Kava
Government
Kava uses a plutocratic system of government, which means that money is the basis of power. All citizens with money thus have governmental power, proportional to the amount they have. Voting rights begin very early: upon reaching the age of five, all Kavan citizens are allotted a bank account with 100 dét in it, which they are allowed to spend however they wish. For comparison, a meal in a restaurant often costs about 5 to 10 dét and a one-night stay in a hotel might cost about 50 dét. On the other hand, items which people might want much of have government-enforced inflated prices: a piece of candy might cost 100 dét and a visit to the park may be in the thousands.
Voting
Voting is an everyday activity in Kava; Kavan citizens are expected to put politics first and the rest of their lives second. For children, voting is done in school. Adults may go to any of many polling places at whatever time of day is convenient for them; Kavans tend to work short hours, so they may spend as much time in a polling building as at work. More than 60% of Kava consisted of slaves (who could neither vote nor own money), so the short work hours of Kavans did not put a strain on the economy.
Kavans exercise their power by voting for propositions, not candidates. Each vote costs 1 dét to cast, but any person may put as many votes on a particular bill as he wishes. Thus a citizen who feels very strongly about an issue may choose to divert most of his personal fortune toward it while mostly or entirely ignoring issues that don't matter. This ensures that the outcome of bills will not be swayed by apathetic and uneducated voters voting simply and arbitrarily.
Citizens do also vote for candidates for various governmental positions, but the "offices" held by these people are merely administrative in nature, and do not give them any more power over the voting process. Nor are they paid positions. Incumbents in office can only be replaced by a younger candidate or one over the age of 50.
Money
Kava's national currency is the dét. The economy is entirely centrally planned, with no private business at all. This allows the government to set prices on every item, lowering the prices of necessary items to zero or near zero and making luxury items extremely expensive.
Upon reaching the age of 45, or when their eldest child reaches the age of 15, citizens are required to give up all their money to their children. If they have no children, they must choose some other citizen to give their money to. Afterward, they are allowed to earn money and vote again, but they must start from zero. Often, a parent will start giving large sums of money to their children even earlier than this, since if the child starts getting money earlier he can multiply it and therefore earn more money even faster (false). Any citizen can give up any amount of his money to any other citizen at any time. The most common form of voluntary transfer is from a parent to their child. Thus much power is in the hands of the young, and Kava tends to be forever on the brink of a radical revolution led by inexperienced but powerful minds.
Abuses
The Kavan system lent itself to some early abuses. Even though the Kavan system encouraged people to be independent, organizations of people with similar political ideals formed and pooled their money, and then required all of the members of the organization to vote the same way on all issues. The members would then all vote for each other for various offices, forming a solid political entity that could not easily be outvoted. If anyone decided to take action against the organization, members could simply hide themselves and have one person volunteer to give up all his money to the other members and then take all of the blame, leaving the organization as rich as it was before.
Often, these organizations would create schools, and invite parents of like mind to send their children into the school to be educated in the political ideals of the organization. This lent a small additional benefit due to the fact that it was legally harder to take money from a child than from an adult; thus money grew slightly faster when it was in the hands of the extremely young, even if they were not allowed by their parents to actually spend it.
Children and the disabled were often robbed of their money by others who, although they could not spend the money they stole (because it was marked), sought to reduce the political power of their opponents. Eventually multiple banks had to be set up where people could keep their money and carry only small amounts with them, but this prevented people from voting as often as they would desire.
Other information
Kavan soldiers could not vote; neither could Wamian and Vasabadian guest laborers. The only way a child could give money to an older person is by assassination (money goes to parents or godparents). Even murder is legal, because there are no crimes; punishment is decided on by votes instead of by jury.
