Things TLs 7-9 would be interesting to see WITHOUT

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Feudalism is actually a kind of federalism except that the leaders are selected on the basis of inheritance instead of being elected or appointed. The problem of course is that in the era starting with radio, it's too each to consolidate a wide-scale following producing an absolute monarchy/dictatorship or democracy. It would be easier if their TL omitted the advancements in long distance communications that causes people to identify with each other on a wider scale. Then again, it would also work to vastly increase the scale you are dealing with so that communication will once again be outstripped by scale.

Nationalism seems to be doing pretty well today, so modern communications aren't enough to ball us all up into one big happy blob. Why couldn't strong, savvy feudal lords keep the consolidation a layer or two further down?