Getting Political
April 14, 2023

As I've mentioned before[1], while I have my own political beliefs, I keep that
part of my life separate from my writing. (Don't worry, that isn't going to 
change in this post.) However, I *do* want to talk a bit about politics--the 
politics of the worlds you create, especially if you write Science Fiction 
or Fantasy.

The default political setups for both SF and fantasy seem to fall into broad 
categories: empire, kingdom, or some form of republic/representative government.
This makes sense, as these are the main heads under which man has lived for 
millennia. But they're not the only forms of government.

Plato mentions several in his famous political work, "The Republic." Among them 
are timocracy (rule by those who love honor); aristocracy (rule by the "best"); 
oligarchy (rule by the rich); democracy (rule by "the people"); and tyranny 
(rule by one person). In addition, there are several more modern forms of 
government such as anarchism, socialism, and communism, which are as much social
as political movements. A quick check on Wikipedia[2] shows dozens of types of 
governments and social arrangements. 

Human politics has been shaped by many factors--food availability, geography, 
social customs. Alien (or fantasy) politics would be shaped by entirely 
different factors. The resulting forms of government would likely be quite 
surprising--and perhaps a little confusing--to a human (and the reader). But 
that's the sort of thing which adds interest and flavor to a work, right? 
Mixing aspects of different--and even opposed--systems not only points out the 
differences between worlds/peoples, but also sets up all sorts of potential 
for conflict both within and between them. Imagine, say, an elected king/dictator,
who can do whatever they feel is best, but only for a stated period of time 
(then who is liable to lawsuit/punishment for actions that end up not benefiting 
the nation). Or a balanced theocracy between three different religions, one of 
which has priests and priestesses sworn to hasten the collapse of the universe 
and the next Big Bang, when "all will be reborn." Or perhaps a confederation of 
states in which the only people with political power are those who have given 
at least half their wealth away by doing public works (buildings, roads, and 
such). Or one in which the people can only vote between the ages of 25-35, 
45-55, and 65-75.

All these varying systems and philosophies. All that grist for your writing 
mill. Have fun getting political.


[1] https://www.andrewgudgel.com/blog/on-bumper-stickers-and-beliefs.txt
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_forms_of_government

(c) 2023 Andrew Gudgel
email: contact [at] andrewgudgel [dot] com