Politics

## Authoritarian Rule

A settlement which differs from a Democratic Rule in that the Governor has absolute powers, and is not subject to citizens’ scrutiny through elections, although they can take place in exceptional circumstances.

A Authoritarian Rule can be turned into a Democratic Rule at any time by its Governor.

## Democratic Rule

A settlement where the power ultimately lies in the hands of the people. This towns are also ruled by a Governor, but he/she is missing the key power to kick out a citizen from the town at will, and can be ousted by the people through elections.

A Democratic rule can be turned into a Authoritarian only through a vote of approval of 2/3 of its citizens. When a hamlet qualifies to become a town, it becomes a Democratic Rule by default, unless its citizens decide otherwise.

## Governor

The Governor is the one and only ruler of a town. The powers of a Governor are vast, but not unlimited. A few worth mentioning are:

* Shaping the layout of the town (by positioning lots of land, roads, defenses, etc.)
* Deciding the purpose of lots of land (residential, NPC shop, etc.)
* Setting the purchase price of residential lots of land
* Accepting the application of foreigners who want to become citizens of the town
* Ban a citizen from the town and confiscate his property (in free towns, that’s subject to a vote of approval of 2/3 of the eligible citizens). If you are voted out you have 24h to get your stuff. You get email notification.
* Deciding the tax rate applied to people and shops in town
* Managing the town’s coffers – withdrawing, depositing and spending money
* Managing tributes the town pays to guilds, if any
* Giving orders to the town’s militia (for defense and patrolling purposes)
* Governors can post announcements that include polls
* The governor can also assign NPCs (if the town has any) to various tasks like building.
* Sending NPC merchants on trade routes between cities/planets

A Governor can always assign the power to carry out some of the tasks above to a third person – not necessarily a citizen of the town itself. In guild towns, the Guild Master can take away some powers from the Governor, such as that to accept or ban citizens.

The Governor of a town can be forcibly removed from power in two ways:

* By vote, through elections, if the town is a free town
* By force, through a town conquest, if on Syndesia or Tartaros

## Elections

An election cycle can be triggered in the following ways:

* In towns with democratic rule, if 21 days have passed since elections were last held
* In all towns, when the Governor’s account becomes inactive for a long time, without an assigned delegate

It consists of the following phases:

* **Candidacy**. All eligible citizens of a town can present themselves as potential candidates for the role of Governor. To be admitted as candidates, they must gather sufficient support from citizens. The current Governor is automatically made a candidate, unless he decides not to run for a new term. This phase lasts for 2 days.
* **Campaign**. It’s debate time! This phase lasts for 3 days.
* **Elections**. All eligible citizens vote for their favorite candidate. This phase lasts for 2 days.

If after the first phase there is only one candidate, he is automatically made the new Governor of the town. If there are no candidates, the town remains unmanaged and new elections are triggered after 7 days. An unmanaged town tends to lose prestige and wealth very quickly, so be careful!

**Eligible** refers to the fact that contributions to the prestige of a town are tracked for each citizen. A minimum level of contribution every month is required for the citizen to vote, and more to become a candidate.