First Impressions: Populism in eUSA
eCenk Uygur
The emphasis of the title should be First Impressions. Seeing as I've only been playing eRepublik for a month and some change, I don't have much historical reference. I'll be basing all of this solely off MY experience thus far. So, for that reason, please excuse any ignorance you may read.
In any society, fictitious or otherwise, populism should be a prominent element. It gives everyone an opportunity and keeps morale up. Competition is also necessary, but populism should also be relevant.
Firstly, it should be note😛
I don't have the slightest understanding of what Unity is or does to this point. I've tried using context clues to get some understanding, and nothing. Whenever it's written, it's always used in some cryptic wording.
It usually reads something along the lines of "Unity is our alternative to ensure a fair democracy". I've read dozens of articles that make reference to it, but none really explain it.
Regardless, populism in the eUSA. I have varying feelings on the subject, but overall I'd say it's prevalent enough. Some may say I'm a glass half empty type dude, and that may be true. But I try and be blunt, maybe it's just that the truth usually sucks.
So, I'll lead with the negatives. At the time that I'm writing this, there are 7,850 eAmerican citizens playing this game. There are 1,921 people belonging to a party ranked in the top 4, roughly a quarter of the eNation.
And I have to say, the majority of the more prominent voices I've heard from thus far belong to one of those top 4 parties. Paul Proteus recently won the national presidency. He's a fed.
All but one people who own a political title belong to one of these top 4 parties, outside of Kemal Ergenekon. He's the party president of the South Carolina Ulku Ocaklari.
86% of our congress belong to one of these top 4 parties. Another 12% belongs to the 5th ranked party, the American Military Party. Leaving 4% to be outside of this top 5 bracket.
However, I'm primarily focusing on the top 4. With about 25% of the national population, the top 4 virtually dominates our government.
These statistics however, leave the larger picture's story incomplete. In the last national presidential election, only 1,980 votes were cast. In the congressional elections, 2,195 votes.
Also, I'm ranked 3892nd in strength after only five weeks.
So, the counter argument can pretty easily be made that maybe the top 4-5 parties dominate our government because the majority of active citizens belong to one of them. I'm no one to speculate on that.
And even so, all these statistics are pretty telling, but what am I getting at? Do I have a point or complaint with all this?
Somewhat, yes. Again, it should be highlighte😛
I've only been here for roughly 5 weeks. I've seen two national presidential elections. However, I haven't seen a variety of candidates.
I don't know the logistics to how these candidates are chosen or if anyone can run, but just a small amount of people choose to. I can't say.
But I swear, I'm not a rebel without a cause. I am going to bring this all in, just stick with me a little more.
Despite my lack of experience, I have been paying attention to the last two presidential elections. And after this last one, I couldn't help but notice that the majority of the campaign articles had the same vibe to them.
Something along the rhetoric of "We have problems in the eUSA. I'm going to take steps to fix them. How am I going to do this? I'm going to make so-and-so a part of my cabinet. He/she is going to be whatever title. This person's talented."
Then it goes on to "If we all cooperate and work together, we can solve these problems". There usually isn't any actual plan. There is some variety though. Most, but not all articles usually include some reference to saving us from a political take over and how this person's evil.
Now, I was told to keep RL references to a minimum, but I can't help it in this spot. This is why I get so exasperated with RL politics. It all sounds pretty, but there's very little actual substance.
That's my problem with populism in eMurica. I feel our government is dominated by a group of people from a specific group of parties that all sound similar. Maybe I'll feel differently in a few months from now, this is just what I've witnessed thus far.
On to the positives though. Because they are very much alive in this game as well. Government programs and my military unit, The Activity, have been great in this regard.
They send me food and weapons to be able to participate in battle. While doing so, they must see my profile. I have relatively low strength, so I'm not going to contribute much.
However, I'm not discriminated against in that regard and whenever I ask for some information, someone helps me out. And knowledge is power too! -nerd-
Y'all have made this game very fun and interesting to me, so I gotta give credit when it's due. Thank you.
And, if anyone would like to shed some light in regards to what Unity is, please go ahead. Also, some history on the top 4-5 parties would be appreciated.
Btw, writing eAnything still feels very weird. I laugh a bit any time I write it... So, that's all. If you made it this far in my very long article, thanks for taking the time to read it. Have a good one.
Comments
AFA = #1
No..just no.
A lot of political activity takes place off-line so that the 4 parties not named "AFA" led by the 1st commenter here can combine votes to always ensure the defeat of the AFA in CP elections. Apparently he's bad and in league with non-Americans and other non-worthy people. But what do I know, I'm just a bored non-American reading your article for something to do.
just to clarify, when people talk about top 4, they're talking about the non-AFA top 5... For mechanical reasons, the top 5 will always hold most titles/Congress seats. Top 4 is the "unity" way of referring to Top 5 minus AFA
good read
ZTown has it correct. In the current Unity charter, the "Top 4" refers currently to the 4 Parties in the Top 5 that aren't the AFA, namely Feds, USWP, AMP, and WTP.
As far as your rank after 5 weeks; unfortunately most people who sign up do not continue to play, or even play at all, and it takes approximately four weeks for a player to "die" and drop off of the rankings. Retaining new players is something that needs more work, unfortunately, it also requires more funding and the current economics of the game make that prohibitive.
I had mentioned you in the first article I wrote for putting me onto this game. I'm at least one of the people you told this game about to in one of the Kongregate chats lol. So, thank you again for some knowledge.
Nice one.
v+s
Nice article! To explain what Unity's function is, the Top 4 parties have been working to together outside of the game to select only one candidate to run against the AFA candidate, to eliminate the risk of ot ever happening. Parties outside of the Top 5 are welcome to participate in the process as well, but none of the selection is available in game and is typically done in party forums.
There is a strong populist sentiment that is strongly against Unity, almost to the point where they want to make the contest against AFA less of a foregone conclusion, but at this time none of the major parties are willing to take the risk of splitting votes.
A strong populist movement with some membership behind it could go a long way to resolving this issue, but so far it hasn't materialized.
"risk of it ever happening" = AFA winning the election.
That seems to make sense as to why. I looked back at some recent election results... Since March, the Unity candidate won by 20-38 points. Although I'm sure there's potential for me to be wrong in this assumption, but I'd assume they could pull off having two candidates.
Do you think a "Unity" guy could still get elected if they ran two candidates?
I personally think it is likely at this point, since AFA was at around 30% in the last CP election. But it would be still too close to comfort for my tastes..