The name was originated from Noah’s Ark.
United Sol federation president Gawain decided to construct a fortified structure to house himself, the house, and the senate. Prior to construction of Ark, heavily expanded and modified white house was used.
The location of the Ark was Washington D.C. and was within a special zone where it was completely free of the Bau’s control, supposedly. The Ark was a series of fortified building in a U shape. The structures were capable of withstanding orbital bombardments and later implemented shields.
Construction of the Ark marked the most flourishing era of United Sol under Gawain Klisis as their president (7006 ~ 7798)
The political structure of the Ark originated from United States of America’s political system. However, it evolved over 7,000 thousand years and numerous changes were made over the thousands of centuries. It still retained the house and the senate. However, the house and the senate members weren’t entirely chosen by election. Furthermore, the size of both assemblies increased.
At the Ark, the house had roughly four thousand members and the senate had roughly five hundred members. Majority of house seats were won by elections from planets but there were exceptions. For an example, a clan had a right to have a representative at the house level. And the bigger a clan was, more seats they could secure. The Bau, as a prime example, had roughly a thousand members in the house and a hundred in the senate.
Senate members weren’t chosen by any form of elections. They were promoted within from existing house members. Passing a legislation also changed as well. The house was entirely responsible for approving new and modifying exiting legislation. Once passed, the president would sign. A president’s ability to veto had been stripped away. He had to sign a passed legislation regardless his own opinions.
The senate came in effect only when a legislation vote was in tie in the house. A tie in the house did not mean the absolute tie as we know. It had a margin of 10% to be considered a tie.
United Sol politics dictated that a win at the house level required 56% of YES vote instead of 51%, meaning a legislation having 45% to 55% was considered a tie. And a tied legislation was allowed to pass onto the senate where the same tie rule applied. If a legislation was tied even in the senate, such a legislation was dismissed unless brought up by the house again.
The president’s power was in the senate where his vote would be counted as a tie breaker if a legislation was still tied at senate level. He could still opt not to vote in which case the entire decision was up to the senate. The president also retained his exclusive orders.
Furthermore, during emergencies, only the senate and the president were active. The reason behind this was because of the size of the house. Organizing thousands of members wasn’t an easy feat in emergencies. No legislation was allowed to pass during emergencies. It was for purely decision making purposes for immediate affects as well as issuing martial law.
After the two planets declared independence, the size of the house was reduced. Its original 4,000 seats were reduced to 2,700 seats. This change brought a huge advantage for the Bau but overall negative impacts for United Sol as the whole. With reduced seats, the Bau was able to control approximately 45% of the house which meant that they nearly dominated the house.
The Bau did not have presences on neither Venus nor Mars, meaning they did not lose any seats over their independence. It ultimately meant that they basically dominated the house. The Bau house members showed little interests in matters that did not concern their clan which ultimately took a part in the decline of United Sol.
Earth: 1,200 seats (1,000 of which were occupied by the Bau)
Moon: 200 seats
Venus: 800 seats + Alpha (1) (800 seats were occupied by the O’ren. The Vues had a right to a seat but did not bother. The Klisis had a sole seat.)
Mars: 500 seats (all of seats were occupied by the Dietrich)
Saturn: 500 seats + Alpha (0) (The Maeka clan had a right to a seat but did not bother.)
Jupiter: 800 seats
The Bau occupied some seats from all other planets except for Venus and Mars, making their total house members number to near 1,100.