In the United States, the Constitution has been in place for well over 200 years and — save for 27 amendments, few of which had any influence on the structure of our government — has kept the U.S. government pretty much the same. There are pros and cons to that much stability. We’ve avoided (until recently) the electoral chaos seen in some other countries. We’ve never dealt with true dictatorship and we’ve amassed an unrivaled amount of wealth (albeit quite unequally distributed). 

 

But, we’ve long ago lost our ability and desire to change. The United States government was designed to retain its structure, and it achieves that in part by making policy change immensely, obnoxiously, infuriatingly difficult. Again, there are benefits — a more flexible government might have seen far more damaging changes from 2017 to 2021. That said, I see more cons: Until 1965, when the Voting Rights Act passed, the United States was functionally not a democracy. It took almost 200 years to give everyone a substantive right to vote because our system is so resistant to change. 

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Ocracy is an attempt to analyze and understand government systems around the world, to show that the American form of government is not the only way. Humans have come up with hundreds of different ways to organize society, we’ve meticulously or haphazardly designed a whole host of institutions. Some work, some don’t. Some don’t work because they are paired with broken institutions which limit their efficacy. Most countries have three branches, sometimes the institutions that make up those branches just don’t vibe, and the whole system suffers. 

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Ocracy began as a capstone project for the Sweetland Minor in Writing. As a Public Policy student and a self-proclaimed government nerd, I knew my project had to be about systems of government, an instructor I had for a different course suggested I make a board game. After much pondering, I settled on a simple card game --- players would be able to create a government using branches from real-life governments seen all around the world. It was a combination of education and strategy that I thought would be fun. 

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Developing Ocracy took months and many iterations. Some cards have changed three or four times, the number of rounds and game mechanics have changed even more. If you want proof, check out my production plan, my ideas document, and the first version of the rulebook. The game has changed a lot, but it's at a point where I *hope* it is fun, interactive, and informative. The rest of this website includes the rules in different forms, instructions on how to play Ocracy at home (for free!), and a place for players to discuss and suggest improvements to the game. Enjoy!