Part 17: Emergency Session 5: State of the Oligarchy

…And it don't matter how much "sense" it would make, we're changin' the fuckin' government, so it goes before the full senate!


The senate is made up of perfectly reasonable individuals. I have no doubt that they will agree.


Still, if we are trying to build a democracy, we should go about it democratically. If we do not, we shall be doing this hypocritically instead.


Hate ta burst yer bubble, but we all been hypocrites from day one a' joinin' this "senate." I called us a bunch a' stockholders on the first day, and I stand by that. Anyways, we called 'em all here, so let's get this session started. Zak, you've been workin' on this fer a few weeks now, you tell 'em.



Very well. The colonies have been itching for some representation for some time now. After all, they may sign up for citizenship to get colonial land, but they also pay our taxes on top of the taxes of whichever country on Earth they came from and whichever planet they live on. The issue of galaxy-wide elections has been a daunting problem, but last week, we were finally able to perfect ansible-based voting booths. At the moment, they are still limited and expensive, so what we've done is put them in the care of the planetary governments.


Each senate, congress, and/or parliament on the colonies will vote for and send a limited number of representatives to Earth to defend their interests. I'd rather have direct voting, but the technology simply isn't there yet. The governments of Earth have already agreed to this proposal, but they demanded to have twice the representatives of any colony. Since Earth is still the most populous human world, I feel this is only fair.


The colonial congressmen will be forming their own, separate, lower house. There is no real constitution, and we senators will be making all the decisions as usual. However, if our senate president Svensgaard is unpopular, the colonies will vote against his party, the Universalists. If the lower house Universalists fall out of power, it will make it hard for our president to continue his agenda. They will also need to be consulted for declarations of war.


I predict that our economy will improve by 10% if this government change is approved. Keeping our reputation up is a small price to pay for that.

Here's the short version: changing the government will boost our galactic economy by 10%. However, if the Universalists are voted out of power, the party bonus we picked at the beginning (see first page) will be lost and penalties will be imposed based on the ruling party. Keeping the approval rating above about 30-40% is enough in a Republic, and 50% or more is usually enough for all of them. The lower house also has to vote in favor of war if we decide to declare it, as well as any further government changes. Again, so long as the president's party has a majority, that shouldn't be much trouble.