[Liberal arts contest] Civil Wars and New Governmental Systems

Day 1,998, 22:58 • Published in Romania Canada • by New Faustian Man

This is my entry to the Liberal arts contest being run by the Partidul Liberal, details of which can be viewed here.

I'm entering in Category 1: "I - What would you like to see in eRepublik - game mechanics related - compared to other online games?"

My ideas in brief: The introduction of a Civil War module and extra governmental systems added to the game. How all this would work is the purpose of this article.



CIVIL WARS

The first change would be the addition of civil wars added to the game. These would function as follows:

{i} Civil wars can be started only by a presiding congressperson of the country the civil war will take place in;

{ii} The fee to start a civil war will cost 1000 Gold, payable from the congressperson’s private account;

{iii} The civil war will either be fought over:

(a) whichever region the instigator is located in when he pays the fee, the aim being to establish this region as a ‘country’ in its own right, with its own system of government;

Or

(b) the nation as a whole, where the civil war is a means to overthrow the current government [automatic impeach should the civil war be a success] and/or system of government and replace it with a new model;

[Upon completing the payment of 1000 Gold the instigator will be asked the official objective of the civil war, which he can specify, the details of which will be accessible to view by all combatants.]

{iv} when all this is completed, the instigators of the civil war and their supporters will then fight to ‘liberate’ a specific region/ the entire country and will fight against the government and their supporters.





If the civil war is won by its instigators everyone in the region when the campaign is won will get to choose whether to join this new country, i.e. receive it’s citizenship, or remain with their present nationality.

The instigator of this new country will receive access to all the tools any other president possesses and will from thereon rule the country.

*

Should a civil war be successful under condition (a) i.e. a civil war to establish a region as a state, its within the instigators remit to re-name the region to either, for e.g. if it was fought over Ontario:

- Republic of Ontario [Formerly Canadian region of Ontario]
- Autonomous Zone of Ontario [Formerly Canadian region of Ontario]
- Democracy of Ontario [Formerly Canadian region of Ontario]
- Dictatorship of Ontario [Formerly Canadian region of Ontario]
- Communist Republic of Ontario [Formerly Canadian region of Ontario]

And operate by these governmental structures {details below}.

For a civil war to be successful would require a majority or just under of the populace to be behind it, any less and its more than likely to fail. Its also likely the MPP stack will be behind the current government, so anyone organising a civil war would probably require international assistance to ensure its successful, in other words pretty much as it is in real life.

The 1000 Gold starting cost ensures people don't start civil wars wily nilly and ensures only the most convicted opponents of a ruling regime are going to revolt.



NEW SYSTEMS OF GOVERNMENT

The second part of the civil war module is the addition of new governmental systems. These new forms of government will ensure civil wars can be genuine ideological conflicts, something that could ultimately replace the norm of players importing their nationalism to their e-nation. Not that there is anything particularly wrong with that, but this new motivation behind war would make for much more interesting conflicts and whatever countries ultimately emerge from them.





HOW SYSTEMS OF GOVERNMENT CAN BE ALTERED:

Systems of government can be changed in two ways:

{i} Country president changes the political model by which the country functions by proposing a new system of government [see below] to congress, which will require congress to vote in favour;

[ii] The instigator and victor of a civil war can install a new governmental system automatically upon toppling the presiding government;


Currently we operate with an executive and a congress, the ‘republic’ model, the following are potential additions to in-game governmental structures with a short description of how they would impact legislature and the executive:


>>> DEMOCRACY



- We have a form of democracy with the current government mechanics, but a lot of people will attest to the fact that the current edition often has submissive legislatures as the executive attempts aggressively executing its electoral plans in the short window it has in office. The Democratic model will seek to redress some of this balance not by augmenting or adding to the power of congress but by introducing referendums, whereby all congressional or presidential proposals are determined in part by referendums of the country’s populace. So that every proposal requires a certain percentage of the populace to vote YES on it, as well as the standard YES vote in congress.

- Any government that enacts this model would have to have a lot of faith in its populace, but it would be an interesting spectacle.



>>> ANARCHY/AUTONOMOUS ZONE





- If this political model is established will mean NO executive/CP, NO congress, NO elections, and NO taxes. All the apparatus of government will be removed and people will be able to buy and sell without their products being taxed, and come and go as they please.

- Wars could be started via a referendum that any citizen is able to propose. The same would apply in MPPs and alliance membership. With anyone able to propose an MPP etc. [though each citizen will have only 2 proposals per month in total].

- Immigration would be open-door, with each citizen able to grant cs to a certain amount of new citizens per month.

- No government in the traditional sense, also means no treasury to steal.



>>> DICTATORSHIP





- This form of governance would permanently suspend a country’s congress, in its stead the self-appointed dictator/CP will determine every facet of the country, from taxes, alliances, natural enemies etc.

- The presiding dictator can appoint the next dictator when he/she feels the desire to retire. At which point a civil war would be started automatically which the next dictator must successfully subdue, if he doesn’t the country returns to a republic.

- A dictatorship could emerge from and be motivated from all manner of ideology, i.e. extreme rightwing, fascist, or some manner of Stalinist-brand leftism that seeks absolute power. However they brand themselves will depend on the political party from which they emerge.

The cost of starting a civil war will be halved in dictatorships.



>>> COMMUNIST





- This will operate as a one-party state. The party from which the CP who proposed the change to communism belongs to will become the "official party", and it will be from amongst their ranks ALL congresspersons are elected. This will render all other political parties impotent and demand violent revolution to topple the regime.

- The rights of congress are reduced to either voting YES or NO on the proposals made by the CP, they CAN NOT [irrespective that they're Communist Party members] independently propose anything. All power will reside with the leadership of the ruling party, the Communist Party, in determining taxes, wars, alliances, etc.

- As in dictatorships, all national elections will be permanently suspended. Whoever wins the monthly Communist Party election assumes the reigns of national power.

The cost of starting a civil war will be halved in communist republics.



Overview

The original republic structure affords the most flexibility and would remain, after the democratic model, the best defence against tyranny. The democratic model presents possibly the most interesting potential as it allows the populace direct say in governance via referendums on all important government decisions, so as a social experiment it could prove interesting.

The remaining three models, Anarchy, Dictatorships and Communist Republics would be a real c-change from what we’re used to, but just seeing them operate with any level of success would be interesting. If people could set aside the ego-poiltics, all three could prove interesting social experiments. Plus the drama would be epic ofcourse.


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Thanks o/
NFM