Backstage - OOC Forums
EVE-Online RP Discussion and Resources => Player Driven Content => Topic started by: Seriphyn on 02 Jul 2013, 19:35
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Hello,
So in my attempts to properly flesh out Elusenia, I've come to a bit of a hurdle with explaining its government functions, particularly where it derives legitimacy from. The Gallente governments derive legitimacy from de jure democratic mandates. The Caldari corporations derive legitimacy from de facto claims to representing the Caldari civilization. The Amarr empire derives legitimacy from divine authority. The Minmatar tribes derive legitimacy from de facto representation of all the clans.
It became tenuous with Elusenia. The Destiny Foundation can claim legitimacy in Elusenia by the social contract and general corporate-employee responsibility. However, this has been seen by them IC as counter to the principles of democratic legitimacy which must be de jure, not de facto. The solution? Become a cooperative where all employees are owners of Destiny Foundation. By extension, this makes the subject Elusenian government apparatus extraneous; the trappings of DES-F are synonymous with Elusenia's establishment.
So how is the corporate republic defined in this instance? All citizens of the republic have consented to the goals and ideals of the corporation, and the corporation is a matter of its citizen-employees (becoming a cooperative therefore aligns properly with this). You might separate this from the Caldari corporate state in that it is not necessarily a 'public matter'. For the Serenissima Respublico of Elusenia, there would be an open legislature where the citizens by virtue of owning the corporation can participate at will voluntarily (perhaps called an Agora or Collegium). Of course, this would be cumbersome for day-to-day legislation, so this open legislature would elect a full-time legislature of maybe 100-120 individuals (perhaps just called a Senate). The Agora/Collegium would then appoint the Executive Council; 12 Executive Directors with one of them appointed as Chief Executive Director. Anette would sit as non-statutory 13th member as Honorary Executive Director. Round table concept (because Arthurian stuff ftw) where there is no head despite the existence of the Chief Executive.
As constitutionalism demands an independent judiciary, the Senate or Executive Council would perhaps nominate candidates to be approved by the Agora/Collegium. Not sure what the judiciary would be called, mind. Members of the judicial system could not sit in the legislature.
Then this is the biggest hurdle; the bureaucracy. This is I am guessing a good chunk of the corporate structure for day-to-day operations...as the barriers between Elusenia and DES-F has broken down, this becomes tricky. The bureaucracy would include both state stuff for Elusenia and general corporate stuff for DES-F's off-world operations. But liberal democracy stipulates that members of the bureaucracy (part of the executive branch) cannot be part of the legislature, as they are supposed to be apolitical and impartial. I know dick about corporate stuff so I'm not sure how much of the corporation would be bureaucrats, considering its primary activity is humanitarian (sometimes armed). This would include the directors, the executives, so on...those part of the government ministries and...my brain hurts.
Then there's the military. Simple enough; democracy enshrines civilian control. If you're a member of the Elusenian military, you cannot participate in the open legislature. You have the same rights, of course.
I suppose what I'm asking is how you would rationalize the place of the bureaucrats in DES-F/Elusenia, considering it is both a democracy that cannot allow bureaucrats in the process and a cooperative that entitles everyone to participation? Is there a distinction between infrastructure bureaucrats (Those involved in the day-to-day running of Elusenia, ie. transport, education, utilities) and the corporate bureaucracy (those involved in the day-to-day running of DES-F; humanitarian ops, off-world stuff etc.)?
I can do government and politics...I draw blanks with corporate stuff :P
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Well, to answer the question "what purpose does bureaucracy serve on my world" you'd first have to answer the question "what purpose does bureaucracy serve."
The nations of Earth have struggled with this question for millenia. There may not even be an answer.
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Since this is sci-fi, and a start-up with lots of ISK to back it, wonder if you could get a very small bureaucracy mostly run by AIs. That would offset the problem.
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The only thing worse than a bureaucracy run by people who don't care, is a bureaucracy run by machines that cannot care.
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The only thing worse than a bureaucracy run by people who don't care, is a bureaucracy run by machines that cannot care.
I can think of a thing worse still. A bureaucracy run by machines that cannot care, and are powered by fucking.
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The only thing worse than a bureaucracy run by people who don't care, is a bureaucracy run by machines that cannot care.
I can think of a thing worse still. A bureaucracy run by machines that cannot care, and are powered by fucking controlled by me.
FIFY
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The only thing worse than a bureaucracy run by people who don't care, is a bureaucracy run by machines that cannot care.
There are huge chunks of bureaucracy that don't require humans attend to it.
It used to be that when you wanted to renew your driver's license, you had to visit a local branch, stand in line, and deal with a clerk. Now you can go online, fill out a form, and renew it.
The process is faster and easier because it's automated. And if you have a problem, you can still go down to the local DMV, but the lines will be shorter.
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I was thinking more along the lines of humor, Makkal. Literal retro style robots doing the same paperwork humans do.
It's a joke.
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Oh, I guess the separation is along those who are civil servants, less so driving license clerks
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You may want to look into the State-owned corporations in Russia for a model of how those sorts of things work - basically, a State-owned corporation is pretty similar to any other public corporation, except that the majority shareholder is the government. Employees of the corporation aren't considered to be part of the government.
Your Elusenia project is a bit of a grey area to me, since it seems that the entire place is a corporation, yet it's treated as a Federation member-state. That brings certain responsibilities along with it in the area of methods of governance, so that seems that this is where you need to focus your attention.
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Canada also has Crown (government) owned companies that seem to be along the lines of what Shin is talking about. Petro-Canada used to be government owned, but the employees were not part of the government or were governmental employees. Not sure if the Crown still owns Petro-Canada anymore