History Main / GenericistGovernment

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

[[folder: Fan Works]]
* The Pyar city and town governments appear to be these in ''Fanfic/TheKeysStandAlone: The Soft World'', though it's implied that if the four bothered to get involved with any of them, their workings would be made clearer. Basically, though, the city guards run things, and what the city governors do is a mystery.

[[folder:Film]]

* ''Franchise/StarWars'' and its prequels blurs the line between democracy and hereditary autocracy. Naboo is a monarchy with an elected queen who serves a fixed term, more or less negating the concept of even an elective monarchy, and Alderaan is a hereditary principality whose head of state, Prince Bail Prestor Organa, Viceroy and First Chairman, is also the sector's representative in the Galactic Senate (and later, the founder of the Rebellion).
** Then there's the Galactic Senate itself. While there are certainly tight-knit caucuses, like the pro-democracy Delegation of 2,000, there are no real political parties or ideologies that we can see, and policymakers largely fall somewhere on a vague SlidingScaleOfLibertarianismAndAuthoritarianism. Later, the most we really know about the Empire is it's an absolute monarchy (having abolished the Senate in the first film) and the regional governors (Moffs) are now in direct control of their sectors under the Emperor, but nothing further. In the movies we also don't ever learn anything about their ideology except that they're for "order", though canon finally provides us with the helpful label of "fascism" - the catch being that we have yet to see any fasces in-universe, making the name incongruous.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', the title of Minister for Magic doesn't appear to be an elected position, it seems to be appointed in some way (Dumbledore was offered it, but turned it down). They can also be removed somehow, as happens to Fudge (though by who isn't clear). The Daily Prophet is said to be explicitly in the Ministry's pocket. The only other newspaper mentioned is the Quibbler, which seems to be for conspiracy buffs.
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': Most of the governments are pretty generic, except for Ankh-Morpork (Best. Tyranny. ''Ever''.), Lancre, Klatch and Sto Lat (monarchy) and, kind of, Pseudopolis - in ''Unseen Academicals'', Lord Vetinari is very amused by the fact that they decide to try a brave new experiment in democracy, and promptly vote not to have to pay taxes.

* ''Literature/StarTrekArticlesOfTheFederation'' laid out some of the fine points; the Federation, appropriately, seems to be a federal legislature, not entirely unlike the American Congressional system (or perhaps the Articles of Confederation; member nations retain a lot of individual control).
* [[AvertedTrope Averted]] with a vengeance in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', which goes into great detail about the governments of Westeros and some of the nations of Essos too, and how they function. Westeros mostly resembles the feudal system of medieval Europe (namely England) , though things get a bit more complicated when [[SuccessionCrisis more than one person claims to be king]]...
* ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'': Oceania's government doesn't get much explication in the book. However, in form at least their government and economy appear to mirror that of the Soviet Union at the time (from what little we see). This is because it was a TakeThat by Orwell against [[Creator/GeorgeOrwell Stalinism]], specifically. Ostensibly they're socialist, but they don't actually care anything about that-their rule is solely for power. The book-within-a-book does go into a significantly detailed explanation of the theory and practice of "oligarchical collectivism," but it's an unreliable source that might have been created by LaResistance or possibly even by the Party itself.

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* The Combine in ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' is something of an enigma. Given that the Combine administer all of Earth and have done for about twenty years at the point of the game beginning, it's hard to discern exactly how they do it other than in a very brutal and repressive way with little concern for the lives or happiness of the people on it. Fleeting references are made to some sort of civil code at various points, implying that the Combine have some sort of structured legal system in place - to what extent this is something real, as opposed to a fig leaf over their repressive nature, is open to debate (not least since a great deal of infractions seem to be dealt with via summary capital punishment). Beyond that, the only real aspects of Combine government we see relate to the military or law enforcement - it's entirely possible that they ''have'' no civilian government functions on Earth as we would understand them, since they don't see the need for them and don't really care about humans except inasmuch as they might become a threat.
* The government in ''VideoGame/MirrorsEdge'' is vague. People are elected ''somehow'' but the rest of it is not detailed.
* ''Franchise/MassEffect'': We know the three (later four) people at the very top of [[TheFederation Citadel space]], law enforcement on the Citadel, a small organization of black-ops agents with extremely high authority, and beyond that... not much else. We don't see any middle management or local self-government except on two ViceCity planets that aren't even part of Citadel space. We know that Earth is still fractured into nation-states, but nothing about the colonies. Still, much of that information is present in the codex (though in the secondary part). For example, you find out that the Asari are made up of a group of nation-states reminiscent of Ancient Greece, and the only official that the Asari recognize among their own people is the Asari Councilor.

[[folder: Web Comics ]]

* Used in ''Webcomic/DominicDeegan'', where the government is vaguely defined. We know there's a king, and up until recently there was an order of Royal Knights, and that Dominic doesn't think much of the government as a whole (likening them to criminals) and...well, that's about it.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'' and its prequels blurs the line between democracy and hereditary autocracy. Naboo is a monarchy with an elected queen who serves a fixed term, and Alderaan is a hereditary principality whose head of state, Prince Bail Prestor Organa, Viceroy and First Chairman, is also the sector's representative in the Galactic Senate (and later, the founder of the Rebellion). Later, the most we really know about the Empire is it's an absolute monarchy (having abolished the Senate in the first film) and the regional governors (Moffs) are now in direct control of their sectors under the Emperor, but nothing further. In the movies we also don't ever learn anything about their ideology except that they're for "order".

* ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'': Rather deliberately subverted, where KingArthur claims to be a king, and the peasant blithely demands to know what kind of government he offers, and how it is an improvement over the anarcho-syndicalist model already practiced by the local peasantry (which he insists on describing in detail). The conversation ends with the peasant complaining about "being oppressed" when KingArthur attempts to shut him up in annoyance.

** The Systems Alliance is even more generic, they never show a civilian leader beyond the Ambassador, and we only hear vague references to some kind of parliament, and it being some kind of conglomeration of corporations.

* ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'': Oceania's government doesn't get much explication in the book. However, in form at least their government and economy appear to mirror that of the Soviet Union at the time (from what little we see). This is because it was a TakeThat by Orwell against them. Ostensibly they're socialist, but they don't actually care anything about that-their rule is solely for power.

In non-political settings, or anything not based on a real-world government, the local government and how it got its power or where it derives its power tends to be really vague. Sometimes there's a princess or two hanging around since, [[EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses you know]]. But generally speaking, all we have to go by is that [[ShapedLikeItself good rulers are good rulers and bad rulers are bad rulers]], without any sort of explanation about how exactly things are run. For tax policy, as an example, at best you might get "good rulers don't tax and evil ones do", without really explaining how anyone funds anything without taxes.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'' and its prequels blurs the line between democracy and hereditary autocracy. Naboo is a monarchy with an elected queen who serves a fixed term, and Alderaan is a hereditary principality whose head of state, Prince Bail Prestor Organa, Viceroy and First Chairman, is also the sector's representative in the Galactic Senate (and later, the founder of the Rebellion).

* ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'': Oceania's government doesn't get much explication in the book. However, in form at least their government and economy appear to mirror that of the Soviet Union at the time (from what little we see). This is because it was a TakeThat by Orwell against them.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', the title of Minister for Magic doesn't appear to be an elected position, it seems to be appointed in some way (Dumbledore was offered it, but turned it down). The Daily Prophet is said to be explicitly in the ministry's pocket. The only other newspaper mentioned is the Quibbler, which seems to be for conspiracy buffs.

* ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'': The dystopian state in the novel doesn't have a specific ideology beyond naked totalitarianism. Oceania officially practices Ingsoc (English Socialism), while its rivals Eurasia and Eastasia respectively practice Neo-Bolshevism and an ideology that can best be translated as "Obliteration of the Self". However, there's no practical difference between them, and any illusion of such is just to keep the state of war between them active. A government agent of Oceania specifically defies the notion that they are successors to the Nazi Germans or Soviet Communists, since those groups still couched their murderousness behind utopian goals. Big Brother's regime is after power and making people suffer for its own sake.

* ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'': For some reason, Galbatorix is 'King' of the Broddring Empire and nothing is really described about how the government works, save for the fact it's "evil".

Related to SkeletonGovernment, though a Genericist Government can be of any size. May involve an EvilChancellor. Subdivides into TheKingdom, TheEmpire and TheFederation. Contrast RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething.

* ''Literature/InheritanceCycle'': It's not terribly clear why the ''King'' of the Empire is such a bad guy, nor is it explained what was so great about the previous government, which seemed to just be a bunch of guys with huge dragons running around doing... something. Partially justified by UnreliableExpositor.