How to write a government?

Basically, the government in my story is, like, run by elves who are the elites of the country in which the story takes place. While I do want to make them corrupt (the story ends with massive government reform) I don't want to make the government too bad, I mean, they are benevolent, but deeply flawed. One specific group of arc villains are a bunch of terrorists known as Black Hawk, and, they're supposed to have gained followers very quickly, and their main idea is toppling the flawed Elven government (the majority in said country are actually humans, half-elves, and some dwarf immigrants, as well as werewolves and vampires near the bottom of society). I want to make the audience see their point of view, but not agree which them either, so, how should I write the government,

It probably sounds like a non-answer, but you should learn how governments of different sorts operate. If you know that then it's easier to write a government that wants well but went wrong somewhere.

That being said, problems of that sort often tend to start because the ones that rule are unable to put themselves in the position of those being ruled and can't understand the effect the changes they do have on those people. That might or might not be what you want.

Yeah, as the resident polisci guy, that's not nearly enough information to say. "Flawed but well-intentioned" covers a hell of a lot of government types that function very differently.

You can start by focusing on human nature—specifically the ugly parts like greed, self-interest, pettiness, laziness, and all those other things—and imagine the servants of the government taking advantage of their positions to indulge. Which tends to be what happens in most governments without some very specific, very difficult-to-design institutions to keep them in check.

What kind of political system is it? An autocratic dictatorship? A constitutional monarchy? A merchant republic?

Who holds the monopoly of force in your society? That is, who controls the people who enforce the law? There must be someone in charge - every society needs a means of enforcing its rules. And whoever holds power over those enforcers also holds power over the rules themselves.

What forms the basis of the economy? Where does the government draw taxes from? Who are the country's neighbours? How are the country's political leaders selected?

Here are ways a government can go bad:

• Corruption: Leona Helmsley famously said "Only the little people pay taxes." A blogger by the name of Glenn Reynolds (who's also a law professor) headlines stories of corruption with the phrase "Laws are for the little people."
  • Some people just don't wanna work for it or play by the rules so they break them. Often.
  • Officials get used to the bribes, it may become the "cost of doing business".

• Indifference: people become convinced that "there is nothing I can do about it". Honest officals get scared into keeping quiet. Others take a blind eye because their lover/relative/friend is on the take.
  • For the heroes to effect change, this can be a huge barrier, like the farm boy, Random P. Offical may hate the corruption, but feels that he can't do anything. They need to convince him that he can.

• The wrong kind of reform (or as we call it in the military, the "Good Idea Fairy"):
  • There is a committie appointed to "study" the problem, translation - the reformers are told to &~@# themselves via a Door Stopper of a report.
  • Laws get passed that go too far or become too restrictive. Now corruption is survivial if you don't want to get arrested for breaking a law you never heard of untill five minutes ago.
  • And of course there are those who use the crisis to put themselves into power. Promising reform, they can make it worse, turn corrupt or turn utopia into 1984. Or it's just The Peter Principle: he was good as a minor offical, put him in charge of the whole magulla and things go down hill.

Have the elves be unsympathetic to the "lesser" races. You could have them setting plans in motion that won't come to fruition until over a hundred years (small amount of time to an elf, but to a human it looks like nothing is getting done). The elves could be really stuck in their ways. Also, the elves could brush off any suggestion by the people they rule over (this depends on how much you utilize Our Elves Are Better and how much Fantastic Racism you wish to implement).

Depending on how hippie you want your elves, you could also have them effectively kill the lumber and farm industry because they're hurting the animals.

Ah Values Dissonance of the immortals vs. the mayfiles.

• Elves could remember when the nations and tribes of the "lesser races" were just bands in animal skins. So some prince, king or tribal chieftain saying that the elves need to do XYZ? The elves don't take him seriously, because his family has been in power for "only" 200 years, a blink of an eye.
  • The parliaments and tribal councils of the "lesser races" would confuse and infuriate elves. From the Elves point of view, they act too quickly, their members come and go and they "act rashly" in the heat of the moment.
  • From the "lesser races" point of view, having requests or goodwill gestures rebuffed because some stodgy +700 year old elf is holding up the works would really piss them off. Why should they pay any heed to some prophecy/treaty/legend that's so old the scrolls it was written on are turning into dust?

• Those who've lived over 100 years are going to be really set in their ways compared to younger races. Some dark lord is rasing an army of Spider People? They beat like seven "dark lords" with a gimmick, this new one will be gone in a century or two. Hence they are caught off guard because this Dark Lord has some new gimmick/power/The Dragon that the Elves have never seen before. And they can't believe it.

• The Chosen One? They've seen dozens of kids, nobles, knights, mad wizards with "a special destiny" to defeat Blah Blah and with the Mystical Yakity Smackity. Why is this "chosen one" so special?

edited 8th Apr '15 9:48:17 PM by TairaMai