Global politics in a.t.b. 2018?

[mjp.livejournal.com]

OK folks, discussion questions abound.

I'm doing a presentation at Otakon on politics in anime. The last one I did was in 2005 and the world and anime have changed enough to merit a near-complete reworking. I plan to spend a few slides talking about Code Geass and its allegory on world politics.

I want to get some opinions, facts (canon, fanon, or pure interpolation), and observations about political groups and their interplay on the world stage.

So here's your chance to expound; I'll keep an eye and ask clarification questions and such.

The Holy Empire of Britannia: We know the history of its founding, the suppression of the Revolution in the American colonies, and how the empire came to America after being semi-forced out. We know it's a pure aristocracy that treats colonial subjects poorly. But what is it like for Britannian citizens? Is there a parliament, and if so, is it a puppet for the Emperor or does it have some kind of post-Magna Carta legislative authority subject to Imperial approval? Can honorary Brittanians vote? What kind of health care is there? Taxes?

The European Union: Given that it formed in the 1800s, was there any kind of flux into socialism or even communism? What was the Industrial Revolution like? Did the various ethnic and national groups band together to oppose Britannia, or was there the same outflow of immigrants that the United States saw from the 1850s to the 1910s? Was there a spread of anti-Jewish or anti-Catholic sentiment? Was there a World War that created Hitler? Is there a unified European economic policy?

Potential spoilers for episode 3 indicate there's some military unity, but what bout the citizens?

The Chinese Federation: is it just mainland China? If there was a rise of communism, was there still Chairman Mao? Given that there's an imperial system of eunuchs, it seems that China is still back in the T'ang or Manchu-era system of government. Is China bigger than its current-era borders? Can they withstand Britannia militarily? What's their economy like? Does their emperor/head of state control power? Why hasn't Britannia outright invaded them?

Third parties: are there any major non-governmental organizations that help influence politics and policy (e.g. Greenpeace, Doctors Without Borders, Hamas, FARC, Hutu/Tutsi gangs, drug runners)?

Anything else? I want to get all the input I can, so feel free to bring up any points I might have missed.

I'll credit the community en masse for any info that goes into my panel. :-D

Comments

[x-reggg.livejournal.com]

Why hasn't Britannia outright invaded them?
coz we're cool and great 8D

judging from the whole eunuchs and the clothes/emperor system, i would say mao isn't in charge or more historically correct, sun yat sen isn't in charge :P

[glenngunnerzero.livejournal.com]

East Europeon Union. I'm guessing like Eurasia EEU.

[fox-holland.livejournal.com]

But what is it like for Britannian citizens? Is there a parliament, and if so, is it a puppet for the Emperor or does it have some kind of post-Magna Carta legislative authority subject to Imperial approval?

I believe that there is a set system of humanitarian equality among the Britannians themselves, however there exists capitalism with companies such as Ashford and considering it's massive media extension, one would believe that there has to be celebrities.

There is the Emperor, Royal Family, Knights of Round, barons, baronesses, and knights. Anyone with a lower status is not allowed court with the Royal Family.

I believe the Royal Family is the major body of the Britannian government providing legistration, planning of colonies, and military formation and aid. The Emperor being able to do whatever the hell he/she wants by focusing on major issues at hand such as the Invasion of Japan and the raids going on now against the European Union.

[darth-teca.livejournal.com]

Judging by the sheer size of the Britannia army, I would assume that unless the population seriously pisses off the government (like Japan has managed to do), they are given more and more rights as time goes on. Villeta is mentioned to not be a pure-blooded Britanian but she is still allowed to work her way up through the ranks, in hope of gaining more status. The very fact that she is trying to do that indicates, in my opinion, that while it might be rare, it is not unheard of. On a more intuitive level, I can't see a kingdom the size of Britannia being in any way stable without giving it's citizens SOME form of upward mobility. It would be too hard to control with so many angry people.

With the Chinese Federation, I bet it's run more like ancient China in the basic set-up, but I would bet that it's internally broken up into different provinces that would be internally governed separately (the term "federation" is a bit hint towards that suggestion for me).

I haven't the foggiest clue on the EEU because we've heard almost nothing about it.

About the third parties, I'm sure Britannia is constantly dealing with patriotic and separatist movements. If I remember correctly, when we first met Cornelia, she was somewhere in the middle east putting down a rebellion. Since not a big deal was made of this, they seem to be fairly common, at least in certain places. Britannia seems to put them down HARD when they find them, so while I'm sure they exist, they probably have had very minimal success, and therefore power, until, of course, Lulu comes along, which is why it makes him so doubly important. If for some reason other people start believing and adopting Zero's message of independence, there is only so much Britannia could do before they would start to loose control. You can only kill so many thousand people before it really starts hurting yourself.

[lulu-quality.livejournal.com]

No, Villetta is a pure-blooded Britannian (that's why she's in the pure-blooded faction of the army along with Jeremiah and Kewell); however, as the DVD magazines indicated, she grew up in the slums.

Also here's an interesting section from one of the sound episodes (.884 - The Imperial Siblings)
Cornelia: (slightly disdainful) That Area no longer has the will to make even an attempt at defiance. Anyone can be Governor.

Schneizel: Cornelia, you have to leave them a little room for resistance.

Cornelia: Why is that?

Schneizel: The desire to resist is in itself a resource; if you shear away too much of that, all vitality in the Area will be lost.

Cornelia: Then we Britannians shall be the new life force. Isn't that enough?

Schneizel: There's a limit to that, and for that reason the Honorary Britannian system was created.

Cornelia: That system blurs the line between the ruler and the subjects. It must be made clear to them who holds the reins.

[lulu-quality.livejournal.com]

^translation courtesy of Celiss

[spleener.livejournal.com]

I was always under the impression that Britannia is basically Briton that never got out of their 'absolute monarchy' and 'imperialism' phases, if you want to give them a tl;dr version to start off. One of the reasons why the EEU formed was probably that the individual countries in it realized that their choices were to consolidate or risk eventually becoming Area 42, I'm guessing. And because Sunrise thought things would be simpler if there were just three world powers to worry about in the story.

Of course, there are plenty of things in the history that make no sense (among other things, how Japan gets into a parliamentary system with a Prime Minister without America kicking its ass and making it do that in WW2) which can only be explained by the fact that it's a Sunrise show and Sunrise is practically defined by the fact that they'll pull the most retarded things out of their ass for the sake of things looking cool/fanservice/ease of writing.

[euphyi.livejournal.com]

Of course, there are plenty of things in the history that make no sense (among other things, how Japan gets into a parliamentary system with a Prime Minister without America kicking its ass and making it do that in WW2)

1. The Meiji restoration happened before WWII. This was a period where the Japanese actively, liberally, and voluntarily (albeit, motivated by political threat), sought to learn and incorporate elements from other cultures. It was also a period of great social upheaval. Is it so insensible that they might have tried to incorporate some form of constitutional monarchy under such circumstances? The Chinese republic in actual history (under Sun Yat Sen) was not forced upon them by the Americans, after all.

2. Among other things, Japanese history has always been very clannish. Personally, if you think about how clan systems work, I don't think it's such a big stretch for the Japanese to have switched to a Parliamentary system with a Prime Minister. It would just be institutionalizing something extant and organic.

I was always under the impression that Britannia is basically Briton that never got out of their 'absolute monarchy' and 'imperialism' phases, if you want to give them a tl;dr version to start off. One of the reasons why the EEU formed was probably that the individual countries in it realized that their choices were to consolidate or risk eventually becoming Area 42, I'm guessing. And because Sunrise thought things would be simpler if there were just three world powers to worry about in the story.

3. I'm not so sure about Area 42; I dunno about the founding of Britannia because I haven't been keeping up but given what I know of actual European history might it not be a Napoleonic legacy?

[spleener.livejournal.com]

I remember skimming through something on the history of the Geass world and that Napoleon was a big player in it all, I forget exactly what happened with him, though.

[wishmasterfuuma.livejournal.com]

He's the one that chased the Britannian royal family out of Britain and into America where they re-set up shop and became an empire. That was Napoleon's role.

[cal-reflector.livejournal.com]

There's a world history thread over at animesuki (Under current series: code geass) which will serve as excellent for thought on this topic.

Yay! Politcal discourse.

[ladyassassin27.livejournal.com]

The Holy Empire of Britannia In my humble opinion, I do think that there is some sort of parliament, that consists of nobles only, those without nobility have no say in poilitcs, that sort of thing. I'm not entirely sure that there isn't a prime minister though, because according to histroy, the office of the prime minister[PM] came into existance during the reign of GeorgeI and GeorgeII who were German speaking monarchs, and it was Sir Robert Walpole who used to converse with them in poor Latin ... history says that this lead to the forming of the office of the PM. Possiably after the Empire's split with Briton, it could have done away with the house of commons, and voting system, going back to absolute monarchy, while creating a system where nobility is attainable by a commoner. That would be needed to do away wit decentors. The honorary Britannian system would of course be introduced to keep the colonies in check, this is an old ploy of the British, when it comes to colonies, for getting loyality form foreign subjects. Looking at history I can just guess that Honorary Britannians don't have the same rights as citizens, but the differences are not noticable on the cerface, to make it look attractive. I wonder however what happened to the British 'divide and rule' policy, as Britannia's is more of a Blitz Kreig.

As to the European Union I am not entirely sure about them, but I do believe that they may have united to either face the common enemy ie Britannia, or as a safe guard against the more powerful enemy, there is safety in numbers after all.

I agree with you that China may still be in its T'ang -Manchu -era. However What I would like to know is if India is still a colony of Britannia, or has Cesseeded form them, probably with the help of the chinese federation? Or there is still and independance movement going on? Because somewhere in season one the 'Indian National Army' is mentioned in relation with Rakashata, which leads me to believe, that India or at least part of it is still a colony, since the INA was a revolutionary army or sorts, started by Subash Chandra Bose, but given the changes in history of this show, the INA here may not be the one started by Bose, but the countries military. I also wonder is they are part of the Chinese federation.

[tenshi789.livejournal.com]

I fail at anime politics.

"Does their emperor/head of state control power?"
I think I read on wikipedia that right now they have an empress, and yes they do, or are supposed to have the most power, but they're more of a figure head position where the eunuchs have the real control.