Check it out: 4th Imperium?

[YunusWesley]

http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=36359

A poster asks, "How are you going to set up your new, Fourth Imperium? How are you going to arrange the succession? How are you going to govern the remote fringes? How are you going to ensure that your governors are capable, diligent, and loyal?"

 

[RossWinn]

awesome idea and well thought out. I'd like technology to be about 12 at most, and a lot of lost tech and conspiracies.

 

[soloprobe]

Wow!!

That looks alot like my Terran Empire....!

 

[Icosahedron]

Er, correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't creating a fourth imperium, broadly speaking, the premise of the TNE Regency?

 

[RossWinn]

Er, correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't creating a fourth imperium, broadly speaking, the premise of the TNE Regency?

I think that was the eventual goal, yes, but it was never realized.

 

[Agemegos]

My intent in posting that material was to provoke some discussion about alternative constitutional arrangements. The communications problem in the Traveller Universe means that any extensive empire must depend on some sort of local delegation. But it does not seem obvious or even particularly plausible that there should be a monarchy in the centre of it all, and my suspension of disbelief gets gravel rash every time I run across mention of 'feudalism', 'fiefs', of nobles' 'estates' in Traveller.

So never mind the re-run of the Wars of the Roses. The point I was trying to get at was this: supposing that you were starting with a blank slate, but subject to a few realistic political restraints, how would you set up a stable and effective government for a large interstellar state in the Traveller universe?

 

[Merxiless]

"...supposing that you were starting with a blank slate, but subject to a few realistic political restraints, how would you set up a stable and effective government for a large interstellar state in the Traveller universe?"

The Imperium. I wouldn't have it fall.

Good enough for people like Asimov, Herbert, and Miller, good enough for me.
Seriously, I want a fantasy, not "Madame speaker, I yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from Ohio."
I want a story, and real world politics is boring to me.
I want an emperor that says "Damn those Dukes in the far-off sector, daring to withhold taxes! To arms! Prepare my flagship!"
..or something like that.

Failing that, I'd let it fall and play out the Second Long Night. It's a choice.

 

[Agemegos]

"...supposing that you were starting with a blank slate, but subject to a few realistic political restraints, how would you set up a stable and effective government for a large interstellar state in the Traveller universe?"

The Imperium. I wouldn't have it fall.

The hypothesis is not that you are God, and able to ordain that the Third Imperium shall not fall. The hypothesis is that you are a person in the Traveller Universe trying to build a new state and make it effective and lasting.

If you aren't interested in that hypothesis, then you don't have to participate. No-one is twisting your arm.