Questions tagged [politics]

For questions about governance of the people, including methods, effects, and interactions with the people.

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17 votes
4 answers
3k views

When Countries Combine, how do they pick a New Name?

I am writing a story where two countries decide to merge into one larger country, but I am having trouble figuring out what they would actually name the new country. At first I though that they would ...
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9 votes
14 answers
564 views

Explaining the need for human representatives in an AI controlled society

In a relatively near-future event, a Sentient Artificial Intelligence or SAI is accidentally created, escapes onto the internet, and then, after a few days of browsing social media and the news, ...
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-3 votes
2 answers
109 views

What govt. members need to be captured for a successful coup d'état? [closed]

I'm working on a story where a corrupt government official manages to blackmail his nation's government into secretly letting him and his cohorts run things from behind the scenes. This is achieved ...
5 votes
6 answers
1k views

Scooped up for military research: How realistic is it in this day and age?

Being 'scooped up' for military research - or being a creation of military research - has been a common trope of movies and TV for many years. However, in most western nations, if not most nations ...
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-3 votes
3 answers
100 views

Why would multiple off-world colonies secede all at once? [closed]

So, we have a situation where various Earth countries, (the Republic of Alaska, the United States of Europe, etc) now all have colonies on Mars, over venus and under the surface of Mercury. Technology ...
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2 votes
8 answers
373 views

Justifying why the birth of a post-scarcity world would cause other planets to secede

So, in roughing out the basic historical timeline of this project o’ mine, I have decided that the two most important aspects of the 24th century are: 1st, the birth of a post-scarcity on Earth, ...
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-3 votes
2 answers
110 views

Should world leaders be screened for psychological suitability? [closed]

So, in this sci-fi futuristic universe, I am trying to solve what i call the Basic Problem of Human Leadership, which is thus: 1 in any Democratic system, both good and bad people are able to come ...
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1 vote
0 answers
93 views

How would a medieval society look if food was not a factor to consider? [closed]

The Context To give a short context of the question, my world is called Atmos, and it's a world where continents float above a layer of clouds. They aren't just floating islands, there are landmasses ...
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-3 votes
3 answers
112 views

Justification for foreign intervention in an anarchist Middle East? [closed]

What would be a rational reason for Western countries to unethically intervene in the Middle East following a total economic collapse? I'm writing a story where Middle Eastern countries descend into ...
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2 votes
4 answers
121 views

Why would people want a benevolent AI-controlled society? [closed]

Inspired by the Orion’s Arm worldbuilding project, I am imagining a science-fiction scenario where humans are ruled over by entities known as GODS, or Geocomputing Directories. These are computer ...
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5 votes
12 answers
1k views

Under what conditions would a cybercommunist nation form? [closed]

In an imagined future timeline, over 350 years from now, humans have terraformed Mars and colonised Venus, along with constructing a score of rotating space habitats. These worlds are mostly governed ...
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3 votes
1 answer
133 views

Is a monarchic confederation possible?

In my world that is set in a future Earth, there is a transcontinental country corresponding to the respective areas of the Fifth French Republic, the United-Kingdom of Great-Britain and Northern ...
1 vote
9 answers
915 views

Why would an advanced civilization keep slavery? [closed]

In my world, there is a country made up of mostly demons (a species) and ghouls. Their economy is both capitalistic and mercantilistic, and their government is a constitutional dictatorship. Currently,...
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6 votes
8 answers
3k views

How could politicians protect themselves from hypnosis?

In my world, hypnotism is both powerful and reliable. With a few tools and a lot of suggestions, it is possible for trained hypnotists to put people in a trance-like state. While in this state, the ...
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8 votes
6 answers
658 views

An Irish monarchy and IRA [closed]

I need a change in history so in the year 2020, Ireland is ruled by a Constitutional Monarchy. It is still a catholic nation (not celtic), has a democratically elected parliament and leaders, and the ...
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6 votes
14 answers
586 views

What conditions would bring a kingdom/country to want a dark lord ruling them (again)?

In my world, because of how difficult the dark lord antagonist is to kill, he was permanently trapped in a weird substance. However, centuries later, he gets out and he is free. He awakens now in my ...
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6 votes
5 answers
211 views

What practices would keep ruling aristocrats young?

This world has a society with fairly modern technology (late 20th century or later) with a natural, reasonably healthy life span of 70+ years for people barring accidents, homicides, suicides, or a ...
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12 votes
4 answers
2k views

Would it be possible to turn off a small country's internet from the outside? [closed]

Let's say a country is going through political turmoil because a big enough part of the population wants to split off from it and form their own national identity, and they succeed. Let's call the ...
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5 votes
5 answers
729 views

How to set up exchange rate between two very different world

Related to this question. The Science world, of course, has experienced and discarded gold-standard and is using paper currency and floating exchange rates. The magic world, on the other hand, uses ...
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12 votes
10 answers
2k views

Planetary Rule: How possible?

It is an established science-fiction trope, especially in something like Star Wars, that entire planets will be run by a single government. When trying to worldbuild, I began to think about how one ...
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4 votes
2 answers
223 views

Discriminatory policies that are outwardly non-discriminatory

The setting of the story is similar to a 1970 to 1980 Earth. There is a special faction of people, and we call this faction A. A looks human, but has animal ears and tails (in the sense of if you ...
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0 votes
7 answers
861 views

What are some drawbacks of this new political system? [closed]

I am constructing a world with a new political system. Evidently, representative democracies of today are far from perfect. The main issues I see are:- The majority of voters lacking interest and ...
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5 votes
8 answers
3k views

What Would be The Least Bad Countries to Seek Refuge As a Powerful Superhuman?

Someone believes they are the only person with highly strategically useful powers. However, they can't make the best use of them without revealing themselves, so what countries would be the safest ...
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1 vote
4 answers
992 views

In a parallel reality, what is stopping a contemporanean nation from jamming its enemies to hell and back? [closed]

In a parallel reality, what is stopping a contemporanean (from 1940 to 2020 alike tech) nation from jamming its enemies to hell and back? A nation finds itself at war with another nation, what is ...
2 votes
4 answers
234 views

How can a foreign power make great friends with another country without altering its government, people, or autonomy? [closed]

To keep it short and sweet, this is a fictional world with a country called Vertercrank. They're an overseas empire with dangerous neighbors, taking the role of pirates and thieves. Jehor is a country ...
-7 votes
1 answer
110 views

Which factors determine the political system of the various species from the Homo genus? [closed]

In my universe, there are sixteen species from the Homo genus: anatomically modern humans, marine humans (merfolk), winged humans (angels), demons, ogres, giants, dwarfs, elves, orcs, gnomes, trolls, ...
1 vote
0 answers
84 views

The dragons of the world disappeared. Now what? [closed]

With nearly every major event in the world, the dragons were there. The world was built upon the backs of dragons and in turn, the dragons were revered by most mortal groups. In the southern half of ...
2 votes
1 answer
99 views

I need a book about different government types and their history to create believeable countries. Could you recommend me some? [closed]

As I stated, I want to do a proper research. I'm interested in pretty general stuff, but I want it to posess some factual values. I'd be glad for your help.
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12 votes
6 answers
1k views

Could A Dictator Take Power In The USA Using Strictly Legal Means? [closed]

I'm world-building a future where the USA devolves into a dictatorial state ruled by a single man. The following are true: The dictator in question is a charismatic populist who is highly intelligent,...
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4 votes
3 answers
192 views

How to sell things that have been brought back from another world

The MC from our modern world (2016-ish) has been iseikaied to another world of swords and magics. But after the MC defeated the big bad, she declined the invitation to stay in that world and insists ...
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4 votes
4 answers
217 views

Political Concerns of Laser Propulsion System

Now it's 2085, and human civilization has started to reach the planets. Using the most advanced fission rockets, we can travel from Earth to Mercury in 8 months and from Earth to Jupiter in 1 year. ...
12 votes
16 answers
5k views

Why would a country have both a monarch and a president?

In a Web-miniseries I want to create, Les Superbes Germains Lacasse (I want that the original title to be in French) (the title means The Super Lacasse Siblings), there is a strange country that can ...
4 votes
4 answers
242 views

How to "convince" the other nation to not enslave demi-human [closed]

The Main Character is the leader of a nation of demi-humans: Edit: It seems this is not what the Asker intended. A more accurate picture is this: Although the rest of the world is mostly in late ...
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14 votes
6 answers
895 views

Integrating Earth into interstellar empire [closed]

First Contact In 2020s an alien starship visited Earth. First contact was peaceful - with intial contact made from orbit, humans started learning the alien language and the aliens - let's call them ...
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7 votes
6 answers
2k views

How/ Why/ Is it even possible to have a self contained civil war/ war the modern/ future era?

In stereotypical fantasy, there is normally some sort of revolution in a uni-polar world where the rebels have to fight the evil empire. (This is not always true but its basically what happens) The &...
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-1 votes
1 answer
66 views

What would the government of a medieval city be like if it were transported through time and space? [closed]

I'm working on a story where an advanced civilisation show up near a medieval city (probably the capital) but there's an issue with their ship and through tech-wizard shenanigans the warp system ...
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4 votes
3 answers
334 views

How to stop the King of Armies to coup the other Kings?

In the world I am building the main geopolitical power is a nation ruled by seven kings, each having their own area of authority. One of them rules over the nation's armies and there should be a ...
2 votes
5 answers
178 views

What circumstances could lead to the creation of numerous pan-Celtic macronations? [closed]

TDLR: After peace and stability in the West goes to hell, the UN collapses, and nationalism arises. Ireland and Scotland return to being fully Celtic again while England becomes a 3rd world country ...
0 votes
3 answers
235 views

What is the most altruistic economic system? [closed]

I'm trying to write about a world with an altruistic society, and want an economy that facilitates that most of the time. I'm looking for an answer that improves public goods, retains some level of ...
5 votes
3 answers
215 views

How does a demigod city enjoy freedom while also pretending it is not?

Spill over is never a good thing in nature, from the tragedy befalling Hercules in mythology to the current pandemic are some of the side effects reminding us never to underestimate the power of ...
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1 vote
6 answers
291 views

Post-democratical political system

Question: how will this idea fail? Preferably in a way that is fundamental, and can't be easily fixed with small changes. And politically based, being unable to respond to problems because of the ...
1 vote
4 answers
138 views

How would a group with strong leadership skills create an initial government? [closed]

A group of 1000 political “dissenters” and their families have been captured and forced into an underground bunker. Because many of them have some sort of background in politics and/or leadership, it ...
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11 votes
16 answers
6k views

Why would most species avoid democracy?

In my world, there are humans (often called Earthlings) and eight alien species. Humans have an Earth government best described as a democratic quinquevirate: to be exact, this is an elective semi-...
-1 votes
1 answer
314 views

How to form an "international alliance of nationalists"?

We know the joke about having "flat-earther all over the globe" and "international alliances of nationalists". But how to set the latter up in reality? How to make these people, ...
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36 votes
16 answers
6k views

Politics and Zombies: Designing a balanced zombie plague that could realistically destroy civilization due to poor decision-making

As has been pointed out numerous times, zombie apocalypses of the classic zombie-bites-you-and-you-become-a-zombie are stupid and would never work in real life. Biting is a horribly inefficient method ...
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6 votes
6 answers
313 views

Is it Possible to Manage a Police State Prior to the Invention of Widespread and Reliable Communication Technology?

By “Police State” I mean a despotic sort of government in which the state is actively trying to spy on its citizens for political ends. Something like the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) or ...
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1 vote
1 answer
129 views

What would be some social welfare systems of a first world developed nation with a GINI Index of 32.56? [closed]

GINI is a term that is used to measure income inequality (See here for examples https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality) and is a good indication on to what kind of society ...
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3 votes
8 answers
808 views

How would a species in a world where magic is banned also ban Science? [closed]

The people in my world who can't use magic are at war with the people who can use magic. Both groups used to be at peace before political and global conflict started, and long before they were at war ...
2 votes
5 answers
182 views

One reason Taiwan's military would be using weapons sold by China

I need a way to change history so that Taiwan, in 2015, be using weapons manufactured and sold by mainland China as well as some US equipments--sort of like how Pakistan uses both Chinese and US ...
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3 votes
2 answers
216 views

How to modernize military in a short time

Related to this. MC is trying to build a modern nation out from an ancient one, and he also needs a modern military. A modern military is not just about equipment, it is also about having modern ...
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