Why is government in film always so bad?

The Kenyan journalist Patrick Gathara wrote a fascinating review of the new Marvel movie Black Panther last month. It zeroes in on the issue of governance in Wakanda, the fictional African nation where the film’s hero, Prince T’Challa, is part of the royal family.

Wakanda is the world’s most technologically advanced nation, yet despite its wealth, Gathara writes disbelievingly of how a place with “the most advanced tech and weapons in the world nonetheless has no thinkers to develop systems of transitioning rulership that do not involve lethal combat or coup d’etat".

The review got us thinking: why is good government so rare in the movies? In all our most imaginative flights of pop culture fantasy, humanity seems almost unable to dream up even a passably efficient bureaucracy or an intergovernmental organisation that isn’t corrupt.

What is it about government that works that’s inherently unromantic or dull? We don’t really have the answer. But since we spend a lot of our time trying to write stories about policies that make a difference and public servants who improve the world, we thought it’d be interesting to look at some fictional examples of the opposite. So here’s four fantastical or sci-fi governments in need of serious reform.

Black Panther: Wakanda

In Black Panther, Wakanda is rich thanks to its stores of the extremely rare (fictional) metal Vibranium, pretty much all global stocks of which lie within the country’s borders. But to protect this precious asset, the country pretends to be poor, hiding much of its true nature from Western eyes behind a forcefield. It is a hereditary monarchy, with the movie’s eponymous hero heading home to claim the throne early in the plot.

“The movie trots out many of the same destructive myths about Africans that circulate the globe,” Gathara wrote in his review. “At heart, it is a movie about a divided, tribalised continent, discovered by a white man who wants nothing more than to take its mineral resources, a continent run by a wealthy, power-hungry, feuding and feudalist elite.”

Of course, some people might say that there’s nothing sinister going on here: action movie-goers would just rather see mighty kings battle with supervillains than watch the Wakandan parliament debate the Forcefield Renewal Bill (3rd Reading.)

Harry Potter: The Ministry of Magic

In the Harry Potter universe - born from the beloved children’s books by British writer J.K.Rowling - non-wizards are referred to disparagingly as “muggles". Mostly portrayed as small-minded, boring and helpless, the clear message of the series is that living in their grey, magic-free world is undesirable in the extreme.

But here’s why I would tear up my Hogwarts invitation and stay put in muggle-land: I’d prefer not to live in a place where myriad failures of government, economy, and social cohesion have created the conditions in which Lord Voldemort’s two murderous fascist regimes can rise within a decade.

In the wizarding world, the bloated and ineffective “Ministry of Magic” oversees many aspects of daily life, yet is led by Cornelius Fudge, a largely incompetent man who relies on informal advice from Albus Dumbledore, a headteacher with no specified security clearance. The line between his executive and the “Wizengamot” judiciary is troublingly blurry.

Elsewhere Gringotts, a single monolithic bank, holds a monopoly over the storage of virtually anything valuable, its secrets kept not only from any regulator but from anyone of a different race than its goblin proprietors. Slavery (of “house elves”) is legal. Belief in the innate superiority of “pure-blood” wizards is widespread enough for Voldemort to seize power.

And there’s the point. The many systemic failings of this steampunk hellworld are partly responsible for Voldemort’s rise. But he can only be stopped by Potter, a plucky individual willing to break an ever-escalating series of laws (beginning with his school’s already lax health and safety rules and ending with “forbidden curses.”) After being raised on this, don’t be surprised if an entire generation suddenly turns out to be ultra-libertarian.

Star Wars: The Galactic Republic

The Star Wars prequel trilogy movies are a goldmine for comparative government fans: they can basically be read as cautionary parables about the dangers of constitutional weakness and poor corporate oversight (this probably helps explain their less-than-stellar reception.)

The worst failing of government in the Galactic Republic is obviously when its Chancellor turns out to be a dark wizard bent on dominating the universe. The evil Galactic Empire is born because the Republic is too weak and ignorant to prevent the sinister Senator Palpatine from ascending to a position of unchallenged power and then gradually dissolving its democratic institutions.

But even without the intervention of the dark side of the force, the whole system would have needed serious reform. Authoritative fansite Wookiepedia hones in on an absolutely fundamental flaw in the design of the Republic: “For centuries, the Republic expanded not through force, but by quietly exerting a strong magnetic pull towards neighboring systems,” Its article said.

Yet: “the Republic remained slow to invite new systems into its fold, as the addition of new territories diminished the political power of existing senators.

“As a result, the Galactic Centre represented the beating heart of the Republic that habitually drew wealth and power from the hinterlands, with most senators dismaying at the extension of services and protection to outlying worlds.”

There you have it. Ensure your political system is set up to encourage inclusive growth, or face the consequences, which may or may not include the creation of planet-destroying battlestations.

Terminator: US Government

Fantasy and sci-fi is rife with governments who fail to plan sensibly for long-term problems (think of the looming threat of Game of Thrones’ White Walkers).

But the Terminator franchise, in which some lines of poorly thought-out code doom humanity to years of warfare against horrifying skeleton-robots, surely ranks among the biggest blunders.

In the series, the prime antagonist is an artificial intelligence called SkyNet, a robotic defense system which controls legions of robots. But it was created to protect the United States. The problem? When it went live, it decided humanity itself was a threat that had to be neutralised, then launched a nuclear war.

It’s not clear which hapless programmer is responsible for the screw-up, but once can only conclude that the US government’s ill-advised contract with the Skynet’s private sector creator “Cyberdyne Systems” suffered from insufficiently clear goals or poor oversight.

(Picture credit: Stephen Bowler/Wikimedia Commons)

Josh Lowe
Josh.Lowe@Apolitical.co