The Gathering:
"...was not a parliament. Almost its sole power was moral." (p. 110)
The Lawspeaker, who presides, had to know all the codes before literacy became widespread and still needs a good memory.
Thus, Gathering and Lawspeaker on Ishtar resemble Khruath and Wyvan on Ythri and Avalon, the main difference being that a Wyvan can try to enforce a Khruath decision by crying Oherran. But that is a big difference. The Ythrian system works only because Oherran is rarely necessary. Permanent Oherran would be permanent civil war or like the death penalty for every offence.
Poul Anderson imagines differences between human and alien institutions but his alien institutions can be similar to each other.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
More exactly, perhaps, Anderson had in mind Iceland, before the Sturlung Age began, in 1180. The Althing was presided over by the Lawspeaker, who had to be thoroughly familiar with Icelandic laws and precedents. Decrees of the Althing could only be enforced by consensus.
It worked, as long as the clan chiefs and their followers were willing to accept it. It failed after about 1180 when warring clans and factions refused to accept gov't by consensus.
Ad astra! Sean
Which is of course the weakness of consensus: eventually, some conflict will escalate to the point where one party or another will just say "sod it" and go all-out.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Exactly, which is why the State, any State, has to have a monopoly of violence to enforce its decisions on a dissenting minority at times when it really does matter.
I recall you commenting Anderson came to reluctantly agree with that, and moved away from the kind of libertarianism seen in the Ythrian stories, THE WINTER OF THE WORLD, and FIRE TIME.
Ad astra! Sean
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