Alien Populations

[TobiasMasonPark]

     I'm going to start this off with a few facts:
     Planet Earth: Holding a population well into the billions
                     : Most of the planet is covered in water, but has several continents
                     : Earth has hundreds of countries
                     : Most countries have their own system of government and various laws that its people have to abide by

     That being said, on with the topic. I never understood how Alien governments worked. I realize, of course, this is a sci-fi series, and politics tend to be boring wherever you are in the universe (that's just the way I see, feel free to disagree) but I never understood how one government system--such as the Andalite Electorate-- can govern an entire speices that numbers well into the hundred millions--unless I'm mistaken. Obviously Earth is different from the Andalites and the Yeerks (who aren't nearly as numerous) or the Hork-Bajir (tiny population [especially after the Alloran incident] and no official form of government outside the elders that they listen to) but you'd think the Andalites would have multiple systems of government; especially since they have less water on their planet.

   

[Darth Zakryn]

That was a good point. The Andalites have a war council, but is it the same council whose head Ax talked to in #8? Maybe the War Council is the head of the military, and there are multiple councils, like the prequels era Jedi Order in Star Wars.

[TobiasMasonPark]

     Well, I'm not sure about Star Wars, since I'm not much of a fan. But I just can't see one body of government leading millions of people. One body leading a country, sure. But not an entire planet. That's unrealistic--and that's saying something, considering it's Animorphs

[Darth Zakryn]

Maybe they have sectors? Or quadrants? Something like the Agricultural Council handles certain agricultural zones? Or something like that?

[Morilore]

     Well, I'm not sure about Star Wars, since I'm not much of a fan. But I just can't see one body of government leading millions of people. One body leading a country, sure. But not an entire planet. That's unrealistic--and that's saying something, considering it's Animorphs

If you are saying that there should be multiple countries, consider this: the modern-day People's Republic of China is a single unitary government that is responsible for 1.3 billion people.  That whole order of magnitude is considered extraordinary in the Animorphs universe.

[Unknown User]

Of course the electorate would have smaller sub-councils that oversee local affairs, but why couldn't it rule the whole planet? It would just be like a really big country. If all areas of the planet agree to the authority of the council, there is nothing unrealistic about it. There is no law of sociology that says that a government becomes inneffective when population reaches a certian point. The only thing neccesary for the government to keep control of a large population is consent from 85-100% of it's citizens and a bueracracy that increase in proportion to the number of people that live under the rule of the government.

[RYTX]

Plus, again I cite that, Andalites have been around tens millions of years: that's a lot of time to make societal shifts.
I mean futurama has planet wide governments by the year 3000-humans may be "quick" but I'm sure Andalites could develop something like that over the eons.