Questions tagged [government]
For questions dealing with the political body with authority over a nation or world and its people.
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How could a monarch rule in a vast, isolated, medieval city
The City itself
Let's assume we have a city of the size of the Peloponnese (round about 22'000 square kilometers) which is very dense populated (by medieval terms) and is isolated from the rest of ...
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How do you overthrow a government without violence?
I am creating a semi-dystopic sci-fi world in which the government is - surprise, surprise - corrupt and needs to be replaced.
In books, this is often done via warfare and violence, but I would love ...
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Can a Government remain communist if it takes on democratic ideals like the US government?
Communism is basically the control of everything by the state, to be dished out in equal proportions to the population. Following this logic, shouldn't it be possible, if not probable that a ...
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In a nanotech future, how does government pay for itself?
In a nanotech future, you have assemblers which can pull together atoms and make things.
Anything that you have a pattern for, and the correct atoms, can be made. You could make the solar cells to ...
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In a nanotech future, how do you preserve the plants?
This has been a problem that's been bothering me for some time.
If you have nanotech, that can pull atoms together and make things. What's to stop you from making an assembler that grabs carbon ...
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How could an ancient empire financially support a long-term conquest without plundering?
I have a world where an ancient empire has conquered neighboring kingdoms to expand its borders and political influence. I understand, historically, military forces such as the Romans and Vikings ...
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How could war be replaced by sports?
Pacing back and forth in the war room, vice president Biden carefully considered his options. The fate of the world was in his balance. Sweat condensed on his brow, and time was running short. He ...
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Getting a manned ship into space without being detected
In the story idea I'm working on, I'm using the polandball/polish space marines meme as a starting point for the titular space-faring organization. In the story, the meme exists as a way to cast doubt ...
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A world without human relationships
I'm at the early stages of the development of a novel set in a world that lacks human relationships. The main plot will involve characters slowly learning back to care for one another.
It's not a ...
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A centralized government in fantasy setting
I'm running a Pathfinder (think Dungeons and Dragons) campaign, and I'm creating a country which has a centralized government that is responsible for many major cities, ports, etc throughout the ...
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Dragons and aviation bureaucracy, the sequel: Dragons on Instruments!
Starting with the background provided in this question, how would a dragon outfit himself/herself (avionics, power systems, etal) for operating under the Instrument Flight Rules? How would the ...
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Dragons and aviation bureaucracy
Once you do the handwaving needed to explain a modern-day world with flight-capable dragons in it, how would said dragons interact with the bureaucracy surrounding flying in the modern world? What ...
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In a realm with limited magic, who would govern?
In my question In a world with magic, who would govern?, I asked who would govern that world, magicians or mundane warlords/nobles.
Now, suppose that exactly the same rules I described in the ...
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Self-sufficient Ark
I'm trying to figure out what a huge swimming ark that is able to support maybe 10.000 people would look like. It's for a P&P campaign. And please excuse any bad grammar, spelling or poor word ...
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In a world with magic, who would govern?
In our non-magical reality, feudal nobility is postulated to have evolved from warlords - an armed man in charge of a group of armed men. Since they can intimidate less-well armed or trained people, ...
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What monetary policy tools are possible with virtual currency?
Given that the Fed buys and sells bonds on the open market, it's possible that the Fed (or equivalent) can surprise people with an average of $172 every few months in lieu of buying bonds on the open ...
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Global effects of a "free" energy device
Suppose I have a "free energy" device of the following characteristics:
Cheap, Materials Easily Accessible
Basic wire (coils) and electronics components in an unintuitive configuration
Solid State
...
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If an elder race has seen all and done all, what one of its individuals could aspire to?
I want to build a world where society is composed of a few highly advanced individuals. Perhaps ruled by a council of elders as we frequently see, utopic society and all the usual tropes apply:
The ...
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Modern Society... Without the Americas?
Supposing explorers from Europe either never sailed to the Americas, or were all killed off and never seen again, could the world resemble the way it is today?
A couple things that may have been ...
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What would a colonial military on another planet near a wormhole look like?
Imagine an off-world colony of maybe 100,000 people, governed at least partially locally, partially on Earth. What would the permanently assigned military for this colony look like? How would physical ...
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Resistance movement in a world controlled by extensive use of nanobots
Let's assume that we live in a world similar to ours, but with bio and nanotechnology that is 25 years (give or take a few) ahead of what we have today. Few years ago scientists in most advanced ...
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Sovereignty and interstellar travels
Let’s consider the typical setting of 20th-century science fiction writers, both Western and Communist. Namely:
Transportation within planets is cheap, quick, and is not significantly restricted;
...
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Does the change of dynasty make a country weaker or stronger in the long run?
When we look at our own history and particularly in China, there were a lot of dynastic changes. Almost all of these changes came with destruction and the death of many people. War also disrupts trade,...
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Unifying two empires?
I have an empire that occupies its own landmass, defined by water boundaries. At some point in the past (maybe 200 to 400 years) it was two main cultural regions, the East and the West. The modern ...
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How complicated can a legislature be?
In the world as we know it, it seems like political power is almost always consolidated into a single axis (Lancasters vs Yorks, Republicans vs Democrats, Conservative vs Labour, etc). This, in my ...
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Transitioning Away from Dynastic Rule
I have a country which, prior to the events of the story, had been ruled by a monarchic dynasty for a good 200-300 years. This dynasty was ended by violent upheaval. The reign of the monarch who ...
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Which U.S. political party should one join in order to reorganize the government into a dictatorial autocracy?
In the near future (2035), a power-hungry individual plans to become a politician, climb the ladder of power, be elected President of the United States of America, and then reorganize the government ...
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What single event can cause global government communication to fail within a month or less?
Loosely based on real life, what single event either man-made or natural can cause communication either to or within governments on a global scale to fail?
Can be fictitious, just not totally ...
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Consequences of the shift to a post-scarcity society
I have a basic idea for a world that I am fleshing out. Basically a dystopian future based on minimal, if any, resource scarcity. This sort of society was addressed humorously in a Cracked After Hours ...
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Would early stages of leadership lead to dictatorship?
Scenario:
A new civilization is born. People are emerging from their wandering lifestyle to the settled agriculture and trade based survival. We could assume that they'd implement a town centre and ...
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How would a completely urbanized city-planet be maintained?
Based off of this deleted question: Why and how would a completely urbanized city-planet exist?
Related:
How would a completely urbanized city-planet support its population?
How would the global ...
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The first few things to note down about an imaginary culture
When I want to populate a fantasy world with different regions and their cultures, I have problems knowing where to start.
Recently I used a quick-and-dirty technique that I could call "cultural ...
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How far apart can two cities/towns/etc be, given that order must be (effectively) maintained?
Given a monarchy, how far apart can two cities/towns/etc be situated, while still maintaining order and power? Alternatively, think about it this way: given any random settlement area, what is the ...
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What are the necessary conditions for a worldwide government?
Fictional worlds, usually ones set in the future, often depict planets with a single worldwide government. (In fact, it's such a common trope that one Babylon 5 episode made a point of saying "hey, ...
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