Hello again n.n

Using the momentum from my previous post, I've decided to start a separate, dedicated thread to discuss an issue that slip past most people's consideration: how the rats govern themselves. It's a rather mundane question that, nevertheless, has great implications for how the colony and the rat's lives are structured.

In essence, the majority of this post will discuss some possibilities of how the (very fledgling) government may actually function. However, I've also taken the liberty to "port" over some salient replies from the previous thread, to ensure continuity. These are arranged in their respective sections in the post.

Once again, none of this is official NIMHMuck lore, only the personal thoughts of some very bored guys :D

Now, let's get this started. I will address each branch of government one at a time, as per conventional understandings of the separation of powers.

The Executive

Of course, we can't start of our essay without talking about our dear Leader ;) The Leader of the Rats of NIMH seems to function analogously to a president in human systems, responsible for administering the colony, providing for its welfare, and directing a plan of action for the whole community. The Leader also has the ultimate authority to appoint the department heads.

With that said, there is still some question as to the exact relationship between the Leader and the legislature, or Council. Does he propose measures directly to the Council, or must such measures be formally introduced by one of its members? What provisions are there to permit the Leader to act independent of the Council? We know that Justin explicitly ordered the curfew/ban on external travel during the Ranger crisis, but how much (or how little) a role did the Council play, as advisors or legislators?

We had some discussion about what role the Leader played:

Raxx Mockan: I mean, just what does "the Leader" do in relation to the council? Especially since they've only had two in that "office"

Matthias: I would guess that he'd implement their plans to some extent, and heed their advice. However, the Leader can also initiate his own plan of action, and can enact certain measures independent of the Council in certain situations. He'd be a sort of presidential figure, in that sense.

Caboose: You know, now that I think about it, I've likely been RPing Justin all wrong since I took him on as a character.

The poor guy was run off his footpaws in The Rats of Thorn Valley and Second in Command because they had just made the move from the farm and were still in the process of setting up the colony and getting ready for winter. Now that they're moved and settled and have been living there for a few years, I honestly can't imagine that he's got all that much to do.

He's essentially mayor of a very small, *very* quiet little town. Maybe I'm looking at this in completely the wrong way, but...I don't see the colony as needing all that rigorous of a system of government at the present time.

Now that they know the mouse colony exists, there will likely be all sorts of things like diplomatic relations and channels of communication to establish, plus rules and regs for visiting and whatnot. However, I'm willing to bet that this is the most political excitement the Council (and Justin, for that matter) have seen in a *very* long time.

In response to Caboose, I'd like to say that I do, in fact, find your position to be quite plausible and sensible. After all, this is still a very small community we're talking about, certainly when compared to human towns, and so the majority of the "action" that seems to occur are anomalous events in an otherwise quiet hamlet. With their establishment in Thorn Valley, the primary goal seems to have shifted towards maintaining essential services and building infrastructure. The "mayor" analogy seems very apt as well; he's basically more of a "first citizen" then an "official" head of state. Still, taking into context the colony and its history, such a figure who be regarded with great respect nonetheless; he's the only Leader they've got, after all.

Putting aside the question of the Council, let's consider the various departments that comprise the government:

Administration: Not really a department, per se, but the overarching mechanism that provides a framework for the other departments to operate, cooperate, and organize.
This section keeps records of the colony's day-to-day activities and consolidates all the "paperwork" that might be done on a super-departmental basis. I would posit that this meta-department would be the charge of the Vice-Leader, currently Jonathan Brisby.

Engineering: This is perhaps the largest department in terms of the number of workers (At least, ICly n.n). As you can probably tell, Engineering is responsible for building, maintaining, and repairing the physical structures of the colony. They manufacture the tools, references, and other such items for use by other departments or individuals (including the Guard's weapons and armour). Also, they maintain the colony's water mill that provides essential plumbing into the colony.

Agriculture: Somewhat self-explanatory, the agriculture department is responsible for farming and foraging operations that provide the primary sustenance of the colony. One small division (composed, it seems, of only Simon, at least officially) has taken charge of the colony's greenhouse and the many plants in there, which are cultivated and maintained for botanical and medicinal purposes. Should the colony expand, it would be feasible for this department to take charge of land management and resource gathering (i.e. minerals and metals). Currently, the only other character whom I know is definitely in this department is Helios.

Law/Guard: Perhaps the most "famous" department, having a disproportionate number of registered characters, the Guard, as you already know, is in charge of maintaining the peace, whether through internal law enforcement (i.e. a policing function), or the outward projection of force to protect the colony from external threats (i.e. Rapta, Ranger, Staggs). This latter function seems to be the most prevalent.

It seems that the Guard is further subdivided into divisions led by individual lieutenants (though one division, the scouts, is led by a sergeant, Xavier). The chief of the guardsrats, of course, is the Captain, currently Leon. Interestingly enough, they also have a representative department head that reports to the Council (Philip, by OOC agreement), perhaps indicating the political neutrality of the Guard itself.

Education: All generations pass, and thus the young must be trained. As such, the Thorn Valley school seeks to provide the children with a substantial and quality education, training and teaching them in math, science, history, and other subjects that would form young minds and prepare them for adulthood (education, after all, is meant to form the character, too). Most of their curriculum is derived from the humans, of course, but who's to say that they haven't made they own twist to it?

Anita's all by her lonesome in this department right now. Someone get another teacher char before she does something nasty :D

As an added note, I presume that maintaining the library would fall to these folks as well.

Medicine/Health: For rats who didn't listen to their teachers about workplace safety, these are the folks to look up. This dedicated team of physicians and nurses, selected from their peers and intensely trained and taught, are determined to get everyone in tip-top shape...one way or another ;)

The hierarchy here is rather more informal than the other departments, but nevertheless there is a distinct structure. At the top seem to be Randi Bradbury, a surgeon and the chief physician/department head, and Mr. Ages, herbalist/pharmacist and resident grouch. Below are the resident doctors, such as Benjamin Connor, Head Doctor, in charge of personal leadership of the doctors, and Isabella, primary caregiver and Head Doctor in Benjamin's incapacity. Then, there are the numerous nurses, such as Ira.

Supply/Logistics: Probably the most under-appreciated department, this collective of paper-pushers, led by Joseph Connor, is responsible for managing the distribution of resources and supplies throughout the colony. They are the distributors of the manufactured goods from the workshops and the produce of the fields, which can carefully catalog and record to ensure the most efficient use of resources and assets. Think of them as the auditors and budgeters of the colony.

Science: I'm not certain as to whether this department's existence is warranted, but it seems that it is at least plausible. After all, someone must perform tests on the new equipment, analyse soil and crop samples, determine the effectiveness of new weaponry, and produce medicinal and chemical elixirs (for mass consumption). All this research and experimental functions could be ably performed by the quirky, but very knowledgeable, rat scientists of the colony.

There is also a degree of overlap between all these departments. Engineering and Science work on new technologies. Agriculture and Medicine/Health (with some help from Science), develop medicines from natural ingredients. Of course, let's not forget the silent, but pervasive, influence of Supply/Logistics.

This whole thing, of course, seems rather much for such a small community, as Caboose pointed out earlier. However, I do feel that the rats have significant long-term prospects for themselves. These various departments perform essential function for the community, and even if their operations are "small-time" at the present moment, the structure explained above provides plenty of provisions for expanded functions. In essence, one could say that the above spells out the organic growth of the colony's governance, an arrangement for the future.

That should be it for the Executive o_o Now, let's move on to...

The Legislature

Otherwise known as the Council, this group of elder rats is the primary deliberative body of the whole Colony, being the main forum of debate and discussion of issues that pertain to the community at large. They propose motions for the government to act upon, deliberate such motions and other matters in committees, and consider the state of the government itself and how it can be improved. They also act as an advisory body to the Leader.

There has also been discussion here about the composition of the Council:

Raxx Mockan: AS for politics, well we should ask is the colony big enough for permanent council members. or is it like early towns and colonies in RL that only had few "officals" and the rest were reps from the community.Then, After council meeting ,they went back to "regular" jobs. From the look of the movie , It looks like it could go either way.

Matthias: That's actually a very good question. Would the Council function as a dedicated governmental body, or would it be compose of those with various professions, like a city council? We know, to start, that all the department heads are part of the council, but what the other, non-executive councillors? The 'community representative' idea seems to be very plausible and workable, since it frees up the labour pool somewhat and fits in with the efficient character of the colony government. Further discussion would be needed, though.

I liked how Caboose replied to this one:

Caboose: ...the day a society of barely 200 (assuming we go with more than the 115 described in the book) needs a body of permanent politicians is the day hell freezes over. :)

Point taken :D

Caboose: I'm of the opinion that the government would basically be a city council, and that it would logically expand with the colony. Say you have one representative for every 20 rats, and there are 200 in the colony--you'd need only ten rats on the council. Fewer, if there are only the 115 from the book. That would keep things nice and representative (1:20, which is a better ratio than that of teachers to students in many schools these days, not to mention governments). That said, those rats would need to do something else with their time besides sit around waiting for some crisis to come up to legislate.

Heck, I can't even see them needing to meet very often. No budgets to squabble over, likely not many people screaming for major changes to how things work... I know I'm missing issues that real city councils deal with, but those are the two biggest ones I was able to think of that are actually applicable to the colony.

It seems that you've convinced me of the plausibility of the "city council" concept for the Colony n.n However, I'd like to present a contrasting view to your idea of representative government. Simply put, I don't think that the colony is large enough to warrant such a system just yet. Certainly, they could in the future, but not at the present time; 1:20 is still a rather odd proportion.

Also, not all city councils follow the "ward" system, where each district elects their own councillor to represent them. Many city councils follow an "at-large" system, where councillors are elected by the whole community. Essentially, you would have a number of such "at-large" representatives alongside the department head on the Council, though the exact number of these is another question.

As for the total number of councillors, 16 to 20 seems like a good number, especially considering these screenshots from the movie. The colony's population has grown somewhat since the movie, as well, which further justifies the numbers.

This, of course, brings us to another question: How would these councillors attain their positions? It seems that the "at-large" representatives are elected, well, at large, but what about the department heads? Are they appoint by the Leader in terms of seniority and experience, or do the workers in those departments have a say? And what about the community? Certainly, an interesting topic to ponder.

As an added note, there is also the question of who would act as the Chair or Presider of the Council, such a figure being a necessity in deliberative bodies. Would they select a worthy councillor, or would a separate individual, not part of the council, be chosen?

We come, at last, to the final segment, namely...

The Judiciary

This branch, of course, deals with questions of legality and hears cases concerning

This is perhaps the least discussed topic concerning the colony. I made first mention of it in response to a question by Raxx Mockan:

The question of criminals also brings up the question of the judicial system. It seems that they would have vested such functions in the Council or a section of the Council. That is, a group of councilrats can meet together and hold a court. However, would it be feasible to have the judiciary part of the legislature as well? It's an interesting topic to explore, at least.

Caboose had an interesting reply:

Since the rat government seems loosely based on either the democratic republic or parliamentary system of government, I would imagine they saw the wisdom of keeping the judiciary and legislature seperate when they set up the original colony in the Rosebush. That said, I doubt they have a multi-tiered court system because there are so few colonists. In essence, whatever judge(s) they have would be in charge of more mundane cases--if their are any--as well as serving as interpreters of whatever sort of Constitution the rats drew up.

Military cases would, of course, involve the guardsrats and whatever their version of a court martial happens to be.

I concur with these thoughts, Kieran. It does make a lot of sense for them to keep these two separate. With that said, however, how exactly would they construct the judiciary? We can't elect them like the councillors, and we certainly don't have many license barristers, at least not yet.

I believe I have a reasonable solution. This judiciary would indeed be chosen by the people, but only indirectly. Each department/labour group would nominate a set of worthy candidates from amongst themselves (other than the department heads, of course). The Leader would then, with the blessing of the Council, appoint from these nominees the judicial body, choosing one from each department as well as a particularly notable personage to act as the Chief Adjudicator. The Arbiter of Law (i.e. The head of the Law/Guard department) would act as legal advisor and Council representative. This seems to me like a good proposition, providing, for the time being at least, a effective and functional means of preserving justice.

As for courts martial, I think there's been some discussion of this previously, but to summarize, it makes a lot of sense for there to be a separate legal system for guardsrats, as we do for our RL militaries. I'm guessing that the "judges", in this case, would be a selected group of officers (I presume three, like in RL militaries), including the Provost (who had been, and will be, Lt. Santiago de Leon), who provides the same function as the Arbiter in civilian cases, though he also acts as Chief Adjudicator.

It should be noted, though, that there would probably be a special tribunal struck for Victor's (the former Ranger) case, considering the far-reaching effects of his transgressions and his status as a deserter of the Guard.

Caboose also mentioned something about the legal system and the way the rats apply justice, but I think that can be discussed elsewhere, perhaps in another Exposition or as a reply in the original post. Besides, I've kinda reached the end of my rope o_o

Hope you guys found this helpful, in a way. Good night, and happy MUCKing! :)

--Matthias