fandomhigh | Nation Building and the Origin of Government, Period 5, Class 1, Thursday, 1-6

"Welcome to class," she said, flipping her files shut and glancing around the room. "My name is Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Cabot. You can call me Alex, or if you'd rather, Miss Cabot is fine. This class is called Nation Building and the Origin of Government."

"I had a whole detailed explanation for what I'd like to do with this class, what the topic means to me, and how we should think about government. I was going to start today by reading that off to all of you, but I've just changed my mind." She straightened up, walking briskly over to the chalkboard and drawing a squarish shape on it. "Instead, today we're going to dive in with a thought experiment. We'll deal with technicalities later on."

She turned around and tapped her knuckles on the board, in the center of the shape. "Congratulations," she said. "This is a country, and it has just been entrusted -- in its entirety -- to you. It's a decent size, and it even comes with its own population. However, there is absolutely no civic infrastructure. There are businesses, but all of those are privately run. What I'm trying to say is that there is no government whatsoever. No publicly funded services, no mayors or governors, and no organization. Except, of course, for you.

"In other words, you're running the show. You can declare yourself Grand High Emperor for Life, or El Jefe, or whatever strikes your fancy. You can rename the capital city after yourself. You can blow the whole of the country's limited funds on hiring harem girls or cabana boys to dance for you. You can even paint yourself naked and run down the street.

"Before you get carried away, I'd like to point out that doing the above won't leave you much time until someone more sensible assassinates you and does all of the things you were supposed to be doing. So let's take it as a given that you decide to be a responsible leader who gives a damn about your constituents. Which is good, because they're going to need a lot from you." She dusted her hands off. "So. What's first? I'd like you to tell me what your number one priority is, and why."

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"Are you more concerned about internal threats or external ones?" Alex asked. "I guess I'm asking if your guards are going to be military, keeping out foreign threats, or police, to settle domestic ones."

She was nodding along for the rest, as well. "Will your guards also be the information-gatherers?" she asked. "That might be a different set of strengths."

"Mostly a police force," Squall answered. "The strong are going to be terrorizing the weak, and my force needs to be the strongest in order to impose fairness and justice. But they'll need to act as the military, too, to defend against attacks."

He shrugged. "It only makes sense for them to be the information-gatherers, too," he added. "It's best to keep things simple at the start, and not overreach."

"If your force is the strongest, you run the risk of them terrorizing the weak," she noted. "It might be hard for them to gather information, if they're imposing order. The general populace may not trust them as readily."

Plenty of people didn't like cops, and that was in a stable situation.

"They're not going to be terrorizing the weak," Squall countered. "If the civilians don't trust the guard, then nothing else can get done effectively."

"So these would be hand-selected guards, that you trust?" Alex asked.

Squall nodded. "At first," he answered. "Although that won't be nearly enough people. The guard will need to be strictly disciplined."

Nation Building and the Origin of Government, Period 5, Class 1, Thursday, 1-6

Re: Discussion: Your First Priority - NAT01

Re: Discussion: Your First Priority - NAT01

Re: Discussion: Your First Priority - NAT01

Re: Discussion: Your First Priority - NAT01

Re: Discussion: Your First Priority - NAT01

Re: Discussion: Your First Priority - NAT01