912561 while i judge this subject objectively from a modern democratic republic system of government, much of my belief onCelestia and Luna has been made from InsertAuthorHere's MLA. With the prospect that Alicorns are actually god aliens. Other alicorns may rule with an iron fist, but Celestia steered Luna into thinking that they should be free. Celestia sees herself as the mother of this world (spoiler: in my story, the first bacteria actually originates from Celestia's tears.) and that everything, ponies and otherwise, is hers.
With a segment i had to exclude from my story, celestia visits a conquered province from generations ago. What happened was the island nation (butter scotland) was amid a famine, so they attacked Equestria formally, wanting to claim more land, and the modernized Equestrians defeated them, and the ruling family was froced to surrender to the alicorn, but instead of executing and enslaving the inhabinents, she instead made the islands a annex of equestria and sent relief food.
You can still use an olive branch, even if you are performing conquest.

912561 also, its worth mentioning that i think i am one of the few people who stated anything about a written consitution or set of laws...... Then again it is kind of a no brainer... But then again i did also include Equestrias market economy....

912840
I haven't read all of MLA so I wouldn't know, though it's a interesting idea.

Olive branch in one hand and a sword in the other, yeah I can see that. Still need to come up with a reason why Equestria hasn't tried to conquer the last remaining non-aligned pony nation despite having been fighting in some what or another for the past couple centuries. At least the Kingdom of Prance still have a great fear of the Blitzapfel (Sergeant Major Rohrnudeln "Blitzapfel" Smith, ERG) who bloodied their nose when they tried to take the Sable Islands 50 something years ago.

912899
Not many give thoughts to a written Constitution since we don't really think about it in our daily lives. My Equestria has two important documents that help establish the government. The Haven Concords which formally dissolved the separate tribal governments and granted authorization to Colonial government to establish a new independent government. And the Constitution of AC 517 which established the current government following the War of Eternal Night.

913906
To be honest, I have only mentioned 1 document in my story, and it is the "Declaration of Unity" which i hope people would obviously see that it means that the tribes have united. beyond that, i havent done anything else because i never go out of my way to mention it because it is unnessecary.

Also, i say that Celestia and Luna have tried to stay as an abesntee ruler position for a while, having a castle in the everfree, but never meddling in the affairs of others, but still being there if one would put forth the effort to try and find them(Hence Hearths Warming Eve). Then of course Discord comes and fucks everything up, at which point they declare that they need to lightly steer society, being a visual presence to fallback on.

Also, instead of "Ruling" discord instead just led distruction in his wake, pure anarchy who sent ponies running in terror and enslaving those who could not flee for his own ammusement. So, i dont understand what other people mean by "Rule" but I say Discord was more or less just godzilla.

Anyway...

WARNING THE FOLLOWING SECTION IS RACIST
I also can easily see Celestia as one who advocates civil Rights. maybe 1000 years ago equestria was somewhat (well... not Racist) but segregated. Maybe i am just painting her as an angel, but through years of changes I could see her working with minorities (zebras and other non ponyspecific species) to ammend the Declaraton of Unity kind of like JFK and Cesar Chavez.

and that being said..... Maybe this is because I seriously dislike luna, but upon her return and her falling back on old practices and nostalgia, I could See Luna as racist. Not owning slaves or kicking ponies when they are down, but instead seeing pesants as worthless, earth ponies as dumb farmers, only enlisting her own guards (which comes to bite her in the ass when she actually hires pegasi who are as competent as rent-a-cops) from physically adept pegasi instead of joining forces and using protection of the Elite guard and giving them different armor.

Sadly, racism was a matter i wanted to include in my story but had no room because the main character was in the military for any time i could bring that out... and in the military he is taught "you are all equally expendable".

914189
For the most part up until after the War of Eternal Night all the Concordiat had was the Concords, and a unwritten constitution.
Oh boy Discord's rule... what a mess. He ruled by fear, while he didn't rule directly he would step in when ponies got a bit too orderly (like unifying against his rule, merging their languages, fighting the slave trade, etc.)

-----

Alright you do realize that you will gain the ire of the Luna fans, and I know that you probably don't give a rat's ass. To be honest I would be annoyed, but I do go with the idea that Luna's mind set would be feudal to say the least.

I don't have a real headcannon for this, but I've come up with enough in my current story to work with for that story. I may go in a totally different direction for others.

My take for the purposes of the story is:
(*) Celestia and Luna were turned into alicorns in a process they did not volunteer for and would not have approved of -- but which was a necessity for all life on their Earth. At that time they were given the title of Princess, but did not rule and were outside the existing line of succession of the then-royal family.

(*) As Celestia and Luna gathered experience in the royal court, they were consulted often by those in charge. After 10,000 you've seen pretty much every variation of every court case imaginable. Gradually the royal line dwindled to others outside the line of succession (Blueblood is from one of these lines) and the sisters' informal status as rulers became de facto rule (hence why a kingdom is rules by princesses and not queens). The non-ruling lines do not have formal power but they do have informal influence, and Celestia tries to keep them happy so they don't stir up trouble.

(*) Celestia and Luna share power. There is no official rule for handling conflicts between them, but Luna will generally defer to her big sister. And Luna knows the people are more devoted to Celestia in any case.

(*) Celestia has a number of ministers beneath her, and she gives orders to those. I only have the Minister of State mentioned, and he stays "off-screen." She also has her Sun Court, where she rules by decree, but only in judgement of those cases and petitions brought before her.

Not mentioned in the story, but in the world-building that need not go on page, she gives general directions to the ministers and they create much of the policy from that. She is also Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Guard, but in war the royal guards from the rear, rather than being in the forefront of battles. As a note, I justify this last because I also have her as merely a very powerful mage, but not with godlike powers other stories might give her, and her survival is extremely important to their Earth. Luna commands the Night Guard, which is smaller simply because fewer ponies volunteer for it.

In later chapter I will likely add that Celestia and Luna in the past have tried setting up representative governments, but they never took because > 99% of ponies trust the two's wisdom and intentions more than they'd trust anyone else who could possibly run for office. It's kind of like having a christian chosing between Lincoln, J.F.K., and Jesus.

Also likely mentioned later, if she in killed or otherwise made unable to perform her ruling duties, Luna is fully in charge. If both Princesses are taken out of the picture, the ministers are in charge, with an order of succession presumable established but which I didn't need to get into.

914291
not to sound like a badass, But bring it on. this fandom is so saturated with Woona being the impurely perfect Badass victim who is knowledgeable in the ancient arts of (place romantic hitchcock here) who is outcasted and loved by all of soceity that secretly is abused by her submissive weakling of a sister who is plotting to overthrow the country out of nessecity that would leave the shocked public in a state of indifference (jesus, how many contradictions was that?) that I would love nothing more than to rip their blind biases to pieces.

Also, im not afraid to play a little hardball, either.

915431
*holds up hand to stop rant* Just be civil about it and don't make yourself come off as an ass. Beat them with logic and not snarkiness.

So can we get back on topic?

915881dont worry, im calm. Also we were talking about govt, a civil rights is a part of it.

In an unnamed fic i read until it turned to shit, luna managed to successfully convince celestia that she should go back to the days when ponies feared her rule. Which makes absolutely no fucking sense as to why celestia would discount 1000 years of progress and side with a person who os experiencing culture shock.

I dont care if my great great gradpappy from germany rose from the dead and told me antisematic facts. Id still wouldent turn on one of my good friends because of that.

Also, its like this guy who i work with, he was born in the cold war, and is your stereotypical nostalgia crippled ex football star who cant stop talking about the "glory days". Almost all of his stories usually make me MORE appreciative of the fact that i live here and now.

Anyway, lesson is; nostalgia deserves to stay in the past,

916146

Right... alright the Equestriani government.
Ok progression of the Equestriani government since the founding by type:
First Concordiat (Oligarchy)----> Discordant Era (authoritative anarchy?)---->Second Concordait (aristocratic republic?)----> Lunar Republic (Absolute Monarchy)/Concordiat-in-Exile (de facto military junta)----> Reconstruction (dictatorship)---> Third Concordiat (Federal Constitutional Monarchy/Diarchy)

Hmm, speaking of government transitions... Mine isn't very interesting but I have variants of them:

Universe of Chaos and Harmony:
United Lands of Earth Ponies (Parliamentary Democracy) -->
Monarchy of Unicornia (Monarchy) --> --> Kingdom of Equestria (Oligarchy) -->
Pegasi Republic (Military Republic) -->

--> Reign of Chaos (Anarchy) --> Kingdom of Equestria (reformed, de facto Principality, constitutionally Kingdom, feudal) --> Kingdom of Equestria (Monarchy with de jure federal division, modern times)

Eclipse!verse:
United Lands of Earth Ponies (Parliamentary Democracy) -->
Monarchy of Unicornia (Monarchy) --> --> Kingdom of Equestria (Oligarchy) -->
Pegasi Republic (Military Republic) -->

--> Griffon-Equestria War --> Kingdom of Equestria (Monarchy) --> Battle of the Stars and Eclipse -->
--> Period of Three-Pony rule (Oligarchy) --> Period of Disharmony (Anarchy) -->
--> Kingdom of Equestria (reformed, de facto Principality, constitutionally Kingdom, feudal)

Mass Effect: Equestria:
United Lands of Earth Ponies (Parliamentary Democracy) -->
Monarchy of Unicornia (Monarchy) --> --> Kingdom of Equestria (Oligarchy) -->
Pegasi Republic (Military Republic) -->

--> War of Harmony and Disharmony --> Kingdom of Equestria (de facto dual Principality, constitutionally Kingdom, feudal) -->
--> Kingdom of Equestria (Diarchy with heavy de jure Parliamentary democracy support)*

* Think UK without the monarchy being constitutional monarchy. This is in part, due to influence by contact with humanity.

EDIT: For added bonus, here's another one from my thought exercise on "Lunar Republic and Solar Empire":
Universe of the Foal of Twilight:
United Lands of Earth Ponies (Parliamentary Democracy) -->
Monarchy of Unicornia (Monarchy) --> --> Kingdom of Equestria (Oligarchy) -->
Pegasi Republic (Military Republic) -->

--> The Chaotic Period (Anarchy) --> Kingdom of Equestria (reformed, de facto Principality, constitutionally Kingdom, feudal) -->

--> The Lunar Queendom (Monarchy, under Luna) --> The Lunar Republic (Representative Democracy, Luna as Head of State)
--> -->
--> Solar Empire (Monarchy, under Celestia)* --> Solar Empire (Monarchy, Empress Celestia)*

-->
--> --> Equestria (Diarchy with heavy republic influence, with Twilight Sparkle as the Head of Senate)
-->

* Before you yell "but an empire doesn't make sense!", the Buffaloes and the Cows are under the rule of the Solar Empire and are its full subjects. Of course, there's also the Crystal Empire to the north to worry about...

913906

You said "Still need to come up with a reason why Equestria hasn't tried to conquer the last remaining non-aligned pony nation despite having been fighting in some what or another for the past couple centuries. " well, its somwhat simple. Celestia, while ahe would want to protect all of her ponies, she still would not want to force them to be under her rule unless proven that they cannot protect themselves. Butterscotcland was like that. They basically were left the same, except with different taxes laws and aide.
On the contrary, there is a segment that is reminiscant of the Cold war, and the USSR, but celestia does not conquer that land because doing so would make her look more oppressive and inspire them to fight.

917155
While it is certainly true that Celestia would allow self-determination there is one problem, the Prench are not her little ponies. They have been a separate culture and civilization since the earliest days of civilization at the Valley of Dreams (the original homeland of the Equestriani). Another reason is Equestria simply does not have the manpower to take Prance (which is on the other side of the continent) even with justification. Of course that doesn't mean the ECSDF hasn't made plans, they know sooner or later war will come.

The way I see it is... Celestia and Luna hold total sovereignty over Equestria but in practice function less as absolute rulers and more as constitutional or parliamentary rulers, directly under them are the government ministries and the Equestrian senate the latter of which has hippocratically/democratically elected representatives from every province/region, outside of the ministries the next level of authority consists of the regional authorities like the Mayor of Ponyville and those few members of the nobility that the Princesses consider worthy enough to hold political power (e.g. Fancypants) after which comes pretty much everyone else; the non-political nature of the social classes stems from Celestia's introduction of the senate as a way of delegating authority to those who weren't born into the role and, more importantly, reducing her excessive workload that came about by being sole monarch for a time (1000 years max.).

I had fun rationalising Celestia's title as Princess. We know that Hasbro decreed it "because Queen are evil" but coming up with in-universe version is more satisfying.

Let's get back to the roots:
Princess comes from latin Princeps. It simply means "First citizen".
After defeating Discord and bringing harmony back to the world, the alicorn sisters were offered every title they could think of, Empress, Queen, Savior, even Goddess !
Celestia settled for something far more modest, "just call me first citizen" she said, which is Princeps in Equis, and Princess in modern equestrian

I like to think of equestria as being what would have been a Roman empire that never fell because it's founding Princeps Caesar Augustus never died.

1685812
That is probably one of the best explanations I have seen.

1685812 I did wonder why they didn't decide to take the third option and give Celestia & Luna the title of 'Empress'.

908201

I mean more so the usual. We can confirm that the fandom will not be happy until Hasbro *takes a breath* removes Twilight's wings, banishes Celestia to the sun, make Octavia/Vinyl and Bonbon/Lyra canon, RD being a lesbian, buy out the rights to Doctor Who, give Trixie the Element of Magic, move the series from the Hub to Adult Swim and rename it the Trixie and Luna Super Happy Funtime Show.

A lot of that more-or-less happened, in the years since that comment was posted:

Celestia and Luna abdicated (stopped being Princesses). Trixie became a far bigger part of the show. And while I don't know of anything in the show that implied Dash was a lesbian: I think some official material, from outside the show, implied that Dash and Applejack got together romantically.