All these “archies” are forms of oligarchy, which are societies ruled by a small elite class. Geniocracy is rule by geniuses, Kritarchy is rule by judges, and Noocracy is rule by philosophers. There are many, many types of oligarchy. There are fewer versions of democracy where people make decisions or elect leaders to make those decisions in their stead. Autocracies have the fewest number of variations. Autocracies are ruled by a person (or entity such as a junta or political party) who rules with absolute power. Here’s a good working list of them all these variations.
All words are governed in some way. How that governance is structured, determines who gets what resources, who is heard and who is silenced, how art, music and drama flourish and how justice is delivered.
Here are starter questions to help build a governing system for your world.
- How is the government formed? (e.g. elections, birth rite such as a monarchy or house of lords, selected by machine and data analytics based on a set of criteria, party rules, age such as a council of elders)
- How long do the govern ruled?
- How is eligible or allowed to govern?
- What is the relationship between those who can rule and how resources are distributed?
- What do those in power do to stay in power?
- How is the population kept in line?
- What services do the government provide (infrastructure, social services, defense), and how is that paid for?
- What are the obligations and responsibilities of citizenship?
- How are people’s rights protected, if they are?
- How is the government structured (centralized or decentralized? Confederate, regional or unitary)?
- What level is the government you create (sub-national, national, international, interplanetary)?
- What are the rules that govern across levels of government (within a single country or across)?
Now let’s look at a few interesting variations of government, created in fantasy and science fiction. As the blog titles suggests, we will start with the Game of Thrones.
Game of Thrones: Managing Across Complexity
As the title reveals, this story is about the battle to hold a monarchy, that several families felt they had a birth-rite to hold. The beauty of the book was how George R.R. Martin drew some variations of governance structures across the many countries that made up the world. The Iron Throne, the ultimate crown, was taken or held violently, and transferred through bloodlines in a semi-feudal system. Thus, Martin designed his rule to be violent by nature. And as violent ramps up, we see the cultural norms that maintained some peace between the countries violated (the Red Wedding violated the rule of hospitality). Peace in this world hangs on a thread.
Even so, the Freefolk followed a charismatic leader and seemed to have broadly more equal if somewhat anarchic society. Dani, when moving through the south, had to manage across slave centered societies and oligarchs. There were others, but you get the overall idea.
If you want to create a more peaceful world, you will need to look at the rules in each country, and the rules across.
The Expanse
The Expanse, originally a SyFy series not streaming on Amazon, based on the series by James S.A. Corey, is a world in the future where the earth is governed by the UN or the United Nations of Earth. The Secretary General is elected. Earth society has splintered into three factions and they co-exist in a semi-cold war status, which threatens to collapse any minute. Earth, the Martian Congressional Republic (Mars) which is independent and invests heavily in its military, and the Belters, who live on space stations and mine minerals needed for space travel, which are organized into competing factions. The Belters are loosely organized into the Outer Planets Alliance, which aligns the asteroid belt (they mine) and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn.
Any governments or ruling classes in science fiction and/or fantasy fascinate you? Please share.
Header photo Istock credit: SanderStock
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