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

[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