Replacement for parties in a Space Opera

Hi, I’m working in a space opera, and one of the things I want to make is a satire of all political systems. Of course that includes democracy, so one of the empires in the Galaxy is a democratic confederacy with something similar to a two-party system.

The two “parties” will be obviously one centre-right and another center-left adapted to a sci-fi environment. My problem is that I don’t want to use the term “party” because I think is too human. In my world Earth is not an important player, it’s seem as a very backward world, and was admitted in the Confederacy when this already had centuries of existence. So, using “parties” sound to… Earth-like.

Can you suggest any other term that can accomplish more or less the same role? Or how to make a two party system without using the word party.

Now, the government is kind like a parliamentary system (I think is more credible to have each world choosing their representatives and then they choosing the ruler, a.k.a. Prime Minister, than having interplanetary presidential elections).

edited 17th Dec '15 2:37:05 AM by Luppercus

"Factions", maybe ?

Worldbuilding is fun, writing is a chore

If it's a satire, maybe something like "Flavor", "Team", or just "Side"?

Parties are just groups of like-minded individuals trying to accomplish their goals in cooperation with each other; those are going to exist no matter what, of course.

The political names and imagery are, from an outside perspective, already pretty bizarre in our world ("mugwumps" versus "stalwarts", anyone?). It's possible to one-up that, but not without running into The Onion's Law (i.e., it is hard to satirize reality when reality has devolved into a satire). One approach is to grab names from cliques or gangs or other such groupings that should theoretically not be involved in the dignified process of lawmaking, and apply them.

edited 17th Dec '15 1:12:15 PM by SabresEdge

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

Could be, but then they'll need a cool name

Even as a satire I would like to keep it a little realistic. Although side could be or maybe a color.

Could you extend a little more? I remember reading a sci-fi story in spanish about a future were the Central American gangs became political parties. Something like that?

edited 17th Dec '15 9:50:17 PM by Luppercus

Damn I couldn't quote. Well you get the idea.

EDIT: Never mind

edited 17th Dec '15 9:51:20 PM by Luppercus

From history: the greens and the blues, from Byzantium, would be one example. Even if you look at modern political terminology, "left" and "right", "greens" and "reds" (and even "stoplight coalitions" from German politics)—all of it seems random and make no sense, unless you look at where they came from (i.e., historical context).

Whatever you choose, you'll probably be safe.

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

The "Red Giants" vs. the "Super Novas" (the conservatives vs. the progressives- think about it, it makes sense).

Sounds more like a football game match-up to me.

This Space Intentionally Left Blank.

That Byzantium case it’s very interesting. I did thought that certain terms from history are kind of arbitrary (Left and Right are just were certain kind of people sited in the French Assembly), others are made-up names like the Jacobins and Girondists in revolutionary France or Tories and Whigs in Britain, so I could use some sort of made-up word or making a reference. Also using colors, nevertheless and I probably should explain it before, the work is going to be in Spanish and using colors for names in Spanish can sound very silly (like Los Rojos y los Verdes, it doesn’t work).

Hmmm astronomical objects for names, that’s a very very cool concept and makes a lot of sense in context. I guess the idea it’s that Red Giants represents conservatives because they are very old and stable stars while Super Novas will be the progressives because symbolize change and reform, am I guessing correctly?

The idea is that you're building a functioning world, which in turn implies history.

In which case party names rooted in history is only natural, and that can be as silly as you can think of, given that our own history does not lack silliness.

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

How about 'Houses'. I think it would make sense for a system that has directly grown from fedualism, having none of the actual aristocrats but having the political groups being those that have pledged to serve the houses(actual house members are banned).

§◄►§

What specifically about the word "party" is too Earth-like? A word like "faction" is still an English word from Earth, so I don't really see why it's any better than "party."

There are 10 types of people in this world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.

"Hey guys, I want to make a satire of all political systems! Only, I don't actually know a lot about politics, nor do I have any particular political position that I want to push, so could you help me brainstorm funny stuff? I'm sure the eventual comedic Frankenstein this method will produce will be hilarious, and not completely half-assed and insulting."

Yes, it is true, thank you.

Although a cool idea I see three problems:

1. It has been used before, like with Dune, and also in some other Future Feudalism ideas like the Klingon in Star Trek and the Centauri in Babylon 5 and I really would prefer not to repeit.

2. This works only if all members of the Confederacy had the same feudal political system that evolved together. I’m more in the idea that each planet had very different political and social history and traditions that, nevertheless, are compatible enough as to work together. But in general I was more in the idea that the Confederacy is more like the typical democratic state that came as a response against aristocracy, like the USA, France and Hispanic America.

3. Remember I said I want to make a satire of several political systems, that will probably include monarchism and/or feudalism, so probably one of the other main powers in the Galaxy may have a feudal system.

But thanks for the suggestion.

Well indeed, but there is a psychological aspect for the reader. All of us who live in countries with political parties will read party and think is the normal structure that we have, while if you read faction or some other word the association may not be as immediate and be more alien in concept. For example, for faction I can think in a big group of different interests, lobbies, associations, etc., rallying together to influence the politics of the central government, or maybe each planet has its own different traditional groups (house, or clans in some more feudal planets, parties in Earth, guilds in other planets, tribes in other, etc.), and maybe each planet has a different term according to the language, “faction” is the term use in “English” (well actually will be Spanish in the original text) because is the closest concept (and yes, the same can apply to party, but still is a very specific term while faction is more abstract).

Isn’t one of the rules of the forum that people should be polite? Anyway, there is a lot of speculation on this particular (and pointless) attack.

“Only, I don't actually know a lot about politics” yeah well, actually I’m an elected officer in my country, I’ve hold certain important positions in my political party (like secretary of the Youth branch) that is one of my country’s biggest (and currently ruling) party and I’ve publish several articles about politics both academic and opinion.

“nor do I have any particular political position that I want to push” and you know that how? Yes I don’t pretend to make the book a pamphlet of my political views and try to be somewhat neutral, I hate when writes use their work just to spread the word!

“so could you help me brainstorm funny stuff?” Isn’t that why the forum is for or did I miss something?

“I'm sure the eventual comedic Frankenstein this method will produce will be hilarious, and not completely half-assed and insulting.” Maybe a language or cultural dissonance, in Spanish the word satire is not use for purely comedic works, but in any case I’m just asking for ideas, the final work requires a lot of writing, development, thinking and editing, including finding beta readers and of course the word of the publisher, is not like the entire novel is going to be around this particular detail. I’m thankful for the feedback and the time other people take on making suggestions though.

Besides that, I really don’t see the point in entering a post over a topic with no intention of help and just being rude for no reason whatsoever, I personally would never do that, but anyway, is not like it changes how helpful other people have been.

edited 25th Dec '15 8:01:11 PM by Luppercus

Cadre

Faction

Sect

Corporate

Soviet?

Thank you all