Government Structure

We live in a world where each country or state has it’s own governmental system and there are many of them like:

  • Dictatorship
  • Aristocracy
  • Monarchy
  • Oligarchy
  • Meritocracy
  • Democracy
  • And many others

And each one of them has it’s strong points and it’s weak points, but none of them is perfect. Not even Democracy, which is often regarded (by the people) as the best one.
But even Democracy has it’s flaws and will not function appropriate in all situations.

While designing Utolantis,  I frequently used a “Best of all types” approach, and the Utolantis government structure is one of them.  
It is for this reason that Utolantis comes with multiple government systems. Each with their own scope.

Meritocracy:
This type is government is based upon ability and talent (merits), which means that only the best suited individuals are asked to join the team.
This implies that you need to have very high scores when it comes to intelligence, social skills, achievements, knowledge and integrity.

Pro’s:

  • Even complex and sensitive decisions can be made on short term and with high success rates.

Con’s/Challenges:

  • The selection process to find the right person can be quite cumbersome and raise questions on how exactly the qualification criteria can be measured.
  • The people may disagree with the decisions made or even question the integrity of the people in charge.

Utolantis approach:

Whenever a decision is made, a list of all options that have been evaluated must be published for all to see.
Each evaluated option is provided with a list of pro’s and con’s and what mitigations have been evaluated to minimize the impact of these con’s.
Finally, the chosen option is explained.
Optionally there can be defined a “Plan B” and when this alternative option shall replace the initial decision.    

Democracy:
The original meaning of this word (in Latin) means : “Rule of the people”. 
In practice, it has many forms like (a.o.)  Direct Democracy, Representative Democracy or Presidential Democracy, but in most cases the people choose their representative(s) by voting on them during an election phase.
After the elections, the chosen representatives, design their government by appointing delegates like ministers, secretaries of State etc.
After that the government can rule without hardly any restrictions for a given period of (usually) 4 years.

Pro’s:

  •  All selected solutions and decisions will always have a large group of supporters ( At least in theory)

Con’s/Challenges:

Electing the representatives:

  • Whenever you vote, you hand over your personal opinions and independence to that person (and/or political party), so you are no longer allowed to complain about their decisions. Your representative will complain for you, since you gave him your right to speak on your behalf. 
  • There have always been, and there will always be discussions on who should be able to vote.
  • If the wrong people are allowed to vote, the result can be devastating.

Quality of decisions|:

  • Whenever the government decides to commit horrible crimes (like genocide), then always the people are responsible for their actions.
  • Especially in large communities where diversity in opinions are large, the risk is high that “The winning Solution”  is not supported by a large group.

Utolantis approach:
 In Utolantis, all communities, have their own Social Board, which is the local government that rules by True Democracy.

  • Anarchism:

This may surprise you, but the political meaning of anarchy is very different from what is usually understood.
The basic meaning of this word comes from old Greek (Anarchia) which stands for “An” (without) and ” Arkhos) (Leader/ruler)
So Anarchy stands for “Without Ruler” 

Pro’s:

  • Even more than democracy,  anarchism offers maximum personal freedom, autonomy and a minimum risk on governmental corruption, indoctrination and mind-control.
Con’s /Challenges:
  • Anarchism is a government structure that can only be successful in an environment where the people have very well developed social skills.
    These skills are needed to apply the highest moral and ethical standards.
    You need people who are mentally very strong and stable.
 Utolantis Approach:
Although the idea of anarchism will remain wishful thinking in the current world, Utolantis is based on a holistic worldview.
Part of that worldview is the basic ethical rule (derived from the Wicca movement) that states: ” An it harm none, Do as thy wilt”  
For this ethical rule to be applied successfully, very decent parenting and education is to be implemented.
Next to this social rule, there are other rules, laws and guidelines like traffic rules and rules how to act as a human in our relation with mother nature but these rules should be as less as possible and always explainable why they are as they are, so they can be discussed and debated.