History Main / BureaucraticallyArrangedMarriage

* This is one of the life-in-the-future tropes played with in "TomorrowTown" by Creator/KimNewman. The apparent motive for the murder of AssholeVictim Varno Zhoule is that he had been matched with one of the women of the town by the master computer, even though she was already happily married to someone else, and it's suspected that Zhoule arranged to have the result come out in his own favor.

* ''{{Matched}}'': The government controls every aspect of your life, including who you will marry based on compatibility measures.

* ''CodeGeass R2'': The arranged marriage between Odysseus and Chinese Empress Tianzi.
** Diethard later suggests one between Tianzi and a Black Knight (not naming anyone in particular). Zero thinks it's a worthy idea, but before he can voice his approval, ''all'' of the female Black Knights shoot it down viciously, [[FunnyMoments stunning him with their vehemence.]]

* In DemonKingDaimao, the government gives one of their agents the duty of arranging a marriage between Junko and Akuto.

* All marriages in the Delirium Series are arranged by the government.

* Alexander the Great attempted to do this, in order to get a unified empire, ordering his men to marry local women. The marriages, for the most part did not last his reign. His successors instead simply gave Greek settlers land to build new cities, from Turkey to Pakistan.

A subtrope of ArrangedMarriage. Note that whether or not an arranged marriage qualifies for this subtrope depends on who is arranging the marriage and the relationship between the arranger and the people getting married. The person arranging the marriage needs to be an impersonal force, not a close relative. If the King is ordering the marriage of two of his subjects, that may be this trope; if he's ordering the marriage of his daughter the Princess, it isn't. Also note that this can overlap with PerfectlyArrangedMarriage: sometimes, the bureaucracy's computer is pretty good at pairing compatible people. And if not, there's always plain luck.

* In DavidWeber's TheWarGods series, the King of the Sothoii has the power to force marriages in cases of nobles who don't have a male heir. It's seen as a last resort, admittedly hard on only-daughters, but worth it in order to insure that the Kingdom isn't destabilized by having important lands and titles fall into dispute.

* {{Matched}}: The government controls every aspect of your life, including who you will marry based on compatibility measures.

* Halruaa of ForgottenRealms, as described in ''CounselorsAndKings''. And they for most part really did believe eugenics applied to wizards will improve the situation.
* In Warhammer 40,000, the Tau Empire has a system of arranged breeding. Couples are selected on the basis of genetic advantage and sent a summons from a "Procreation Committee" to spend a day together trying to concieve. After conception, both partners will go their seperate ways, and any children from the union will be raised communally by trainers of their caste (though parents may take an interest in and visit the children).

* Arguably, Hermia's situation in AMidsummerNightsDream. The original arrangement with Demitrius doesn't qualify, since that was arranged by her father and Theseus was just enforcing the existing law allowing an ArrangedMarriage. However, once Theseus expanded his ruling to allow Hermia the option of joining a convent instead, it could be considered this trope.

* In {{Super Robot Wars Z}}2: Saisei-hen, [[Anime/CodeGeass Diethard]] attempts to marry off Tianzi again like in the series, except this time, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2s_EeYBqJI EVERY SINGLE ZEXIS woman gets on his case about it]]. His expression is just awesome. Oh and one guy gets in on it too.

* This is one of the life-in-the-future tropes played with in "TomorrowTown" by KimNewman. The apparent motive for the murder of AssholeVictim Varno Zhoule is that he had been matched with one of the women of the town by the master computer, even though she was already happily married to someone else, and it's suspected that Zhoule arranged to have the result come out in his own favor.

* The Bene Gesserit from ''{{Dune}}'' arrange marriages for the members of their sisterhood, either to gain influence, cement political alliances, or aid in the breeding of the [[{{Ubermensch}} Kwisatz Haderach]]. Somewhat subverted in that some of these marriages do turn out well.

* In ''TheGiver'', all couples are arranged this way.
** Though, in this case, some mention is made of how couples are arranged so that the people involved complement each other and work well together, though it's still loveless.

* Implied in ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''.

* In ''Series/{{Babylon 5}}'', the Psi Corps arranges marriages between powerful telepaths in order to facilitate the breeding of even more powerful telepaths. If the people involved try to refuse, the Corps is perfectly willing to arrange rapes instead having apparently never heard of in-vitro fertilization and surrogate mothers. Or maybe they're just sadistic.

* In the second book of ''TheHungerGames'', the Capitol plans to do this to [[spoiler:Peeta and Katniss]]. This is later subverted in the end of the third book, where they [[spoiler: voluntarily decide to marry]].

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A subtrope of ArrangedMarriage. Note that whether or not an arranged marriage qualifies for this subtrope depends on who is arranging the marriage and the relationship between the arranger and the people getting married. The person arranging the marriage needs to be an impersonal force, not a close relative. If the King is ordering the marriage of two of his subjects, that may be this trope; if he's ordering the marriage of his daughter the Princess, it isn't. Also note that this can overlap with PerfectlyArrangedMarriage: sometimes, the bureaucracy's computer is pretty good at pairing compatible people.

* Implied in ''NineteenEightyFour''.

* ''CodeGeass R2'': The arranged marriage between Odysseus and Chinese Empress Tianzi.

* The Bene Gesserit from ''{{Dune}}'' arrange marriages for the members of their sisterhood, either to gain influence, cement political alliances, or aid in the breeding of the [[{{Ubermensch}} Kwisatz Haderach]]. Somewhat subverted in that some of these marriages do turn out well.

-->And if a man dying by some unexpected fate leaves daughters behind him, let him pardon the legislator if he gives them in marriage, he have a regard only to two out of three conditions - nearness of kin and the preservation of the lot, and omits the third condition, which a father would naturally consider, for he would choose out of all the citizens a son for himself, and a husband for his daughter, with a view to his character and disposition - the father, say, shall forgive the legislator if he disregards this, which to him is an impossible consideration.

* IsaacAsimov had the whole Solarian way of marriage (for a given definition of "[[SuperBreedingProgram marriage]]") in his Robot books - which impacted in later Empire ones. People were assigned their spouses by a board. And, presumably, a lot of AI. This is a major plot-point in ''TheNakedSun''.

-->'''Otto:''' Remember our agreement. I'm the man!

* The Bene Gesserit from ''{{Dune}}'' arrange marriages for the members of their sisterhood, either to gain influence, cement political alliances, or aid in the breeding of the [[{{Ubermensch}} Kwisatz Haderach]].

* In ''Series/{{Babylon 5}}'', the Psi Corps arranges marriages between powerful telepaths in order to facilitate the breeding of even more powerful telepaths. If the people involved try to refuse, the Corps is perfectly willing to arrange rapes instead.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' [[Literature/DoctorWhoNovelisations novel]] ''Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon'', many people on Overindustrialised Future Earth work for faceless megacorporations that "take care" of their employees, arranging their accommodation, education, and, if the Company considers it necessary, marriages. They do try to arrange compatible matches, but probably only because unhappy employees are bad for productivity, and the matching process involves a stack of employee profiles and a computer in the personnel department, as opposed to, say, people getting to meet people. One character recalls agreeing to be married as a condition of his next promotion, and then hearing no more about it until he returned from a business trip to find his new wife waiting for him in the kitchen.

[[AC:{{Folklore}}]]

Very few people would want to be part of an ArrangedMarriage, but its not all bad. After all, usually your parents are the ones selecting your spouse, and they know you and love you and want you to be happy. Or at the very least, they don't want you throwing a tantrum at the altar and destroying the alliance they've been planning for years. They may have other, higher priorities than your happiness, but your happiness does usually matter. Therefore, there is at least some prayer that your spouse will be [[PerfectlyArrangedMarriage someone you could grow love]].

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' [[Literature/DoctorWhoNovelisations novel]] ''Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon'', many people on Overindustrialised Future Earth work for faceless megacorporations that "take care" of their employees, arranging their accommodation, education, and, if the Company considers it necessary, marriages. They do try to arrange compatible matches, but probably only because unhappy employess are bad for productivity, and the matching process involves a stack of employee profiles and a computer in the personnel department, as opposed to, say, people getting to meet people. One character recalls agreeing to be married as a condition of his next promotion, and then hearing no more about it until he returned from a business trip to find his new wife waiting for him in the kitchen.

* Implied in {{THX1138}} with the arranged "roommate."

* In the DoctorWho novel ''Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon'', many people on Overindustrialised Future Earth work for faceless megacorporations that "take care" of their employees, arranging their accommodation, education, and, if the Company considers it necessary, marriages. They do try to arrange compatible matches, but probably only because unhappy employess are bad for productivity, and the matching process involves a stack of employee profiles and a computer in the personnel department, as opposed to, say, people getting to meet people. One character recalls agreeing to be married as a condition of his next promotion, and then hearing no more about it until he returned from a business trip to find his new wife waiting for him in the kitchen.

* Isaac Asimov had the whole Solarian way of marriage (for a given definition of "[[SuperBreedingProgram marriage]]") in his Robot books - which impacted in later Empire ones. People were assigned their spouses by a board. And, presumably, a lot of AI. [[SarcasmMode Nice and homey]]. This is a major plot-point in ''TheNakedSun''.
* In ''In The King's Service'', King Donal Haldane chooses his loyal human courtier Sir Kenneth Morgan for his ward Lady Alyce deCorwyn. Alyce's parents and brother are dead, and she is a royal ward as the heiress to a wealthy duchy, so she knows that politics is involved and accepts that Donal will decide who she marries.

* In ''{{Babylon5}}'', the Psi Corps arranges marriages between powerful telepaths in order to facilitate the breeding of even more powerful telepaths. If the people involved try to refuse, the Corps is perfectly willing to arrange rapes instead.

* In the {{Simpsons}} episode where the family joins the Movementarians, there's a group wedding.

* In DavidWeber's WarGods series, the King of the Sothoii has the power to force marriages in cases of nobles who don't have a male heir. It's seen as a last resort, admittedly hard on only-daughters, but worth it in order to insure that the Kingdom isn't destabilized by having important lands and titles fall into dispute.

* In ''InTheKingsService'', King Donal Haldane chooses his loyal human courtier Sir Kenneth Morgan for his ward Lady Alyce deCorwyn. Alyce's parents and brother are dead, and she is a royal ward as the heiress to a wealthy duchy, so she knows that politics is involved and accepts that Donal will decide who she marries.
* In the second book of ''TheHungerGames'', the Capitol plans to do this to [[spoiler:Peeta and Katniss]]. This is later subverted in the end of the third book, wherer they [[spoiler: voluntarily decide to marry]].