fandomhigh | Functioning Governments, Thursday

Steve and Tony were at the front of the classroom and Steve had official-looking papers in front of him. "In a functioning democracy, the best way for ordinary citizens to enact their will is through voting. Some nations automatically register everyone as they come of age, some mandate the very act of voting."

"Some nations have political parties that do everything they can to remove the rights and capability of people to vote," Tony added dryly. "Up to and including trying to get rid of the postal service."

Oh, you kids were in for a fun semester here.

Steve had on his Extremely Disappointed Face. "And when the only way you can win is if you cheat, well, that's not very fair, is it?"

"So," Tony said, clapping his hands together. "We'll be doing a demonstration of how important voting can be by asking you all to vote on a few subjects concerning this class. In addition to asking for your names and what sort of governments you're all used to back home."

Steve nodded. "We'll start. I'm Steve Rogers, and I'm from the United States. I'm used to a representative democracy."

Which was why he was so annoyed right now.

"I'm Tony Stark," he added. "And I'm also from the United States and used to a representative democracy."

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Steve tried to translate that. "So...if you have magical powers, you tend to also take leadership roles and pass them along to your kids?"

Arabella had never really considered how to explain this to someone who had never heard of it before. "Okay, so, we have these things called Houses. You have to have multiple Primes--those are really powerful magic users--in your immediate family to form a House. And only Houses can join the Assembly and vote on like, magic policy."

"And what happens if you don't have magic, or aren't from a powerful family?" Steve asked.

"Well, if you don't have magic, you're just subject to regular old human law." And you mostly just had to hope a couple of Primes didn't decide to throw down in your general vicinity. "Less powerful magic users can just go along with things, or they can engage in multi-generation arranged marriage breeding programs in hopes of eventually popping out some Primes and becoming a House. You would probably not be surprised at how many people go for door number two."

Steve wished he had more of a poker face because he looked a little judgey at door number two, yeah. "I am not surprised," he admitted, "but it's a novel approach to fixing generational disenfranchisement. Do the Houses dissolve if they don't have as much magic, or are they around forever once they're formed?"

Arabella was working on getting less judgey, because since Nevada had gone and made a love match with the Scourge of Mexico she expected she and/or Catalina would have to make politically advantageous marriages. "A House has to have at least one living Prime at all times. So even if there are still a bunch of less powerful magic users in the family, if there are no more Primes, it's not a House any more."

Which was why her evil grandmother had popped out of the woodwork and tried to gain legal control of Arabella and her sisters a few months ago.

Edited 2020-09-03 21:49 (UTC)

"And how does the power balance shift when there's one Prime left and they are old?" Steve asked. "Do the other Houses pounce?"

"It depends on what kind of power base the Prime has. Or just how scary their magic is. Like, there's only one member of House Tremaine left, and nobody from the other two Truthseeker Houses would mess with her, even though she held a lot of juicy contracts I'm sure they'd like a shot at. They were just all waiting for her to die, I guess, except instead she went to jail for plotting to overthrow the human government and put magic users in control of everything."

Because she couldn't just play bridge or modify armored vehicles like a normal grandmother.

Functioning Governments, Thursday

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