Ghdar
Homeworld of the Gorn Confederation
 

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Government

The Gorn Confederation of today has a Constitutional Monarchy. What this means is that the King of Ghdar still holds some power but the Confederate Assembly limits this power. The actual power of the King is based on his popularity and personal power. 

The Gorn government is actually one of the most complex and yet simple systems ever devised. The history of it is quite drawn-out, not in the amount of time but in the amount of things that happened to create it within a short period of time. The Government, in its current form has been in place for about 115 years as of Y175. Rather than try to cover how it came about, lets look at what it is. 

The Gorn government begins at a local level. Each Gorn planet is divided into provinces. Each province has an overlord, a hold out from the old days of rule under a King. Each city (clan) within the province sends a representative to council that the overlord resides over. This planetary council then decides events for their planet but tends to try to stay out of provincial matters. In turn this planet sends representatives to the Gorn Assembly. The Assembly attempts to stay out of planetary affairs. 

Basically the Assemblies job is to govern over the resource abundance that each system provides and distribute it as needed within Gorn space. The Assembly also handles dealings with other races and provides control over Gorn space defense and policing.

The Gorn do not have a tax system in the normal sense of the term. Rather each province sends any abundance of resources to the planetary council. This council distributes the resources throughout the planet as needed. Any extra is sent to the Assembly and it then distributes throughout Gorn space. This simple system has worked quite effectively and done its job of making the standard of living for all Gorn nearly equal. The only taxes the governments apply are tariffs on items brought to Gorn space by other races. As well on any Gorn material sold to other races.

As was mentioned, the Gorn has a Constitutional Monarchy, but the royal family is not a traditional family. Any Gorn born with a Blue/Yellow coloration is considered a member of the royal family. The positions of overlord and the monarchy are all held by Gorn with this particular trait. Since the trait does not seem to be hereditary there is little in the way of a consistent bloodline for the throne. When a King dies or steps down the royals all hold a council to vote in a new monarch. This has actually worked quite well. The royals understand the limits to the monarchies power and tend to try to position a new King that will gain power, thus helping them gain power. Yet at the same time they do not want one so powerful as to over rule them, nor do they want a monarch that is not sympathetic toward their own planetary needs. On the whole this system of checks and balances looks to work well. This system for deciding the new king has actually been in use by the Ghdar for almost 800 years and there has NEVER been a war to dethrone a king.

The assembly is made up of two groups. The overlords of the planets make up the Hall of Worlds. Each province from the planets send an elected official to the Assemble to represent them, this is called the Den of the Folk. Both parts of the government then come together and elect a Lord of the Assembly to oversee the government. This has, on occasion been the King, but it can be anyone, including non-Assembly members. Members of the Den of the Folk serve 10-year terms, the royals all serve lifetime terms. The positions of planetary and provincial overlords are the same as with the King.

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