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Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM |
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This Day in Alternate History Blog
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Constitution and Government
For the Citizen population, the Domination is a rather mild authoritarianism. There is an elected government, and a fair degree of freedom of speech and association. However, fundamental criticism (e.g., of serfdom) is not permitted, and the power of the Security Directorate has tended to gradually increase. Since there is a large degree of uniformity of opinion among the citizen population, this is not felt as much of a hardship. Head of State and Government is the Archon, chosen for a 20-year term by two-thirds vote of the House of Assembly, the parliament. The Archon in turn chooses the heads of the Directorates (Transportation, Conservation, etc.) which manage sectors of the economy and provide services. The War Directorate is a special case, as its Director must be chosen from the General Staff and be approved by that body. There is a Senate, appointed by corporate bodies (the guilds, the Landholder's League, the Universities, etc.), which acts as a planning and coordinating authority; membership confers great social prestige. Local government is based on Provinces and Metropolitan Zones within the Police Zone, the pacified area, and under military/Security authority in the War Zone, where pacification is still going on. The Domination is actually more managed than governed, since over 90 percent of the population is property and, strictly speaking, subject to their owners rather than the State. A noteworthy factor in the Domination's social system is the spread of overlapping ownership—many institutions which in the Western world would be supported by tax revenue instead own interests in the Combines, and thus have independent revenues.
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