Max's election maps and assorted others

[Ares96]

These are quite good, but I struggle to tell the Nidaa and Popular Front colours apart.

Fair point, looking at it on the phone screen I quite agree. I'll see what I can do.

 

[Ares96]

I think this is better, don't you?

 

[Tamar]

I think this is better, don't you?

 

[Redolegna]

Excellent Tunisian maps, though I would not be me if I did not point out that there is no Y in Constituantes, and you seem to have made a typo in the last one for Tunisian.

I did not know they had adopted the model of "Tunisiens de l'étranger" and that division of France in two districts is making me feel funny feelings inside.

Oh, and Courant de l'amour ? Fuck off, that should be a French thing and it's so much better than One Love.

 

[Nanwe]

Excellent Tunisian maps, though I would not be me if I did not point out that there is no Y in Constituantes, and you seem to have made a typo in the last one for Tunisian.

I did not know they had adopted the model of "Tunisiens de l'étranger" and that division of France in two districts is making me feel funny feelings inside.

Oh, and Courant de l'amour ? Fuck off, that should be a French thing and it's so much better than One Love.

Arabic party names are honestly awesome and very inventive.

 

[Ares96]

I did not know they had adopted the model of "Tunisiens de l'étranger" and that division of France in two districts is making me feel funny feelings inside.

There's not actually a codified geographic division between the two seats in France, but the 1st covers voters at the consulates in Paris, Pantin and Strasbourg (yes, of course they have two separate consulates for Île-de-France) and the 2nd the consulates in Lyon, Grenoble, Marseille, Nice and Toulouse, so the division is pretty clear in practice.

Oh, and Courant de l'amour ? Fuck off, that should be a French thing and it's so much better than One Love.

It's the same group as the Popular Petition from 2011 - a nakedly populist outfit run by a businessman and media personality from Sidi Bouzid which managed to attract a lot of southern interior voters who were annoyed with Tunis, before failing to be included in the grand coalition in the constituante and presumably being utterly useless in opposition.

 

[Ares96]

Here it is. This is for 400 seats, which felt like a reasonable size but probably isn't quite arbitrary enough for the time. I used 1900 census figures everywhere except Oklahoma, where I used 1910 figures because it wasn't fully opened to settlement in 1900. That said, I think it shows in the figures that it had an edge. I may end up debuffing it.

 

[Thande]

Here it is. This is for 400 seats, which felt like a reasonable size but probably isn't quite arbitrary enough for the time. I used 1900 census figures everywhere except Oklahoma, where I used 1910 figures because it wasn't fully opened to settlement in 1900. That said, I think it shows in the figures that it had an edge. I may end up debuffing it.

View attachment 927

OK OP pls nerf

Nice work.

Arabic party names are honestly awesome and very inventive.

One thing that always makes me feel sad when considering a dictatorship is that, just as we can't make election maps of it, we also can't hear their own unique take on party names--or at least what contemporary ones would sound like in a free society, as opposed to old fossilised ones kept around. We can see some glimpses of it with Arab states now, but I always think of China.

 

[Ares96]

One thing that always makes me feel sad when considering a dictatorship is that, just as we can't make election maps of it, we also can't hear their own unique take on party names--or at least what contemporary ones would sound like in a free society, as opposed to old fossilised ones kept around. We can see some glimpses of it with Arab states now, but I always think of China.

It's interesting that you should say that, because Tunisia's ruling party did change its name twice in its existence. In the independence era it was called the Neo-Destour ("destour" meaning "constitution" - incidentally, the word "destourian" is still used to hearken back to this time and to the first president, Habib Bourguiba, who was sort of an amalgam of de Gaulle and Atatürk), then in the mid-60s when Arab socialism was en vogue it changed to the Socialist Destourian Party. Once Ben Ali took over from the geriatric Bourguiba in the late 80s, he decided the name had outlived its usefulness and changed it to the Constitutional Democratic Rally.

After the revolution, a few members wanted to found a fourth incarnation of the party under a new name (keeping the "constitutional" part but changing the rest), but they were refused registration and the constituent assembly voted to ban them by a fairly overwhelming margin.

 

[Thande]

It's interesting that you should say that, because Tunisia's ruling party did change its name twice in its existence. In the independence era it was called the Neo-Destour ("destour" meaning "constitution" - incidentally, the word "destourian" is still used to hearken back to this time and to the first president, Habib Bourguiba, who was sort of an amalgam of de Gaulle and Atatürk), then in the mid-60s when Arab socialism was en vogue it changed to the Socialist Destourian Party. Once Ben Ali took over from the geriatric Bourguiba in the late 80s, he decided the name had outlived its usefulness and changed it to the Constitutional Democratic Rally.

After the revolution, a few members wanted to found a fourth incarnation of the party under a new name (keeping the "constitutional" part but changing the rest), but they were refused registration and the constituent assembly voted to ban them by a fairly overwhelming margin.

Yes, but a one-party state's one party rebranding is not really the same as what an 'honest' party name would be if designed by contemporary people to appeal to the free market (haha) of an actual democracy. The latter provides a certain insight into a nation's character, like how the success of Placename First groups speaks to English parochiality.

 

[Ares96]

Yes, but a one-party state's one party rebranding is not really the same as what an 'honest' party name would be if designed by contemporary people to appeal to the free market (haha) of an actual democracy. The latter provides a certain insight into a nation's character, like how the success of Placename First groups speaks to English parochiality.

To me it mostly speaks to the strictness of party registration, because they can't be named the Placename Party.

 

[Thande]

To me it mostly speaks to the strictness of party registration, because they can't be named the Placename Party.

Well they used to be more like Placename Residents Group or Placename Representation or Independents for Placename or whatever. The "First" part to me speaks of a more suspicious and ill-informed view of professional politicians as 'them', who are always trying to take our rightful stuff from us, and/or a lack of perspective--all I care about is my area, the rest of you can bugger off.

 

[Nanwe]

One thing that always makes me feel sad when considering a dictatorship is that, just as we can't make election maps of it, we also can't hear their own unique take on party names--or at least what contemporary ones would sound like in a free society, as opposed to old fossilised ones kept around. We can see some glimpses of it with Arab states now, but I always think of China.

Lebanon. Lebanon's names are pretty cool.

I have a project that is almost finished showing an Levantine federation election and I hpe I have propoerly honoured Arab party names in it.

 

[Roger II]

District 9 in the last map seems odd-how'd you wind up stiching central PA onto eastern MD?

 

[Ares96]

District 9 in the last map seems odd-how'd you wind up stiching central PA onto eastern MD?

Something about the Susquehanna, also it's not big enough to form its own department and the Delaware is big enough without it.

 

[SteveBP]

OK OP pls nerf

Nice work.



One thing that always makes me feel sad when considering a dictatorship is that, just as we can't make election maps of it, we also can't hear their own unique take on party names--or at least what contemporary ones would sound like in a free society, as opposed to old fossilised ones kept around. We can see some glimpses of it with Arab states now, but I always think of China.

Yes I would love to hear some cool Chinese party names, Hong Kong gives us a glimpse but imagine a liberal democratic federal China with seperate province and federal parties like Canada...

 

[Ares96]

The Local Government and Divisions of the Republic of America

Before the founding of our great Republic, the lands along its eastern coast were thirteen British colonies. They rebelled against British rule, formed a confederation to manage shared interests, and eventually merged to become the Republic of America. The Republic's constitution provided for provincial governments to be composed of a governor chosen by the Supreme Governor and serving at his pleasure, and a bicameral legislature mirroring the national one (with the upper houses appointed by the governor rather than elected for life), and turned the old colonies into provinces. Over the nineteenth century, although the population of the Republic multiplied several times, and the interior lands grew almost as prosperous as the old colonies, the provincial boundaries were hardly changed. The Federalist Party saw a useful structure in the system that kept provinces small and coherent in their stronghold, while diluting the Patriot vote in the interior of larger provinces that could easily be won by the Federalists. Add to this the increasing influence of a province's Senators in the selection of appointees for the governorships and national offices within their provinces, and the system was bound to fail. And in the 1880s, with the peak of Federalist dominance and corruption under Donald Cameron and Thomas Platt, it did.

Although several Treasurers had been from west of the Appalachians, Adlai Stevenson was the first western Federalist to serve in that office. He shared with the Radicals and his colleagues within the western Federalism a belief that the structure had failed, and one of the reforms he set out to make while in power was the reform of local government. The reform plan passed during his term in office was named for him, and is one of his most enduring legacies. Although boundaries have changed, the Stevenson Plan forms the basis of local government in the Republic to this day.

The Stevenson Plan provides for three layers of government below the national: department, district and township. There were 65 departments when the plan was put into effect - today the number is 71 including the city of New York, which combines the powers of a department, a district and some of those of a town. Powers handled at department level include policing, public education, public transportation and most highways not under the national government.

Each department has a prefect, appointed by the Supreme Governor with the advice of Cabinet for a single term of six years (but removable before the end of this term). The prefect has exclusive authority over emergency services within the department, and functions as a liaison between the national and local levels of government. This includes stepping in to counteract any sign of corrupt or undemocratic practices on the part of local governments. There is also a general council in each department, which is responsible for approving its budget and local laws. The general council is chosen for a term of three years, one year removed from National Assembly elections. Each district is entitled to at least one general councilman, but can elect several if its population is large enough.

The districts have changed significantly more in number, but have always numbered in the hundreds. They have power over an additional swath of issues including smaller public roads, public housing, cultural funding and fire and rescue services, most of which are at least partially funded by the national government. Each district has a commissioner and a district council, mirroring the prefect and general council of a department, although the commissioner is usually elected by the council. The council has a set number of members that scales with population, from seven members in the smallest districts to 35 in the largest. The district and township councils are chosen in coordinated local elections held every three years, in the years where ne

At the most local level is the township, which may refer to itself as a town or borough if it covers a predominantly urban area. The townships number in the thousands, and mostly cover individual towns or survey squares with between a few hundred and a few thousand inhabitants. Townships traditionally have a more limited brief, including local planning, utilities and waste collection - their real power lies in their right to be consulted on changes made by the higher levels, such as the running of schools, post offices, police and public transportation. Each township is governed by a mayor, but the legislative arm varies depending on population. Townships with more than two thousand inhabitants have a council, whose membership scales with population (from five to fifteen), but those with fewer than that may choose whether to have a five-member council or a town meeting which votes directly on local issues and elects a mayor to carry out daily governance in between meetings.

There are also cities, which combine the powers of the district and township level. Most major urban areas in the Republic are cities, but the title is technically not allowed to be used for those with district governments over them. Cities typically have broader leeway to regulate their own form of government, but the prefect's supervisory powers still apply everywhere except New York, where the National Assembly exercises the same function directly. All cities have a directly elected council of some type, and most have a mayor chosen either by that council or by direct popular vote. The latter can lead to a situation where the mayor is from a different party than controls the council, causing some confusion and greatly reducing the efficiency of the city government.

When the system was set up, all local government at district and township level was officially nonpartisan. Candidates might, and often did, belong to a political party, but this would not be indicated on the ballot and campaigning on partisan politics was seen as uncouth. This tradition of pragmatism and non-partisanship in local government, which was almost certainly a deliberate goal of the reform, has persisted to this day in many parts of the country, although individual departments may now choose whether to include party affiliations on local election ballots within their boundaries, and most do. Local traditions vary from place to place, but district councils are more likely to have partisan elections than town councils, urban areas more so than rural areas, and the more central regions of the country more so than the peripheral ones. Although both may hold partisan elections, one is far more likely to come across unopposed independents on a town council in Dakota or Altamaha than on a district council in Massachusetts.

 

[Nanwe]

Very French system. I must say - if elections at the lower levels are detached from national politics, I'd be looking forward to having some sort of French-style naming 'Union for Atamaha' vs. 'Altamahan Progress and Equality Front' for instance.

 

[Roger II]

Something about the Susquehanna, also it's not big enough to form its own department and the Delaware is big enough without it.

Makes sense. I guess you could hive parts of 5 onto 9 and have a Chesapeake littoral.

 

[Ares96]

Very French system. I must say - if elections at the lower levels are detached from national politics, I'd be looking forward to having some sort of French-style naming 'Union for Atamaha' vs. 'Altamahan Progress and Equality Front' for instance.

The idea was to have a basically Anglo system with French trappings - hence things like (originally) strict nonpartisanship, some local municipalities being higher than others and those places having home rule.