Theory Thursday: Thivic Thinking

[sythyry]

Well, that gave me a great deal to think about. [Apologies for not responding much, but Livejournal was being quite balky. -bb]

I don't know that it'll be a whole city-state quickly. (If all the traff-folk from the branch decide they want to live there, it might have enough people for that! But that is unlikely, especially if we are generous with monsters.) I expect to come up with some sort of semi-autonomous citylet sort of thing. We might be able to make our own laws; that happens sometimes.

And, as a lot of the point of the city is to have laws that we like ... how shall we make laws, in general?

A typical city has a legeriat, a dozen or so people representing the major factions and moieties in the city, who construct laws. Which, in some cities, simply become laws; in other cities, they must be promulgated by the duke (or whatever); in other cities, they must be voted on popularly, or approved by a court, or various other things.

Or, some other cities have, say, the duke proclaim all laws. Or a pure democratic approach, in which the citizens as a whole vote on all laws. Or a prophetic mirror that reveals wise laws. Or, I suppose, nearly anything else imaginable.

In any case, I want two things from a legal system.

First: I want to have some laws that please me. The city must be traff-friendly. In essence, it is Castle Wrong (or Strayway) in city form.

Second: I want to have just, fair, wise, and good laws. Not that I could give a good definition of any of those adjectives, or even necessarily recognize them if I were confronted by them.

So, how would you suggest designing a lawmaking apparatus for a young and probably tiny World Tree city?

Comments

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Any system of laws can be gamed, so there's no point worrying about it -- it'll work as long as the people in general act in good faith, and fail to the extent that they try to abuse things. Trying to make the process of government more and more restrictive or foolproof just gives the jerks extra stuff to game. On the other hand having no structure opens you up to charismatic demigogues.

So, pick something in the middle. What exactly you pick probably doesn't matter; there've been a lot of variants and there's no clear winner.

Of course, you *do* want to have some say in it, so you might want to consider giving yourself veto power over the government. Duke for Life or something. It's inherently unfair, but it's your city, right?

... on second thought -- I do have an idea. Put Namie in charge of making all laws. She's an angel of Mircannis, so you can claim she has prophetic power, and maybe people who don't know her will believe you.

[rowyn]

I don't think Sythyry wants to be called Duke. People will expect zir to be in charge or something. Zie needs a special designation, like 'Architect'. Maybe with the power to rearrange the city structure if zie deems it necessary. Or maybe just veto power is enough. You don't want people to be expecting zir to get involved with government all the time, though. That'd be annoying.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Exactly! I have too much power on Strayway. I am a terrible leader, and don't want to do it any more than I have to.

[rowyn]

Yeah, and we can't have you just picking someone to delegate power to, unless you don't mind dealing with Zascalle Mk. II

[arenhaus.livejournal.com]

Well, we can always make Vae the duke. That'll go well.

[foomf.livejournal.com]

Actually, that second sentence? That is, for many people, tantamount to an admission of being the best one for the job, even though that's a HUGE oversimplification.

[ragarth.livejournal.com]

Who's Namie? I don't remember this person!

[xolo.livejournal.com]

Namie the Namegiver, from the Heaven of Mircannis.