#stratocracy

Here is a list of various forms of government. They left out Idiocracy, so I guess we are more of a Kakistocracy right now. Or Kleptocracy.

Here is a list of various forms of government. They left out Idiocracy, so I guess we are more of a Kakistocracy right now. Or Kleptocracy. Kakistocratic Kleptocracy maybe? Or would it be Kleptocratic Kakistocracy? Various forms of government: Democracy = Rule of the people Monarchy = Rule of one Oligarchy = Rule of a few Aristocracy = Rule of the best Plutocracy = Rule of the…

For a modern military with ranks, you'd probably be looking at military-administered territories, but those are usually temporary affairs and usually have a separation. You might want to look at Akrotelia and Dhekelia on Cyprus or the former administrative zones in Japan and Germany following the Second World War. Otherwise, you're looking at permanent martial law, but most countries that do that are dictators who rule mostly according to personal dictate. Otherwise, the Roman Republic made military service mandatory and the cursus honorum required levels of military service to qualify for the election, so that would be a stratocracy that might fit your criteria, but you didn't have centurions or cohort leaders automatically taking civil service roles.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

thx! xx 🍒

Hi :)

I had Latin in my Abitur and I barely passed, so let’s see what I remember about their government.

Writing a stratocracy

a stratocracy is a state that is led by military

it’s not a civil administration anymore, every branch of government is occupied by military personnel

people who served in the military have more rights than others (can vote, etc.)

head of state gets a military title and often serves as commander-in-chief

the youth gets trained early in life to military standards

deep loyalty to the generals and their armies

While writing a stratocracy or a Roman-inspired state, I would look at how people get treated that did not serve in the military or that oppose it. There is also more power with the Generals than with the senate and if voting is mostly or exclusively is done by military personnel, it would lead to different decisions for the state than a civil government.

You should also think about how the children get trained and in what way and how soon they get included into the military aspect of the state. And keep in mind that while a stratocracy does not have to be autocratic, it’s more likely to use force to accomplish their goals as it’s the nature of an army.

This can also change their relationships to neighboring states, when they focus on building an army and not focussed on trading, etc. It could make the other states much more careful with them and not trying to come to a trade agreement. On the other hand, some states may try to build an exclusive alliance with them to secure themselves and get their protection.

I hope this is helpful for you and I wish you good luck!

Tex: I’ll work in a little bit of a backwards order than I usually do, for this one - a statocracy will bring about a stratified society, where the lines are a little more rigid than some other types of governments, so yes, I think it would be entirely possible for state-controlled institutions to have nicer things.

This is more a question of how money is spent, and its flow, than anything else, because if you park the majority of your money into R&D whose results get funneled into institutions like hospitals and military bases, then the direct implication of that is that they will get the Shiny New Things first and most often.

I’d like you to consider not who benefits and how from this, but who doesn’t. What happens when critically life-saving medical supplies aren’t distributed across the country? What happens when only affluent areas get the public transportation, and the nice police, and the good education? What happens to those that don’t have any of those things?

Poverty can be construed as a traumatic event to an individual, regardless of age or time period of occurrence (childhood vs adulthood). A lack of adequate resources can impact academic achievement (Citation 1), nutritional outcomes of children (Citation 2), neurological development (Citation 3), success of socialization (Citation 4), a healthy weight (Citation 5), and access to healthcare (Citation 6).

Interestingly, this level of social inequality has a deleterious effect on the overall economy (Citation 7). This means that such a level of poverty, especially in a rigidly-defined society as a statocracy, would eventually unbalance your fantasy world’s entire society and cause unpleasant things as social unrest. What this means for the technology and other goods that have been sectioned off is up to you and your plot, however.

Citations

Citation 1 - Lacour, M., & Tissington, L. D. (2011). The effects of poverty on academic achievement. Educational Research and Reviews, 6(7), 522-527. PDF

Citation 2 - Bhattacharya, J., Currie, J., & Haider, S. (2004). Poverty, food insecurity, and nutritional outcomes in children and adults. Journal of health economics, 23(4), 839-862. PDF

Citation 3 - Young, E. (2020). The Psychological Impacts Of Poverty, Digested. Retrieved 18 December 2020. [Archived version]

Citation 4 - Mood, C., & Jonsson, J. O. (2016). The Social Consequences of Poverty: An Empirical Test on Longitudinal Data. Social indicators research, 127, 633–652. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-015-0983-9 PDF

Citation 5 - Chen, D., Jaenicke, E. C., & Volpe, R. J. (2016). Food Environments and Obesity: Household Diet Expenditure Versus Food Deserts. American journal of public health, 106(5), 881–888. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2016.303048 PDF

Citation 6 - Peters, D. H., Garg, A., Bloom, G., Walker, D. G., Brieger, W. R., & Hafizur Rahman, M. (2008). Poverty and access to health care in developing countries. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1136(1), 161-171. PDF

Flag of the Plastic Soldier State/Plastic soldier Stratocracy, from a cringe idea for a hoi4 mod rattling around in my head.

Stratocracy, n. /strəˈtäk-rəsē/ - Government by the army; military rule.