2. Codification of a Government
The nation of Panem had been formed, but there was no set law, no set government. Romulus Peace began the creation of a document that would define Panem until the Dark Days: The Constitution of the Capitol.
The Constitution of the Capitol
As this would be the officiating document of the government, it was necessary for it to explain the layout of government, some basic laws, official tabs on the borders and the capital city, as a minimum number of requirements. The preamble of the document is nearly the same as the United States Constitution's because the goals of the government were very similar.
The Capitol
Peace decided to make his home town, the city he was still "legally" the elected mayoral incumbent of, the capital of this nation. It would keep its original title of Denver, but would not be part of the state of Colorado anymore. It would be part of the "Capitol District", and would ultimately be addressed as "Denver, C.D."
The statement in the Constitution that reports this says, "This city, due to the nature of our foreign relations, will be simply known as the 'Capitol', as will the government, in all public announcements, in order to prevent confusion." That is why to this day, we call the city and the government "the Capitol."
The Government Organization
Now, the government was assembled very closely to the United States government, but with some very obvious differences. There was still three branches of government: executive, legislative, and judicial. The President had a little more power than the other two, but there were enough checks and balances to prevent a power haul in the Presidential department. Obviously it didn't work, but we aren't in that part of history yet.
The executive branch was composed of the President and his advisors, the Advising Council. The advisors took care of what the US Cabinet did, the departments of the government such as the Department of the Treasury, etc. As stated before, the government was assembled to be similar to the US government because Peace thought that the idea was good "in theory", until the government became way too centralized, taking rights away from state governments. He believed in a fair balance of federal, state, and citizen power.
The legislative branch was made up of a single house, the People's Senate. Unlike what popular opinion might have led to, it was not a communistic legislative branch, as the People's Republic of China would have given the vibe for, but the title was literally saying that "the government is for the people." That was carved on the top of the Senate building in the Capitol and was in large letters in the Legislation Room, until President Coriolanus Snow had the building demolished and built over. There were three representatives from each state, and there was 49 states, so there were 147 senators per session.
The senators served two year terms on a rotated basis that depended on a state's location. There were senatorial elections every year, but only certain senators needed to run for the election. On odd year elections, the eastern 24 states voted for their senators, and the western 25 on even year elections. This proved to keep the Senate away from the distractions of running a campaign when trying to help the President run the nation.
The judicial branch was composed of all the federal, state, and local courts. The main court of the nation was the Capitol Supreme Court. As the US Supreme Court did, they examined laws for if they agreed with the Constitution, only they had the power to pigeonhole the law on the spot, never to be allowed to be amended by the Senate for re-approval. Also, the state and local courts had the same permissions to judge upon laws. The United States trials of law set up was not changed with the governmental transition at all.
A new addition to the government was that executive order and executive privilege were revoked from the President's powers. Instead, the Senate had to debate on a bill proposed by the President, but didn't have to pass it. Due to abstentions allowed in voting for a law, the President also had a voting in Senate privilege called the "two-thirds person vote". His vote would count as either two people or three people, depending on if the matter had an even or odd amount of senators, in order to lead to majority, even in the case of a tie being far gone. As seen later in history, this Presidential privilege led to the denial of the "Thirteen District Act" under President Wilson Clay.
Also, the President exercised the right of choosing their succession line himself/herself. Because of the weakened trust of political leaders prior to the Peace War, President Peace felt that until the people expressed their want of electing a President, the incumbent will choose their successor. This was controversial all the way up until Coriolanus Snow's regime was overthrown, thinking that democracy was still far away. But, Peace addressed the nation in stating that the people could petition for the law to be removed, and by law, the Senate had to allow the amendment to go up to debate and that the President had no two-thirds vote or veto on the law if they passed it. The amendment was already written up and in a special safe in the Senate building, but was lost when the building was demolished.
There were still checks and balances, but they were more or less the same as the United States' system. An addition though was that when the President appointed people, both the Capitol Supreme Court and the Senate had to approve of the appointments, even in the case of new court judges. A veto by the President didn't need the 2/3 majority to be overruled, it actually needed a ¾ vote. With there being no existing political parties, platforms were no longer an issue. A veto normally was for the great of the nation.
Military Options
Because the new nation had a whole existing Armed Force from the United States at their disposal, Peace felt it was important to cover the military in the Constitution. There were five existing branches: Marines, Navy, Air Force, Army, and Coast Guard. All of the branches were readopted with manifestos registered by the Panem Department of Defense. All that was required for the current members serving were to pledge an oath of loyalty to the "Republic of Panem" and its "Horn of Plenty" to serve all its citizens both domestic and abroad. Abroad meant any citizens that have been detained or anything in a foreign land were still protected by the military and had all their rights of Panem safeguarded. This was, though, out of the confines of violating sovereignty, meaning that this wasn't as successful as Peace had hoped for.
Registering as part of a draft was no longer required for men of 18 years old or older. Military enrollment was completely voluntary. The required enrollment age by the time of shipment to training was 18 years of age, removing the ability for 17 year olds from joining, because they were still minors. The government was strict on enforcing this in order to prevent identity fraud, which still is a capital offense.
Final Amendments
Now, the US Bill of Rights was re-adopted, as stated in the final paragraph in the Constitution. President Peace felt that the rights given in the first 10 amendments of the document needed to be kept, and he felt it was unnecessary to re-write rights that were already stated in a prior document. The other amendments made to the US Constitution after its ratification were considered after the final printing of the Constitution and the Senate approved a small list of amendments to be re-adopted. They were printed as extra parts of the Constitution, and were kept with it everywhere, including when it was hidden after the Capitol exerted more than its legal power.
President Peace, his military advisors from his rebellion force (namely officers from Denver), former US President Arthur Perona, and former Vice President Elizabeth Colins signed and ratified the Constitution for final review by the people. All 52 United States voted on the document in the 2054 general November election, like normal, and only 49 ratified it as law. The three states that didn't vote for it understood this meant legal secession from Panem and its laws and protection.
Once the government was codified, senators were elected and judges were appointed. Afterwards, Peace was able to begin his actual term as President of Panem. He had a lot of plans to fix the disaster the nation was under in the years prior to the Peace War. His largest focus happened to be on corruption that helped lead to the rebellion. This would lead to his most famous action as President, the Corruption Correction Act.