[ABANDONED] Serfs Serving Feuds

[Daarwyrth]

Credit for the inspiration for this draft goes to Jutsa and their thread of unuploaded drafts For some reason, I cannot come up with an effect line for Option 3, so any help there would be hugely appreciated!

CURRENT DRAFT:

[Title] Serfs Serving Feuds

[Validity] Must allow elections, must have Feudalism

[Description] The lavish banquet Lord @@ANIMAL@@stein had organised for you at his castle overseeing his demesne was abruptly interrupted by a group of disgruntled serfs who quite uncharacteristically were not armed with torches and pitchforks, but voting ballots and boxes. Their grievance? They're allowed to vote in national elections, but regional ones are virtually non-existent.

[Option 1] "I'm quite done with Lord McFancypants here appointing his most vociferous bootlickers as our city councillors, aldermen and mayors," says @@RANDOMNAME@@ while holding the lord at ballotpoint. "Look, we voted you lot in @@CAPITAL@@ in, right? If you can trust us to elect our national leaders, you can trust us to choose our local ones as well. It's not like we're asking Lord FarlyLarlyDa here to give up his castle and lands, even though I bet he doesn't even know how to spell the word 'plough'."

[Effect 1] the tongues of local leaders have become a lot cleaner these days

[Option 2] "Hmpfh, what nonsense! It's P-L-A-W-eh..." the lord hesitates while still staring anxiously at the sharp edge of the ballot wavering in front of his face. "Anyway, I'm the rightful lord of these lands and it's my privilege to choose who leads it in my name. These plebs should be thankful I don't whip them if they don't do their job right! In fact, I think that's the only way they'll learn proper discipline and obedience. Now, someone whip this ballotwielding peasant out of my sight before @@HE@@ cuts my face!"

[Effect 2] red angry slashes are all the rage among plebeians these days

[Option 3] "Perhaps we can reach a lovely little compromise, hmm?" says the Lady @@ANIMAL@@stein sweetly, who bears an eerie resemblance to your Minister of Compromise. "All life is a game of give and take. You give my darling husband the right make his executive appointments, and our lovely people here take the right to organise local legislative colleges and elect its members. This way, neither my spouse nor his subjects will be entirely happy, which is the hallmark of any perfect compromise."

[Effect 3]?

[Option 4] The Lord and Lady's five years old daughter waltzes into the dining hall while holding and reading a comprehensive edition of the @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ legal code. "And why can't we do things nationally like we do them locally, pray tell?" she asks matter-of-factly. "Dispense with those frivolous elections you hold for our national leadership, and simply have a distinguished family produce all of them from now on."
[Validity] Doesn't have Monarchy

[Effect 4]@@NAME@@'s new approach to selecting its leaders is quite majestic

[Daarwyrth]

[Reserved for olds drafts.]

[Trotterdam]

Why are we assuming that "city councillors, aldermen, and mayors" are unelected? None of the policies involved really say anything about that.

Keep in mind that the "Feudalism" policy in NationStates refers specifically to serfdom, where, as #61 puts it, "people are bound to the land for life". Serfs are farmers who work on lands which legally belong to their lord, but which have been assigned to them and which they can't leave without their lord's permission. You're not really addressing the practicalities of such an arrangement in this issue - and what good do people stuck on their farms like that think aldermen would do for them, if those lands are still held in private ownership?

Note that in even nations that practice serfdom, not everyone will be either a serf or a noble. In particular, it's a rural practice, and big cities will have completely different social structures.

[Option 4] The Lord and Lady's five years old daughter waltzes into the dining hall while holding and reading a comprehensive edition of the @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ legal code. "And why can't we do things nationally like we do them locally, pray tell?" she asks matter-of-factly. "Dispense with those frivolous elections you hold for our national leadership, and simply have a distinguished family produce all of them from now on."

Although unexpectedly-intelligent children are a popular gag, in this case I think it would be more amusing for the five-year-old daughter to actually behave like a five-year-old, arguing for absolute monarchy because of a fairy-tale-like idea of how monarchies work.

[Daarwyrth]

A valid point. I'll reconsider the premise of the draft and see if it's in any way workable going forward