Interstellar Democracies

[Ulsyus]

Has anyone developed a polity that is a democratic interstellar state? How large did you make it? How large do you think they could reasonably be and still function as democracies? How did you describe the central representative chamber or chambers, whatever their names, and how the members were chosen from different constituencies?

 

[McPerth]

The Zhodani are officially a democracy.

Of course many will claim that only nobles have vote, and so cannot be seen as a true one, but also in ancient Greece (the democracy birth) and Roman republic the people with voting right were just a minority of the population.

The Solomani also are officially a democracy, with the factions inside the Solomani Party taking the roles of the various political parties in other ones.

 

[Grav_Moped]

How democratic are you talking, here?
Direct democracy might be a bit awkward with multi-week communication delays.
Representative democracy could definitely scale up.

 

[BRJN]

I don't have any idea how big one such government could get eventually.

But the first practical steps, for a 1-jump distance, might look like this:
A vote shall be scheduled for date X. All votes shall be cast on that day on all worlds.
Votes from other worlds shall be recorded and sent by express jump to Capital.
Votes shall be tallied on Capital; this process may not begin until all worlds' data packets have arrived.

In effect, you vote on the 1st, the votes travel and are counted on 8th or 9th, results announced on Capital on the 10th, and word spreads back to you by 17th or 18th.

If you are willing to wait several months before anybody knows how things turned out, the government can get bigger and bigger on the map.

Of course there are problems - use IRL for inspiration - which I can't solve ahead of time from here. (Alas.)

Adventure hook: pirates (or fake pirates) intercept the jump courier with the voting results aboard - either paper ballots or a data package.

 

[McPerth]

I don't have any idea how big one such government could get eventually.

But the first practical steps, for a 1-jump distance, might look like this:
A vote shall be scheduled for date X. All votes shall be cast on that day on all worlds.
Votes from other worlds shall be recorded and sent by express jump to Capital.
Votes shall be tallied on Capital; this process may not begin until all worlds' data packets have arrived.

In effect, you vote on the 1st, the votes travel and are counted on 8th or 9th, results announced on Capital on the 10th, and word spreads back to you by 17th or 18th.

If you are willing to wait several months before anybody knows how things turned out, the government can get bigger and bigger on the map.

Of course there are problems - use IRL for inspiration - which I can't solve ahead of time from here. (Alas.)

I've been told (I'm not US citizen, so I cannot be sure) the US president takes office two months after the election due to the time needed to get the farther results when it began...

See that the situation you talk about is not unlike this one ...

Adventure hook: pirates (or fake pirates) intercept the jump courier with the voting results aboard - either paper ballots or a data package.

It's unlikely this so vital information is sent by a single courrier. This action will have little real effect, if any at all.

 

[Ulsyus]

The Zhodani are officially a democracy.

Of course many wil lvclaim that only nobles have vote...

Was that mis-typed, or has your Joe conditioning been playing havoc with your motor control system?

I've been told (I'm not US citizen, so I cannot be sure) the US president takes office two months after the election due to the time needed to get the farther results when it began...

See that the situation you talk about is not unlike this one ...



It's unlikely this so vital information is sent by a single courrier. This action will have little real effect, if any at all.

I believe that was to allow for the states to tally their votes then send their delegates of the electoral college to the convention of such. All done no faster than horseback or carriage of course.

Regarding sending the vote tally, with something that important I reckon it's conceivable that more than a single courier vessel would be used to transport and guard the results.

 

[McPerth]

Was that mis-typed, or has your Joe conditioning been playing havoc with your motor control system?

It was very mis-typed . Thank you for the heads up. Fixed now

 

[BRJN]

It's unlikely this so vital information is sent by a single courrier. This action will have little real effect, if any at all.

I can see a 'wheels within wheels' adventure (with a side dish of paranoia) where the Mail shipment the PCs' ship takes, has a copy of the vote tallies in it. The PCs can't get across the tarmac to board their ship because the local political establishment all want to see them off, and BTW could you do their personal friends (candidates) a favor?

 

[McPerth]

I can see a 'wheels within wheels' adventure (with a side dish of paranoia) where the Mail shipment the PCs' ship takes, has a copy of the vote tallies in it. The PCs can't get across the tarmac to board their ship because the local political establishment all want to see them off, and BTW could you do their personal friends (candidates) a favor?

And how long will it take for the planet where the vote tallies come from to learn about it?

I guess you'd better not visit this planet for a while if they the records reaching the Capital don't coincide with those given to you, assuming this is not a High Justice (or its equivalent in the political entity) crime, quite a likely possibility, IMHO...

 

[ovka]

It's unlikely this so vital information is sent by a single courrier. This action will have little real effect, if any at all.

sooooo ….

Multiple couriers with valid vote counts. Also, multiple couriers with pirated vote counts. The couriers with the pirated vote counts all have (stolen) valid control codes that authenticate them.

Sorting it all out sounds like an adventure seed to me.

Cheers,

Baron Ovka

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Has anyone developed a polity that is a democratic interstellar state? How large did you make it? How large do you think they could reasonably be and still function as democracies? How did you describe the central representative chamber or chambers, whatever their names, and how the members were chosen from different constituencies?

Mob-rule interstellar states?

 

[McPerth]

sooooo ….

Multiple couriers with valid vote counts. Also, multiple couriers with pirated vote counts. The couriers with the pirated vote counts all have (stolen) valid control codes that authenticate them.

Sorting it all out sounds like an adventure seed to me.

Cheers,

Baron Ovka

I give you the same answer than to BJRN above: how long will it take for the planet where the vote tallies come to find it out?

And forging the vote tallies (and sending them by false courriers) will be no easier than to forge and similarly send any other official document, regardless the government classthe Political Entiy is.

 

[whartung]

Has anyone developed a polity that is a democratic interstellar state? How large did you make it? How large do you think they could reasonably be and still function as democracies? How did you describe the central representative chamber or chambers, whatever their names, and how the members were chosen from different constituencies?

Well, the United States functioned at the federal level with one way trip times pushing 2 weeks, pre-railroad where stage coaches were primary travel. But the Federal Govt was also much weaker (or, I should say, less important) then.

I don't think 4 weeks (one way) of empire travel is unwieldy, but local control will be much stronger.

 

[aramis]

The Roman Republic pushed to about 4 weeks, IIRC, and after that, came the Imperium Romanum...

 

[Ulsyus]

There'd be a very different dynamic between starnations where in one the vote in each system was tallied and announced locally before being sent into a central point or the capital, compared to one where all the votes were sent to the capital for tallying, compared to one where they were tallied locally but the announcement was made centrally

 

[Ulsyus]

ooh, ooh, it just occurred to me!

A Corporate State, where central council figures were elected from candidates put forward by different corporations, but voter weight varied depending on how many shares were held by individuals, companies and voter colleges.

For the colleges, I imagine something like unions where individuals not wealthy enough to invest in notable share portfolios pooled their resources for collective investment to recoup dividends at a greater rate.

The shares would be in the State Corporation, involving all who seek the protection of the state to be either shareholders or taxpayers. So you have a democracy, but warped by a requirement that everything be viewed through a lens of corporate involvement.

 

[Ulsyus]

...or is something like this closer to a feudal technocracy, or would that be dependent on the division of responsibility and authority in the executive branch, and the separation of the executive branch from the corporate bodies that comprise the body of voters?

 

[kilemall]

...or is something like this closer to a feudal technocracy, or would that be dependent on the division of responsibility and authority in the executive branch, and the separation of the executive branch from the corporate bodies that comprise the body of voters?

Or how about different 'government services' megacorps compete for contracts to run local and federal governments analogous to a party in power voted in or out during elections? Campaigning is called the 'bid process'?