Backstage - OOC Forums
EVE-Online RP Discussion and Resources => Player Driven Content => Topic started by: Seriphyn on 11 Aug 2013, 17:04
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Feedback requested! It's hard writing these things because there might be something so glaringly obvious that might be overlooked...anyway, it's meant to emulate the tone on the EVElopedia (which is where it will ultimately go...)
==Politics==
The Elusenian Cooperative is a directly-democratic corporate republic where all citizens are joint owners of the collective. The Constitution of Elusenia is the supreme law that details the framework of the entire corporation, outlying government structure and powers as well as fundamental rights. Elusenian political philosophy is firmly Gallente in nature, emphasizing democratic principles such as popular sovereignty, constitutionalism, and the rule of law. Elusenian corporate republicanism is defined as a state formed in the public interest, where all citizens have consented to support the common good and work towards the principles that the corporation is founded on.
===Government===
Elusenia utilizes a directorial parliamentary system that serves as the apparatus of the cooperative. All citizens are members of the Agora, the legislative body that holds supreme power over the republic. The Agora elects the executive branch, known as the Directorate. In turn, the twelve members of the Directorate appoint the fifty members of the Senate, a nominal upper chamber of the legislature designed to temper potential majoritarianism that may arise in the Agora. However, in the event of any disagreement between the Agora and the Senate or Directorate, the Agora has the final say. The judicial branch is composed of three supreme courts, with members nominated by the Directorate and approved by the Agora.
Elusenia’s e-democracy and bureaucracy are both heavily assisted by artificial intelligences that are sufficiently advanced for their purpose but otherwise classed as weak by interstellar regulatory bodies. The Governmental, Administrative, and Bureaucratic Intelligence for Elusenia (GABIE) is the foremost AI that informs all government action. AIs subordinate to GABIE serve in a wide array of roles, from data collection and collation to drafting new legislation.
====Directorate====
The Directorate is the chief executive body of the corporation that serves as the collective head of state and government of Elusenia. There are twelve Directors who sit on a ''rotunda mensa'' (round table) basis, including a Director-General as ''primus inter pares'' (first amongst equals) and nominal head. The remaining eleven Directors each head up a Sub-Directorate. The Sub-Directorates include Home Affairs, Foreign Relations and Defence, Finance, Infrastructure, Education, Science and Technology, Health, Justice, Culture and Sports, Environment and Agriculture, and Economic Affairs. Each Sub-Directorate oversees the subsidiaries of the cooperative for the day-to-day functioning of Elusenia as well as its extraplanetary humanitarian operations.
Candidates for the Directorate must hold an incumbent management position within the cooperative. Candidates must be in possession of a specific post-graduate qualification combined with significant demonstrable experience relevant to the position they are applying for. Any citizen-employee of Elusenia who meets these prerequisites can submit their application for candidacy to the Sub-Directorate of Home Affairs, to be approved by the Senate and then the Agora. Members of the Directorate serve yearly terms and can be removed from office at any time following a quorum from the Agora.
====Senate====
The Senate is the nominal upper chamber of the legislature of Elusenia. There are fifty Senators who are appointed by the Directorate, but all hopefuls must fulfill some meritocratic criteria. Like candidates for the Directorate, prospective Senators must be educated to the post-graduate university level at least, but there is no requirement for any specific qualification or prior professional experience. As such, Elusenian Senators are generalists rather than the specialists of the Directorate.
The primary purpose of the Senate is to temper majority rule and serve as a chamber of sober second thought. The Senate is tasked with reviewing all proposals from the Agora, and is expected to provide recommendations for amendments in instances of rejecting a proposal, which it can only do a maximum of three times. The Senate can propose new laws to the Agora, but it cannot pass new laws independently. While the Agora is concerned with day-to-day decision-making in Elusenia, the Senate is designed to function on an anticipatory basis, entrusted with legislating with a long-term outlook.
Two Senators are internally elected as Consuls, who jointly serve as the face of the Elusenian Senate. Senators are appointed for six month terms, renewable only with the approval of the Agora.
====Agora====
The Agora is the primary legislative body of Elusenia and the ultimate holder of sovereignty. It is a virtual environment and thus has no physical location beyond its main servers beneath Government House. Every employee of the Elusenian Cooperative is considered a member of the Agora (called Citizens), though the principle of voluntary association combined with pragmatic concerns means that the Agora de facto functions on a system of delegative democracy. Citizens who are either unwilling or unable to regularly participate in the Agora have the option of assigning a Delegate to represent their interests at any time. Delegates can delegate further when the need of specialists arises. Principal Delegates are appointed for specific sessions as and when required. Support for Delegates can be withdrawn at any time, should Citizens wish to represent themselves or otherwise.
The Agora has a heavy focus on consensus-building, though laws are typically passed on an absolute supermajority. GABIE and lesser AIs known as LASSIEs (Legislative Assistants for Elusenia) play an active role in the Agora, from regulating parliamentary procedure and maintaining discipline, to presenting data and relevant forms of information to the chamber. There is a strong emphasis on the Agora acting only when it is properly informed with the objectivity of the AIs, who are at the whims of the chamber. Citizens are legally obligated to participate at least once a month without the use of Delegates in the Agora, be this active debate or simple voting on legislation.
===Administrative subdivisions===
Elusenia operates on a centralized, unitary system where all political authority is vested in the primary entities and otherwise handed down to local bodies on a devolved basis. Elusenia is administratively subdivided into 16 communes based on geographic boundaries. Each commune has its own council with membership granted to local residents. Like the Agora, commune councils function on the principles of voluntary direct democracy through the use of delegates. Each commune has its own Community Court that deals with all civil and criminal matters in their respective jurisdictions.
===Legal system===
Elusenia operates a civil law system with three national courts. The High Court of Justice deals with all judicial cases covering civil or criminal matters at the national level, additionally serving as the highest court of appeal over the Community Courts. The Court of Administration regulates corporate procedures and defines the powers of bureaucratic agencies, while the Court of Constitution protects the supreme law of Elusenia. The Court of Constitution has the power to declare any action by the other government branches as unconstitutional, while the Court of Administration can similarly identify actions by corporate agencies as illegal.
Each court has six justices who serve five year terms, nominated by the Directorate and approved by the Agora. Justices cannot be removed from office.
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Franchise.
Almost EVERY form of government is democratic up to a point - the true determining factor of the citizen experience is what determines who gets franchise. It's the same for Elusenia - when you say every citizen gets a vote and a share in the corporation's stock - what determines a citizen?
This question will really be what differentiates Elusenia from, say, the State - where fullfledged Citizens scrimp and save their whole lives to acquire enough stock to gain anything more than a token say in how their nation runs.
So - what makes a Citizen a Citizen? Do natural born Elusenians gain franchise at the age of majority? Is that franchise universal? What about immigrants? Can they become franchise holders? Is there a Citizen that DOESN'T have franchise? What about rich Citizens - can they buy enough stock for two or more votes?
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Myself, I'm wondering where the "corporate" part of this comes in. So far you've described a basic representative republic with universal suffrage, with the occasional "corporate" and "employee" tossed around.
Is the whole planet a for-profit corporation? Is it non-profit? Are there shareholders that the government is ultimately responsible to? What are those responsibilities? What happens when Environment and Agriculture end up highly profitable while Education can't point to a direct number on the bottom line?
Continuing in that theme: If the place is a corporate republic, does that mean that there are no employers other than Elusenia? Or does it mean that only employees of Elusenia have a vote? Does the corporation of Elusenia take care of everything? All the shops? All the utilities? All the factories? What mechanisms are in place to prevent corruption? I know that if I had a penchant for defrauding my employers, I could do far worse than to pick a planet-sized corporation that literally covers all aspects of life.
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Nice. =)
If I understand correctly, the Agora is responsible to elect the Directorate, which in turn is tasked to appoint members of the Senate ? Isn't that a bit... Napoleonic, for a lack of better term ? I mean, if the executive branch has the direct control on who will seat on the legislative branch, doesn't that sound a bit... dangerous ? Even if the Agora can still mitigate that a bit since the Agora is basically the people, and yet another legislative body, how does that help the Senate to be a deterrent to potential majoritarianism ? Eventually in that system, the political majority of the Agora elects the Directorate (probably then sharing the same majority), which his turn appoints the Senate, so, most likely, to be composed of the same majority again... ? Isn't it a bit like a camouflage for a pure dictatorship of the majority eventually ?
Maybe i'm wrong but I doubt that many Republics allow their executive bodies to control the nomination of at least one of their legislative bodies, or else the separation of the 3 powers loses most of its meaning.
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I...wanted a Senate in there so I could potentially have a logo for the entire Elusenian government that has 'SPQE' in there...like these (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPQR#Modern_variants) <_< ... >_>
So, as far as my understanding goes, the 'three branches of government' is descended from Plato's mixed government idea; the monarchy, the aristocracy, and the democracy. The executive is the monarchy, the judiciary is the aristocracy, and the legislature is the democracy. Anyway, Senate election will be changed so that it is elected by a randomly-selected college of individuals...not sure if Senate is still needed though despite that.
Working backwards; Shintoko's point. The whole 'corporate' bit is where the Destiny Foundation (a non-profit corporation) are the administrators of Elusenia. However, that's changing (even if I haven't posted it on the IGS yet...) so that DES-F becomes a cooperative, which makes the whole DES-F and Elusenia dichotomy redundant. Instead, there is now just the Elusenian Cooperative (or the Cooperative Republic of Elusenia, if you like). At the interstellar level it is registered as a corporation with subsidiaries. This allows it greater leverage in extending its influence and goals amongst other Federation territories, but more likely it's a corporation that is forming a republic, so it's just easiest to retain that system.
Every employee of the Elusenian Cooperative is a citizen; so, citizen-employees. Perhaps every instance of 'citizen' and 'employee' in the text should be replaced with 'citizen-employee' (which I got from the Caldari demographics article). I imagine you can become a working employee at 16; before 16 you are a citizen-dependent...but then there are those who may stay into further education (which there is a cultural emphasis towards)...then they become citizen-student, which functionally entitles someone to the same rights as a citizen-employee.
Immigrants and other expatriates residing in Elusenia do not get franchise. If you're an employee of the Elusenian Cooperative, you have franchise.
Hope that answers questions.
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Almost! So, at sixteen you stop being a citizen-dependent and become either a citizen-employee or a citizen-student. Citizen-students I understand. Anyone going into further education at the age of majority is a Citizen-student. Citizen-students have the exact same rights as a Citizen-employee.
That bit's clear.
However, when you transition from either Citizen-Student or Citizen-Dependent to Citizen-Employee, what's involved? Does Elusenia have 100% employment? Is becoming a Citizen-Employee predicated on getting a job? Do Citizen-Dependents who don't get a job remain Citizen-Dependents - regardless of their age? Do Citizen-Employees who lose their job or retire become Citizen-Dependents again?
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If immigrants and other expatriates don't get a franchise but employees do, does that imply that immigrants (et al) aren't employees? Does that mean that there are other non-corporate businesses on the planet?
Say I want to immigrate to Elusenia and open a convenience store. Do I own my convenience store? Do I buy the franchise for a convenience store from corporate Elusenia? Does Elusenia own the store? If so, how am I not an employee of Elusenia?
I'm not trying to be a nitpicking jerk here, I'm genuinely curious how you envision this all working.
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Oh, not at all Shin, that's fine. Also, Elusenia is an island state about the size of Great Britain (so says PI), not an entire planet. I don't think I could get away with that unless I was in the 0.0 realm.
This is where it gets a bit tricky; my knowledge of things like employee practices and corporate protocols falls flat. The idea is that because it's a corporate republic, like the State, you cannot be a citizen and not be an employee. But Elusenia is not prone to abandoning its people. I figured a termination would involve a severance pay and deportation. Alternatively, perhaps there is a reversion to 'citizen-dependent'. I don't know if 100% employment is feasible; immediately, sure. Long-term? Probably not...
Immigration to Elusenia rests on being able to get a job with the Elusenian Cooperative. It is highly exclusive, of course, and Elusenians may argue that the right to citizenship is a luxury, on the basis that they are living in an ISK-based economy where the people they are aiming to support have nothing. This would justify an amicable deportation should employment termination come about. Being an expatriate is different, though, and I suppose that functions as it normally would. Since there's enough land, there could easily be areas dedicated for people to reside transiently for future employment, some sort of competitive place thingy.
As for businesses...yeah, I don't really know anything about that either. I'm open to suggestions here.
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It's 3am so excuse retardedness
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Any market based economy requires, optimally, a 5% mobility pool of unemployed. Note that here I am talking about skilled workers who are short-term unemployed through no particular incompetence or malfeasance of their own - long term unemployed are a different kettle of fish.
Total Employment tends to be a trait of the Command Economy - where pools of excess workers can be thrown into 'Hero Projects' such as infrastructure construction or militarisation.
What Elusenia will have to be careful of is a sense of entitlement in the Native population that eventually leads to a number of Citizen-Dependents that are supported by an immigrant 'Gastarbeiter' class who come in, do the work and are fired out of the up-port station back to the Federation proper the moment they're surplus to requirements.
Or, I don't know, maybe that's what you're shooting for?
I don't believe that even Alpha communities in the Federation are at a post-scarcity stage, so you can't emulate the Culture - there'll still be a market and money and all that jazz.
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Regarding the employment, I was going to say the same thing than Pieter : you will never find a country with 100% employment, and it needs around 5% of unemployment to run smoothly usually. It might of course vary depending of the context, like weird alien stuff like the Caldari or the Amarr, or whatever. But you will still have a turnover. And also, "rejects and failures", meaning people either too incompetent to be hired, or just unlucky ones. Like, the disassociated in the State.
The interesting question is thus :
- For the turnover people, how much time do they have to find a new job before deportation, if any ?
- For the rest, how much time do they have before deportation ? Are they systematically deported ? Are they hidden in slums, away from public spotlight ? Are they sold as slaves to the Amarr Empire ? :P
If immigrants and other expatriates don't get a franchise but employees do, does that imply that immigrants (et al) aren't employees?
I guess in Seri system that you can also find non corporate employees, thus non citizens, that are either :
- Expatriates from other federal states or galactic institutions and live here for various reasons. They own a salary of their own and have to convert it in the Elusenian isk based currency (must ask for expensive salaries...). Some may also have diplomatic immunity ?
- Ex citizen-dependants that were not properly deported and escaped justice.
- Clandestine immigrants.
Say I want to immigrate to Elusenia and open a convenience store. Do I own my convenience store? Do I buy the franchise for a convenience store from corporate Elusenia? Does Elusenia own the store? If so, how am I not an employee of Elusenia?
1) The first one doesn't fit with Elusenia system to my eyes. You can't own your own store, that would mean that you are another business independant of the corporate republic sheltering you, that you are basically out of the system, like you would be in the Caldari State. Which also would make you a non entity since you are not a citizen.
2) Buying a franchise to operate your own store quite fits the Gallente Federal model, but does fit a little less the Elusenian model. The same for 1) even if the Elusenian government acknowledges your own business since you pay them a franchise, you are still not part of the corporate and thus a non citizen. Doesn't seem to work properly to me, though I think that system can still be considered for foreign expatriates ? They do not need to be citizens, so they can buy a franchise and do their thing as long as they stay within the law. I mean, if Seri is still going for Esslemont, the core staff of the school are certainly not going to be Elusenian citizens on paper, or honorary at best for the gesture. They probably have a franchise, either through money, or an arrangement of convenience.
3) I think that Elusenia owning every little commerce is the most logical, at least for the average non expatriate joe ?
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Thanks Pieter and Lyn. Must say that slowly writing up the EVElopedia article for Elusenia is far more exhausting than I thought. I know the 'republic' bit but less so the 'corporate' bit.
With regards to ownership, this is what I pictured; because Elusenia is a cooperative corporation, the republic owns everything by virtue of the fact that everyone owns everything. Elusenia owns your house...but you own the shares/stock (if that's the term cooperatives use IRL?) that owns the house. Does this make sense? There might be a better way to word this. Supporters of the Gallentean cooperative corporate republic model might argue that it is much better for democracy because it hardcodes the social contract; the citizens have a very literal investment in the state rather than some constitution that esoterically says so.
For expatriates owning property, they would rent or lease it from Elusenia, not purchase it (which would thus grant them citizenship). You have to land a job with the Cooperative to purchase anything. Something like that.
IC, Elusenians are going to consider themselves pretty damn perfect (highly educated and meritocratic humanitarians who very firmly believe they have the answer to poverty and societal ills, with a lot of capital to back it up) but OOC any "flaws" we can foresee in the long-term will just have to be left to come about; can't fix everything. I would say a year is the time limit for unemployed citizens to find work. These unemployed citizens still own part of the corporation, so they retain franchise. It would be argued that deportation is acceptable because no one has been in Elusenia for more than the first generation, so there is no inherent 'right' to remain in Elusenia. After the second or third generation, it becomes interesting, because you might end up deporting people who will claim "We've been here for decades, you can't do that!". An unemployed city might be an idea, but unlike the Caldari State it would probably be well looked after with plenty of unemployment benefits.
Oh, and Elusenia would have statutes that protect the rights of expatriates, of course.
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So Elusenia owns everything, and there are no real jobs there outside of the corporation.
How is it that one person gets to live in any given house, and not another person? Are they assigned by a bureau of housing?
How does it deal with the inevitable corruption? Especially as everything becomes centralized within the single corporation, you'd tend to see that arise.
How do you avoid "pocket empire" situations. Most large corporations either succumb to this (when I was at Microsoft, for instance, the Windows and Office groups used to run roughshod over other groups, co-opting their projects and the like in their own interests. Within those groups, of course, were a bazillion smaller groups that were all competing with one another in fairly disfunctional ways).
If I'm random Federation citizen with job skills in, say, nanotechnological engineering, why would I consider moving to Elusenian? If I worked for Creodron, I could save up money and buy my own home and not have to worry about simply losing it should I decide to go work for Roden. The rewards of employment with Elusenia would have to be much greater in order to compensate for that.
If I'm married, would my husband have to get a job at Elusenia in order to come live there with me? If not, he'd probably still have to give up his job - all the jobs there are Elusenian jobs, after all. If we liked it, and had children, would they have to work for Elusenia or leave upon reaching majority? What about my elderly mother who I'd like to come live with us?
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Liking the ideas sketched out so far from everyone in this thread.
One thing to note:
Seri's already alluded to the high degree of automation and AI technology that Elusenia utilises for processing of bureaucratic tasks.
Those quoting the 5% unemployment rate necessary for market based economies are presumably working off statistics that apply to 21st century Earth.
While I agree that a 100% employed society is more suited to a Culture/post-scarcity type society (rather than civilisation as it's presented in EVE), there's a fair bit of reasonable handwavium that can be accomplished using AI/automation to justify a society that is approaching that level of efficiency without breaking immersion too badly (if at all). Nation claims to already have achieved it, so there's some PF support for that too.
Vague references to an AI co-ordinated eugenics/birth-control program linked with future projections on employment/market trends/etc might be enough background to give Elusenia's world-building all the detail it needs to justify a 99.x% employment rate, rather than the 95% we need to get by with in real world market economies.
Might also be worth noting that anything that 'overspecialises breeds in weakness' - a reliance could become a vulnerability in the proposed system that might be used to catalyse future conflict-driven RP and interaction with the world.
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In my opinion the only reason that Nation can approach a post-scarcity living standard for it's citizens is because most of its workers ARE drones, literally.
The Culture gets away with having a consumerist post-scarcity culture by having matter and energy be effectively equivalent and by having access to limitless energy though AM and 'hypersphere' engineering.
Meanwhile, back in Eve, we're still mining Asteroids for ore and the most new-fangled form of energy generation is harnessing the gravitic grid by creating pocket-singularities. (seriously, doesn't that creep anyone else out?) But only one of the Factions uses that - the others use Fusion or even, horror of horrors, Fission powerplants.
However, Elusenia COULD be rich enough to maintain a massive welfare state (what do all these people do?) and use restrictions on welfare payments to limit the consumption of resources by those people.
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I find it more gritty with the margin. That can be reduced to 1 or 2% because of AI and automation coupled with prediction programs, but you will hardly control demographics that precisely in Eve I believe.
It's funnier to have people failing in the cracks imo.
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How is it that one person gets to live in any given house, and not another person? Are they assigned by a bureau of housing?
I don't picture it any more complicated than purchasing the house according to market value.
How does it deal with the inevitable corruption? Especially as everything becomes centralized within the single corporation, you'd tend to see that arise.
We shall see!
How do you avoid "pocket empire" situations. Most large corporations either succumb to this (when I was at Microsoft, for instance, the Windows and Office groups used to run roughshod over other groups, co-opting their projects and the like in their own interests. Within those groups, of course, were a bazillion smaller groups that were all competing with one another in fairly disfunctional ways).
This may just have to become a feature of Elusenia, especially as a direct democracy.
If I'm random Federation citizen with job skills in, say, nanotechnological engineering, why would I consider moving to Elusenian? If I worked for Creodron, I could save up money and buy my own home and not have to worry about simply losing it should I decide to go work for Roden. The rewards of employment with Elusenia would have to be much greater in order to compensate for that.
Elusenia is founded for a specific purpose with a specific ideology. Since it's the project of a humanitarian organization, it is assumed everyone is consenting to that goal (the corporate republic thing). The primary benefits is that you're dealing with a relatively small entity that is hyperfocused in a small land area, unlike CreoDron and Roden which are massive entities.
If I'm married, would my husband have to get a job at Elusenia in order to come live there with me? If not, he'd probably still have to give up his job - all the jobs there are Elusenian jobs, after all. If we liked it, and had children, would they have to work for Elusenia or leave upon reaching majority? What about my elderly mother who I'd like to come live with us?
Easy enough; family of employees are welcome. Will need to work a bit more on the franchise rules.
Elusenia is not meant to be exceptional, unique, or anything. It's just another Alpha grade settlement on the Fed's scale. I'm sure other similarly prosperous places exist in the Fed.
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From what I understand of the Federation's grading scale, the primary difference between Alpha and Beta is how much influence the city has over interstellar politics.
I'm not entirely sure or convinced how Elusenia qualifies as an Alpha, rather than a Beta (if any grade at all). I'm not trying to be a spoil-sport, but how can something created within the last year already qualify at the absolute highest levels of influence and power? How could a new town compete with something like New York City or Tokyo or Berlin? It can't, in the real world, no matter how much money is poured into it.
Can we really assume that Elusenia would even have a grade at all, as young as it is? Perhaps in a few years, it might be given a grade after Federation inspectors come in to wander the city?
On to the specifics, can we really assume that Elusenia is known across the entire cluster by name, without needing to specify Seriphyn or Destiny Foundation? Can we assume that a high profile celebrity living in the heart of Caille would know what Elusenia is? Would the average Federation citizen know?
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Good point, Kat. One should expect better from a Fed RPer!
In which case, it would probably be lumped into 'megaproject startups', since its level of urbanization is a bit higher than the mental image i have of 'colonial'. Ofc it might be synonymous. Actually, 'megaproject' probably refers to something planetwide, with space elevators or whatever. So 'colonial startup' it is.
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Oh, but think how cool a Megaproject Arcology Startup would be!
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In my opinion the only reason that Nation can approach a post-scarcity living standard for it's citizens is because most of its workers ARE drones, literally.
The Culture gets away with having a consumerist post-scarcity culture by having matter and energy be effectively equivalent and by having access to limitless energy though AM and 'hypersphere' engineering.
Meanwhile, back in Eve, we're still mining Asteroids for ore and the most new-fangled form of energy generation is harnessing the gravitic grid by creating pocket-singularities. (seriously, doesn't that creep anyone else out?) But only one of the Factions uses that - the others use Fusion or even, horror of horrors, Fission powerplants.
Absolutely see your point(s), Pieter. Re: Nation/literal drones - yes and ... no. :)
I'm not sure if it's actually echoed anywhere in PF but I've always liked the Nation-loyalist's approach that the Sansha 'mind control' implants are a lot more subtle than a simple plug-n-play automated workforce . There's a couple of pieces in the fiction board on these forums that sum up what those implants are IMO - and it's far more creepy than just 'drones'.
Also, TCMCs are a part of PF which opens up a wider view of how New Eden humanity might function differently to 21st century us.
Anyway, back on topic ...
I find it more gritty with the margin. That can be reduced to 1 or 2% because of AI and automation coupled with prediction programs, but you will hardly control demographics that precisely in Eve I believe.
It's funnier to have people failing in the cracks imo.
I guess my point was that because of these technologies, the concept of a section of civilisation approaching a society of the sort Elusenia proposes to be certainly isn't far-fetched enough to interfere with immersion. My other point was not to get hung up on numbers that are based on 21st century figures because in terms of our ability to speculate based on current tech/systems we are to New Eden what cavemen trying to figure out the future uses of fire would be to us.
Ultimately it doesn't matter whether it's 95%, 98%, 99.9% or somewhere in between - we're not trying to create SimCity: New Eden, we're just trying to create a backdrop that suspends disbelief enough to set our RP against. And, as you said, have fun doing so.
On to the specifics, can we really assume that Elusenia is known across the entire cluster by name, without needing to specify Seriphyn or Destiny Foundation? Can we assume that a high profile celebrity living in the heart of Caille would know what Elusenia is? Would the average Federation citizen know?
Well, Seriphyn's a war hero and might be expected to have a fairly high profile I suppose. I think your point's a valid one though - guess it depends on how good their marketing and human resources/recruitment departments are :)
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What's the sell-by date on celebrity in the Federation though? Not wanting to put the boots to Seri's ego, but I reckon his daughter is probably a household word by now, whilst his own career is probably remembered best by Veterans and Military Otaku at this point.
Seriously. Use his daughter as the draw, not Seriphyn. She probably already has a manufactured profile and reputation. AND an enormous fanbase.
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What's the sell-by date on celebrity in the Federation though? Not wanting to put the boots to Seri's ego, but I reckon his daughter is probably a household word by now, whilst his own career is probably remembered best by Veterans and Military Otaku at this point.
Seriously. Use his daughter as the draw, not Seriphyn. She probably already has a manufactured profile and reputation. AND an enormous fanbase.
I'd say any of the Inhonores' are known around the cluster. One of the little 'did you know' facts on this very forum note that non-capsuleer viewing of the IGS is considered a spectator sport of sorts. Elusenia has been mentioned there several times, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were entire community groups who have been watching the Seri-coma with deep concern and suspense.
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What's the sell-by date on celebrity in the Federation though? Not wanting to put the boots to Seri's ego, but I reckon his daughter is probably a household word by now, whilst his own career is probably remembered best by Veterans and Military Otaku at this point.
Seriously. Use his daughter as the draw, not Seriphyn. She probably already has a manufactured profile and reputation. AND an enormous fanbase.
So now I'm imagining a space colony inhabited solely by Justin Bieber fans and their hyperindulgent parents.
You ... you bastard.
Now I need ice cream.
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If the State is a boot stamping on a human face forever then the Federation has to be a child whining for a celebrity lunchbox forever, no?
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I would like to make Anette the face of Elusenia, that was the idea with the cute little 'Dojaressa' or 'Princess Regnant' titles...
However, I do not control the character anymore, it was given to another player for funsies.
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I'd say any of the Inhonores' are known around the cluster. One of the little 'did you know' facts on this very forum note that non-capsuleer viewing of the IGS is considered a spectator sport of sorts. Elusenia has been mentioned there several times, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were entire community groups who have been watching the Seri-coma with deep concern and suspense.
The Seri-coma even has its own soap-opera - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9jP0ySZ5Ro ! :lol:
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...I just realized this place is similar to "elusive". Not my intention, was meant to be different from D'estinia (after having renamed it, I ofc learn a place in Italy has a similar name)
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Elusenia sounds rather good, unlike D'Estinia...
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How is it that one person gets to live in any given house, and not another person? Are they assigned by a bureau of housing?
I don't picture it any more complicated than purchasing the house according to market value.
"Purchasing a house according to market value" could get a little complicated in a corporate-owned colony. Here are some things to consider:
- Do homeowners own the land beneath their homes, or do they lease it from Elusenia? Does Elusenia retain eminent domain/compulsory purchase privilege even if the homeowners do own the land?
- Has all housing already been built? If so, "market value" may become a very interesting thing when supply no longer exceeds demand.
- Can homeowners purchase/lease a plot of undeveloped land and build their own homes? If so, are they required to comply with Elusenian aesthetic/safety regulations? Can they use whatever private building contractor they please, or do they have to use one approved by the Elusenian government? Are there any private building contractors on Elusenia? (This could tie into the answer to the question "Did corporate employees physically build the colony, or was that outsourced?")
- Are there mortgages on Elusenia? If so, can potential homeowners negotiate these via offworld financial institutions, or are they forced to finance their homes through the Elusenian government? (Speaking of things to consider: does the Elusenian government also act as a bank/credit union to corporate citizens?)
- Is homeownership tied to citizenship? Will people lose their homes if they lose their Elusenian citizenship, even if they have paid in full/are current with any mortgage arrangements? Can non-citizens purchase homes and/or enter into land-lease agreements?
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- Do homeowners own the land beneath their homes, or do they lease it from Elusenia? Does Elusenia retain eminent domain/compulsory purchase privilege even if the homeowners do own the land?
- Has all housing already been built? If so, "market value" may become a very interesting thing when supply no longer exceeds demand.
- Can homeowners purchase/lease a plot of undeveloped land and build their own homes? If so, are they required to comply with Elusenian aesthetic/safety regulations? Can they use whatever private building contractor they please, or do they have to use one approved by the Elusenian government? Are there any private building contractors on Elusenia? (This could tie into the answer to the question "Did corporate employees physically build the colony, or was that outsourced?")
- Are there mortgages on Elusenia? If so, can potential homeowners negotiate these via offworld financial institutions, or are they forced to finance their homes through the Elusenian government? (Speaking of things to consider: does the Elusenian government also act as a bank/credit union to corporate citizens?)
- Is homeownership tied to citizenship? Will people lose their homes if they lose their Elusenian citizenship, even if they have paid in full/are current with any mortgage arrangements? Can non-citizens purchase homes and/or enter into land-lease agreements?
I DO NOT KNOW THESE GROWN-UP THINGS /o\
So, I already posited that Elusenia owns all the land, but if you purchase a property, you 'own' that element of the corporation, as it is a cooperative. But maybe leasing as per the Caldari system would be more appropiate? Everyone jointly owns the corporation equally anyway? I'm beginning to think leasing/renting is more suitable.
A solution to losing one's job is that as long as you retain ownership/leasing of the property, you retain political franchise as well. If you can no longer maintain that, political franchise and citizenship is lost. Sort of a nod to the old republics/democracies where those with franchise would be landowners.
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Why not creating subsidiaries for the cooperative ? You would have the mother megacorp above, with a lot of subsidiaries for everything in life, from Elusenian Estates to Elusenian Foodstuff, Elusenian Shoes, Elusenian Garbage and so on...
That way, when you purchase your little piece of home, you do not purchase the land, you do not purchase the house, and people would be rather "meh" to see that they just rent them. Add more value to that by making them able to purchase shares of "Elusenian Estates" (or whatever it can be called) and thus gain a little power in exchange for their money.
It's the same principle you already have with voting rights. You are an elusenian citizen, you own a few shares of the mother corp, you can vote. You "own" a restaurant of the Elusenian HaveAGoodMeal Company(tm), thus you own a few shares of that subsidiary as well, and it makes you able to have a shareholder power over all the foodchain with all the other people owning restaurants and relatd stuff (thus, a food collective).
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Right, I was thinking that the day to day would run primarily through subsidiaries. This can also help provide the framework for entrepreneurship. So when you buy a house, you're buying shares in that subsidiary? Or should the subsidiaries be cooperatives as well? (Ie. One max vote regardless of how many shares)
While the main Elusenian entity is a cooperative, thus all stakeholders are equal, the subsidiaries might not be. Maybe syndicates and unions is a solution too.
Admittedly, my retardness with this subject combined with a light language barrier means I may be missing what you're saying.
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That's mostly it.
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https://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Elusenia
wikipage has lots of stuff now