Political structures tables

Stormcrow · 11-08-2021, 02:28 PM

GURPS Infinite Worlds has a "Western Political Structures Table" on page 94. It's useful for figuring out the details of individual Western states in farther parallel worlds. Has anyone ever created political structure tables for any of the other civilizations in the book?

TGLS · 11-08-2021, 05:22 PM

I think it's going to be rather difficult, given that:
1) Most of the civilizations listed (i.e. Orthodox, Chinese, Japanese, Indic, West African, Malay, Hittite, Mississippian) have vanished, have been ruled by one state, have been ruled by a succession of states that are largely identical given the systems listed in the book, or were colonized by the west for most of TL 5-6.
2) The line between Oligarchy and Dictatorship is often very fine; post-Mao China and post-Stalin Soviet Union both resembled the government under the previous leader, but both clearly had some kind of change (see the changes in leadership that did not happen following the death of the leader).
3) Many governments listed are largely theoretical/fantastical: Corporate State has about two examples in history (British and Dutch EIC), Anarchy lacks real examples TL5+ (apart from maybe the brief interludes of the Russian and Chinese civil wars, or is this a Diffuse civilization?), Caste is often a modifier on another government type (i.e. Dictatorship in India, Representative Democracy in the United States, etc.), Technocracy hasn't really happened ever, Athenian Democracy is rather rare on a large scale, and so on.

edk926 · 11-08-2021, 07:24 PM

Realm Management talks about political structures and gives a few literary examples of the ones that haven't really ever existed in the real World.

11-08-2021, 02:28 PM	#1
Stormcrow Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Ronkonkoma, NY	Political structures tables GURPS Infinite Worlds has a "Western Political Structures Table" on page 94. It's useful for figuring out the details of individual Western states in farther parallel worlds. Has anyone ever created political structure tables for any of the other civilizations in the book?

11-08-2021, 05:22 PM	#2
TGLS Join Date: Jan 2014	Re: Political structures tables I think it's going to be rather difficult, given that: 1) Most of the civilizations listed (i.e. Orthodox, Chinese, Japanese, Indic, West African, Malay, Hittite, Mississippian) have vanished, have been ruled by one state, have been ruled by a succession of states that are largely identical given the systems listed in the book, or were colonized by the west for most of TL 5-6. 2) The line between Oligarchy and Dictatorship is often very fine; post-Mao China and post-Stalin Soviet Union both resembled the government under the previous leader, but both clearly had some kind of change (see the changes in leadership that did not happen following the death of the leader). 3) Many governments listed are largely theoretical/fantastical: Corporate State has about two examples in history (British and Dutch EIC), Anarchy lacks real examples TL5+ (apart from maybe the brief interludes of the Russian and Chinese civil wars, or is this a Diffuse civilization?), Caste is often a modifier on another government type (i.e. Dictatorship in India, Representative Democracy in the United States, etc.), Technocracy hasn't really happened ever, Athenian Democracy is rather rare on a large scale, and so on.

11-08-2021, 07:24 PM	#3
edk926 Join Date: Jan 2017	Re: Political structures tables Realm Management talks about political structures and gives a few literary examples of the ones that haven't really ever existed in the real World.