executive bodies which effectively see to the everyday administration of the Empire. These are the Privy Council and the cabinet. In the past, the cabinet held most executive power and the Privy Council was little more than a group of advisers. However in that trend has completely reversed and the Privy Council holds most of the actual executive power while the cabinet appears to be more symbolic.

Legislative power is held by the Imperial Diet. Every loyal subject of the Emperor is by law granted the right to vote and elect representatives to the Diet. The Diet has the power to enact legislation and the sole prerogative of amending the Imperial Constitution.

Some contemporary observers suggest that the adjective "semi-feudal" be added to describe Luthori's government system. While most legislation is decided on a national (Imperial) level, its implementation is left almost entirely in the hands of the rulers of the Empire's Fiefs and the various Landed Aristocrats who exercise total executive control over their respective demesnes (Dukedoms, Marches, Earldoms and Baronies).

The Monarch
The Monarch, or Emperor, is the Head of State of the Holy Luthori Empire. During much of Luthori's history, monarchs have both gained and lost control of the duties that originally belonged to the position depending on the of the Holy Imperial Diet and the nature of public opinion. At present, the Emperor is officially the Empire's Head of State and chief executive and therefore has many real and extensive powers including executive powers and powers of appointment. The Emperor is the absolute head of the military and may override any order in this field, while the Emperor also has full discretion to appoint every member of the Privy Council except the head administrator, the Imperial Seal-Bearer, and to dismiss them as he pleases. As the Great Officers of State which also sit on the Privy Council essentially govern the nation, the Emperor rules by proxy with the full knowledge that he may dismiss any Privy Councillor that does not do as he pleases. Privy Councillors are almost exclusively members of the High Nobility since the Emperor's support and power largely depends on the extremely powerful aristocracy with the whole system being somewhat of an unwritten agreement. The Emperor is also the supreme head of the Holy Luthori Church, or Church of Luthori, and has complete control over it. Given the immense power that the Church has in Luthori the Emperor can further influence the people through religious means.

The current Imperial line was that of the House of Orange-Villayn and was considered to be Luthorian-Aldurian. The line descends from the union of Philippe II of Alduria and Mary I of Luthori. However on 15th January 2655 the two claimant houses of the Luthorian throne, the Luthori-based House of Orange-Villayn and the Hulstrian-based House of Rothingren-Traugott, merged with the crowning of Emperor Henry I of Alduria, Hulstria, Luthori and Trigunia. It was decided with the birth of his twin sons that the family would split into two branches with one taking the Luthorian and Aldurian thrones and the other taking the Hulstrian and Trigunian thrones. From that the crown of the Imperial thrones of Luthori and Alduria were passed to Gustavus I from whom all current Emperors are descended. The offical name of the ruling Imperial dynasty is "The Imperial Dynasty of Rothingren-Traugott, Orange-Villayn Branch", but is often simply referred to as the "House of Orange-Villayn". After a period of personal union with the Emperor of Hutori, member of the the House of Steuart-Carmichael, currently the house of Hohenfels-Casimir, related to the house of Adlerberg rules in Luthori.

The Privy Council
His Majesty's Noble Council was originally an obscure group of advisers who held no significant power. However, during the era of Imperial supremacy the Noble Council grew to become an immensely powerful organ of government with authority and power that largely surpasses that of the cabinet. The Noble Council is made up of 16 Great Officers of the Crown, including 5 Viceroys and any additional Privy Councillors the Sovereign may wish to appoint.



Legislative Body
The legislative body of the Holy Luthori Empire is the Imperial Diet, also known as the Diet or "Parliament". It consists of 455 members who are elected from the Duchies of the Luthori homeland in the Empire. The Members of the Diet (MDs) are elected every 4 years unless an early election is called, and may serve for an unlimited number of terms. One member, the Speaker, is politically neutral and does not vote. In addition, his or her seat is not challenged in elections. The Emperor's interests have traditionally been represented in the Diet, as most of the political parties in Luthori were staunchly royalist. Historically, the role of officially representing the Emperor's interests had been held over the course of history by the Bible and Crown Defenders, the Covenants, the Imperial Court and the Constitutionalist Imperial League. However in modern Luthori, the rise of anti-monarchist parties occurred with parties such as Choice, its successor party New Choice, the Social Democratic League, the Luthori People's Union and the Progress Party being among the most notable republican parties. At one time the head of government Joe Purefoy even proposed the abolition of the monarchy in parliament. However these efforts remained futile until the early 3970s when for the first time in modern Luthorian history a super majority of MDs were republicans.

The second largest party is referred to as His Majesty's Official Opposition, while other parties not in the government are collectively referred to as tertiary opposition parties. These parties play a sometimes crucial role in the Diet as well, with some bills of theirs sometimes passing against the ruling largest party's wishes.

The Diet is headed by the Imperial Chancellor. He or she is responsible for overseeing the affairs of the Diet, along with supervising the local assemblies in the Empire's colonies. The Chancellor is the Empire's head bureaucrat, administrator and head of government. The Chancellor is appointed by the Diet and traditionally with the blessing of the Emperor, although in later years this had been bypassed, especially when left-wing and anti-royalist Imperial Chancellors were appointed.

Due to the vast expanse of the colonial empire, the Diet has decreed that the colonies shall have their own elected assemblies which will pass their own local laws but the laws that cover the entire Empire shall be made by the Holy Imperial Diet. However, the colonies enjoy vast amounts of autonomy and mostly rule themselves in order to prevent any repeats of past colonies that have tried to break away from the Empire.

Imperial Judicial System
The Constitution of the Holy Luthori Empire states: "The judicial authority shall be vested in a system of courts, both lower and constitutional. These courts shall have absolute power to ensure enforcement of the laws and constitution of the Holy Luthori Empire."

The Holy Luthori Empire's judicial system is split into two categories on top of the lower and constitutional courts described by the Constitution of the Empire. These are the Civil Courts and Criminal Courts. Luthori's judicial system is an adversarial system, with lawyers arguing the case in the courtroom.

The court system is broken down into local courts, regional courts, national courts, with the Imperial Supreme Court being the highest authority in the Empire when it comes to the law.

The Colonies of the Empire follow the same judicial system but with one more type of court before the Central Court known as the High Colonial Court. The High Colonial Court acts as the local Supreme Court, however, cases can be brought to the Imperial Supreme court if it will accept the case.

The Imperial Supreme Court is headed by the Minister of Justice, who leads a panel of 8 others judges (meaning a total of 9) in the court. The Minister of Justice is declared by the cabinet of the Empire, with the other Judges being appointed by the parties of the Diet proportionally to the number of seats they have.