Portal:Handbook/Politics/Selected article/1

Crews have three options for their governance, or politics, system:


 * An autocratic crew is governed by the captain. Only the captain can promote senior officers and change the crew articles. This effectively prevents crew "theft".


 * An oligarchic crew is governed by the votes of the senior officers. They, along with the captain, may propose issues for a vote.  If a majority of active senior officers vote in favor of a resolution, then it passes. If the issue remains up for a vote for three days without reaching a majority, it will pass if over half the senior officers have voted and, of that half, the majority is in favor.


 * A democratic crew is governed by the votes of all members of rank pirate and above. Decisions in democratic crews require either a majority vote of the membership or, as with oligarchies, a vote of a majority after three days.  Any member of pirate rank and above can post an issue.

A crew's politics may be changed at any time via the procedures of decision-making stipulated by its current politics setting. In all three systems, dormant crew members, including the captain, do not get a vote. If the captain leaves an autocratic crew, the crew automatically becomes oligarchic. If they become dormant, the politics will change if an event occurs that would post a crew issue (even if it's something that would normally be immediately bypassed such as a senior officer changing ranks). Also, if a dormant pirate is promoted to captain in an autocratic crew, the politics are immediately changed to oligarchic. Crew politics will never automatically change to democratic, even if a crew has nobody ranked above fleet officer.