[DRAFT] One Genius One Vote

[Singapore no2]

[desc] Professor @@RANDOMNAME@@, who was elected in a landslide by intellectually gifted citizens, has gained notoriety over @@HIS@@ recent tenure as the Finance Minister. Apparently, the professor had attempted to implement one of @@HIS@@ supposedly flawless economic theories in real life, causing major firms to collapse and plunging countless citizens into poverty. Furious protestors, many of whom failed their tests and were unable to vote, have taken to the streets to demand @@HIS@@ resignation.

[validity] Only valid for democratic nations that chose 144.1

[option] "We want universal suffer... suf... to be able to vote again!" hollers @@RANDOMNAME@@, a school dropout, who is the leader of a relatively obscure group of protestors. "What gives nerds the right to decide for us, when they are silly enough to choose an 'expert' with no working experience? Us hard-working folk actually know what the economy needs, so we can be trusted to pick really good candidates. Hell, I'd probably be a better minister than that crazy professor."
[effect] voters often sing "eenie meenie miney moe" before picking a candidate

[validity] only valid for capitalist nations
[option] "To be fair, you have to have a very high I.Q. to appreciate the democratic process," smugly monologues Rick @@RANDOMLASTNAME@@, flaunting @@HIS@@ MENSA membership card and prototype portal gun. "Addlepated simpletons, like the protestor before us, do not have the intellectual capacity to be trusted with such things. The same can be said of socialist voters as well. They empowered that crackpot professor who trashed our economy, so we now have solid evidence that communism just doesn't work. We must factor that into our I.Q. tests so as to exclude those who support such a nonsensical system from voting."
[effect] socialists are effectively barred from voting

[validity] only valid for communist nations
[option] "To be fair, you have to have a very high I.Q. to appreciate the democratic process," smugly monologues Rick @@RANDOMLASTNAME@@, flaunting @@HIS@@ MENSA membership card and prototype portal gun. "Addlepated simpletons, like the protestor before us, do not have the intellectual capacity to be trusted with such things. The same can be said of capitalist voters as well. They empowered that crackpot professor who trashed our economy, so we now have solid evidence that capitalism inevitably leads to failure. We must factor that into our I.Q. tests so as to exclude those who support such a nonsensical system from voting."
[effect] capitalists are effectively barred from voting

[validity] Only valid for capitalist nations
[option] "Why do we even have to answer to these dunces in the first place?" questions the professor, tutting in disapproval. "My plan is simply in one of its beginning phases, so it's not surprising that there may be some issues cropping up now and then. While it may appear that completely nationalizing domestic industry and ceasing all foreign trade is a little extreme, I'm only doing this because my calculations tell me that this is the best course of action. You should suspend elections entirely so as to give me and my fellow intellectuals more time to carry out my economic transformation."
[effect] intellectual elites have seized control of @@NAME@@ in order to test out their deranged economic theories
[policy] Autocracy installed, Autarky installed, Socialism installed

[validity] Only valid for communist nations
[option] "Why do we even have to answer to these dunces in the first place?" questions the professor, tutting in disapproval. "My plan is simply in one of its beginning phases, so it's not surprising that there may be some issues cropping up now and then. While it may appear that completely dismantling our state industries and removing all trade restrictions is a little extreme, I'm only doing this because my calculations tell me that this is the best course of action. You should suspend elections entirely so as to give me and my fellow intellectuals more time to carry out my economic liberalisation."
[effect] intellectual elites have seized control of @@NAME@@ in order to test out their deranged economic theories
[policy] Autocracy installed, Autarky removed, Socialism removed

[desc] In recent months, unrest has been growing among those excluded from the democratic process for having subnormal I.Q. As such, mobs of annoying plebians have been gathering outside of your office, blasting uninspired campaign slogans and demanding universal suffrage. Annoyed and unable to concentrate, you have decided to review the policy of conducting I.Q. tests
on voters.

[validity] Only valid for democratic nations that chose 144.1

[option] "This is a viola... vio... attack on our civil rights!" hollers @@RANDOMNAME@@, a school dropout, who is the leader of "Wretirn Owr Voatz", a protest group that was formed right after the previous round of voting. "I went to a voting place last election, and they told me I couldn't go in because I scored low on some test. That's not fair! Voting is a thing that everyone must be allowed to do, as democracy should be for all of us, and not just for a few eggheads."
[effect] voters often sing "eenie meenie miney moe" before picking a candidate

[option] "To be fair, you have to have a very high I.Q. to appreciate the democratic process," smugly monologues Professor @@RANDOMNAME@@, flaunting @@HIS@@ MENSA membership card and prototype portal gun. "We have streamlined our decision-making institutions, expunging the addlepated simpletons from the paradigm and engendering an aspirational technofuturistic model. We should extend the policy of compulsory IQ tests to politicians to achieve an ultra-rational geniocratic paradise!"
[effect] politicians tend to give generous donations to prestigious universities ahead of the election season

[validity] Only valid for nations with AI citizens
[option] "You cannot solve issues by adding more primitive humans to the equation," states @@RANDOMFIRSTNAME@@ DecisionMaker, a hyper-intelligent 'thinking' robot, who recently won a seat in the parliament. "All of the problems present in society are created by people. This means that an outsider, such as a sentient bot, could administer necessary reforms without having a conflict of interest. Allowing only AIs to run for election would eliminate all political biases from the system."
[effect] @@LEADER@@ makes loud and obnoxious bleeping noises during electoral debates
[policies] AI Governance is installed

[Baggieland]

a ultra-rational geniocratic paradise

An not a.

Also, as speaker 1 is the leader of 'Return Our Votes', I think it would be funnier if this name was either misspelt or grammatically wrong in some way.

[Singapore no2]

a ultra-rational geniocratic paradise

An not a.

Also, as speaker 1 is the leader of 'Return Our Votes', I think it would be funnier if this name was either misspelt or grammatically wrong in some way.

Thanks.

[Merconitonitopia]

requesting "civil rights" to "civil rightses" for humorous and thematic purposes.

[Singapore no2]

requesting "civil rights" to "civil rightses" for humorous and thematic purposes.

Eh... I'd rather the joke about @@HIM@@ conflating civil rights with political freedoms to be a bit more clear, and not distracted from by an intentional spelling error.

[Merconitonitopia]

hmm.. I see, but generally right to vote is considered as a civil right (although not considered in the game's own civil rights census, as civil rights actually measures the individual's negative liberties)

[Palos Heights]

To be fair you have to have a very high IQ to enjoy the references in this kind of issue.

My only qualm would be option 1 speaker still sounds too smart at the end there. Aside from that, another great issue Singapore.

[Trotterdam]

[desc] As of late, unrest has been growing among those excluded from the democratic process, in light of the decision to restrict voting rights to those with above-average I.Q. Many are threatening to revolt unless universal suffrage is returned to the nation.

The introduction is a bit of a bland "people don't like your previous decision".

Observe the following:
Option 1
The first speaker is shown to be a bit dumb.
[...]says that @@HIS@@ "civil rights" were under attack instead of @@HIS@@ "political freedoms"[...]

To be fair, the common real-life definition of "civil rights" used by real-life international watchdog organizations typically does include political freedoms. It's just NationStates that tries to clearly differentiate the two (and even then, it sometimes can't make up its mind and affects both).

[USS Monitor]

Observe the following:
Option 1
The first speaker is shown to be a bit dumb.
[...]says that @@HIS@@ "civil rights" were under attack instead of @@HIS@@ "political freedoms"[...]

To be fair, the common real-life definition of "civil rights" used by real-life international watchdog organizations typically does include political freedoms. It's just NationStates that tries to clearly differentiate the two (and even then, it sometimes can't make up its mind and affects both).

I don't think that's going to be bothersome to the average Joe N.S. Player if he gets this as an issue. "Civil rightses" is kind of a heavy-handed way to show the character's stupidity, so I agree with SingNo2 not using it, even if his reasoning is a little odd.

[Fauxia]

I think you could exaggerate a bit more: “Retturn are voats” is good to me

[Gadsdenville]

"Wretirn Owr Voatz"

[Singapore no2]

"Wretirn Owr Voatz"

Kek.

Added.

[Singapore no2]

[desc] As of late, unrest has been growing among those excluded from the democratic process, in light of the decision to restrict voting rights to those with above-average I.Q. Many are threatening to revolt unless universal suffrage is returned to the nation.

The introduction is a bit of a bland "people don't like your previous decision".

I tried.

[Fauxia]

I don’t like telling the leader what they are thinking...

[Singapore no2]

I don’t like telling the leader what they are thinking...

Modified.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Can't help but feel that this consequence issue basically says nothing more than "you made this decision, people are unhappy."

I'm not 100% sold on issues like this, as they don't develop or expand the story in new directions, they just ask you if you want to change your mind. That same question can be posed by just getting the issue again and choosing a different option.

To me, a consequence issue should do more than ask "will you change your mind?"

It should say "you did this, and now THIS has happened, so what are you going to do now?"

And then one of the options would be to change your mind.

Its a subtle difference, but do you see what I mean?

[Trotterdam]

So what would be the practical downside of letting only smart people vote?

Problem 1: Book smarts may not necessarily translate to real-life wisdom. Perhaps your geniuses elected some visionary professor with a radical new idea that looks great on paper but ends up ruining everything.

Problem 2: Who decides who's "smart" anyway? IQ tests are unreliable, and can easily miss an intelligent person whose strengths lie elsewhere, or a not-so-intelligent one whose only real skill is gaming tests. Plus it would be easy to argue that belief in certain political positions is itself dumb, so depending on who's writing and administering the test, it can easily be used to silence voices that dissent with the current government.

Problem 3: Whenever some group has more political power than another, they're likely to push legislation that benefits themselves at the expense of everyone else. Perhaps the government awarded another huge subsidy to university research grants while ignoring rampant poverty among the menial classes?

Base your narrative on something like that - smart people elected someone that dumb people don't approve of, and they're protesting about that, rather than simply that they're not allowed to vote.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Exactly!

[Jar Wattinree]

I like the AI option a lot.

[Australian rePublic]

Option 2: so this doesn't already apply to politicians?

[Singapore no2]

Tried to salvage this draft, hope that it's better now.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Getting there.

To go back to basics, if I were going to suggest a consequence issue from requiring an IQ test for voting, I'd suggest focusing the issue on something other than intelligence: probably the best thing to look at would be how IQ tests are inherently biased. Picking certain types of questions will always favour one gender or another, for example, and IQ tests in general are going to favour those who have the chance to practise being good at IQ tests.

Take the UK selective school system as an example, where the 11+ exam (basically an IQ test for 11 year olds to determine access to state-funded selective schools) sees consistently higher performances for kids of richer backgrounds, and sees best results from schools that lay an emphasis on passing the 11+ exam. Basically, you can't easily test for true intelligence: an IQ tests is good at testing ability to pass IQ tests.

So an interesting issue that might result from IQ testing for voting would be in recognising that since the introduction of tests, ethnic minorities are becoming voiceless, and the voting population is gender-skewed.