Government 2

From Atlantic Roleplay Wiki

Title: Government II

Author: Ashlath

DEMOCRACY

In a Democracy, both executive and legislative questions are decided by direct popular voting. In more egalitarian Democracies, leaders often have no formal authority, and are simply citizens whose rhetoric consistently sways the majority of their fellows.

In other cases, a President or other chief executive will be elected to serve a fixed term. Democratic governments usually take decisive action, but are liable to make rash decisions, followed by rapid reversals of policy. Since Democratic Leaders must worry both about getting re-elected and about making sure that their policies are popular, they are frequently diverted from thinking about affairs of state.

Democracies enjoy relatively low levels of corruption and of government waste, fraud, and abuse. Citizens may eventually tire of the need to continually pay attention to government affairs and push for a Parliamentary or Representative government that allows them to delegate most of their duties to professional politicians. Another possibility is for a demagogue to seize power and convince the majority to change the constitution in favor of another type of government, often a Despotic one.

PARLIAMENTARY

In a Parliamentary system, several different political parties vie for the votes of enfranchised citizens. The leader of the majority party or coalition of parties becomes the Prime Minister, who leads the central government. Since the parliament unites executive and legislative functions in one body, the Leader will have a fairly large amount of power, although this might be tempered by the need to keep key legislators or coalition partners happy.

Still, as long as a party or coalition maintains its majority, the opposition will have minimal power.

Should a government fail to deliver on its promises, it is likely to fall and be replaced by the opposition. While individual governments may change, though, the Parliamentary system itself is relatively stable, and generally enjoys orderly transfers of power.

REPUBLIC

In a Republic, the legislative branch is separate from the executive branch. The Leader will thus be a chief executive. The need to secure legislative support means that the Leader of a Republic will not have as much personal influence as the Leaders of many other types of governments.

Nevertheless, as popularly elected heads of government, Leaders of Republics are in a good position to take advantage of "the bully pulpit" in order to build public support for their policies.

Because the Leader may face strong opposition from the legislature, a Republic may be slow to take action, and the Leaders agenda might be watered down or ignored altogether. Like their Parliamentary counterparts, Republics usually enjoy orderly transfers of power.

HIVE

In a Hive society, subordinates unfailingly obey commands from their superiors. This may be because they lack any will of their own, or because they are physically or psychologically unable to resist a direct order. A Hive Leader has enormous power. Whatever the Leader says, goes.

However, since subjects can be counted on to obey commands, little bureaucratic and administrative infrastructure is needed to ensure compliance. Thus, in Hive regimes the Foot of Government is very light given the amount of control the government has over the populace.

UNIFICATION

Unification governments are premised universal agreement among citizens about how society should be run. Citizens of a Unification government are conscious of themselves as individuals, but are for some reason able to reach a consensus about what is best for society, and are willing to sacrifice their individual interests (or lives) should this prove necessary. The Leader of a Unification government is presumed to speak for the whole society, and all are supposed to carry out government policies as soon as they are advertised. Naturally, the Leader's influence is immense, and any policies the Leader communicates to the public at large carry the force of law. In most ways Unification regimes are similar to Hive governments, except that the governed voluntarily obey the government instead of doing so because they are incapable of disobeying. Only the most idealistic of populations is likely to make it work, and even then Unification will only be an effective system of government as long as the population's zeal holds out.