Monarchical Meritocracy?

So, I'm developing a D&D campaign and since none of the established locales within Dungeons & Dragons really fit my vision or needs I thought I'd make one.

Government is giving me trouble though. This is my first time as a Dungeon Master and there are few elements to this country's government I wasn't certain about and would appreciate assistance. Political Science was never my favourite subject. With that all said I'll get on with the show!

My original intention for the country's government was that of a Monarchical Meritocracy; A single hereditary sovereign wears the crown and his power is absolute. He is however guided by a specially selected council. Those citizens who demonstrate skill or aptitude are awarded with peerage, titles; control over key cities and sites, and a seat on the sovereign's council.

Now I'll be honest, I have no idea if that is even feasibly of even makes sense, but I really want to know and would appreciate the help

edited 6th Nov '15 5:15:38 PM by J.G.Crowne

Questions that need to be answered.

How are the council members selected?

How big is the Council?

What are the powers of the Monarch and what are the powers of the Council?

Who collects taxes?

Who writes laws?

Who Enforces Laws?

Bear in mind that we've never gotten a perfect government together, just slightly less flawed ones.

This is basically how pre-modern East Asian governments worked: there were a series of royal exams periodically given out, and those who passed the exam became bureaucrats and governors of various ranks. So yeah, it does make sense.

The only issue I see is that you say that the sovereign's power is absolute, which means that they would be able to completely override the council anytime they want, which would make the council's existence kind of meaningless if you have a really stubborn monarch.

Now of the council has power comparable to the monarch (meaning that the monarch's power is not absolute), what you have is very close to what is called a 'constitutional monarchy'.

edited 6th Nov '15 4:01:11 PM by shiro_okami

I would just like to apologize beforehand with the amount of time it's taken me to answer these questions. I've been out of town for a few days.

How are council members selected? Well, there are actually a few ways.

Throughout the country of Spera there are a number of academies, both scholastic and military. Ideally these students are to sit in an exam during their senior year. These exams are marked and those who score exceptionally -top 15% of those students sitting the exam nationally- are whisked away to the capital of Elíz where they are apprenticed to sitting council members for a number of years.

As an aside, those who don't do as well, say next 20% in the nation, aren't necessarily out of luck. In some instances a student's good work is rewarded by an academy itself, where they are invited to join as part of the faculty; teaching freshman classes till they are more experienced.

Those who have long since taken their exams also have a chance. Military leaders are capable of being selected for council by virtue of noteworthy or remarkable campaigns, battles, the defense of a key forts or naval bases etc. Working professionals like Lawyers, Cartographers, Traders and Merchants can likewise enjoy a sudden rise to councilman/woman.

Finally there are those few aren't the most successful, but could be chosen by "talent scouts". Those whose job is to see the potential in Speran citizens.

It should be noted that sometimes council members rise beyond the call of duty so to say and are actually rewarded for their efforts with the command of a city and peerage and titles. For example, Prosperita was a councilwoman who almost singlehandedly formed an alliance with a hostile nation to the north-west of Spera. For this, she was given the title of Duchess and given command of the port-city of Azzuríz.

The council's size itself is roughly 50-60 seats, not including apprentices, scribes and visiting politicos sitting in.

Now, the most important of the Monarch's power -at least in this point in time- is that of a Commander and Chief. He or she is ultimately the individual in charge of Spera's armed forces and can lead these forces however he/she sees fit and in whatever capacity he/she likes.

Other powers include the ability to create decrees: regulations or rules which do not need the council's approval. The monarch is also the one who ultimately has the ability to decide which laws proposed by council are put into action or scrapped.

The Council, likewise also has power though it's mainly focused on the day-to-day running of Spera: the creation of laws, the allocation of budgets, regulating commerce between other nations; the creation of outposts, embassies etc.

Spera doesn't have a nation-wide organization to enforce the law. Instead cities and townships have their own law enforcement department which are overseen by the leaders of these cities. Likewise taxes are collected by these same leaders.

Now again, a system like this makes sense to me, but again I don't know a thing about politics.

edited 11th Nov '15 8:12:24 PM by J.G.Crowne

Can the council check the monarch's power in any way? Or does it have any powers that the monarch does not? What prevents the monarch from dissolving the council?

Oh yes, certainly. In especially trying times when a Monarch is seen to be unfit for the position of King or Queen, the council can actually vote to have said monarch voted out.

Essentially the Monarch is forced to abdicate from their throne or else be charged with treason. Should it come to that, the Speran Royal Guard or the Elízan Police have the power and authority to arrest, imprison and -should things really go south- execute the treasonous Monarch.

Of course to do so, the Council must make a unanimous decision in order for this to come to pass.

Once a Monarch ha abdicated from their position, the next in line from the royal family is brought in.

With all this in mind, it is considered ideal that a Monarch to work in harmony and balance with the Council and vice-versa. Of course, as history has proven, this isn't always the case. There have been moments inn history where a Monarch has been led by the nose by their council, while some Monarch's have terrorized theirs without fear of being overthrown.

edited 10th Nov '15 7:03:12 PM by J.G.Crowne

Some thoughts:

1. Having the king override the council is a perfectly valid option. Here I have to disagree with Shiro Okami: if the council is an advisory council, as it seemed to be in your first post, then having no power is perfectly acceptable.

2. It may be (and if you ask me would be more believable, being that they are not elected (and so have no inherent political affiliation), but rather appointed on merit) that the council will not speak with a single voice, or even two large blocks, with a clear majority. Instead, you'd have multiple blocks, and so the king "overriding" the council means siding with one faction over another.

2a. There may be times (probably rare and cataclysmic) when the council does speak with one voice. This would be Oo C Is Serious Business territory, and the king would be moronic to not listen to them at this point.

2b. Alternatively, they could be impeaching said king.

3. There is a phrase I will steal from Robert Jordan, which describes a real world phenomenon: "Custom stronger than law". For example, for roughly 150 years no US president ran for the office after a second term, following the precedent set by Washington, and after FDR broke the custom, the Constitution was changed to disallow anyone else from doing so. Another example: technically, the UK's prime minister is not elected, but rather appointed by the monarch. Now, the position is effectively elected, as the monarch always appoints the leader of the party with the most votes (or who has formed a coalition with the most votes), but still it is a monarchical appointment, and to my knowledge there is not an actual 'law' that says that that is who the monarch must appoint.

4. Another idea is delegation. The kin wouldn't necessarily make the laws, with all of their details and specifics themselves. Rather they (perhaps guided by 'custom stronger than law') would declare a general law, or a goal, and leave the specifics to the council to hash out (or, again, if they couldn't agree, the council could send the monarch multiple proposals to choose from)

Sharur that actually does sound pretty close to what I initially envisioned. I guess at this point it would make much more sense for the council to have no real power and with a number of factions in which it could speak.

Is there anything I've missed though?

I understand that it is a valid option. The point of my question was to determine the type of government that would match what JG was proposing. Based on his answer, it is definitely a constitutional monarchy. If the council was truly just advisory but without equal power, it would be an absolute monarchy, which is just as valid, but not necessarily the smart option.

Smart option? I'm not following sorry. I'm mean yes, as a system of government I understand it's probably the safer option, but for the purpose of a Dungeon & Dragon's game I'm failing to see how it's the case.

edited 11th Nov '15 5:49:31 PM by J.G.Crowne

Yes, safer as a system of government. But besides that you are right, it really would not matter.

I hope I wasn't rude, that wasn't my intention. It was serious confusion and curiosity.

I do have a question though. Like I mentioned earlier, those council members who are shown to excel or stand out for a particular deed are rewarded with Peerage and Titles. Now my understanding is that such a hierarchy would basically look like this:

Now my question is this; just how many people are actually allowed to have these titles? Does it go by state? For example if Spera has 12 states, could there potentially be 12 dukes/duchesses waltzing around the countryside?

edited 11th Nov '15 8:34:41 PM by J.G.Crowne

It's generally how many titles the King feels like giving out, or sell. Heck, if the king feels like it he could be making more titles as he wishes out of the land he owns and give those titles out.

There aren't any formal rules about how much or little you need to create a barony, county, earldom, march, or dukedom. It's just customary for baronies to be big and dukedoms to be small.

Keep in mind that when the King makes someone a lord he has to assign lands from somewhere. Usually, it's land from the King's own holdings but it's not unheard of for a King to strip one noble of their lands and award it to another. Usually, a nobleman would need to seriously screw up to have lands taken from them and if the nobleman had enough clout there could be pushback.

You don't have to get the exact acreage of land, but a fairly low-end noble's land is going to need support from at least one or two designated villages (10-30 farmers and their families per settlement). A member of high-nobility like your province-leaders suggest is perfectly likely to control an entire CITY (the physical city as well as its supporting farmland) in addition to their personal holdings.

edited 2nd Feb '16 10:21:19 AM by Sharysa

If I'm remembering Farm, Forge, and Steam right then it works out to about 10 farmers to 1 non-farmer. Keep in mind that this includes craftsmen, soldiers, household servants, merchants, and clergy (not counting monks) in addition to the nobility. In my opinion, 60 families is a conservative estimate.

Also, Medieval Demographics Made Easy has a really nice quick way to crunch numbers for countries and cities, so you could definitely get a feel for how large a province would be in numbers of people.

A really good example of a meritocratic monarchy would be the Early Joseon period, particularly King Sejong the Great.

The problem with these systems is that the nobility gets awfully uncomfortable with the whole merit thing and often massacres all the smart people when the get the chance. It happened in Joseon (premodern Korea btw) and at the end of practically all the Chinese dynasties.

You might want to read up on the political system of Anglo-Saxon (pre-Norman) England, where the King ruled in conjunction with the Witenagemot (not the one from Harry Potter), a council of Earls.

If you can get gender equality among the meritocratically promoted you can have them marry into the nobility. That would help the nobility keep consolidating power while actually improving the quality of the nobility.

Well, in theory.