09-09-2021, 11:10 AM | #741 |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: Exotic Governmental/Legal Systems
How about a Zodiacal Legislature? 12 bodies, each consisting of 12 members, for a total of 144. Each body corresponds to one of the Chinese Zodiac (or equivalent for your setting), each member must have been born under that sign to qualify, and the electors that appoint them can only vote for those of the same sign. Each term is 12 years (and all members of a given Zodiac are elected at the same time, during the year of said Zodiac), and members cannot be replaced, although removal via impeachment is possible, and if all members of a given body die or are otherwise removed, that Zodiac is simply no longer represented until its next election. Most bills/resolutions/etc must have a simple majority (typically seven) of the bodies vote in favor for it to pass, and voting in favor similarly requires a simple majority within that body. Constitutional Amendments and the like require a supermajority (75% or more, which typically calls for nine). Impeachment requires either a simple majority within the body the legislator is part of and a supermajority of all bodies or, if the body the legislator is part of votes against impeachment, all other bodies must vote in favor of it.
I suspect it wouldn't really work out. Having to deal with election campaigns every year, but each person only being able to vote once every 12 years (probably starting at age 24), seems like it would end... poorly.
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09-10-2021, 07:33 AM | #742 | |
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Join Date: Mar 2012
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Re: Exotic Governmental/Legal Systems
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On the other hand, it might destroy the election cycle and make targeted campaigning a lot harder. If every year is election year... no year is. Note that people will vote on specific birthday years: everyone voting will always be 18, 30, 42, and so on. Depending on the initial voting age of course: you can set that to whatever you want. This gives you a very bland and generic electorate, as you are taking an essentially random sample across the country. This could end up with bunch of moderates, but its just as likely to find an equilibrium point and two parties.
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09-13-2021, 07:10 AM | #743 | |||
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: Exotic Governmental/Legal Systems
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There's also the possibility of something more akin to how USA's history of sort of starting as semi-independent States shaped the electoral setup here. While I think my suggestion would likely require each legislature to run nationwide, you could have some states be "winner takes all" (where the top twelve each get a proportion - perhaps equal, perhaps based on how well they did there - of the state's full electoral votes) while in other states everyone who runs gets their appropriate percentage of that state's electoral votes, and some states would have more people per electoral vote than others. That would mix things up, and could result in more of the targeted campaigns we're used to, albeit arguably to a greater extent - assuming the Zodiac scheme were applied to something like the United States, every Legislative hopeful would be focusing on the "Battleground States." Could certainly be interesting, although I suspect if people in such a setting got worked up over politics as folk in the USA tend to, it may well be an unpleasant place to live (particularly the Battleground States).
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GURPS Overhaul Last edited by Varyon; 09-13-2021 at 07:35 AM. |
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09-14-2021, 11:18 AM | #744 | |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: Exotic Governmental/Legal Systems
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That's a tricky (and thus fun) set-up, independent of the base vote-by-age idea. It makes party discipline a lot harder to maintain, while making it more important as well... or perhaps it just pushes political parties towards an "ideal" size (whatever that is... probably between a 1/20th and a 1/10th of the electorate). The emergent complexity of trying to control multiple seats, create a new party, and so forth, in this sort of situation looks awesome. Though the vote for party method is probably what the factions that get the upper hand try to change things to. Vote for person and take top X candidates is more interesting though. I suspect candidates would frequently bow out of the race if they thought they were going to come up short, so that allies could be more confident in their victories... pre-election polling would be critical.
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09-15-2021, 06:36 AM | #745 | ||
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: Exotic Governmental/Legal Systems
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Of course, a weird refinement I considered (but didn't post, feeling it went a bit too far) was to actually have each seat correspond to a month as well as a year (so only those born under the sign of Aquarius in the Year of the Rat can vote for this particular seat, and only an eligible voter for the seat can occupy it). This avoids the poaching issue (and thus makes a two-party system more likely) but means you're running an election every month, which is rather a bit much. It also means you might have different setups for different votes - perhaps in some cases you divide them up into bodies based on their year (Rat, Dog, Ox, etc), and in other cases you divide them up by the month (Aquarius, Taurus, Gemini, etc). Quote:
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GURPS Overhaul Last edited by Varyon; 09-15-2021 at 06:57 AM. |
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09-15-2021, 02:04 PM | #746 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: Exotic Governmental/Legal Systems
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Under your system a consul could only come from the upper circles.
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09-15-2021, 07:24 PM | #747 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: Exotic Governmental/Legal Systems
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Incidentally are political parties skewed by sign? If astrological signs actually affected personalities, or even if enough people are convinced they should and try to behave according to their sign (or there are parties that deliberately design their platform to align to what they think is the correct astrological behaviors), they might be.
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09-16-2021, 08:42 AM | #748 | |||
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: Exotic Governmental/Legal Systems
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If you're running an election every month, the process probably looks more like the DMV than the polls. You need the building and workers every month, so instead of hiring them specially, you hire permanent positions and buy/rent permanent space. Parties do get oversight, but its going to be a lot less intense and rushed. Campaigning for individuals might spike, but you're targeting 144th of the population. I'm looking for ways this would break down... Quote:
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Be helpful, not pedantic Worlds Beyond Earth -- my blog Check out the PbP forum! If you don't see a game you'd like, ask me about making one! Last edited by ericthered; 09-16-2021 at 08:46 AM. |
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09-16-2021, 10:47 AM | #749 |
Join Date: Feb 2011
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Re: Exotic Governmental/Legal Systems
Divarchy:
A form of theocracy or even technocracy, an Divarchy is one wherin laws are passed or vetoed by means of some form of divination. These methods are also used to practice law and engage in warfare. In the supernatural sense, this makes a lot of sense, and consists of casting divination spells as a part of all work of government. In the mundane sense, this gets interesting. Suppose that the method used is drawing runes from a bag. Lawmakers may choose to hold back a law for later consideration until most of the "no" runes have already been pulled. That, of course, assumes that there is a lawmaking body. A thoroughly pre-definited horoscope system may include a detailed prescription for every day, including new rules to add or remove. Such a creation is kind of a polymorphic constitution, and may be so complicated as to be somewhat unpredictable as scribes pour over the text all day, every day, trying to find out what it's prescribing in real time. The real power presumably existed with the god-king who created the horoscope system... or more likely with the clerks who interpret it. |
09-16-2021, 10:55 AM | #750 | |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: Exotic Governmental/Legal Systems
Quote:
A quote from a game based on Ming-Era China I'm currently running: "Never present the emperor a choice where you don't like both outcomes"
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