Post by Fewms on Mar 1, 2008 3:50:12 GMT
A Third Way
By Calagan le Marc
There are currently two ways of running a player council. The one involves the communist stylings of Klatch, often referred to as "Kommunism" by people all over the disc, the other way involves the good old Morporkian tradition of capitalism, including a sort of economic Darwinism where only the best survive. These two views are totally opposite and people are forced to choose between one of the extremes. However, as with most things in life, there is a way around this, a Third Way if you like. This third way would contain a mix of Klatchian kommunism and Morporkian capitalism; this is what the Ankh-Morpork Labour Party offers.
What are the best lessons to learn from Klatch? Or rather, more specifically, from the Djelian council. I personally watched with great interest as the then Klatchian council went from a sandy clone of the Morporkian council to a first in terms of council management. It all started when the idea was put forward for the council to take charge of the playershops in the city of Djelibeybi. The reasoning behind this was that with the council buying the shops for the minimum amount of 1 tooni they could offer low prices as any other shop would have far more costs to cover in order to make a profit. This has seemed to work extremely well; I personally know of only 1 or 2 shops that are cheaper then the kommunist shops of Djelibeybi, and that is most likely due to the fact they are literally 2 rooms away from each other.
While the sentiment is noble, state owned shops can lead to problems. First of all, there is only a small chance of any entrepreneurs finding a start within the city of Djelibeybi, some of the best ideas in history have come from people taking risks on business ventures that everyone was sure that would fail. [Censor's note: Djelibebyi, at once communist and exceedingly rich, lacks failure as an option, however radical its economic experiments - for profit is rarely its aim.] Second of all state ownership cannot really be applied to Ankh-Morpork. Ankh-Morpork is home to a much larger number of player shops, a council owning that many is pointless, as there will be no competition so what is the point? Another point not to be forgotten is that the pshop ownership lobby in Ankh-Morpork has great influence and they wouldn
The important lessons being taken from Djelibeybi are actually a result of the revenue that the shops generate for the council. Not long after the shops were taken over by the state the city of Djelibeybi found it self with a lot of money and not much to spend it on. This has resulted in many state spending programs that go well beyond the usual scope of a council. The council spent money on social initiatives, improving not only on the laws of the council but the services on offer to citizens of Djelibeybi. This is what councils should be doing. They should be actively reaching out to their citizens, getting them involved and showing that the council is there to help them. The Ankh-Morpork Labour Party took this idea from the Djelians, the idea that councils are there to protect, serve and support rather then simply a system of punishing players.
With any Third Way it involves taking ideas from both the opposite ends of the things it is trying to avoid! So, what is it about Ankh-Morpork that is so good? Well the fact it has the potential for a good economy due to the fact it has many playershops is an important issue. State ownership is pointless with so many shops and instead the best way to provide a stable economy is to encourage good, competitive business among the shops in Ankh-Morpork and to try and make them competitive internationally too. A compromise between the state control of shops and the free fall economy currently in place would seem best to do this, though getting the balance will be tricky.
As in terms of the system Djelibeybi has lots of semi-official positions within the government that seem to be appointed by the magistracy and then given considerable power. Instead a compromise between the Djelian appointment of officials and the Morporkian... well, lack of anything, would be either an official body/bodies of players that are given various roles and/or a committee of citizens to help run the council, but have no real power other then to give the citizenry the decision to make, should one be needed.
So, a Third Way, something that walks the rather large gap between Kommunism and Capitalism. Is it possible? Yes. There are lessons to be learnt from both the radical council of Djelibeybi that seems to be widening the horizon in terms of what is the council's responsibility and the traditions and culture of the Ankh-Morpork council which has served its citizens well right from its creation.
By Calagan le Marc
There are currently two ways of running a player council. The one involves the communist stylings of Klatch, often referred to as "Kommunism" by people all over the disc, the other way involves the good old Morporkian tradition of capitalism, including a sort of economic Darwinism where only the best survive. These two views are totally opposite and people are forced to choose between one of the extremes. However, as with most things in life, there is a way around this, a Third Way if you like. This third way would contain a mix of Klatchian kommunism and Morporkian capitalism; this is what the Ankh-Morpork Labour Party offers.
What are the best lessons to learn from Klatch? Or rather, more specifically, from the Djelian council. I personally watched with great interest as the then Klatchian council went from a sandy clone of the Morporkian council to a first in terms of council management. It all started when the idea was put forward for the council to take charge of the playershops in the city of Djelibeybi. The reasoning behind this was that with the council buying the shops for the minimum amount of 1 tooni they could offer low prices as any other shop would have far more costs to cover in order to make a profit. This has seemed to work extremely well; I personally know of only 1 or 2 shops that are cheaper then the kommunist shops of Djelibeybi, and that is most likely due to the fact they are literally 2 rooms away from each other.
While the sentiment is noble, state owned shops can lead to problems. First of all, there is only a small chance of any entrepreneurs finding a start within the city of Djelibeybi, some of the best ideas in history have come from people taking risks on business ventures that everyone was sure that would fail. [Censor's note: Djelibebyi, at once communist and exceedingly rich, lacks failure as an option, however radical its economic experiments - for profit is rarely its aim.] Second of all state ownership cannot really be applied to Ankh-Morpork. Ankh-Morpork is home to a much larger number of player shops, a council owning that many is pointless, as there will be no competition so what is the point? Another point not to be forgotten is that the pshop ownership lobby in Ankh-Morpork has great influence and they wouldn
The important lessons being taken from Djelibeybi are actually a result of the revenue that the shops generate for the council. Not long after the shops were taken over by the state the city of Djelibeybi found it self with a lot of money and not much to spend it on. This has resulted in many state spending programs that go well beyond the usual scope of a council. The council spent money on social initiatives, improving not only on the laws of the council but the services on offer to citizens of Djelibeybi. This is what councils should be doing. They should be actively reaching out to their citizens, getting them involved and showing that the council is there to help them. The Ankh-Morpork Labour Party took this idea from the Djelians, the idea that councils are there to protect, serve and support rather then simply a system of punishing players.
With any Third Way it involves taking ideas from both the opposite ends of the things it is trying to avoid! So, what is it about Ankh-Morpork that is so good? Well the fact it has the potential for a good economy due to the fact it has many playershops is an important issue. State ownership is pointless with so many shops and instead the best way to provide a stable economy is to encourage good, competitive business among the shops in Ankh-Morpork and to try and make them competitive internationally too. A compromise between the state control of shops and the free fall economy currently in place would seem best to do this, though getting the balance will be tricky.
As in terms of the system Djelibeybi has lots of semi-official positions within the government that seem to be appointed by the magistracy and then given considerable power. Instead a compromise between the Djelian appointment of officials and the Morporkian... well, lack of anything, would be either an official body/bodies of players that are given various roles and/or a committee of citizens to help run the council, but have no real power other then to give the citizenry the decision to make, should one be needed.
So, a Third Way, something that walks the rather large gap between Kommunism and Capitalism. Is it possible? Yes. There are lessons to be learnt from both the radical council of Djelibeybi that seems to be widening the horizon in terms of what is the council's responsibility and the traditions and culture of the Ankh-Morpork council which has served its citizens well right from its creation.