Feudal Future: Difference between revisions
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* A number of Russian sci-fi novels portray future Russia as a restored monarchy with prosperous economy. Despite being a monarchy, civil rights are still enforced. This likely stems from the idea that Russian people need a single strong ruler who gets things done and doesn't get bogged down with politics and bureaucracy. The same novels will often portray the US as an [[The Empire|empire]] and/or a [[Wretched Hive]], which may or may not be caused by another civil war.
* In the ''[[Carrera's Legions|Carreras Legions]]'' series, the UN, after becoming a true world government for Earth, has over the centuries become this, with hereditary positions and a rather explicit caste system.
* Theodore Judson's novel ''The Martian General's Daughter'' takes place in the late 23. century on an Earth with a massively changed socio-political landscape. The main superpower is the [[Awesome McCoolname|Pan-polarian Empire]], [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|which spans most of the northern hemisphere]]. The empire's society and political philosophy is modelled after many previous eras of history, including the Roman and Greek empires of Antiquity and 18th and 19th century monarchies. Similarly to the writer's previous but unrelated novel, ''Fitzpatrick's War'', the novel mixes high sci-fi technology with a deliberately [[
* The atevi in the ''[[Foreigner (novel)|Foreigner]]'' series have a social structure whose closest Earth analogue is feudalism. This is due the the alien psychology of the atevi, making it pretty much impossible for them to have a social structure which isn't feudal-like. The [[Lost Colony]] of humans living on their planet still have a democracy.
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** The Zanscare Empire of ''[[Mobile Suit Victory Gundam|Victory Gundam]]'' takes the feudalism schtick even further. Their entire stated goal is to reinvigorate human society by replacing the increasingly impotent democracy of the Earth Federation with a return to a traditional feudal way of life. Might have actually done some good if it hadn't been for [[Evil Chancellor]] Fonz Ka Gatie manipulating things for his own benefit.
* [[Tenchi Muyo!|Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki]], The Jurai Empire, the largest stellar empire in the show, is ruled over by four Imperial Houses, from which the Emperor is 'elected' - it's never explained how they're elected, but the candidate pool doesn't seem to be that big, and generally goes to the most powerful candidate. Or whoever Seto-sama wants....
** Correction: Whoever ''[[Physical God|Tsunami]]'' wants, as it was their agreement with her that gives Juraian royalty their powers. And Seto actually installed just one emperor to the
* Pretty much all the major powers in ''[[The Five Star Stories]]'', though Democracies like the Trun Union are not unheard of. The United Hathuha Republic is a bit of an odd case, as its leader is elected (though not by the general public), but many of its member states have monarchies.
** Though Trun's president spends more time {{spoiler|[[King Incognito|selling his lance around]]}} than he does actually ruling his country, and Amaterasu Kingdom Demesnes is in fact a federated constitutional monarchy with elected parliaments both on the local and federal levels, which just happens to have monarchies for most of its member nations, and a [[Physical God]] for its emperor.
* [[The Empire]] in ''[[Legend of Galactic Heroes]]'' is basically [[Prussia]] [[Recycled in Space|in space]].
* Humankind Empire of Abh in the [[Crest of the Stars]] is a galaxy spanning polity uniting half of the whole Humanity, but is still has a complicated feudal structure with a three-tiered citizenship,<ref>subjects' right and freedoms are mainly determined by laws of their own planets, and on the federal level only few explicitly stated provisions apply to them, citizens are subject to the full extent of the Imperial laws, and the nobility -- the titular Abh -- have a third, entirely different set of rules, which in many ways is ''more'' limiting that the citizens' rights</ref>
=== [[Film]] ===
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*** The prince-regent of Anacreon specifically despised the Foundation for being ruled by a lowly commoner instead of a rightful nobleman, completely ignoring the fact that Terminus was settled by scientists without any noble blood.
* [[Katherine Kurtz]]'s ''The Legacy of Lehr''
* [[Elizabeth Moon]]'s ''[[Familias Regnant|Hunting Party]]''
* [[Poul Anderson]]'s [[Technic History]] included a Terran Empire. (Deliberately established on feudal-service lines by the "Founder" Manuel Argos the Great, before it went decadent.)
* [[Poul Anderson]] plays the trope for laughs in ''[[The High Crusade]]'', in which a party of Englishmen heading for the Crusades is hijacked by aliens and winds up establishing an empire because the aliens have forgotten how to do combat on land.
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* Simon R Green's ''Deathstalker'' series is a fairly dystopian version of this trope, and unlike many actually does deal with the difficulty of setting up a working system of democracy, although not in any great detail. Given that it was almost a gleeful self-parody of the whole space-opera genre, this is not particularly surprising...
* In [[Poul Anderson]]'s ''Corridors Of Time'', the hero realizes that the futuristic society that recruited him to fight a [[Dystopia]] is rather Dystopian itself when he is dropped in it and learns that the queen has high tech medical treatment while the poor woman he meets looks ancient at forty because of her lack of it.
* M.K. Wren's ''The Phoenix Legacy'', which is a more literal version of a
** In the Mankeen Revolt, a relatively recent historical memory, Lionar Mankeen attempted to liberate the Bonds by force. The attempt failed miserably and set back social progress a long way because the implementation was not well thought out; the Bonds were not only illiterate, but unused to handling money and working for wages, and Mankeen hadn't made preparations to alleviate those problems.
** The Society of the Phoenix was working to evolve the civilization into a true democratic republic, although acknowledging there were possible advantages to a constitutional monarchy. It wasn't going to be [[Easy Evangelism]], however; one Phoenix scholar estimated it'd take at least five and perhaps seven more generations before they achieved their
* The Praxis (Dread Empires Fall) has The Peers, Lords and Ladies born to a higher station.
* [[Lampshaded]] in an unidentified [[Space Opera]] story. Yes, the Earth of the 35th century (or whatever time it was) has a royal family, but it is purely ceremonial and came into being as the dual result of deregulation of royal succession laws and the members of the few remaining royal families going to the same types of parties, until eventually all the royal families had basically become indistinguishable from one another. Since by this time Earth had ceased to have countries or anything, the idea of their being a British/Japanese/Belgian/Monacoian/Dutch/whatever royal family anymore was dumb anyway so it was just decided that there would be a ceremonial "King/Queen of Earth" instead.
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=== [[Video Games]] ===
* The Elites/Sangheili from the [[Halo
** The leaders appear to be elected by the local council.
** The accepted way to express disagreement or disapproval with a leader is to assassinate him. However, if it fails, then the leader has a right to kill the councilman who has sent assassins, usually for cowardice. A proper Sangheili would do the job himself. If the leader kills the councilman for cowardice, then he may also have his entire family slaughtered or exiled, depending on his mood.
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