“Boneclaw Mother’s already decided–the rest of us may as well acquiesce with a little dignity” “And that’s why you’re the one who’s going to take over when I die, Shadebones”
For some reason i would guess a Republic. Although I’d be the first to tell all and sundry about the relative merits of a constitutional monarchy I can’t see wombats having any more tolerance for Royalty than for gods, and with good reasons. In a mining community you need someone who knows what they are doing in charge, so achieved rater than ascribed status is a functional necessity because if someones position is determined by birth at any level of society then sooner or later you’re going to get a leader who cant tell one end of a pick-axe from the other.
Could be a Pure Democracy, a Demarchy – the type the Athenians had, where everybody votes on everything – because warrens strike me as relatively small.
Wombats strike me as too pragmatic to have a Demarchy. They’d probably take one look at it and realize they wouldn’t get anything done. Besides, didn’t Digger once mention that the warren is run by a Chief Engineer?
Yes, she did mention a Chief Engineer. However, she didn’t say if the CE is in charge of the whole community or just the digging projects. (After all, leading a community of sentient beings takes substantially different skills and work than civil engineering)
Maybe they elect a leader to run the day today things but when it comes down to big decisions like whether they should make an alliance with another warren they all vote on the matter and if they have a tie their leader casts a deciding vote? Its the best of both worlds everyone gets a choice on the big things and the system doesn’t collapse under the weight of the bureaucracy required to run a Demarchy. Of course their leader probably would have some kind of emergency powers if some big disaster happens and they need to make a decision quickly but that really goes without saying.
If all wombats were as practical as Digger, I would suppose that they live in a feudal anarchy, or near enough to it—something like cities during the Middle Ages. However, politics does tend to bring out the worst demagogic talents in people, and I wouldn’t be *too* terribly shocked to discover she came from a totalitarian, technocratic, centrally-planned society.
Given she’s a part of a mining community I would think their leadership system is also mining oriented, judging by that song digger sang several pages back, they’ll have labour unions or other worker representatives to ensure worker safety and all, the chief engineer isn’t probably their leader, he’s someone in charge of a certain mining group, there will be one of them leading each mining group, in charge of safety, which direction they should mine and whether or not they should keep mining in that area, so basically they do the same job has the chief geologist in a mine; whatever leader they have he is the one the chief engineers report to and who is in charge of defining the grand plan of digging, creating and establishing digging and building contracts with other species, maintaining relations with other warrens and designing the plans for the expansion of the warren, of course by diggers remark we can expect many of these his projects will then be voted by the general population.
Being a practical society they won’t have a silly election system we do, when voting for a leader they will demand to see their list of qualifications and what previous works they were in charge off and live it that because they are much to busy with all the digging to have time for campaigns and empty promises.
Perhaps the wombats run under a meritocracy with communal input on significant matters? I could see the Chief Engineer and Chief Executive Officer as co-leaders, where the CEO is determined out of the board of directors by popular vote and the Chief Engineer is the engineer who has basically been the best for the longest time and doesn’t want to stick in her or his zone of competence (or believes that the head of engineering job is within his or her zone of competence). The CEO would likely need to be almost as versed in tunnel planning as the CE, just with more knowledge necessary of the social aspect and less necessity for hands-on engineering capability.
“Boneclaw Mother’s already decided–the rest of us may as well acquiesce with a little dignity” “And that’s why you’re the one who’s going to take over when I die, Shadebones”
Ahahahaaaaa Boneclaw Mother is so full of win XD
Interesting the bit about voting. I wonder if they have a constitutional monarchy or a republic?
…Or a Union? đŸ˜€
For some reason i would guess a Republic. Although I’d be the first to tell all and sundry about the relative merits of a constitutional monarchy I can’t see wombats having any more tolerance for Royalty than for gods, and with good reasons. In a mining community you need someone who knows what they are doing in charge, so achieved rater than ascribed status is a functional necessity because if someones position is determined by birth at any level of society then sooner or later you’re going to get a leader who cant tell one end of a pick-axe from the other.
“Would you truly condemn your own brother’s daughter to a death of such little worth?”
“Well…”
Harsh. Someone doesn’t care for their brother’s family that much. Or maybe he (she?) just doesn’t like her (his?) niece.
Could be a Pure Democracy, a Demarchy – the type the Athenians had, where everybody votes on everything – because warrens strike me as relatively small.
Wombats strike me as too pragmatic to have a Demarchy. They’d probably take one look at it and realize they wouldn’t get anything done. Besides, didn’t Digger once mention that the warren is run by a Chief Engineer?
Yes, she did mention a Chief Engineer. However, she didn’t say if the CE is in charge of the whole community or just the digging projects. (After all, leading a community of sentient beings takes substantially different skills and work than civil engineering)
Maybe they elect a leader to run the day today things but when it comes down to big decisions like whether they should make an alliance with another warren they all vote on the matter and if they have a tie their leader casts a deciding vote? Its the best of both worlds everyone gets a choice on the big things and the system doesn’t collapse under the weight of the bureaucracy required to run a Demarchy. Of course their leader probably would have some kind of emergency powers if some big disaster happens and they need to make a decision quickly but that really goes without saying.
If all wombats were as practical as Digger, I would suppose that they live in a feudal anarchy, or near enough to it—something like cities during the Middle Ages. However, politics does tend to bring out the worst demagogic talents in people, and I wouldn’t be *too* terribly shocked to discover she came from a totalitarian, technocratic, centrally-planned society.
So, Cascade… you think Wombats live in the United States?
No decision in the USA ever comes down to a direct democracy, so doesn’t sound like it.
It also seems like wombat warrens are pretty big, given that Digger said that a human village was smaller than even a mining camp.
I love a webcomic with discussion of political systems in the margins…
and I can’t believe I didn’t come see this comic when I first saw it mentioned in the Mechanicsburg scene in Girl Genius! *forehead smek*
But all is right with the world now, and I am SO enjoying working my way thru the archives.
*happy dance*
Given she’s a part of a mining community I would think their leadership system is also mining oriented, judging by that song digger sang several pages back, they’ll have labour unions or other worker representatives to ensure worker safety and all, the chief engineer isn’t probably their leader, he’s someone in charge of a certain mining group, there will be one of them leading each mining group, in charge of safety, which direction they should mine and whether or not they should keep mining in that area, so basically they do the same job has the chief geologist in a mine; whatever leader they have he is the one the chief engineers report to and who is in charge of defining the grand plan of digging, creating and establishing digging and building contracts with other species, maintaining relations with other warrens and designing the plans for the expansion of the warren, of course by diggers remark we can expect many of these his projects will then be voted by the general population.
Being a practical society they won’t have a silly election system we do, when voting for a leader they will demand to see their list of qualifications and what previous works they were in charge off and live it that because they are much to busy with all the digging to have time for campaigns and empty promises.
What!! There’s a reference to Digger in Girl Genius *forehead smek*
Now I need to go back and do the archives of GG
Perhaps the wombats run under a meritocracy with communal input on significant matters? I could see the Chief Engineer and Chief Executive Officer as co-leaders, where the CEO is determined out of the board of directors by popular vote and the Chief Engineer is the engineer who has basically been the best for the longest time and doesn’t want to stick in her or his zone of competence (or believes that the head of engineering job is within his or her zone of competence). The CEO would likely need to be almost as versed in tunnel planning as the CE, just with more knowledge necessary of the social aspect and less necessity for hands-on engineering capability.