[Discuss] A few Issues

[John P. Murphy]

On Apr 17, 2008, at 1:10 PM, Tom Vogt wrote:
>
> Am 16.04.2008 um 11:29 schrieb Tom Skibo:
>
>> Sorry, wanted to add one more thing.  From what I have gathered now
>> colonies must keep the form of government their parent realm has, if
>> I am wrong please tell me.  I must say I completely disagree with
>> this on many levels, but will wait to make sure that is confirmed
>> before arguing.
>
>
> Why whould a democracy spawn a tyranny, or vice versa?

As noted in my previous post, democracies frequently spawn tyrannies  
-- it comes down to loyalty.  If someone loyal is in charge, then the  
more power he has, the better.  It keeps the puppet state in line and  
lets the parent realm keep a tight leash.  Besides, I should hardly  
need to remind you that not every leader in this world's democracies  
is *really* that committed to the democratic ideal.

Why tyrannies would intentionally spawn democracies, well, you've  
stumped me there.  Of course, why would a tyranny spawn a colony at  
all?  Isn't that giving up some measure of power, something tyrants  
aren't known for doing?

And what of the case of a group of refugees from a destroyed realm  
deciding that they aren't a good fit or simply want to reconstitute  
their homeland?  That happens every year or so on Beluaterra.

> No, not even in the "I had no support" case. You had support - you
> were allowed to take over a region in the name of X. If you hadn't had
> that support, you'd have a ban on you the moment you started the TO.

... unless the Judge of the realm were in on it, or were bribed to  
look the other way, or happened to have been gravely wounded by an  
assassin just before the colony TO started, or the fellow who started  
the colony TO is a former royal (I seem to recall that they can't be  
banned?).

I can come up with a half dozen reasons why it's reasonable for  
either the parent realm or the colonists to reasonably and in- 
character want to change the government type.  You seem to be  
modeling the colony process on that of the Romans, but there are lots  
of other plausible and interesting scenarios that are not just  
"powergaming".

John