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[Seriphyn]

So, with the Minmatar abandoning democracy for some reason (considering there is such thing as a 'tribal democracy'), I'm left wondering who exactly governs the Republic? Clan elders? Representatives appointed by the clans? Either way, it would fall into the 'oligarchy' category, but more specifically was thinking it might end up being a gerontocracy.

Any ideas?

[Lyn Farel]

Probably. At least, definitely at the regional/local scale, at the head of families and clans.

[AOkazon]

Did you mean to say there isn't or is such a thing as tribal democracy? Or imply that electoral democracy does not also have oligarchic/plutocratic elements?

I think democracy isn't really a whole system, but a [Gallente]desirable[/Gallente] feature of a system. Have you ever studied the historical Six Nations Confederacy? That would probably be a good starting point for a theory of what "tribal democracy" might look like. It did indeed feature a lot of power in the hands of elders, female elders especially.

[Seriphyn]

Oh, what I meant was that Minmatar tribal members elect tribal representatives by universal suffrage; I think it was implied as to how it worked previously. I don't really know why the Storyline has dubbed "democracy" (as amorphous of a concept that it is, as you rightly identify) as a non-Minmatar thing. My best guess is that the Minmatar are going "No, not all tribal members have a vote by default" and are inserting some barriers depending on their cultural definition (age, number of tattoos, w/e)

It's just odd.

[Saede Riordan]

I generally thought of it as a sort of combination of gerontocracy, and Cellular Democracy.

Though, while the 'ideal' might be something akin to cellular/tribal democracy, I think the reality is much closer to an oligarchy. All clans are equal, but some clans are more equal then others.

(Incidentally, cellular democracy is the working model behind the proto-society that ALXVP is starting to put together in Anoikis)

[AOkazon]

My guess is just that they want to differentiate them strongly from the GF (and IC that might also be a motivation) and they haven't necessarily thought out all the details (yet).

I think there are endlessly interesting possibilities; the Asanteman region of Ghana (around Kumasi) provides some interesting examples of what happens when lineage-based rural societies urbanize very quickly. The short answer is that people start negotiating between distinct, overlapping systems of law/morality/kinship depending on the situation.

[Saede Riordan]

Yeah, the Republic is often compared to modern day India, which I feel is a pretty apt comparison, though obviously not precise. The Republic struck me as the sort of place where you have a high tech modern shopping mall across the street from someone bartering goats for cabbages, and lots of overlapping systems of governments, corporations, clans, and tribes all mashed together in this chaotic barely governable amalgamation. For one, what it means to be part of a clan or tribe probably varies clan to clan, or even person to person. Then you have all the leftover Gallentean programs, education services, Republic University, a hamfisted replication of the Gallentean social safety net, but with no funding.

I think what it really comes down to is that those powerful, prominent clans in the republic government, basically decide on the course of things for the rest of the nation at this point, and if you as an individual want to have a say, you have to hope your clan's elder will agree, and that when they go to bring your issue to the sub-tribal council that they will listen to it, and so on up the chain. Its fairly likely that a lot of issues get solved before they need to go up the chain too far, but because the minmatar government is still formally top-down instead of bottom-up, a lot of issues probably get lost in translation.

[hellgremlin]

The one with the most tattoos gets to rule. The secret leader of the Minmatar is a giant skin-tag with the area of a soccer field, every square inch decorated in tattoos.

[Ava Starfire]

I imagined the tribal government to be very similar to that of the Iriquois Confederacy myself, actually. Elders rule, some Tribes are matriarchal, some patriarchal, etc. It hinted somewhere that THE "elders" were centuries, if not millenia old.

[Vieve]

I've often imagined that (particularly in modern Brutor tribes) that veterans are given more respect and general say in politics than non-veterans. So, for example, a clan could be officially headed up by an old guy who'd spent his life as a worker, not a soldier, but the shots would be de facto called by those of his kids/other clan leaders' kids who went off to fight the Amarr and managed to survive it. At least those kids who wanted to call the shots. 

Brutor veterans may also find that more often than not that it's expected of them to assume political responsibilities even if they have no interest, inclination or talent for it.