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On Fri, 5/2/14, Carlos <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [TML] Rules for fleshing out balkanized worlds?
 To: xxxxxx@simplelists.com
 Date: Friday, May 2, 2014, 1:25 PM

 On Fri,
 May 2, 2014 at 10:18 PM, Bruce Johnson <xxxxxx@pharmacy.arizona.edu>
 wrote:

 To bring it back to Carlos’ question, perhaps
 ‘Balkanized’ merely refers to the major powers, or the
 fact that there are Imperial Starports in four or five major
 countries, each with different Gov/Law/TL’s…and ALL
 planets are an amagamation of a bunch of different political
 entities.

 That's actually a
 very good point. Suppose for a moment that there is a clear
 definition of what a "major" state is. Then a Gov
 code of 7 indicates that there are at least 2 of those,
 while every other Gov code says that there is just one of
 them, whose government is as specified in the Planetary Gov
 code, *but* there might be a bunch of minor ones.

 Bruce, you hit referee gold
 there. I like that. A minimal departure from canon which
 allows you to have small countries with any government you
 like in any planet the PCs happen to be. I feel a home rule
 coming.

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And there are a number of various polities right here on earth w/ varying degrees of autonomy/sovereignty which could be used as initial templates.
And some of them even describe themselves as 'sovereign' nations when they clearly are not according to the common definition of such.
The potential tension could be used as a plot-hook