One of the inherent problems with the Universal Planetary Profile is that the first four
digits/letters-starport, planetary diameter, atmosphere and hydrosphere-generally refer to
tangible physical data, but the data referring to government, legal and technical data are vague
and open to interpretation. In my Crucible Campaign I prefer to use the government/legal codes to
detail the level of governmental organization and the amount of legal regulation that a planetary
society faces, rather than try to delineate some kind of procrustean hiearchy of governments.
Herein is some work I did about ten years ago for myself, consisting of alternative
interpretations of the old Traveller government codes:
Code 1: Corporate
1a: Dormitory: All citizens of this government are in fact employees of the governing corporation,
and all of their rights, property and business comes under corporate regulation.
1b: Shareholder State: Citizens are active investors within the corporation. These can include
either individual workers or organized labor unions participating in group shareholding, mutual
savings or pension-retirement systems.
1c: Inverted Service State: World is populated by wealthy or intensely private communities. The
"government" consists of private firms hired and retained to provide all basic services
(utilities, security and transportation).
Code 2: Participatory Democracy
2a: Basic Demos: All citizens have the vote, regardless of age and qualification.
2b: Selective Demos: All citizens have the vote, but participation is limited to referendums that
deal with the community as a whole, with more specific areas of power being restricted by
qualifications of character, education, profession or wealth.
2c: Draft Lottery: Citizens are eligible for appointment to the government based upon a rotating,
random selection system. Participation may depend upon qualifications of residency within a
system, and a demonstrated mental competence.
Code 3: Self Perpetuating Oligarchy
3a: El Signore State: Council of hereditary or preselected citizens of rank and distinction.
Members often have separate policing powers upon their own private property.
3b: Hereditary Aristocracy
3c: Thronemakers: Government is actually a puppet of a cabal of covert council or individuals.
Membership in this cabal is limited by wealth, charisma, or mutual respect.
3d: Single Party Democracy: Government is the monopoly of a single political party. Also knwon as
a Patron (the same as the tequila brand) State.
3e: Mafia State: Government is overshadowed by shady socioeconomic cabals or syndicates.
3f: Aristocratic Bureaucracy: Traditional imperial administration divided between hereditary
nobles and subordinate appointed bureaucrats.
Code 4: Representative Democracy
4a: Constitutional Covenant: Power divided and balanced between different representative branches
of power.
4b: Parliamentary: Power invested in a single party majority subject to the whims of the voters.
4c: Democratic Technocracy: Power divested bv the ruling institutions to appointed bureaucratic
experts under strict rules of accountability.
4d: Jury State: Government by permanent empowered councils to whom members are appointed by
elective bodies.
Code 5: Feudal Technocracy
5a: Protocol State: Government through contractual or utilitarian relationships.
5b: Functional Network State: Contractual loyalty to a single service network shared by all
parties. Authority is often decentralized among various grades of society.
5c: Caste Hiearchy: Intertwining and reciprocal obligations between different social strate,
ethnic groups, and professional guilds.
Code 6: Captive Governments
6a: Direct Colonial Administration: Physical or communal body ruled directly by governors
appointed by the central government.
6b: Military Junta: "Temporary" or "transitional" council established by military fiat to replace
civilian governments removed for incompetence, contradictory ideology or personal spite.
6c: Indirect Corporatism: Private corporation established by government fiat to administer newly
acquired property.
Code 7: Balkanized
7a: Competing Nations
7b: Metropolis: Organized community surrounded by unincorporated or lawless outback.
7c. Hobbesian Bazaar: Near anarchy perpetuated by warring militias and/or self-styled warlords
divided along various socioeconomic, ethnic, religious or racial lines.
Code 8: Civil Service Bureaucracy
8a: Mandarin State: Government by educated experts selected through a mixture of official exams
and educational background.
8b: Civilian Army: Government by bureaucratic agencies organized as disciplined, uniformed,
paramilitary style bodies.
Code 9: Impersonal Bureaucracy
9a: Leviathan: The state and its organs possess a constant and intrusive presence in all of daily
life. This is usually established through visible reminders, such as official slogans postered in
public areas and a heavy police presence.
9b: Panopticon: The public is imprisoned in a web of electronic and human surveillance. Besides
constant monitoring of public areas through cameras and microphones, private and public meetings
are monitored through police operatives or paid informants.
9c: Guilded State: Government whose agencies' fiscal and political survival depend upon the
provision of a service or the regulation of a function, even after their utility has long ceased.
9d: Schlerotocracy: Bureaucratic government whose effectiveness and humanity is undermined by
internal infighting, institutional paranoia or excessive regulation. (Best pronounced as
schle-Roto-cracy)
Code A/B: Charismatic/Noncharismatic Dictatorship
Note: A fine line divides these two in rl.
Code C: Charismatic Oligarchy
Note: One of the more problematic of all Trav government codes, as it can easily evolve into a
self perpetuating oligarchy with ease.
Code D/E: Religious Dictatorship/Autocracy
1. Canon State: Life is regulated by a mixture of canon law and religious commandment.
2. Decentralized Ecclesiastical: Power is devolved to regional or hiearchal levels of the
priesthood.
3. Religious Council: Government by a supreme council of high ranking and/or appointed clerics.
4. Archon/Papal: Supreme Religious Ruler (Code E)
5. Crusader/Monastic: Power concentrated within the supporting holy military or economic
organizations.
6. Oracular/Magical: Authority invested into prophets and magicians who base their power in
magical or divinatory rituals.
Code F: Extreme Ideological States (Replaces Totalitarian Oligarchy)
Fa: Oppressive Totalitarianism: Ideological/Nonideological state with life and death authority.
Fb: Ritualistic Extremism: State governed by bodies that enforce destructive social or
governmental practices.
Fc: Chattel States: Citizenship invested in a small minority with monopoly on power. Bulk of
population considered to be property of the state.
Fd: Masquerade State: Freedom is an illusion. All individuals are gamepieces in an inscrutable
contest waged between secret societies.
Fe: Rat Maze: Individuals kept in a state of narcotic loyalty through deliberate introduction of
drugs into food supply or water; or through direct electronic or nanotechnical means.
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