THE DEMOCRATIC CITY

If the autocratic city is the most common type of fantasy metropolis, then the democratic city is the rarest. Democratic cities take a great deal of know-how and cooperation in order to function, and many end up collapsing under their own weight. (Whatever else might be said of autocracies, they can certainly sustain themselves, especially in a medieval setting.) Cities making a go of true democracy buzz constantly with activity, as people run to and fro to keep the wheels turning. Few individuals live lives of indulgence in a democracy, but just as few go hungry.

A democratic city differentiates itself from other models in a number of ways: mainly that it is generally ruled by a single group rather than a single person. Most often, this ruling group is a council composed of elected representatives from the city’s various wards, guilds, or districts. A democratic city often retains its local focus even if it is also a capital city. If the larger government is similarly democratic, then the city likely hosts a senate (or similar congress), but in any republic, the operation of a city must remain separate from the administration of a nation. As such, in democratic capital cities, one often fi nds the council working side by side with a separate and distinct national government. Democratic cities generally flourish only in good-aligned regions, where the communal desire to reach consensus has a chance to overpower humanity’s natural divisiveness. Evil-aligned democratic cities are rare in the extreme.