Alternative government types

[Netardapope]

So I'm currently brainstorming a world which I'll work on in the far future (as my WIP is proving to be very long) and I was thinking if anyone could give me some ideas for governments that are not your usual fantasy fare. The setting will likely be dungeon punk (magitech, modern clothing style, some regular tech, magical "nukes" used by nations) something of that sort. So any atypical government is welcome in my book

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[Jerseydevil]

Plutocracy- the wealthiest person rules. Someone makes more money, he gets the top job. An alternative to this is having companies or guilds ruling and making up the government.

There's Heinlein's Starship Troopers government, where it is a representative republic, but the only people who can vote have some government service ie. military service.

That's all I can think up at the moment.

 

[Queshire]

Don't discount the truly out there types of government which can be achieved by magic.

Maybe in one country everyone signs a magical contract out lining the laws of the country and they're physically unable to break the laws?

Maybe another place is a theocracy whose god takes a more personal touch in the day to day running of the country?

What if some place doesn't actually have any laws per say, instead they have the lore. Murder or stealing something isn't bad because it's against the laws, but because it allows the local fae to hunt you down and do... well, you really don't want to know what they do. However, it's not just murder of theft that's bad but stuff like clipping your toe nails after dark that draws the fae's attention.

 

[WooHooMan]

Corporatocracy/guild socialism/banana republics? Guilds are always a big deal in fantasy. Feudalism and wealth disparity was a big thing in Middle Ages. Technology and the ownership of technology is a big deal in the -punk subgenres (megacorporations and cyberpunk are almost inseparable). It seems like a corporate-controlled government would be an obvious choice for dungeonpunk.

I would say actual republics are kind of rare. Like the kinds that would have presidents and popular elections. I think most people associate that form of government with "realism" and modernity so most fantasy writers feel like it would be out of place in a fantasy story.

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

The other option is to create your own form of government. Governments and the types of governments out there do not exist in a vacuum and their structures, purposes, and powers are derived from the nation's history, culture, geography, etc. So I would suggest, as a starting point, two abstract rules. The first is that the government needs a monopoly of violence (or force) and second is that the people consent to it. Note that when I say consent that does not mean that the consent is active nor freely given. What I mean when I write consent is that the people do not actively attempt to overthrow the government. To test the government, you need to look at it through the eyes of a bad man. Meaning that you look at its structure, and not necessarily its code book, to find ways to exploit the system. If the system is so exploitable so as to divest the sovereign entity of either the monopoly on violence or subvert the consent of the people then that system is not tenable and needs to be modified or scrapped wholesale.

This is why you almost never see a true plutocracy, democracy, republic, or theocracy. These are all too manipulable, but they can work in a fantasy setting if the magic or technology exists to help plug the holes these systems present.

One thing I have not seen is a truly totalitarian state. I often see dictatorships but not totalitarianism, because this is a fairly recent invention and is probably attached with modernity. The following are 7 general principles of totalitarianism:

1. Totalitarian societies are characterized by a single party political system. Party membership is limited to those who are willing to be unquestionably loyal to party leaders. Party interests and control encompass all aspects of society.

2. Totalitarian states tend to fall to the control of single leaders. These leaders are then made out to be almost superhuman.

3. Totalitarian regimes are characterized by a commitment to a specific ideology. The ideology serves the state by defining the past, explaining the present, and predicting the future. It establishes guidelines for remolding society in the image held by the rulers.

4. Totalitarian societies seek to subordinate all social institutions to the control of the state and thereby remove all possible challengers to its control. No human activity is without interest to totalitarian rulers. To control the behavior of their citizens, totalitarian regimes recognize no limits to the means by which their ends are achieved.
a) Totalitarian states attempt, and succeed to a degree, to direct the behavior and thoughts of their citizens by maintaining control over all sources of information.
b) Totalitarian regimes seek to force conformity on their citizens and subordinate all human activity to their control.
c) Totalitarian states will use any techniques- physical or psychological to achieve absolute control over society.

5. The type of totalitarianism which develops in a country is conditioned primarily by the nation's unique historical experience.

6. Totalitarianism is a political, social, and economic system which uses any means available to subject the individual to the goals and leadership of the state.

7. All societies cope with the problem of individual freedom versus public control. No contemporary society can be judged to be either completely free or completely totalitarian.

Where most fantasy writers fail is that they do not have a single ideology that their dictators spew forth and not all institutions of the society are attempted to be controlled. If one could create a truly totalitarian society that would be great. I haven't seen very many good ones of these in fantasy, they are usually far more common in sci-fi, though.

 

[WooHooMan]

Oh, boy, you got Brian started on politics...

But anyways, yeah totalitarian dictatorships (or any dictatorships that aren't absolute monarchies or autocratic military regimes) are pretty rare. I wouldn't mind seeing more of those in fantasy if you focus on the political culture and bureaucracy.
I'm doing a totalitarian thing in my current story. You can do some interesting stuff with it.

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

Oh, boy, you got Brian started on politics

Accurate. I don't have a lot of things I'm passionate about but politics is one of them.

 

[Ban]

Here's a quick site to give you some ideas

Fantasy Fiction Factor - Fantasy Writing - Forms of Government

And Brian please keep goin with the political rants, i love them.

 

[Ban]

My own idea is a purely liberal society.
A society in which the state has only 2 tasks. To provide safety and secure the personal liberties of its people.
Everything else is left to the free market, leading to an extreme form of privatisation and everything is legal as long as it doesn't directly infringe on someone else's personal freedom. This would inevitably lead to a society with an enormous income gap. Companies would probably start providing healthcare in order to keep their employees loyal to them, which could slowly lead to a corporatocracy being developed, in which people and their families might live their entire lives in the confines of a corporation.

 

[Mythopoet]

I recently watched an anime where in a small fictional kingdom the current king decided to retire and let the populace vote for which of his 9 children would be the next king. They all had to campaign and had different goals that they wanted to work toward if they were the next king. It was played for comedy in the anime, of course, but I thought it was a neat way to mix the ideas of monarchy and democracy. I think it could be explored in some very interesting ways.

 

[Ban]

Cool, so basically they had a more democratic form of tanistry. I am thinking that a line of rulers in my main story will be chosen that way.