Government

Most areas are occupied by groups or institutions claiming dominion over them. Gygaxia supports an impressive array of different kinds of government, including some remarkable successes — as well as many spectacular failures.

Government by Few

Far and away the most common form of government, at least in more traditional areas, is rulership by a few people (or, more often, only one). Such governments most commonly have rulers placed in power by heredity or divinity (real or alleged), and tend slightly toward the unpleasant side of the enjoyment spectrum from the perspective of most of their constituency. They do, however, vary considerably in the extent of their power and benevolence. Some consist of rulers who are able to execute more or less any laws they wish, while others are subject to some of the limiting rules of advisors, a council, a nobility, a constitution, a god or, in rare cases, a lettuce and tomato sandwich. Most governments aren't too restrictive as long as citizens keep to themselves and follow a few simple rules (pay your taxes, keep your pants on in public, don't insult the royal family, don’t sing about digging), though arbitrary and self-serving laws are rather common, and justice is not the norm.

Some governments try to force some philosophy or rigid set of behaviors on their citizens, like devotion to a particular religion, alignment, or belief in the idea that giving all one’s possessions to the ruling classes causes euphoria. Alternatively, in some areas, strict beliefs and behavioral restrictions are observed voluntarily by the population. This is most common in tribes or other small communities, where diversity is less common.

Observed examples of rule by few (other than monarchies and the like) in Gygaxia include government by nobles (aristocracy), wealthy people (plutocracy), the community’s least organized people (slovenocracy), a group of elders (gerontocracy), gods or their clerics (theocracy), warlocks (warlocracy), the undead or the dead (necrocracy), adventurers (odyssocracy), facist clowns (ludocracy), outlanders (xenocracy), psychic children (psipedocracy), members of a particular profession (occupocracy), monsters (monstocracy), people who don't know what they're doing (idiocracy), intelligent magic items (talismocracy), gamers (metarecreatocracy), and hyperintelligent hippopotamuses (hypocrisy).

Government by Many

When rulers are held accountable by the people, you get some kind of democracy or republic. Naturally, a reasonable facsimile of perfection in such governments has yet to be seen, as this would likely be as dull a setting for adventure as it would be unrealistic. Most of the time, for example, some groups aren’t represented, corruption is moderately rampant, and rulers are subject to the various pressures of powerful interest groups. Those who fund the rulers and justify them philosophically inevitably want more than their fair share of say, and ignorant or indifferent constituents make their will (or lack thereof) known as well.

Note that these sorts of governments rarely exist in pure forms. Often a national monarchy may break down into a series of towns which have mayoral elections every number of years, into a bunch of counties governed by counts or earls, or into several provinces controlled by evil witches. Also, just because someone seems to be in charge doesn’t mean she actually is; puppet governments are as popular as they are exciting in many locales.

Government by Nobody

Some areas just aren't governed. Lack of government can signify some rather widely divergent states of affairs; probably the most common forms are a result of underpopulation or chaotic power struggles, the latter of which may often be transitory before a government finally materializes. In other cases, governments may not exist because of lack of need for them; highly effective cultural systems which eliminate disparities of wealth, trauma, most forms of violence, and other of society’s ills may take their place (though given typical human behavior combined with this system providing insufficient conflict to make for an interesting game probably means such systems are pretty rare). Another lack of government sees private interests running everything which the government might otherwise have run, including defense systems and constable forces.

Other examples of government by nobody include government by doing whatever a book or prophecy says to do (oraclocracy), selecting laws at random (arbitocracy), or imitating other governments (mimocracy). A final example of government by nobody is bureaucracy. In a bureaucracy, decisions are made by submitting forms and requests to an an immense configuration of bureaus and departments and hoping for a response. Bureaucracies are rarely implemented in their purest form, but exist to some degree in most large governments.

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