TheSorryJew walks to a wall, and pins a pamphlet to it. It reads:

Limited democracy: A new system?

I have an idea that would potentially be very successful or disastrous! I want to experiment with a system of limited democracy with a crew or even a district! How would this work?

In this system a CL is a like a King. He reigns, but does he rule? I am certainly not willing to reduce a CL to a mere puppet, only good for ceremonial stuff. A CL in my system would still have a reasonable amount of power. A CL would be free to appoint his hands (Ministers), as it would be silly to take away this right! A CL is free to dismiss the Crew Parliament if he wishes (thought doing this too much will obviously undermine the whole system!). A CL will have to accept what his parliament decides, whether he likes it or not (this is crucial!), although of course he can decide to block it by disbanding parliament. My system will use a 2 chamber method. The House of Mobsters will be able to create laws, while the House of Mafiosi will have the power to dismiss or accept laws. The interesting part is which is the strongest in which chamber, because ultimately agreements will have to be made to reach anything but a stalemate, which could be interesting to say the least. Parties and cliques could be formed within a crew, corruption may occur, all the marvelous wonders of politics could happen!

Elections could be held through a certain web of international relations, plenty of places offer this. Elections for parliamentary seats, offices and the likes. 

Who should vote? I believe everyone should have the right to vote, from the CL to the lowliest mobster. I am excited by the possibility that everyone will have a say in the crew, even if it's a wrong say! That's why I must urge this to remain a experiment at best, because the possibility of disastrous consequences is a tad too high. For this reason I also think I myself should conduct such an experiment, because I have no experience at all, and I would like my reign to be a special one. Also, I am a mere Made Man, and my crew would likely be composed of Gangsters, Goomba's and Wise Guys. It would be very interesting to say the interests of the CL and his hands play out against the wishes of his subjects and their parties. A battle of authoritarianism versus democracy perhaps. This could possibly be very messy, and this is why again I must urge for this to remain an experiment, away from the 'normal' crews. As you may have noticed, I am very excited about this idea and I have been sitting upon it for a while now.

As an example, let's say the CL wants to block a law accepted by the majority of his subjects, and disbands his parliament. In retaliation, his subjects could decide to stop donating/paying taxes (also a interesting subject, as this could lead to conflicts too!). In the end, who will prevail? The CL needs his cash influx, the members need the protection and care of their CL.

But what would happen if members decide that their CL is not the right man for the job? They could try to shoot him and start a new crew, of course. If they fail, naturally they themselves will be shot. Essential for this is that the coup is a internal thing only, not helped by outside factors. This is also why this experiment must happen in a lonely district, without the interference of other crews.

 

All of this could be expanded upon a district (although only if a crew experiment would be successful enough). This is of course merely and idea and I'd like to see your input. Perhaps it could happen in a empty/abandoned district, where with a bit of luck, it will bother no one and be a interesting experiment.

TheSorryJew looks at his pamphlet for a while and nervously waits for someone to notice it.

Curtis stood and read the proposal with interest. When he was done he thought about it for a little while and then read it again. Thinking he needed a bit more clarification on some points, he went and found TheSorryJew to ask him about it.

"Firstly I want to say well done. Well done for trying to come up with something so wildly unconventional. That deserves applause. That said, I have a few queries about the theoretical and practical application of this idea."

 A CL would be free to appoint his hands (Ministers), as it would be silly to take away this right!

"If this is to operate as a democracy, wouldn't it be left to the vote of the crew to decide who their hands would be? Normally a voter might have no say in who their monarch is, as in the UK but they do have power to vote for parliamentary figures, in this case hands. If you are going to take a puritanical (or as much as possible given the format of our organisations) approach to this, then surely the members should decide their hands by vote?"

A CL is free to dismiss the Crew Parliament if he wishes (thought doing this too much will obviously undermine the whole system!).

and then later:

As an example, let's say the CL wants to block a law accepted by the majority of his subjects, and disbands his parliament. In retaliation, his subjects could decide to stop donating/paying taxes (also a interesting subject, as this could lead to conflicts too!). In the end, who will prevail? The CL needs his cash influx, the members need the protection and care of their CL.

"This seems to be the most fundamental flaw in the proposal. For as altruistic and utopian as your experiment may wish to be, there is always the point of critical mass, when the weight of opposition to the leader becomes too great for the leader to re-balance with political acumen and persuasion alone. When the CL's situation becomes untenable they would be forced to invoke existing power from the mafia system and remove that which opposed and blocked their will. Knowing this to be the absolute end of any potential opposition the proletariat may raise against their leadership, then all democracy is exposed as illusory. Any vote or change brought about by the people would only ever be their choice so long as it was aligned sufficiently with that of it's leader. This is no democracy at all.

As for the second point, if the subjects did withdraw from contributing in protest of the leadership, surely those disputes would only ever end to the determent of the proletariat? They have no real power so if they failed to resolve their issues via votes or voicing their views, their only option would be to leave the family via suicide or a more explosive avenue that could have an impact on the outer community. You ask who will prevail? The CL. Every. Single. Time."

Mindful of the effort put into this proposal and not wishing to dismiss the effort involved Curtis thanks TheSorryJew for his contribution.

"Although I believe your hope for democracy can not exist in the system we live in and with the parameters you have laid out, I am impressed that you have had such a notion and tried to flesh it out into a workable model. That has to be commended. It is clearly born of a desire to have a more inclusive approach to working with the family. Whatever level of democratic system you eventually test out, I will be very interested to know how it goes."

Shaking the Jew's hand, he looks around at the other notices in the street.

"If this is to operate as a democracy, wouldn't it be left to the vote of the crew to decide who their hands would be? Normally a voter might have no say in who their monarch is, as in the UK but they do have power to vote for parliamentary figures, in this case hands. If you are going to take a puritanical (or as much as possible given the format of our organisations) approach to this, then surely the members should decide their hands by vote?"

Indeed the democratic things would been to let the crew vote who the hand would be, and I have indeed thought about this. The reason why I decided that the CL should have this power, is because he could cheat the system and appoint his own hands regardless of his crew's wishes. Ideally this would not happen, but I think that would be hoping for too much. In the best case, I think the CL should be able to decide who will be his RH, for his RH can read his correspondence and has the ability to do many potentially dangerous actions. The LH has less of these abilities, and therefore it could be very well possible for a elected LH. 

"This seems to be the most fundamental flaw in the proposal. For as altruistic and utopian as your experiment may wish to be, there is always the point of critical mass, when the weight of opposition to the leader becomes too great for the leader to re-balance with political acumen and persuasion alone. When the CL's situation becomes untenable they would be forced to invoke existing power from the mafia system and remove that which opposed and blocked their will. Knowing this to be the absolute end of any potential opposition the proletariat may raise against their leadership, then all democracy is exposed as illusory. Any vote or change brought about by the people would only ever be their choice so long as it was aligned sufficiently with that of it's leader. This is no democracy at all.

  True, but part of my experiment would actually be to see how this power struggle between a CL and his subjects plays out. Of course the CL could use his standard Mafia-way of dealing with problems, that is to say killing. But it could be that the opposition has a able gun in their ranks too! If ultimately the cooperation fails, the one with the most raw power will prevail, and indeed that is almost always the CL. This is another reason why I want to conduct the experiment at Made Man and below level, because there will be less rank/power difference.

As for the second point, if the subjects did withdraw from contributing in protest of the leadership, surely those disputes would only ever end to the determent of the proletariat? They have no real power so if they failed to resolve their issues via votes or voicing their views, their only option would be to leave the family via suicide or a more explosive avenue that could have an impact on the outer community. You ask who will prevail? The CL. Every. Single. Time."

  But if the opposition is large enough (that is to say, a huge majority of the crew), I think the opposition can prevail, because what is a CL without his crew? He might kill them, but what would it solve? He would be left with a ghost crew, and would need to attract new recruits into his experiment, which could be time-robbing. Also another reason why I prefer this experiment would be held in a abandoned district, without the interference of the outside community. For the experiment to succeed the outside community must act deaf and blind to this particular crew. 

TheSorryJew shook Curtis' hand and bowed, thanking him for his great input.

 In the best case, I think the CL should be able to decide who will be his RH, for his RH can read his correspondence and has the ability to do many potentially dangerous actions. The LH has less of these abilities, and therefore it could be very well possible for a elected LH. 

"That would appear to be a realistic compromise." 

True, but part of my experiment would actually be to see how this power struggle between a CL and his subjects plays out. Of course the CL could use his standard Mafia-way of dealing with problems, that is to say killing. But it could be that the opposition has a able gun in their ranks too! If ultimately the cooperation fails, the one with the most raw power will prevail, and indeed that is almost always the CL. This is another reason why I want to conduct the experiment at Made Man and below level, because there will be less rank/power difference.

"Regardless of gun strength of crew members, they could not kill you as to do so would essentially be putting a bullet through the heads of all their fellow members. The entire crew would be homeless and open to attack. Killing your own CL has never been the wisest decision even for the most short sighted mafioso.

The point about no real democracy is that not matter how much you tell your members they have power, they know absolutely, that they don't. Therefore every decision they appear to make is always going to be flawed in the knowledge that you hold the ultimate card. All votes will be tainted. Always."

But if the opposition is large enough (that is to say, a huge majority of the crew), I think the opposition can prevail, because what is a CL without his crew? He might kill them, but what would it solve? He would be left with a ghost crew, and would need to attract new recruits into his experiment, which could be time-robbing. 

"A leader with no crew is still a leader. Granted not much of one but you would still hold the title and the ability to rebuild. As for solving issues, it would be the ultimate solve-all. You would be left with a clean slate and nothing opposing you with and clear path ahead to begin anew. Of all disputes in the family, it would be you that endured, no one else."

Also another reason why I prefer this experiment would be held in a abandoned district, without the interference of the outside community. For the experiment to succeed the outside community must act deaf and blind to this particular crew.

"This experiment would have the same impact on the surrounding community whether it was staged in a densely populated area or an abandoned one. Makes fuck all difference. All the governing dynamics of the experiment are internal. As for impact on the surrounding community, it is impossible for any of us to function properly without interaction with each other and the rest of the country. Your people would have to take a normal active role in the world and the politics inside your house should have no baring on that what so ever."

"Regardless of gun strength of crew members, they could not kill you as to do so would essentially be putting a bullet through the heads of all their fellow members. The entire crew would be homeless and open to attack. Killing your own CL has never been the wisest decision even for the most short sighted mafioso.

The point about no real democracy is that not matter how much you tell your members they have power, they know absolutely, that they don't. Therefore every decision they appear to make is always going to be flawed in the knowledge that you hold the ultimate card. All votes will be tainted. Always."

  Unfortunately you speak a great truth here. Indeed this system will possibly always remain flawed, because of how the way things work in this world. A leader will always have the ability to wipe out and silence those who oppose him, even if they resist him in a passive way. If they do it in a aggressive way they will indeed have shot themselves in the foot. This is all theory of course, and I'm very interesting how it would do in reality. Would we see a harmonious and productive cooperation, or a messy cluster of problems?

"A leader with no crew is still a leader. Granted not much of one but you would still hold the title and the ability to rebuild. As for solving issues, it would be the ultimate solve-all. You would be left with a clean slate and nothing opposing you with and clear path ahead to begin anew. Of all disputes in the family, it would be you that endured, no one else."

Very true, however I like to think guns won't be needed. Passive resistance might work, even if the CL decides to wipe his crew. It might give hem a clean slate, but it would also give him a reputation of killing mafiosi who hold different opinions than him, which might be damaging to his recruiting rate. 

"This experiment would have the same impact on the surrounding community whether it was staged in a densely populated area or an abandoned one. Makes fuck all difference. All the governing dynamics of the experiment are internal. As for impact on the surrounding community, it is impossible for any of us to function properly without interaction with each other and the rest of the country. Your people would have to take a normal active role in the world and the politics inside your house should have no baring on that what so ever."

Maybe it won't have that great of an impact on the surrounding community, but the community can have an impact on the experiment. However, it still comes down to restraint, whether it is in a densely populated city or a empty one. Meddling of the outside world could have unexpected outcomes on the experiment. This is also why I'm immensely curious to see what happens if this experiment comes to life!

Listening to the Jew's comments Curtis finds himself nodding.

"Well, it seems like you have enough belief and will to carry out the experiment. I will be interested to see how it pans out for you if you ever get the chance to establish a family and put your theory to the test. For better or worse I'm sure it will be an interesting experience and I hope you document all the events, good and bad. Down the line it could make for a very entertaining story."

Shaking TheSorryJew's hand once more, Curtis smiled.

"Thanks for bringing your idea out here and sharing it with us. Good luck to you my friend."

TheSorryJew shakes Curtis' hand.

''I enjoyed our discussion together, and I thank you.'' TheSorryJew takes off his hat and bows.