Our analysis of building Sci-Fi governments continues as we look at the people that govern the legislative branch!
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This post is a continuation of my last post, fully examining the legislative branch. The legislative branch – for me – is the most fascinating and interesting of the three main branches. Last week we looked at how the legislative branch passes legislation; this week, we will be looking at who makes up the legislative branch and how they got that position. As with last week, I will continue using my United Humanity Alliance example. Without further ado, let’s crack on.
HOW IS THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH FORMED
As with most of these in-depth posts, I do want to break this down into several smaller steps of analysis. Fundamentally, this boils down to three questions, which I will tackle sequentially:
- Who is in the Legislature?
- How did they get into the Legislature?
- What is Legislative Procedure?
These questions may seem a bit vague and undefined for the moment, but I hope when I work through them, it should be clearer what it is I’m talking about.
Who Is In The Legislature?
This is fairly straightforward: what members comprise your legislative bodies? For democratic states, you will often have representatives filling your legislative assemblies – though not always. For example, the UK has 650 representatives in the House of Commons, but also has a House of Lords of appointees. The point is figuring out numbers, and for representatives, who they represent. For a more authoritarian regime, your legislative branch may be fused with your executive branch, meaning your executive leader may also be the leader of your legislative branch. Be inventive, though try not to overcomplicate it. Bigger systems will likely lead to, naturally, more complicated membership systems; but for small governments, this complexity is unneeded and unwarranted.
Going to the United Humanity Alliance, as aforementioned, there are two main bodies: the House of Earth and the House of Mars. The House of Earth has around 1,500 Primary Delegates (known as “primas”) who represent each of the various districts that divide Earth. They also have another two types of representative: the continentals (of which there are six, each representing the six inhabited continents, with settlements on Antarctica deemed too recent and too small to warrant representation) and the executive representatives (referred to colloquially as the “dons”) who are appointed by the executive branch.
Meanwhile, in the House of Mars, things are far more straightforward. Not only do the people of Mars have less legislative power, they also have less legislative representation. There are a hundred Martian delegates, who represent each of the colonies of Mars. Furthermore, though, the representation of the Martians is further weakened by the presence of continentals and dons, who sit in both Houses; additionally, the executive appoints a hundred primas to sit in the House of Mars. This fuses the two Houses together and can often make them lackeys to the whims of the executive.
How Did They Get Into The Legislature?
This one is fairly straightforward. How did the people in your legislative branch get into such a position of power? There’s obviously standard ways such as through elections or appointments, but maybe your government is a bit different. For example, there may be certain rites or rituals or actions one must take to be awarded certain positions. For instance, in my own Milithron Galaxy universe, I have a alien species called Drurvoths who follow the Karn Script; completion of the Karn Script allows a Drurvoth to become a Higher Echloic and join the Drurvothean government. Be creative, but also keep in mind that it must make at least a modicum of sense. Also, while they may seem a bit dull, elections and appointments can be fascinating if examined in the right lens.
In the United Humanity Alliance, most of the representatives are elected. The primas are elected from their Earth districts, the Martian delegates are elected from their colonies, and the continentals are elected from their continents. Only dons are not elected but are appointed by the executive.
What Is Legislative Procedure?
This is a less-essential aspect of your legislature, but could still very well be important. It’s basically a bit of a critical examination of legislative procedure and the day-to-day workings of the legislative branch, including how members are kept accountable, the various powers awarded to different members and bodies, committee procedure, procedure surrounding bills and passing bills – the list is pretty endless. For most people, this section is one which can probably be made up on the fly quite easily; but if you want to go really in-depth in your worldbuilding, then this is a good place to do that.
I’m not going to give an example using the United Humanity Alliance, because this section is a bit wishy-washy and a bit long. I would also be going into very unnecessary, niche details that may not be suitable as a broad example.
Hope you enjoyed this blog post!
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- (Previous) Structure Of A Sci-Fi Government Pt I: The Legislative Branch Pt I
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