Politics and ponies. · 10:08am Jul 13th, 2013
Equestria's Government
I never actually state it outright in the loops, though I may in other fics, but here's the system I picture for the Equestrian government.
The ruler/s are the princess/es, and basically function as an executive branch. Fair amount of discretionary power.
The legal system is common-law.
The legislature (let's call it Parliament, and say it has 500 seats - it could be more, but I'm using that as a sample maximum number. They're basically never all filled.)
It is unicameral, but with four ways of gaining a seat:
100 are for noble families (which represents the old Unicorn style).
150 are for electoral ridings (which represents the old Earth Pony style)
150 are for Parliament-appointed life seats, held in recognition of great achievement or great wisdom. This (promotion on merit) represents the old Pegasus style.
And 100 are Princess-appointed life seats.
Thus, no one group (and nor the 'unicorns' and the princess working together) can obtain a majority. Only the electoral ridings and the life seats can gain a true majority alone together, and those are the most "temporary" positions anyway.
Each of the Element bearers would have a Princess-appointed life seat if they ever wanted to go into politics; Celestia has some reserved, though only the electoral and noble family branches of parliament are up to muster anyway so there's a fair amount of free space. (So, say, Spitfire might hold a life seat on recognition of her skill as a pegasus speedster and organizer, and would be their go-to pony on matters of what a pegasus is physically capable of.)
That permits nobles with power (reflecting the pre-modern England and France), elections (hence government by consent), gives the Princess substantial power (though also a lot of paperwork as the executive branch) and in general combines the traditions of the three founding tribes as well as giving substantial influence to the alicorns.
(Of course, if a Loop or story contradicts this then that's no particular problem. I'm just mentioning what I use as a default - it's drawn from Empire from the Ashes, by David Weber.)
I just thought I'd mention. It seems to fit, somehow.
I like it! It's simple but well thought out.
So, all those loops where Chryssie and her cuddly hive-children legally immigrate to Equestria, can we expect to hear the phrase "No taxation without representation"...?
2309195
Easy solution - give them a couple of the Princess-appointed life seats, designate them as one or two electoral ridings, and ask that the parliament grant them a life seat or three for (insert opinion-changing event here). That's a fair number. (This is of course dependent on population, but I assume they'd be a fairly minor minority.)
2309477 If they outnumbered pony Equestrians 3:1 or something, then it'd be interesting. Especially since they would all vote the same way!
2312189
If there were that many of them, they wouldn't have needed to futz around with infiltration.
2312581 That many in one swarm and/or under one queen, yes, very true!
2314594 Well, at all, really.
Hell, they existed in the past as parasites, and without being noticed basically ever. Probability alone suggests there weren't anything like as many in total as the number of ponies, otherwise they'd have been discovered by now.
2315881 Now you say that, it reminds me of a story I love, and love to recommend: Changelings, Changelings, Everywhere