(WIP) My NS Regional Political Theory - Part 4 missing

Recently for the first time, I read the anthology of NS Political theory compiled by Union of Dimonian Socialist Republics. I was fascinated by it, and after contacting UDSR, I thought I should write something on my theory. Now I have been thinking over this, and really I don’t know where it is going to go. I think that it will either sound and read good, or will be the opposite. So, enjoy reading my overall NS regional political theory: Skundism.

---

NationStates is a very diverse website whichever way you look at it, nation type, IRL nationality or other things. However there is one way of classifying nations that I find is really quite interesting not only to do but to also think about. And that is through the main focus when someone logs into a nation on NS. The three categories I have made are very general, but despite that prove really important to studying nations and providing a balance on these when running a successful region. My categories are:

Statistic - If a nation is a statistic nation, they focus on nation stats and issues. Most newly created nations tend to be statistic, and some very large nations tend to be statistic. Often it is very easy to move between categories as a new nation, so after a couple of weeks some new nations focus on other things, while others stay statistic. Statistic nations tend to CTE quicker, due to the lack of action and fun from issue gameplay.

Regionistic - A regionistic nation is one that is gameplay focused, be it on the region they reside in, or on others. A regionistic nation is one that is active within regions, plays a role politically or is involved in R/D gameplay. The most amount of nations are regionistic, as it is fairly easy to understand and there is pretty much no limits on what you can do. Most statistic nations tend to switch to regionistic.

WA - Hence the name, a WA
nation is focused on the World Assembly. A WA nation is active in the GA and the SC forums and is either instrumental in writing proposals or write them themselves. The lowest proportion on nations are WA, due to the complicated nature of the WA in general and the fact that years of experience are needed to have good knowledge.

And so I have gone through my 3 ‘personal’ nation classifications. Now these categories are useful when it comes to building a successful region, but are also useful for creating a good political structure in a region. In Part 2, I will talk about my preferred political structure in regions and how to utilise that to make a successful regional government.

---

Regional politics are one of the most interesting parts of NS, due to the fact that there are so many ways to run a region. In fact, I believe that there are no two regional political systems alike in NS, and all regions however similar run themselves differently. However, in Skundism, I think it is important to make sure that power is balanced as much as possible. This is maintained, by having a founder nation as a puppet. As someone who was founder of a region for a year and a half; it becomes hard to become influential in the region, because you yourself hold all power. It gets a bit boring. Which is why, in order for a region to stay alive in the long run, you don’t have a main nation being the founder. It will ultimately kill the region. This is why Skundism, believes in an administrative founder political structure. The use of the founder nation as a puppet takes away all the power from a main nation being a founder, to the region’s members, allowing for more political interaction between nations, and a more successful and active region. Now please note that this theory is designed for a democratic region, in which officers, or at least the heads of government are elected by citizens, but this is because I believe that the best regions run democratically, as there is constant change in leadership, allowing for different criticisms.

Now a lot of the time, regional politics is the main focus of a lot of regionistic nations, which means that a lot of regional activity should come from regional politics. However, a balance is needed between politics and chat as the focus of a region. Like I said earlier, many newer nations are statistic nations, and so when they join a region with a government that is incredibly prominent, a lot of what is going on is hard to take in and intimidating. So a lot of the time nations will leave or CTE, because they are feeling undercooked. This is why Skundism supports, or at least contains parts of demokraticism, in which a balance must be maintained between government and casual chat.

The final part of a Skundistic regional government/political system is the fact that is needs to be fairly simple. This is so that Skundistic regions can be able to convert statistic nations to become regionistic. While it may seem that simple politics is something that would undermine the region’s members and effectively create inactivity, a basic system does not mean basic politics. The complications come from decisions or laws passed. A basic regional government is something that is essential for a for an active system and a way of consistently maintaining regionistic nations.

This final part of Part 2 is touching on what I will talk about in part 3, which will look at regionomics and ways of maintaining a solid population. This is what will prove effective in the latter stages of recruitment and will help regions to grow and consistently keep their size.

---

In the previous 2 parts, I have classified nations and talked about what I believe to be the most successful form of regional government. In this part I will be talking about how I think the best way of arrival retention in a region. However I’m going to start with something I’ve thought of for a few months now. And that is what I call The Circles of NS. Now this is a bit like the circle of life, however there are two circles that intertwine together slightly, and creates a general circle of NS. Unfortunately, I can’t draw circles on this, so I’m going to do a list. This is the first circle:
Now this circle represents the lives of most newly founded nations, however there are some nations who leave that circle to join another circle that runs simultaneously to the new nation circle. These nations leave the first circle in between the 4th and 5th point to join the active nation circle:
And so from these circles you can see how nations go round and are either in on circle or another. These circles are useful for population retention, and this is done through a certain type of regionomics. I call my type of this Addresive Regionomics. This involves directly addressing the new nation/arrival on the RMB by mentioning them. What the other thing that is important to do, is to spark conversation through this. By starting a conversation on the RMB with the new nation, you are essentially bringing them out of the new nationcircle and moving them into the active nation circle. It can be shown in Lorania, that if you directly address a new nation on the RMB, that nation is more inclined to stay in the region and stay active in the region. In my theory, conversing is the best way to maintain an active population. This isn’t like popular regionomics, in which population is maintained through polls and other stuff. This is through making the arrival feel significant, this telling them, this is the right place to be.

Another trend I’ve seen is to do with recruitment, and the amount of arrivals. This trend is actually very interesting, and is something that’s could affect the way regions recruit in the future. This trend is, if you gain some recruits, often you will see more nations joining not due to recruitment telegrams but due to the fact that your region is bigger. It is also the same for if you get smaller, more nations tend to not join your region if you are getting smaller. This could mean that regions would only have to send a couple of recruitment telegrams and gain a couple of recruits to see a significant increase in population. This however, won’t happen on its own and you will need to constantly send recruitment telegrams to gain more nations through your size. Through this trend, my theory is that if you send more recruitment TGs, not only will nations join due to the TGs but will join through regional size. If done write, recruitment TGs could have an even bigger impact than they do now, and small recruitment could actually be very effective.

But, there is another side to recruitment that is just important, if not, more important. And that is nation retention. Nation retention is important because if there was next to none, recruitment efforts would be wasted. Nation retention is managed through continually recruiting and using the addressive techniques I spoke about earlier, so even if you aren’t able to convert all statistic nations over and they CTE within a few weeks, you’ve got a reasonably good number of nations to fall back on. But without retention, essentially that number that the region can fall back on is very small. Also with Skundistic nation retention is the fact that if it isn’t performed at all, then when some nations that aren’t converted eventually CTE, there’s no support from new recruits to hold the region up. This means that the region’s numbers will fall, and like in the previous paragraph, that will have a major toll on arrivals into the region. Because they are smaller, nations are less likely to join on population size, effectively cutting potential and making it harder to get back to the same numbers they had had. What this shows, is that nation retention is important, and allows for a region to stay in a solid position in terms of population.

And that ends part 3, which leads on to the 4th section that is yet to be added and will focus on activity. The final section is how to build a successful region, using the theory of Skundism and other NS factors. This final part will be the use of what I’ve said for the last 4 sections, and is essentially putting the points I made into practice. However the final part isn’t part of the theory, it is usage of the theory.

---

So in the previous 4 parts of this dispatch, I’ve gone through the types of nation, how to have a good regional government and recruitment retention. All those points go well when pointing out things, but to be effective, they need to be put into practice. The main theory I have been presenting, can be fully summed up in this part, the part in which I go through how to build a successful region around Skundism.

The first thing I would say if you are planning on starting a new region, is to not found it right away. Think. Think about what the goal of this region would be, how it would work and what the region should look like. By making sure everything is right by thinking it over at the start, you will have a region that you’ll be happy with in the future, because some changes are irreversible. I’d also say that it is really good to contact other nations to see if they could help you out; this means that you don’t start off alone, and have another person to provide insight. I’d recommend having a nation that you trust and get on with to help you. If you are a completely new nation, I’d try and give it a few months, and make some friends on the site. Once you have some other nations on board, create the founder nation. Personally, it looks more professional and easy to recognise by calling it ‘[Region name] founder’ however you can call it what you want. With your administrative founder in place, you are ready to go to found your region!

With everything in place with your administrative founder and nations, the first few days should be about region-building and recruitment. I don’t want to advise you on how to recruit, however you want to make sure you are managing your recruitment retention, and trying to use addressive regionomics to convert your new recruits. This allows for you to create an active population ready to get involved and build your region. Once you have build your region to a reasonable size (around 10-15 nations), start elections for the Head of Government (please remember that this is designed for a democratic region). This will bring activity to the region due to the election, and will allow for someone to be in control who can have power that is limited. With your Head of Government in place, establishing regional officers is incredibly important. This is recommended to be in the form of a cabinet, and allows for nations to be active and more involved in the region. All this should be going at the some time as recruitment, which if stopped could stall growth for a period of time.

The final part of the steps to build a Skundistic region is just establishing a larger form of regional government and establishing a community. Earlier in the dispatch, I spoke of having a fairly basic regional government. This should be done by having a Head of Government and a cabinet, as well as one legislative house. This system is easy to understand and easy to get involved in. Nations are able to see how the government works more clearly through the splitting of it. I wouldn’t expand the system, just because it is easy for nation type conversion and if it’s expanded, it makes it harder to change. While the government is set, you need to have a casual side in the RMB. This should be done through goofing around but also through the process of addressive regionomics and sparking chat between new members and older members. Regions live on activity (look at part 4) and so to keep your region alive you need chat. Try and keep as much activity on the RMB than on offsite forums so your region’s activity isn’t affected.

After this, maintenance and growth is all that’s needed to be successful. Success can be measured differently, like on population size or activity. Try your best to tick all the boxes to be successful, because if you follow what this dispatch has said, a successful Skundistic region has been created. If you don’t feel like creating a Skundistic region, take these ideals into your own regions. Take the ideas of the circles of NS, or the nation classifications to help build your own regions, because Skundism contains so many parts that you can use or discard different parts to make your own region successful.

Thanks for reading!