Talk:Condominium

Although we've stayed purposefully vague as to why condominiums work better on IB, it occur to me that without breaking QSS, we could assume that the term *there* cover more then one system and simply means "a land over which 2 or more countries exercise authority". This would allow us a bit more flexibility in explaining some places.

There are a few arrangements I can think of that would be workable are these (feel free to add on):

(for the sake of simplicity, "MC" here refer to mother coutries, i.e., those nations that exercise some form of authority.)

- Top Most Condominium: The country is autonomous all internal aspect but the head of state (and probably head of ministries and government agency) needs to be accepted by both MC. Alternatively, some from of elected parliement submit a list of candidate to both MC who chose one from among it.

Inhabitants have originaly only the citizenship of the condominium but are probably able to gain one of the MC's one more easily and/or can get a special type of visa to work and study in the MC.

This is probably best for buffer states. It doesn't cost anything to maintain (due to their autonomy) and the mandatory confirmation of head of state ensure that it wont be one that favour one NC over the other.

- Confederated Enclaves: The condominium is divided into 2 or more enclaves. Each one is considered a part of one MC and its inhabitant have its citizenship. There is a central government with very limited powers (mostly things like ensuring the maintenance of roads, postal services, etc...). If there is a great number of enclaves psread all over the place, giving the land condominium status could have been the best way to avoid starting (or more probably, restarting) a war over borders. The confederation is probably not considered a distinct country by other governments and organisations (no olympic delegation or embassy for example).

- Partial Condominium: Part of the country is controled by 2 or more MCs. the parts in question might be contiguous with an MC or might be inhabited by an ethnic group related to it. The central government is sovereign except is certain matters within those zones. These matters could be cultural (the curriculum on a zone being dictated by a given MC) or physical (no engineering work is allow in the zone without the MC permission).

This type of condominium (which is pretty much what jervaine would be *there*) could be a more forcefull type of "top most condominium" described above. Alternatively, it could be an occupied country on its way toward recovering autonomy: the government is sovereign over the country except for matters regarding the demilitarized zones near the MCs borders.

- True Condominium: There is no central government but rather, decision are taken by concensus between the local representatives of the MCs. Various regions could be administered by unelected representative that answer to one MC (depending on the situation, military governor, company officials, etc...) or they may alternate governance between them.

If there is (or was) a native population, its right and obligations might vary from one region to another where they may or may not have some form of representative. MCs citizens might be "above the law" in regard to the native population but would still have to answer to his own government (there might be an agreement that citizens must be tried by there own MCs no matter where a crime was commited).

This is the most unstable of condominium (and historicaly real) and its probably safe to assume that few if any modern ones still exist on IB.

Comments ? - Marc pasquin

Sounds good to me. I imagine that your "Topmost Condominium" would be quite common. That's how I see Meidji-dò, for example. Though, I'd imagine that the Heads-of-state might well be the HOS's of the two MC's. That is, Meidji-dò has, as Heads of State, the Emperor of Japan (presently Aico) and the President of Alta California (Arnoldo Schwarzenegger), with a Head of Government approved by both.

A possible subtype of your Confederated Enclaves might be a situation where two or more states control a sparsely-populated region. Each settlement within that region would belong to one or the other MC, but the uninhabited regions (or, historically at least, the regions populated by natives) would be co-administered by the MC's, perhaps mandating, for example, that any ores discovered would be divided between both MC's, perhaps on a 50/50 basis, or, say, 60% to the discoverer, or some other arrangement. Nik 17:47, 4 April 2006 (PDT)

The "Top-most Condominium" sounds like what's going on in Thailand *there*. Would tributary states be considered this form of condominium too? --Sikulu 06:36, 6 April 2006 (PDT)

I was thinking it would help everyone understand this further if you gave more examples, both historical and current. For example, would any of the SNOR puppet states count as (theoritical) Top Most Condominia? Zahir 07:50, 6 April 2006 (PDT)

They sound too much like puppet-states or protectorates to me. A condominium is an area of land which is directly administered by more than one polity, and which is universally recognised as such, otherwise it would simply be a disputed territory. A puppet-state is a polity which is de jure independent, but is heavily influenced by an external polity, the hegemon. A protectorate, however, is a polity which has (at least some) jurisdiction over its internal afairs, but with the suzerain directing its foreign policy. --Sikulu 07:58, 6 April 2006 (PDT)

Condominium require 2 (or more) states to control a 3rd one, puppet states then couldn't be unless they were propped up by a number of backers. Mind you, a country could be *presented* as a condominium when in truth one of the backer is, itself, a puppet state of the 3rd one. --Marc Pasquin 17:27, 4 June 2006 (PDT)