Rhinom (world)
Rhinom (Deneb 0717)
Rhinom is a good example of an ancient Solomani principle called Dworkin's Law. Every human society requires a set level of defined deviance, of boundaries of right and wrong behavior. But balance must be struck between normality and deviance, so that in authoritarian or totalitarian societies, given the strong public prohibitions that exist there must exist a soft underbelly of private corruption or license to compensate. In most such societies this takes the form of sexual freedom, heightened by the constraints of surveillance and official restriction. On Rhinom it takes the form of a speculative free market that borders on the outrageous.
Getting a license to do business is a painful bureaucratic death march through red tape and different government ministries. Offworlders need years of effort and the sponsorship by local business chambers before getting permission to sell goods in the general planetary market. Each chamber is akin to a mercantile guild, but these do little more than set the competitive guidelines for each industry or local market. On Rhinom business is a bloodsport, with few rules other than recognition of the sanctity of those laws enforced by the government and private property. Conflict on the world is uncannily reminiscent of old trade wars in the old Imperium.
Though it may seem that the tactics and unsavory people that such conflicts favor would be contrary in spirit to a authoritarian society, in reality it helps soak up the sociopathic tendencies of would be rebels and dissidents. Businessmen compete for money, power and status. The corporate spies, security and guttertrash they hire to do battle come from alienated sections of the local middle class. Their struggles are duely recorded in the local media, and quarterly profit reports are hawked and digested in popular print and holovision shows. The nature of the local society is largely free agent in nature, and the most successful operatives and mercenaries are themselves celebrated as people of fame and power.
Against this backdrop the government of the Twylo family operates quietly, enforcing strict laws against political opposition, and crushing most dissent. The cooptation of the most successful "gamesman", whether spies or business executives, into the local power structure helps cement loyalty to the regime. A large underground movement exists on Rhinom, but it is powerless to change conditions on the world. So far no Representational Referendum has ever been convened for a government change.