Instead of water fountains, beer fountains

I think your judicial system is badly flawed, who tries federal law? What happens if state judges make a decision that conflicts with federal law? Does the person just appeal to the highest state courts, and then if the state decides wrong the federal government sends in the NKVD to bring the state to heel?

In any case, in any system where you need most of these institutions, you’d need strong Vanguard guidance and control (either via a party or other institutions like a council of unions)

Alright. Dwarves under the mountain, typical Tolkienesque aesthetics - but atypical social structures. The idea here is that I wanted to explain a kinda socialisty government that evolved from the fuedal system, where Marxism doesn’t really make sense because an industrial revolution hasn’t happened yet.

All of Dwarven society is centered around the guilds. At one point in history, the peasants rose up against the nobility, who hoarded guild membership for themselves despite the very common Dwarven belief that mastering a craft is an essential prerequisite to get into the afterlife, and after a bloody conflict extracted a simple universal right which all Dwarves now share - guild membership. Every guild’s membership had to be opened to all social classes, rank could only be gated by skill in the craft in question with no other considerations, and two special guilds - the “laborers” and the “churchdwarves” - were created and given representation in the proto state apparatus in order to represent all who were not members of the traditional crafts and trades guilds.

This system of “equal membership” having been adapted, the economic base of Dwarven lands changed - previously peasants were expected to do all of the mining and farming, but now the miners were applying en masse to the various smithing guilds, and the farmers to the various crafting guilds, and a new arrangement had to be made. Now all dwarves labor in the mines and the fields, and the forges/kitchens/woodshops/whatever else are shared, with every dwarf who pays their due in labor being granted time at their craft. Seniority being what it is, younger dwarves tend to do a bit more laboring and a bit less crafting, but this is said to even out over a dwarf’s lifetime.

This has also effected the superstructure. Noble titles are still around, but they are basically meaningless since the tax base and social privileges that used to come with a noble title no longer exists. The King is still around, and still holds a lot of social power and prestige - but as ownership of land no longer means being able to tax peasants, his office is paid for by the guilds directly, who micromanage how their money is spent by the crown to ensure it is not being misused. The real political power in Dwarven lands are the guild councils, where representatives of each guild in a settlement meet to discuss and pass laws. Every guild determines its leadership a bit differently, with some being democratic and others simply assigning leadership positions by seniority, but importantly these positions can never be passed down through inheritance and any dwarf con hypothetically end up in one.

edit: Something I forgot to mention is that the perks of guild membership were substantial before the uprising, and now form the basis of Dwarven society. The brewers give beer to members of other guilds for free, so long as it is drank on the premises (no stockpiling). The innkeepers give rooms to the traveling members of other guilds, the weaponsmiths will give you a weapon if you get conscripted, and the armorsmiths will give you maille and a helmet. All of this is based on a “constitution” which consists of contracts between the guilds that were built up over hundreds of years as the organizations competed for noble membership and patronage - and with every dwarf now a member of a guild, these perks are simply expected by every dwarf. Apartments are carved into the mountain by the stonemasons, and furnished by the carpenters, and then given to any new dwarven family. These and other perks are so ubiquitous that most dwarves never carry gold - so long as you are a member in good standing with any guild, you’ll have a proof of membership, and you’ll be able to live a reasonably comfortable life in dwarven society.

As the guilds grew in power, the power of the nobility shrank proportionally - and as the nobles became unable to furnish their traditional obligations to the military, the guilds simply expanded to fill that void. The military is treated like a guild by the Dwarves, but one that doesn’t exist except in wartime. Higher level guild councils vote on an amount of their revenue that they will contribute towards raising armies, which is then handed to the King who calls the traditional banners to arms under the scrutiny of the guilds’ representatives.

During this time the King sits on the highest guild council as the leader of the military and the army’s officers head out to the local councils to raise troops. Conscription usually falls on the youngest and lowest ranked adult dwarves in a settlement (adulthood starts at twenty in dwarven society, life expectancy for dwarves that live past age three is about two hundred), but usually the guild representatives come to an agreement about how many can be drafted from each of them, which ensures that the labor shortage that ensues after a draft is evenly spread out.

In foreign affairs, each of the guilds can hypothetically act completely independently, just as high ranking nobility often do in other systems. The royal family still performs its role as the primary diplomats for the dwarven realm, but the attempts by the king to acquire foreign land and therefore a tax revenue stream independent from the guilds have been stymied by neighboring kings passing laws against their realm’s land being inherited by foreigners. The balance of power between the dwarven guilds prevents them from doing much in the way of conquest, since in order to raise a significant army a majority of them would have to agree to do it - instead, the primary way that Dwarven society interacts with its neighbors is via the guilds acting independently; sending caravans, leasing land for trade posts, buying ships, etc.

Death match Battle Royal style. 100 Hundred politicians get dropped on an island. Survivor gets to become Emperor for 4 years. Rinse and Repeat. The battle royal matches are televised and you get ads for the new marvel movies. Also free beer for every citizen during the period of the battle royal.

Most elections where people don’t personally know candidates should be replaced with sortition.