History Main / SkeletonGovernment

* The ''HonorHarrington'' books greatly avert this over time with Haven, Manticore and Solarian governments getting more and more face time, with the limits of authority for a local politician or commander having great impacts. At least 3 books have nearly no naval action for a series built on space opera, with the diplomatic system and intrigue in Parliament becoming extremely important.

** ''Oblivion'' on the other hand plays it straight, you hardly ever get a glimpse of how the Empire and its people roll, and the plot only deals with the demon invasion, with no quests that involve political intrigue when compared to Morrowind, it is one of the reasons why [[BrokenBase Oblivion is such a polarizing game among the fanbase]]. For example, the Elder Council is supposed to be an advisory body to the Emperor and rule in the Emperor's name if he's incapacitated. You never meet or hear about anybody who is actually on the council, aside from Chancellor Ocato who seems to be the only person that sits in the enormous Council Chamber.

** ''Oblivion'' on the other hand plays it straight, you hardly ever get a glimpse of how the Empire and its people roll, and the plot only deals with the demon invasion, with no quests that involve political intrigue when compared to Morrowind, it is one of the reasons why [[BrokenBase Oblivion is such a polarizing game among the fanbase]]. For example, the Elder Council is supposed to be an advisory body to the Emperor and rule in the Emperor's name if he's incapacitated. You never meet or hear about anybody who is actually on the council even though the Imperial Palace and Council Chamber are part of the game.
*** This actually sort of makes sense, as the Empire is quite [[VestigialEmpire Vestigial]] at this point, with most of the power resting with local lords, mayors, and governors - there's at least one quest where you have to request military aid from the Empire's supposed subjects because the Empire itself doesn't have enough troops to effectively mount any sort of campaign.

Shows from time to time, specially in fantasy and sci-fi, either because [[LawOfConservationOfDetail it's not relevant]] or because [[DidNotDoTheResearch the author didn't bother]], and in children's television, [[JustifiedTrope since it's quite hard to explain to a child how a government runs]] without reprising the "Bill" from ''SchoolhouseRock''.

* The Mushroom Kingdom from ''SuperMarioBros'' (and Bowser's kingdom) fall under this, it's never really shown that they have any officials so to speak other than the princess and/or a king and a bunch of random advisors and, perhaps, the Mushroom Chancellor from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG''. The former also has no real shown army or method of defense other than "call Mario and Luigi to sort out their problems". We can see why everyone likes Peach then, apparently they have no taxes and their "defense budget" consists of giving Mario some [[strike:princess booty]] cake.

** Given the fact that about '''everything''' in the Pokemon world seems to [[SeriousBusiness revolve around Pokemon training and battles]], it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say that the Pokemon League organizers '''are''' the government. They also presumably would have [[BiggerStick few oposition]]. It would be some sort of [[SocialDarwinist semi-social Darwinist meritocracy]], but they seem [[BenevolentDictator nice enough]].

** Given the fact that about '''everything''' in the Pokemon world seems to [[SeriousBusiness revolve around Pokemon training and battles]], it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say that the Pokemon League organizers '''are''' the government. They also presumably would have [[BiggerStick few oposition]]. It would be some sort of [[{SocialDarwinist semi-social Darwinist meritocracy]], but they seem [[BenevolentDictator nice enough]].

* The Mushroom Kingdom from ''SuperMarioBros'' (and Bowser's kingdom) fall under this, it's never really shown that they have any officials so to speak other than the princess and/or a king and a bunch of random advisors and, perhaps, the Mushroom Chancellor from ''SuperMarioRPG''. The former also has no real shown army or method of defense other than "call Mario and Luigi to sort out their problems". We can see why everyone likes Peach then, apparently they have no taxes and their "defense budget" consists of giving Mario some [[strike:princess booty]] cake.

** Given the fact that about '''everything''' in the Pokemon world seems to [[SeriousBusiness revolve around Pokemon training and battles]], it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say that the Pokemon League organizers '''are''' the government. They also presumably would have [[BiggerStick few oposition]]. It would be some sort of [[{{Darwinist}} semi-darwinist meritocracy]], but they seem [[BenevolentDictator nice enough]].

* Possible inversion in ''{{Paranoia}}'', seeing as Alpha Complex's 'government' consists of Friend Computer and a VastBureaucracy provided for your [[BlatantLies convenience]], Citizen. Only Mutant Commie Traitors would ever think that the Bureaucracy in Alpha Complex was less than perfect. Alpha Complex is, after all, a Utopia. You're not a Mutant Commie Traitor, are you? Furthermore, suggesting that the bureaucracy is inconvenient suggests unhappiness. Happiness is mandatory, Citizen.

* Possible inversion in ''{{Paranoia}}'', seeing as Alpha Complex's 'government' consists of Friend Computer and an Endless Bureaucracy provided for your convenience, Citizen. Only Mutant Commie Traitors would ever think that the Bureaucracy in Alpha Complex was less than perfect. Alpha Complex is, after all, a Utopia. You're not a Mutant Commie Traitor, are you? Furthermore, suggesting that the bureaucracy is inconvenient suggests unhappiness. Happiness is mandatory, Citizen.

** The city is generally shown to have serious problems. Traffic congestion is chronic, often backing up the whole city due to there being little to no traffic laws. Crime is still endemic to the place, despite serious efforts to combat it. The thieves guild keeps out other thieves in most of the city, but don't touch the Shades, where you are very likely to be killed and mugged. Gang fighting is frequent and destructive. It seems the really reason Ankh-Morpork is so rich is that it actually allows and encourages innovation and change, while many other places around the world are stuck in fundamentalist regimes, totalitarian governments, constant tribal wars, general barbarism or similar issues.
** To the credit of Lord Vetinari and Sam Vimes the city still works. Although they both blame the guilds for these problems, as the guilds rarely pay their taxes in full (being some of the few citizens to actually have enough money to tax) and tend to try and destabilize Ankh Morpork as an excuse to sack both characters, when they're not having internal conflicts. The amount of success to be had in these schemes and Vetinari's tendency to run multiple XantosRoulettes against himself each other and his awareness of those small irregularities that hide a major problem indicates that while it may be a small government it is still very much in control.

* More or less every named character in ''NineteenEightyFour'' works for one of the four Ministries. Except those four only cover war (Ministry of Peace/Minipax), rationing (Ministry of Plenty/Miniplen), propaganda (Ministry of Truth/Minitrue) and torture (Ministry of Love/Miniluv). Orwell doesn't mention who is in charge of the roads, fire department, public utilites and so on. Which is part of the point. For the most part, ''no one'' is running those things, which means they are in a constant state of decay. The Ministry of Plenty (rationing) probably ensures that basic utilities are kept running to the bare minimum, and the proles are probably relied upon to keep their own facilities running, but other than that everything is left to rot, and any large scale accidents or shortages are ignored and then covered up.

** The Enclave in all versions seems to consist entirely of a President and a military.

* In ''{{Fable}}'' and its sequel, the only authority figures in the whole of Albion are the mayor of Bowerstone and the chief of Knothole glade. Someone must be organising all those guards. Subverted in the upcoming Fable III, where apperently the plot revolves around becoming a king!

-->''"One main problem in calling the Empire evil is that we are offered precious little information as to how the Empire is run. It could be a democracy for all we know."''
-->-[[http://www.anti-shurtugal.com/wordpress/?p=38 Anti-Shurtugal]] on TheEmpire of ''{{Eragon}}''

* ''{{Pokemon}}'' has hints to some sort of government, with the [[NurseJenny Nurse Joys and Officer Jennys]] in every city, and the very efficiently organized Pokemon battling hierarchy. But the government never plays much of a part in the story in either the game or the anime. The games actually have a stronger police presence and even park rangers but the criminal syndicates also have a much tighter grip on the world in the games so...

* ''{{Pokemon}}'' has hints to some sort of government, with the [[NurseJenny Nurse Joys and Officer Jennys]] in every city, and the very efficiently organized Pokemon battling hierarchy. But the government never plays much of a part in the story in either the game or the anime. The games actually have a stronger police presence, but the criminal syndicates also have a much tighter grip on the world in the games so...

* ''{{Pokemon}}'' has hints to some sort of government, with the [[NurseJenny Nurse Joys and Officer Jennys]] in every city, and the very efficiently organized Pokemon battling hierarchy. But the government never plays much of a part in the story in either the game or the anime, to the point where this troper wondered for a while if the series wasn't just an [[RousseauWasRight extremely optimistic]] take on anarchy (or [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism maybe not]], considering the enormous hold that Team Rocket and other crime syndicates had on the Pokemon world - especially in the games).

*** And this is more or less explicitly the case in the manga, where the Gym leaders consider themselves as law enforcers, and are regarded as such. They're very well organized, too, not just vigilante types. That series is also much DarkerAndEdgier, with Team Rocket being much more evil and, most importantly, ''efficient''. They had [[PsychicPowers Sabrina]] hold hostage the entire ''Saffron City'', for example. The Elite Four are also changed, from merely the last Pokemon battling challenge (the reason you're beating Gym Leaders actually), to just four guys with insanely strong Pokemons and EcoTerrorist motivations. [[spoiler:Except for Bruno, who genuinely believes they are merely the ultimate Gym leaders, and is brainwashed by Agatha whenever they need some dirty job done.]]

**''Oblivion'' on the other hand plays it straight, you hardly ever get a glimpse of how the Empire and its people roll, and the plot only deals with the demon invasion, with no quests that involve political intrigue when compared to Morrowind, it is one of the reasons why [[BrokenBase Oblivion is such a polarizing game among the fanbase]].
** This is extremely stark once you complete the main quest. Chancellor Ocato tells you that the Elder Council will rule until a new Emperor is found, but the only person who seems to use the enormous Council Chamber is Ocato himself.
***Nor is there any evidence of the Elder Council ''doing'' anything.