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There are a couple of governance systems in the world. Parliamentary democracy, direct democracy, anarcho syndicalism, etc.

With its decentralized nature, mostly free movement between communities and instances, which governance system would be closest?

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[-] Libb@jlai.lu 15 points 11 months ago

I would say a... federation? ;)

[-] stinerman@midwest.social 1 points 11 months ago

A federation of absolute dictatorships. Some are more enlightened than others but if an instance bans you there is no independent appeal process.

[-] haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com 0 points 11 months ago

Yes of course. In the broadest sense. Thanks for pointing it out though. :)

I am more interested in which aspects of the broader system resemble which systems we know of.

For example, lemmy has countless instances, some are part of the fedipact, others arent, others again are part of fediseer, joinlemmy.org, etc.

[-] Libb@jlai.lu 6 points 11 months ago

Well, federations are a broad political system ranging from say, Switzerland (or even Germany) to much larger collections like the USA, the Federation of Russia, or the EU itself (which Germany is also part of). It can also be considered in variety of forms, say the UK is not officially a federation (not that I'm aware of at least) but it's also a collection of various and at time very diverging populations and countries/states/regions, not all of them subject of to the exact same exact laws.

[-] haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com 1 points 11 months ago

thats a pretty awesome explanation. Thanks. :)

[-] TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works 6 points 11 months ago

A decentralised conglomerate of independent city states, which have internally variable governmental systems

[-] haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com 2 points 11 months ago

Pretty convincing. Thanks for answering. The city states' infrastructure is built and maintainer by a small faction who also controls the police (by default, not unchangeably so).

The larger group is kinda syndicalist in nature, no? Because members build things like the fediseer and adoption is bottom up, not top down.

[-] hansolo@lemmy.today 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Formally, it's the Alliance to Restore the Republic. Mon Mothma is the Alliance's Chancellor, which is a sort of association of rebel cells spread across the galaxy. So she's sort of elected by the leadership of each rebel cell.

Then on the starship side, it basically seems like anyone with a ship gets promoted to general and promised back pay once the Republic is restored. It's sort of a gamble, but it beats smuggling spice and contraband.

[-] haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com 2 points 11 months ago

its kinda awesome and exactly what I expected from lemmy folks! Thank you very much.

[-] slazer2au@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

I don't think you can apply that here as each Lemmy instance is its own independent system with no reliability on others Lemmy systems.

An admin of LW has no bearing on the operation of ml and any disagreement turns in one side sticking their fingers in their ears saying "I don't hear you"

[-] MisterNeon@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

I declare myself Huey Tlatoani. I expect tribute from y'all by the end of the day.

[-] haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com 1 points 11 months ago

Please link a source to your title's explanation so we can address you accordingly. :D

[-] MisterNeon@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

Aztec Emperor. Tlatoani translates to "he who speaks" when you add Huey/Hueyi it means "grand/great".

I covet the turquoise diadem and a cloak of quetzal feathers.

Wikipedia

[-] haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com 2 points 11 months ago

Love it! I swear my fealty to you then. Have a nice day oh grand Mister Neon!

[-] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 2 points 11 months ago

Claims to be Emperor, doesn't have the turquoise diadem? Pff.

[-] MisterNeon@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

You try finding a qualified lapidarist in 2025. You can't Fiver that. Nobody wants to work anymore. I'm good for the cacao beans needed to pay the bill.

[-] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 0 points 11 months ago
[-] haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com 0 points 11 months ago

Okay. I think I disagree because autocrats let others work. It would be rule of the workers I think because those who build and maintain the instances and communities are in charge of maintaining them while the other "workers" who produce the content for everyones benefit are not in charge of the rules but are free to access the content at any time. I think as a word I would probably use socialist-syndicalism.

[-] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 0 points 11 months ago

Some instances let others work as mods, or even with some admin privileges. However, at the end of the day, each instance is beholden to the head admin unless they were set up differently. The only instance I can think of with an organizational structure beyond autocracy is beehaw.

You're also trying to insert economic descriptions to a political system without economics.

[-] haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com 0 points 11 months ago

interesting! Thanks for pointing that out. I did not mean to insert anything.

My point was that the mutual benefit imo is kinda economic, no? Making content is a job, content is a commodity. Just because no money flows does not mean there is no economy, or?

Well, the admin has to work, the moderators have to work. Thats a fact. i know that because i am both. its a lot of work if you want to do it right. yes, both make rules, hence hierarchy.

[-] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 0 points 11 months ago

Part of the reason why I'm arguing against economic terms is because it doesn't really give context into the power dynamics in how an instance is run. At the core of most instances on Lemmy, a head admin dictates the rules of their instance and it is take it or leave it for everyone else that wants to participate.

Think of it like this, if the head admin wanted to make a decision against all other admins and mods, what would happen? Likely, which has happened previously to other instances on Lemmy, the head admin wins out and everyone else either conforms or has to leave. Labor doesn't become ownership.

Unless an instance has a corporate structure which distributes power, it is an autocracy by definition.

[-] haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com 1 points 11 months ago

The big difference here is freedom of association. In the real world, your life depends on being accepted into that group or migrating to another place while having huge losses and problems due to it later on.

I'm not sure i agree because an admin can also be protested against and they can share ownership (i did that as well). Its not as black and white imo.

this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2025
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