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So, you've established your brand-new region or are looking to change up your current government style, and you want it to be a good, time-honored democracy. However, setting up a democratic government can sometimes be difficult. Fear not, for below is a helpful guide on setting up a nearly foolproof system of democratic governments! This guide is best suited for regional founders or executives looking to set up new governments, but can also be useful for those trying to change a current form of government. In addition, I would highly suggest that you take a good look at my Guide to Regional Government before proceeding. If you're all ready to go, we'll jump right in with the different types of democratic government and their advantages, move on to how to set up those types most efficiently, and finish with a review and a few tips and tricks. As with every guide, if you have questions or would like to know more about any topic, please feel free to contact me through telegram or at Lies Kryos#1734 on Discord.

TYPES OF DEMOCRACY

Direct Democracy: As I said above, I would encourage you to read my guide on government forms prior to this guide if you haven't already. I am going to assume that you have and can keep up with the terminology. Direct democracies function on the ideal of "simplicity is best", also known to me as the "Newton Theory" ("Nature is pleased with simplicity"). Direct democracies will be best straightforward and simple, with the fewest cogs and moving parts as possible. This gives it the advantage of efficiency and functionality, as well as flexibility. It will allow your government to move quickly without red tape but also allow it to grow or shrink easily as necessary. However, it does have a size limit, meaning that larger regions will have a harder time finding roles for everyone in a direct democracy system. Direct democracy is heavily suggested for smaller regions or regions that don't specialize in gameplay as the main focus.

Represenative Democracy: Representative democracies are larger, bulkier systems that usually rely on the activity and patriotism of citizens. RepDems will work best in larger regions that have a very high activity rate among a larger number of citizens, especially politically active ones seeking to benefit the region. RepDems have the ability to have interesting and unique systems for citizen engagement. They have the advantage of being big enough to always have slots open while also allowing newcomers to get involved. However, the efficiency drops drastically when two or three members of the system are inactive or even less active than others. It also suffers from being slow and bureaucratic.

MAKING IT HAPPEN

First, we will define some terms:

• Executive: the executive is the region's head of government, the role in charge of making sure things run smoothly and according to plan.

• Ministerial System: ministerial systems are those which have three or more "Ministers" that oversee departments or government subsets. For example, a region may have a Prime Minister (executive), Domestic Minister, and Foreign Minister (the "regional starter pack"). Ministers may be appointed or elected, but their subordinates are always appointed. There are also "sub-ministerial" systems, which only have one or two ministers, but these are fringe systems in democracies.

• Free System: free (or fluid) systems are those in which the government is loosely defined, allowing the executive power to shape it as they see fit.

• Parlimentary System: this system is where the Executive is elected from a number of legislators and fills out his cabinet as he sees fit.

Direct Democracy: Direct democracies are pretty easy to create, especially if you're looking for a simple system. There are a few ways to go about it that I would personally suggest.

• World Assembly Delegate Executive: This system makes use of the game mechanics for electing the WAD, where he is both the delegate as well as the executive in a ministerial system. Generally, this system works best for small regions looking to set up their system with as few cogs as possible. In general, the system should rely on the WAD as the supreme elected power and provide him with all authority (including executive, if feasible).

• Shared Executive: This system is for when you want to have a slightly larger system than the WADE system. For example, the WAD could share executive responsibilities with a traditionally elected Prime Minister in a ministerial system. This might be better in a region that is transitioning between systems.

• Elected Executive: This system is a ministerial system where the executive power is directly elected from among the citizens, bypassing the WAD. This is more likely to be the case in regions where the WAD has little or no authority.

• Free Elected: This system is where the roles of government are left undefined, allowing the executive to shape the government according to however he sees fit. This is a system better suited for regions with small populations, transitioning government styles, or just a lack of democratic participation.

• Free Elected Non-executive: This system is a free system, wherein the executive power lies in the founder or an appointee rather than an elected official. For instance, the founder may inhabit the executive role while having his ministers or a number of other officials elected. This is a rarer system, usually because the more common authoritarian meritocracy takes over at that level.

• WAD-Ministerial Hybrid: This system is where the WAD has some executive powers or is in the ministerial government in some way by nature of their position while still adhering to a ministerial system with a separate Prime Minister. The WAD may fulfill a ministerial role or may exist as a nebulous power that appoints and removes officials or does other tasks related to the government. Out of all these systems, I would personally advocate for the WAD-Ministerial Hybrid, since I believe that democratic systems should, when possible and safe, allow the WAD powers in the democracy.

Representative Democracy: Representative democracies are often harder to make work. They involve a lot of moving parts and often fail due to a lack of interest and activity. The few suggestions I make below will attempt to find the simplest versions with the most foolproof systems. It's short for a reason.

• Simple Legislature: This system runs off of the same Jaedonstonian principle of simplicity. In the SL system, a small (between three and five people) one-house legislature proposes and votes upon legislation. Elections happen every three to six months. Generally, this system works best in coordination with a ministerial system.

• Bicameral Legislature: This system is very precarious, but is theoretically possible in a very large and active region. In this system, a lower and upper house exist, usually with the upper house having fewer members. Legislation can start in either house and both have to approve it to become law. For the sake of simplicity, a Parliamentary System is better suited to this iteration, generally with the executive being elected from the upper house. This system can also lend itself to a somewhat representative style by stipulating that the seats in the lower house be a representation of the number of citizens or nations in the region. For example, the lower house seats may equal one fifty-eth of the citizens.

REVIEW AND TIPS

Review:
In conclusion, simple is best. If you have a smaller region, going for direct democracy is invariably better. Go for a small and simple system, especially if you are just getting off the ground. In general, avoid complicated systems with lots of moving parts until you have a large and active enough region to do so. Make sure that when you design your system, you have lots of input from your citizenry as well, as they are important. I would also stress that direct democracy should have some citizen-lawmaker clause that allows citizens to propose laws as well as vote on them. This is a very important part of that process.

What to Avoid:
Overly complicated systems. I cannot stress this enough. Do not go chasing after representative democracy early on in your region's history. Be flexible and understand the perils of your position. If you want a highly active and involved citizenry in order to have a representative democracy, recruit like crazy. In addition, avoid overly complicated systems like a tricameral system or adding superfluous things like judiciary systems.
"States". Sometimes, I see regions trying to establish a directly representative democracy, where the people are split up into groups and vote on a representative. This is, simply put, a waste of time. Instead, focus on creating a system that doesn't require anything like that.
Interregional Unions. Another thing I see a lot of is interregional unions based around some sort of federal democratic system. This is, again, a waste of time. Not only do these unions always fail, but they also break the cardinal rule: simplicity is best.
Too frequent or too rare elections. Regions should have a set election cycle that is regular and frequent. Usually, between three and six months should work, with three being closer to the better end. In addition, regions should avoid over-saturating their citizenry with elections. For representative democracies that want to cycle through their legislators often could do so once a month, but that is the absolute limit.
Political parties. This is one of those things that should be avoided at the outset. They can become useful in the future when your region is larger. One thing to certainly avoid is basing your system on political parties.
Citizenship problems. Again, early on, having restricted citizenship should be avoided. Some regions require you to fill out a form; others require you to be in the WA. While this can be well and good when you are larger region, smaller democracies should certainly avoid a complicated or restricted citizenship system.

That about wraps it up. As always, if you have further questions about this or any other topic I cover, feel free to reach out. Happy region building!