Post by Fewms on Feb 20, 2009 3:15:42 GMT
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What if the Djelian Revolution had Happened in Ankh-Morpork?
By Carrie Rhevkor
"Revolution is inevitable, but the way for it can be prepared by aggravating the contradictions in the capitalist camp. These contradictions are: (a) that between capital and labour, (b) that between the imperialist powers; and (c) that between those powers and their colonial and other dependencies. Ultimately they will bring about the downfall of capitalism, but in the meantime they must be exploited, and social democracy, which tends to gloss over them, ceaselessly attacked."
- R.N. Carew Hunt, "The Theory and Practice of Communism", p. 236.
Around April 2005, disc politics changed as the now-famous Djelian coup occurred, causing a revolution in Djelibeybi, whose territories then encompassed all of Klatch (Ephebe, Tsort, Omnia, Istanzia, et al). This came to a conclusion through law 319, which allowed the State to assume complete control over all economic activity by owning the shops. However, what if this coup had happened in the largest city on disc, Ankh-Morpork?
A revolution in Ankh-Morpork would have had large-scale impacts on the economy, banking, and shops within the area. Ankh-Morpork's Council would economically benefit more than the Djelian Council already has, due to the vast difference in size of the areas. Not counting its foreign possessions, Djelibeybi has only two player shops, whose profits form the basis of the Council's money. Compare this to the eight playershops in Ankh-Morpork, which would potentially bring in four times more revenue than Djelibeybi can per annum. Even though Ankh-Morpork is much larger than Djelibeybi, and therefore implementing policy would be significantly more expensive, the profits should in theory be large enough to cover this. Perhaps this extra funding would have encouraged the Council to abandon its "we did nothing wrong in the last term" policy, when in reality this is because they didn't do anything at all - such are the consequences of "laissez-faire" politics, which is something the AMLP has tried to move away from.
Banking would be vastly different if the revolution had occurred in Ankh-Morpork. Djelibeybi, even if the revolution did not occur, would still most likely only have one master bank counter, if any, since it doesn't have the space for more, whereas in Ankh-Morpork, instead of having branches of Bing's, the Co-Op and Fluffy Bird of Paradise, there would be The People's Bank of Ankh-Morpork; one master counter and branches in all other lands of the disc, much like The People's Bank of Klatch has currently. This would leave a number of player shops free in Ankh-Morpork, due to the city itself only requiring two branches of said bank (one at each end of the city). What would have become of these shops? Perhaps with state ownership of all the shops in Ankh-Morpork, each shop would now specialise in selling specific items; an armour shop, a shop for blorples etc, making it easier for citizens to find what they need, rather than having to traipse through a number of player shops to look for particular items, which can often be the case with looking for portal scrolls. However, with the rich and powerful owners residing in Ankh-Morpork, the council could have a large number of problems when trying to buy player shops, a problem that didn't occur in the relatively poor Djelibeybi. Would this even have been possible, had it been suggested, or would revolutionaries within Ankh-Morpork Council have found themselves defeated at the first hurdle? Might the revolution even have collapsed within the first six months? Who knows.
If the revolution had occurred in Ankh-Morpork, what might have happened in Djelibeybi? Well, one of two things really; the first being that it would have continued how it originally was as a capitalist state, necessarily continuing in relative poverty compared to Ankh-Morpork. The other option of course is that Djelibeybi would have followed Ankh-Morpork and had a revolution itself. The Djelibeybi council is smaller than that of the Ankh-Morpork Council (five council representatives compared to seven) and therefore it is easier for a coup, or shift in policy, to take place. As Minister Gwydion auf der Scheibe stated, "Djelibeybi Council was, and remains, fairly small - those who are active in any way, tend to have a lot of power because they are, so to speak, a majority within a minority. Everyone is elite for the simple reason that there is no crowd or disenfranchised masses squabbling over power", further highlighting that change in Djelibeybi was inevitable as this five member Magistracy for a small citizen population holds much more power than those of Ankh-Morpork's larger Magistracy for a huge citizen population, due to them being seen as more representative.
All of this article is of course just speculation and is highly unlikely to happen due to the ultra-conservative nature of the Ankh-Morporkian Council, in fact the only hint of change to Ankh-Morpork politics comes from the AMLP. The problems posed by the possibility of a revolution like Djelibeybi's occurring in Ankh-Morpork are clear. It also seems that Djelibeybi was destined for revolution from the outset, not only to solve its economic problems, but also due to Magistrates who have been the opposite of Ankh-Morpork's, with characters such as Ptenisnet and Gwydion wanting to further the development of the city, and not just sticking to the safe, default methods of governing.
page 7
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What if the Djelian Revolution had Happened in Ankh-Morpork?
By Carrie Rhevkor
"Revolution is inevitable, but the way for it can be prepared by aggravating the contradictions in the capitalist camp. These contradictions are: (a) that between capital and labour, (b) that between the imperialist powers; and (c) that between those powers and their colonial and other dependencies. Ultimately they will bring about the downfall of capitalism, but in the meantime they must be exploited, and social democracy, which tends to gloss over them, ceaselessly attacked."
- R.N. Carew Hunt, "The Theory and Practice of Communism", p. 236.
Around April 2005, disc politics changed as the now-famous Djelian coup occurred, causing a revolution in Djelibeybi, whose territories then encompassed all of Klatch (Ephebe, Tsort, Omnia, Istanzia, et al). This came to a conclusion through law 319, which allowed the State to assume complete control over all economic activity by owning the shops. However, what if this coup had happened in the largest city on disc, Ankh-Morpork?
A revolution in Ankh-Morpork would have had large-scale impacts on the economy, banking, and shops within the area. Ankh-Morpork's Council would economically benefit more than the Djelian Council already has, due to the vast difference in size of the areas. Not counting its foreign possessions, Djelibeybi has only two player shops, whose profits form the basis of the Council's money. Compare this to the eight playershops in Ankh-Morpork, which would potentially bring in four times more revenue than Djelibeybi can per annum. Even though Ankh-Morpork is much larger than Djelibeybi, and therefore implementing policy would be significantly more expensive, the profits should in theory be large enough to cover this. Perhaps this extra funding would have encouraged the Council to abandon its "we did nothing wrong in the last term" policy, when in reality this is because they didn't do anything at all - such are the consequences of "laissez-faire" politics, which is something the AMLP has tried to move away from.
Banking would be vastly different if the revolution had occurred in Ankh-Morpork. Djelibeybi, even if the revolution did not occur, would still most likely only have one master bank counter, if any, since it doesn't have the space for more, whereas in Ankh-Morpork, instead of having branches of Bing's, the Co-Op and Fluffy Bird of Paradise, there would be The People's Bank of Ankh-Morpork; one master counter and branches in all other lands of the disc, much like The People's Bank of Klatch has currently. This would leave a number of player shops free in Ankh-Morpork, due to the city itself only requiring two branches of said bank (one at each end of the city). What would have become of these shops? Perhaps with state ownership of all the shops in Ankh-Morpork, each shop would now specialise in selling specific items; an armour shop, a shop for blorples etc, making it easier for citizens to find what they need, rather than having to traipse through a number of player shops to look for particular items, which can often be the case with looking for portal scrolls. However, with the rich and powerful owners residing in Ankh-Morpork, the council could have a large number of problems when trying to buy player shops, a problem that didn't occur in the relatively poor Djelibeybi. Would this even have been possible, had it been suggested, or would revolutionaries within Ankh-Morpork Council have found themselves defeated at the first hurdle? Might the revolution even have collapsed within the first six months? Who knows.
If the revolution had occurred in Ankh-Morpork, what might have happened in Djelibeybi? Well, one of two things really; the first being that it would have continued how it originally was as a capitalist state, necessarily continuing in relative poverty compared to Ankh-Morpork. The other option of course is that Djelibeybi would have followed Ankh-Morpork and had a revolution itself. The Djelibeybi council is smaller than that of the Ankh-Morpork Council (five council representatives compared to seven) and therefore it is easier for a coup, or shift in policy, to take place. As Minister Gwydion auf der Scheibe stated, "Djelibeybi Council was, and remains, fairly small - those who are active in any way, tend to have a lot of power because they are, so to speak, a majority within a minority. Everyone is elite for the simple reason that there is no crowd or disenfranchised masses squabbling over power", further highlighting that change in Djelibeybi was inevitable as this five member Magistracy for a small citizen population holds much more power than those of Ankh-Morpork's larger Magistracy for a huge citizen population, due to them being seen as more representative.
All of this article is of course just speculation and is highly unlikely to happen due to the ultra-conservative nature of the Ankh-Morporkian Council, in fact the only hint of change to Ankh-Morpork politics comes from the AMLP. The problems posed by the possibility of a revolution like Djelibeybi's occurring in Ankh-Morpork are clear. It also seems that Djelibeybi was destined for revolution from the outset, not only to solve its economic problems, but also due to Magistrates who have been the opposite of Ankh-Morpork's, with characters such as Ptenisnet and Gwydion wanting to further the development of the city, and not just sticking to the safe, default methods of governing.