Government
In Eco world, players can group together to create the leadership of the world they are on. Governments can range from extremely overbearing and intrusive to very minimalist based on how the players would like their government to act. Each world can only have one "World Leader", but the world can be divided up into districts which can have differing levels of tax, voting rights, or property rights.
A governments main methods of interacting with the world is through Laws which can be set and altered by players who are permitted by the law to do so, and Taxes which can encourage or discourage certain actions based on what the government wants.
While it is possible to make a vast array of different types of governments, you have to convince the other players to agree to change Laws to create the system you would like to see. For example if you would like to create a democracy, you need to convince everyone who can currently vote (which may just be the World Leader) to agree to a new law allowing everyone (or a select group of players) the right to vote.
A major concern for many governments is how to distribute the currency they have collected as taxes. Some governments may want to hoard the wealth they acquire, while other may freely create Contracts that redistribute the wealth back to the players if they complete specific tasks (such as creating roads, or providing food to a central fund).
Elections
Players can call an election and nominate themselves for world leader at any time through the Laws menu. Players can write a short "speech" to go along with their candidacy that will be broadcast to all server players.
Once an election is called, players on the server have 24 hours to vote for the candidates or add themselves as nominees.
Voting is done in the Web Interface using a preferential voting system. Players may rank their candidates by order of preference.
World Leader
After 24 hours, a player is elected leader based on the voting results.
The world leader has the power to set the World Objective and to set tax rates at the Treasury.
Treasury & Taxes
There are currently 4 types of taxes, all of which are deposited directly into the Treasury bank account:
- Sales Tax
- Crafting Fee Tax
- Contract Tax
- Direct Transfer Tax
Other Types of Government
By altering Laws, a variety of forms of government can be formed. This is done by altering or restricting which selected demographic can vote on laws. For example if you remove the rights of citizens to vote and only allow a newly created demographic to be able to vote you have effectively created an Oligarchy. Or if you only allow yourself to vote, you have effectively changed the type of government to an Autocracy.
