The political structure of the new empire is modelled closely on the social and political structures that formed on Greendock between the Fall and the formation of the New Empire. The fundemental concept within the Empires is that of fief and responsibility. The empire is divided into fiefs, called kingdoms. each kingdom is further subdived into fiefs, baronies. This continues through counties, also known as districts, onto towns, or in rural areas moots made up of a number of villages.
An imperial citizen swears loyalty to a fief and is then considered to be a citizen of that fief. Citizens of a fief pay taxes for that fief, and have to abide by the laws of that fief and it's parents but are exempt from the laws of the fiefs below theirs. A citizen must vote in all referendums and elections. Most fiefs have rules about how much time their citizens have to provide towards the governing of the fief, this is considered a form of tax. A citizen can choose to take the oath to a higher fief at any time by petitioning the ruling council, in most cases this petition is granted unless the person has aquired a reputation for oath breaking. A citizen can also request to be released from his oath to return to a lower fiefdom, again this petition will normally be granted but the petitioners reputation my be tarnished depending on the circumstances.
Each fief has a lord who rules in conjuction with a council made of of citizens of the fief. Half of the council is voted for by citizens of the sub fiefs and the other half chosen from citizens of the fief by lottery. Lordships are hereditary passing to the first born child or either sex. The heir to a lordship must be confirmed by a majority vote of his peers, if this does not occur the choice of heir is passed to the lord of the parent fief to decide. Lords are the final arbiters of the laws within a fief, whilst they listen to their councilors and the will of their citizens they make the final decisions. Of course a lord who continually overrules his council will soon aquire a bad requtation. The emperor can revoke a lords position if petitioned by any council.
The emperor is choosen by the council of kings from their number. When the emperor takes their position they must renounce their former titles with their heir inheriting as if they were dead. Emperors must also accept sterilisation as a condition of the position.
Much of the culture of New Empire is based around a persons reputation, one cornerstone of this is the Empire's distributed information system. Each member of Imperial society has access to this system and can publish any information they wish using a secure identity system. They can also rate any information someone else has published again with a secure identity tag. A persons reputation is based on a combination of the ratings their infomation has recieved, and from whom, and the information others have written about them, and the ratings these have recieved. If you insult a group of people they are likely to all express a bad opinion of you and rate the opionions each other expressed highly. This can have a damaging effect on your repuation.
Law in the Empire is seen to be more about the spirit than the letter. Much of the work of the ruling councils is to interpret the laws in situations where mutual understanding cannot be reached between people. Gaining a repuation as a lawyer is not one most people want. Where possible laws are kept as simple as they can be and councils will try to rule on them as quickly as possible.
All children in the Empire are considered wards of their parents until they choose to be made citizens. A childs actions reflect upon the reputation of their parents so children are brought up to abide by the laws of the land. Imperial law states that all children must be schooled at a school run by a Teacher. Parenthood is viewed as a privilege within the empire, a person of bad reputation may find their child removed from them and passed to the care of another, due to the nature of education provided by the Teachers this is unlikely to happen.