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Author Topic: Civil authority in the State; does it exist?  (Read 1359 times)

Seriphyn

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Civil authority in the State; does it exist?
« on: 07 Aug 2011, 08:37 »

One thing CCP Abraxas loves to do is be very vague about faction specifics. In very few of his chrons that are "slices of life" in an empire, it doesn't cover the intrinsic details of how this society operates compared to the next one. I suppose that makes sense, as I don't talk about the workings of the local council here in Aberdeen. But I fear it's a little homogenizing and simplifying the EVE universe; to Abraxas, all societies and political systems seem to function in the same way, and everyone on a lowsec planet lives the same life. This, IMO, is boring, and doesn't take into account (for example) that a concept of a "village" probably does not exist in the Caldari State in the same way it does elsewhere, and neither does agrarian societies. Everywhere else, yes, as it seems the State has this trait of being hyperindustrialized with an extremely high level of infrastructure across its planets and space. But Abraxas will ignore that 90% of the State is controlled by monolithic megacorporations, and will detail a colony on some remote world without actually saying who it belongs to, and how it functions any different from a Gallente counterpart.

One thing that threw me off is from Masks of Authority...

Quote
They are also granted legal authority to act as police proxies within corporate jurisdiction, though in all cases where regional police have a presence their authority supersedes that of the corporate police.

Who does this regional police answer to? Is there some sort of civil government that exists in tandem to megacorporations? How, then, does it make it different to the Federation, other than the lack of democratic politics? I always thought a Caldari city will be controlled completely by a megacorporation or its subsidiary, but this seems to betray that there is a mayor, local council, and other stuff...or am I overreading it? Is the regional police its own entity that exists by itself and of itself like the Caldari Navy? Seems a bit of a waste to have regional police given there's only 3+1 regions to cover...

Another thing was from The Ever-Turning Wheels...

Quote
The first mistake they made was in announcing the new governorship. Gallente are used to having a voice, however much it may be ignored. Our new governor, a Caldari diplomat apparently experienced in running Caldari asteroid colonies, was installed along with his team of representatives as soon as he arrived planetside.

Diplomat for who, asteroid colonies belonging to who? This is the sort of vagueness from Abraxas that jumbles everything up, IMO...anyway, rant over, what do people think?
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Horatius Caul

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Re: Civil authority in the State; does it exist?
« Reply #1 on: 07 Aug 2011, 09:18 »

Regional police forces could be a part of the Caldari Navy structure.

Because of how tightly intertwined certain corporate holdings might be, there could exist a need for an impartial logo-transcending force of order. As long as crimes remain confined to a single corporation, the corporate security force has jurisdiction of the case, but as soon as an incident transcends corporate domains or occurs in a grey area (what corporations had jurisdiction over occupied Federation space? None of them until the development rights were sold, thus the State as an entity must have held them in some faculty - and the Navy would have had security authority) the regional police steps in to sort things out.

It's just like the Business Tribunal. The corporations have their own internal legal systems and even courts, but as soon as an inter-corporate issue arises the State can step in an invoke superior legislation.

All in all, I think it'd be more similar to how the Republic might work than the Federation. In the Republic you have seven tribes that may exist separately or intertwined. They have their own judicial systems and internal structures, but if issues overlap they can turn to the Republic for a higher set of authority to straighten things out before conflict gets hot.


Regarding the diplomat, I originally took him to represent one of the megas (just that Abby decided to leave it unnamed). However, it's possible the State could step in to seize control of occupied infrastructure without any Megacorp claims. The term "diplomat" might just be what the Gallente considered him - he himself may have been something more akin to an administrator or executive serving the provist government under the CBT and CEP.

The state thus goes in and claims stuff, sends in their own specialist governors, structure their acquisitions, and then sell the assets to the megas. I believe there are people who do the exact same thing in the real world - acquire failing companies and either get them back on their feet or disassemble them, and profit from the subsequent sales of the result.

This particular "diplomat" may have originally come from one of the megas and had administrative experience from there, or he could have completed previous restructuring and retail invasions of other mining colonies for the benefit of the State.

Casiella

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Re: Civil authority in the State; does it exist?
« Reply #2 on: 07 Aug 2011, 10:44 »

I think you're drawing unwarranted conclusions from limited data.
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orange

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Re: Civil authority in the State; does it exist?
« Reply #3 on: 07 Aug 2011, 11:27 »

One thing that threw me off is from Masks of Authority...

Quote
They are also granted legal authority to act as police proxies within corporate jurisdiction, though in all cases where regional police have a presence their authority supersedes that of the corporate police.

Who does this regional police answer to? Is there some sort of civil government that exists in tandem to megacorporations? How, then, does it make it different to the Federation, other than the lack of democratic politics? I always thought a Caldari city will be controlled completely by a megacorporation or its subsidiary, but this seems to betray that there is a mayor, local council, and other stuff...or am I overreading it? Is the regional police its own entity that exists by itself and of itself like the Caldari Navy? Seems a bit of a waste to have regional police given there's only 3+1 regions to cover...

He isn't talking about the State when referring to regional police.  He is talking about places like Komaa, Inghenges, and Alakgur, where State corporations have a presence and want to employee a security firm.  The Mega brings in their trusted subsidiary to provide Station/Real Estate security.  The reason the Security Corporations have significant space infrastructure is that in the State is because they are the regional police.

Another thing was from The Ever-Turning Wheels...

Quote
The first mistake they made was in announcing the new governorship. Gallente are used to having a voice, however much it may be ignored. Our new governor, a Caldari diplomat apparently experienced in running Caldari asteroid colonies, was installed along with his team of representatives as soon as he arrived planetside.

Diplomat for who, asteroid colonies belonging to who? This is the sort of vagueness from Abraxas that jumbles everything up, IMO...anyway, rant over, what do people think?

Remember, the Chronicle is written from the perspective of the native who is used to the Federation's structure.  A Caldari diplomat might be a high-level executive focused on inter-corporate relations.  In a previous job he ran an Asteroid colony and now he is the executive manager for a whole world.  It sounds like someone moving up the corporate ladder.
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Seriphyn

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Re: Civil authority in the State; does it exist?
« Reply #4 on: 07 Aug 2011, 12:48 »

* Seriphyn laughs

Pretty much "/thread" from Dex, there  :D Yeah, duuurrrr, regional police as in outside the State. That makes sense, as here has Wiyrkomi Peace Corps in a Fed system, but district/state police would take precedence over them.

Well, then, that answers that.

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Casiella

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Re: Civil authority in the State; does it exist?
« Reply #5 on: 07 Aug 2011, 21:17 »

Does that also address your incredibly overbroad brush? As in:
Quote
to Abraxas, all societies and political systems seem to function in the same way, and everyone on a lowsec planet lives the same life.
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