In world building, a very important component has to be the way you design the government of your main world. Now, by world building, you could be talking about a country, a city, a planet, a nation-state, etc… that part really depends on what works for you. However, for the most part, you likely have your main characters dealing in a specific area of some sort of nation. That nation, of course, needs a government. And if there are municipalities or provinces or states, you need governments for those too.
However, for the most part, designing a government for smaller units is just basically taking the larger unit and making it less intensive and sophisticated. A big example of this would be the United States of America, which has a federal government and then each state has a state government and within the states there are municipalities like cities and counties and so on and so forth. A city has a mayor, a state has a governor, and the federal government has a president.
For today’s article, I will focus mostly on the bigger picture government such as a federal government. Once you’ve designed a big government like that, designing a smaller-scale government becomes significantly easier.
STEP 1: DEFINE THE GOVERNMENT TYPE
There are many kinds of governments out there. Some are monarchies, others are democracies. There’s republics and dictatorships. For the most part, this idea will be the main anchor point from which you can really kick off your discussion on the government structure you’ll be building. There’s also theoretically-based governments where the religious system is the main central body of the government.
If you write in the fantasy genre, a big hit is always the monarchy system. Basically, you have a king at the center and then through the king’s lineage comes the next rulers in line. You can obviously adjust this as you see fit, but monarchies tend to do really well in fantasy.
Dictatorships are usually found quite often in dystopian novels or military-based stories where it’s easier to have some despot in power to make everybody’s life miserable.
STEP 2: DESIGN THE LEADERSHIP PROCESS
Once you’ve picked the government type that you want to write about, it’s time to pick how leaders are designated and selected. In a monarchy, that’s super easy–the son of the king. In a democracy or a republic, there are likely elections. However, those elections aren’t necessarily by the people. You could have a body of chosen representatives to pick a leader for the people.
You could have some fun with this section too and talk about maybe rituals or rites of passage leaders need to go through before they become leaders. Those sorts of things can help out in making your design more unique.
In my series, The Fallen Age Saga, the Ones Above are a very militaristic alien species and they have a very strict system of leadership because they basically do not die of old age the way humans can. Their king is also a military leader and strategist, and they sometimes name the king the First General, with both being viable titles.
STEP 3: BUILD THE GOVERNMENT ARMS AND BRANCHES
The next step would be to begin designing the different sectors, branches, and arms of the government. For the most part, this would include things like a branch that designs laws, a branch that passes judiciary rulings, etc… This is especially common in democracies and republics, but may also exist in something like a monarchy. In that case, it’s called a constitutional monarchy.
You can also build things like agencies and divisions of the government. For example, the intelligence wing of the government (CIA, MI6, etc…). You could have a health department and things like that. This part depends mostly on your genre or time period. I recommend looking back through history for inspiration for this point.
STEP 4: DESIGN THE LEGAL SYSTEM AND LAWS
The main parts of the government are done, so now you need to focus on the idea of the legal system. If your government works off of religious doctrines, then I recommend you design the religion first and then design the legal system. I have a full guide on designing a religion, which you can click here to read.
If your government is secular or does not use religion as an influence, then you want to work on this part now. How are laws passed? What laws are the most significant to your story? Are the laws relaxed or tightly enforced? Who enforces the laws? Is there a police system? How are people punished in the legal system? Consider these questions when designing your legal system and take inspiration from governments in the real world for this part.
STEP 5: HOW DO GOVERNMENT AND SOCIETY INTERACT?
The next thing to consider is the impact of government on society as a whole. How does your government interact with its people? Is it very autocratic and involved? Is it relaxed and just more of a backdrop? How do people feel about the government? Is there a lot of corruption?
If you use religion as the backbone of the government, you also need to consider how this may impact the civilians living under that government system and if it’s positive or negative. Does the culture of the people impact the government or does the government impact the culture? These questions can really help you get a solid start.
STEP 6: INTERNAL CONFLICTS
No human-formed government is without conflict, and governments are very prone to internal conflict. With multiple agencies, branches, and potentially multiple leaders of different tiers, there’s bound to be internal conflicts. These conflicts can spark over anything from leadership assignments to new laws to wars and so on.
Internal conflicts can really enhance the impact of the government and can add more conflict to your story. For example, if there’s an assassination or regicide in the case of a monarchy, this could come from a rebellious group from within. This would be interesting to go into for your story.
STEP 7: EXTERNAL CONFLICTS
Governments represent countries or nations on the scale of the entire world, and so they will be involved in external conflicts. These external conflicts can be literally against their own people, against other countries, and can be war-like or economic or something different. For example, you don’t need war to have an external conflict. When Trump passed tariffs against Chinese imports, that counts as an external conflict for both the United States and China. When you design your governments system, consider real-world events to help inspire you.
War is probably the most popular though, and that will require you to design a military system as well. I’ll get into militaries very soon as a lot of my stories revolve around some sort of military involvement or structure.
STEP 8: LORE ON THE GOVERNMENT FORMATION
Lore is basically historical backstories that talk about interesting world elements. You can write up a piece of lore about anything in your world, but it can help you personally to have some sort of lore on the government that you design. How did this government come to be? Why is it in place? What led to it? Was there a brutal power struggle? Was it peaceful?
Having this lore can be cool because you can use it as a reference to give some world building context to your readers. For example, maybe there was a king that was really powerful and some characters name-dropped this king in a conversation. You don’t need to give any context in the conversation because that will start sounding like a history lesson, but it can be cool to invoke elements of the lore in your story. Also, you can just plain-out describe the lore in your story if you think it helps or if it’s just too interesting to leave out.
STEP 9: KEEP TRACK OF YOUR GOVERNMENT’S DESIGN
Sometimes, it can get really confusing when you’re designing a government. That’s because keeping track of everything can get complicated and confusing. That’s why I always recommend you keep track of any and all world building stuff that you have designed.
I do have a guide on my page about the best digitally-based world building platforms to use for this point, but I will also be working on a guide to world-building using traditional paper and pens and notebooks.
In the meantime, don’t forget to check out my military sci-fi/fantasy series, The Fallen Age Saga. You can buy my books over on Amazon right now! For more world-building help, you can check out my ultimate beginner’s guide to help you get started with the entire process!
Happy world building!