Government Types - By Hollywood Movie

Mithras

Mithras

Banded Mongoose
Lots of people new to Traveller get very confused about the government types. On another board I recently explained that my interpretation of type 9: Impersonal Bureacracy was Terry Gilliam's movie 'Brazil', where a vast, interlocking and inward self centered bureacratic government runs every aspect of life.

So...why don't we do same Hollywood-style comparisons with the other government types? Obviously YMMV, but the standards were set by the scout team that landed, and I'm sure that one government (such as Communist Russia) could be described using more than one label. Pick one.

So... for my offerings on this subject:

Type 0 (None) Fury Prison Complex in Alien3

Type 1 (Company) ConAm Amalgamated Mining on Io in Outland

Type 9 (Impersonal Bureacracy) Ministry of Information et al, in Brazil

Type C (Charismatic Oligarchy) Mega City One in Judge Dredd.
 
Cool idea Mithras... not really in thinking mode right now, but some movies to comtemplate:
  • Waterworld

    Soldier

    AeonFlux

    The Island

    Blade Runner

    The Matrix (esp. 3rd?)

    The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

    Starship Troopers (?)
(P.S. Thanks for mentioning Brazil - adding to list of missing movie favorites)
 
Anyone familair with the Civilization computer games? I forget when, but there was an off-shot branch of the game called Civilization: Call to Power. It had a wonder called AI Entity an if you're not familiar with the game, the wonders are like big things your team accomplishes that are unique for just you and they're have always been quick 30 second-ish video clips of the wonder to make them stand out even more.

Anyway, the video for AI Entity is what I picture Feudal Technocracy. It pretty much sums it up. It might not be the perfect fit.. actually the video is might be more impersonal bureaucracy put its the first thing that came to mind when I read "feudal technocracy".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPuU8Pq9D3Q
 
Woas said:
Anyone familair with the Civilization computer games? I forget when, but there was an off-shot branch of the game called Civilization: Call to Power. It had a wonder called AI Entity an if you're not familiar with the game, the wonders are like big things your team accomplishes that are unique for just you and they're have always been quick 30 second-ish video clips of the wonder to make them stand out even more.

Anyway, the video for AI Entity is what I picture Feudal Technocracy. It pretty much sums it up. It might not be the perfect fit.. actually the video is might be more impersonal bureaucracy put its the first thing that came to mind when I read "feudal technocracy".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPuU8Pq9D3Q
Click to expand...

The Goa-uld fromStargate are a perfect example of a Feudal Technocracy - those in power have the technology and are kept in power because of it.

G.
 
BP said:
Cool idea Mithras... not really in thinking mode right now, but some movies to comtemplate:
  • Soldier
Click to expand...

Arcadia 234, the waste planet is Gov type 2 Participating democracy.

Regards,

Ewan
 
GJD said:
The Goa-uld fromStargate are a perfect example of a Feudal Technocracy - those in power have the technology and are kept in power because of it.
Click to expand...

From Wikipedia "Technocracy is a form of government in which engineers, scientists, and other technical experts are in control of decision making in their respective fields. Technocracy is a governmental or organizational system where decision makers are selected based upon how highly knowledgeable they are, rather than how much political capital they hold."

The Gou'uld stay in power by technology, but they USE it, but they are not the engineers, scientists, etc in control of the decision making, etc.


But yeah, dey have da power of ta technology and dey use it allright!
 
How about Logans Run? Civil service bureacracy, type 8, or type 3, self perpetuating oligarchy?

Re. Feudal technocracy, someone mentioned once that the Dune houses, but I'm not up on Herbert.
 
GamerDude said:
GJD said:
The Goa-uld fromStargate are a perfect example of a Feudal Technocracy - those in power have the technology and are kept in power because of it.
Click to expand...

From Wikipedia "Technocracy is a form of government in which engineers, scientists, and other technical experts are in control of decision making in their respective fields. Technocracy is a governmental or organizational system where decision makers are selected based upon how highly knowledgeable they are, rather than how much political capital they hold."

The Gou'uld stay in power by technology, but they USE it, but they are not the engineers, scientists, etc in control of the decision making, etc.


But yeah, dey have da power of ta technology and dey use it allright!
Click to expand...

So that makes them TEDs! (From Traveller the New Era (TNE)) They use high technology to stay in power.
 
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