Alternate Histories of Willemstan - Volume I
This article was published on July 11th of 2021.
"What if there was no corruption and Joey won the first election?"
- Joey Badra to Ian Hampton in a discussion about the Willemstan Chronicles and Willemstan Elections in #propaganda, 07/11/21.
About
This is the first piece of Willemstani Literature, written on July 11th of 2021 by Ian Hampton and Joey Badra. The goal of this text is to (just for fun) explore two possible alternate histories of Willemstan. The first, is what if all the Willemstan Elections were without corruption, beginning with the Winter 2018 Election. Due to various biases in corruption over the years, Willemstan would have looked quite different without corrupt elections. The second topic is what if the coup never occurred. Without the coup, how would Willemstan have turned out?
Yes, we really do have enough free time on our hands to write fan-fiction about Willemstan.
What if the Willemstan Elections were not Corrupt?
Chapter One: Point of Departure
At the start of the Willemstan Discord Server, there was some controversy regarding the first election in Willemstan's history, which Josue Mejia won. During these initial months, it was uncovered that there was indeed some corruption, and there were calls by some to remove Charlie Nolan from power (as he was in charge of the election). What ended up happening was this controversy was quickly stamped out by Eli, Joey, and Charlie, who were in power at the time due to Jouse's absence. But what if that didn't happen? What if the reaction to this election corruption was much more severe? What if Eli, Charlie, and Joey were forced to concede that the election process was "too corrupt"? In this thought exercise, they are forced to amend the Willemstan Commandments to outlaw corruption in Willemstan elections, due to public outrage. For this scenario, it means that all prior Willemstan elections are forced to be fair, without corruption.
Due to the nature of this scenario, events would have probably ran very similarly until the Winter 2018 Election. Malcolm would have still been banned from the Discord server throughout 2018. The Willemstan - Wolfenstan War would have likely played out very similarly. The only real change that may have happened is a loss of confidence in the administration for a time, due to the corruption being exposed. However, considering that didn't happen when Willemstan Elections were finally changed to an uncorrupted system in 2021, there's no telling what public opinion on the administration would be in this scenario. Thus, we will assume that the people would be content with the corruption in other areas of Willemstan, just not the election process, which is how it is today.
Chapter Two: Winter 2018 Election
For the Winter 2018 Election in Willemstan, there were five candidates. These were Eli Payton, Joey Badra, Sean Kavanagh, David Giovanni, and Malcolm Hollingworth. During this election, the largest scandal was David's attempt at rigging the election by purchasing $20 worth of votes. This would have given him forty votes, more than enough to win the election. What ended up happening was Eli purchased votes for himself, and to remove votes from David. Charlie, who was running the election, also removed votes from David. The end result was a tie between David and Eli, which Eli won in a subsequent tie-breaker poll.
But in this timeline, none of that ever happens, because there is no corruption. Eli and David (especially David) receive significantly less votes. Instead of a close race between David and Eli, there ends up being a close race between Eli and Joey. Support for Sean and Malcolm doesn't really change in this scenario. In the end, we will assume that Joey wins the election, because Eli is without the purchased votes he paid for in our timeline.
So what does Joey's Dictatorship look like? Well, not very different than reality. Since Eli and Joey co-operated closely together during Eli's First Dictatorship, we would have likely seen a very similar Willemstan. The same changes to the Willemstan Commandments would have probably been made. The only real difference is that they would have been made under Joey's name instead of Eli's name, since Joey was the winner of the Winter 2018 Election in this scenario. Since Joey was the Right Hand Man under Eli's Dictatorship in our timeline, Eli would end up with this position instead.
However, one major change is that there wouldn't have been a change in leadership during the spring of 2019. In our timeline, Eli stepped down from power due to various reasons surrounding how Malcolm was treated in early Willemstan, resulting in Joey becoming Acting Dictator. For this scenario, Eli was not Dictator during early 2018, and so instead, a replacement for the Right Hand Man position would have to be found. This would have likely been Charlie. In all, the government would have been more stable during the first half of 2018, and the Political Drought would have been entirely prevented.
Chapter Three: Joey's Rule Continues
During May and June of 2019, the Summer 2019 Election was ongoing. There were only two candidates in this election, who were Joey (seeking re-election after his acting Dictatorship), and Eli Payton, who recently returned to Willemstan and was also seeking re-election. In our scenario, the election would have been pretty much the same, except for one minor detail. In our timeline, Eli ran as Annie Payton. However, in our scenario, Eli had yet to take power as Dictator. As a result, we will assume that he would choose to run as himself, and not Annie Payton. In our timeline, the Summer 2019 Election was one of the most corrupt in Willemstan's history. Both candidates received many fraudulent votes. However, Eli received the most fraudulent votes. In this scenario, with no corruption to be found, Joey is crowned the winner of the election, re-elected for a second term as Willemstan Dictator.
Under Joey's Rule, the Willemstan Economy would have likely been expanded. At the time, there was an initiative by Charlie and Joey to make bootleg computers with towers made of cardboard boxes. This may have seen more success than it did in our timeline. During his run for Dictator, Joey also promised more "harsh rules" and to "make Willemstan great again". As a result, Willemstan would have probably become more authoritarian and oppressive, or at the very least, the same level of oppression there was in our timeline. However, with Joey in a position of power for this long, it is very likely that Ian Hampton (and possibly a couple others) would have refused to join the server during 2019, due to mutual bitterness from years past.
Chapter Four: Cult of Personality
During December of 2019, the Winter 2019 Election occurred. There were five candidates. These were Sean Kavanagh, Lucy the Goose (Ian Hampton), Andrew Batten, Joey Badra, and Malcolm Hollingworth. In our timeline, this was a close race between Ian and Sean. However, in a scenario without corruption, the results of this election would have been radically different.
For one, Lucy the Goose would have been the first animal to run for Dictator, as Annie Payton likely would have not run in the prior election. However, that assumes that Ian even joins Willemstan during this time period. Another factor is that Joey Badra had already been Dictator twice, a full year. This could either help or hinder him in this election. A cult of personality revolving around Joey could have developed by this point, with citizens blindly supporting Joey to insure he remains in power indefinitely. The rational behind this could be that the citizens want to continue the golden age that Willemstan has experienced thus far, or simply keeping Joey in power for the meme. However, the fact that Joey has been in power for so long may also hinder him in this scenario, as the citizens may want change. It is really impossible to say for sure. In the Winter 2019 Election in our timeline, the vast majority of votes for Sean and Ian were fraudulent. As a result, in this Willemstan without corruption, Joey Badra would likely be elected for a third time.
Chapter Five: Indefinite Rule
2020 was a year of radical change and excitement for Willemstan. The pandemic brought a surge of activity to the server. The Controversial Period brought great reforms and drama to the server. While it is true that under Joey's reign so far, Willemstan has experienced a golden age (thanks to the absence of the Political Drought), 2020 could be quite boring in comparison. While SuS may be pretty much the same in this timeline, there is no reason for the Willemstan Coup, as the Willemstan 1.1 reforms would have never happened without Sean. It is possible that Dawson may influence Joey in some way in this alternate timeline, but nowhere near enough to trigger that kind of response. If a coup were to occur for whatever reason, it would be radically different and done for a completely different reason. Perhaps Malcolm would crown himself as Dictator. There would be no reason for him to pass it off to Eli, as he never became Dictator in this timeline at all. Joey was also never subscribed to SuS Premium, so a hypothetical coup would have to occur through some other means.
Another important event would be completely absent in this scenario. Even if Ian were present in Willemstan during 2020, he would likely never create the Willemstan Wiki, as nowhere near as much as happened under this Willemstan compared to our Willemstan. In all, Willemstan is likely set up for a rather bland 2020, which could spell doom for Joey's indefinite rule, or maybe even Willemstan itself. If things were to spice up, the landscape would be unpredictably different. There is no telling what the future would bring.
Chapter Six: Conclusion
In all, this scenario would ultimately be one of an uncertain fate for Willemstan. Joey Badra's rule throughout all of 2019 would bring a golden age for Willemstan, as without the political drought, things would have probably been more interesting. However, leading into 2020 and beyond, this indefinite rule by Dictator Joey Badra may have actually hurt Willemstan in the long run. The lack of a diverse past aside from 2018 means a rather bland past for Willemstan, and a bland future without the coup, wiki, and other key future events. If Joey were ever toppled from power, it is possible a reactionary movement would take control, and implement a term limit to prevent another indefinite Dictatorship. Charlie, Sean, and Ian's computer fuckery would have likely still happened, but it would have been much more disconnected from Willemstan.
What if the Coup Never Happened?
Chapter One: United States of Willemstan
During February of 2020, Malcolm successfully discovered where the tokens collected via SuS Premium were located. Of the tokens he obtained, the most important was Sean Kavanagh's, who was Dictator at the time. Later, in June of 2021, Malcolm would use the token to briefly take control of Sean's account, in order to transfer server ownership to Eli Payton. This event, known as "the coup", derailed the major reforms to Willemstani society that Sean passed a month earlier. But without the coup, the United States of Willemstan would continue uninterrupted. Or would it?
For context, on May 3rd of 2020, then Dictator Sean Kavanagh, and his two admins, Charlie and Dawson, reformed Willemstan from nearly the ground up. The old governing document, the Willemstan Commandments, was thrown out and replaced with an entirely new document: the Willemstan Amendments. Almost all of the Discord server was erased and restructured from the ground up. However, the most important change was the overhaul to the election system, and the dissolving of all admin positions. This is what inspired Malcolm and Eli to take control of the server, as the citizens grew unhappier with the reforms overtime. However, without the coup, there would be no opportunity to take control of the server. The citizens would be forced to live through the new changes, and Willemstan's course could not be changed.
Despite how grim this sounds, it wasn't that cut and dry. Charlie and Sean did in fact hear the complaints of the citizens. And while they did a horrible job of acknowledging this at the time, they were planning on making a series of new changes to Willemstan in order to get the Summer 2020 Election going. In our timeline, they never got a chance to enact these plans. But without the coup, it is likely these plans would have been enacted sometime in late June, and the Summer 2020 Election would finally proceed.
Chapter Two: Summer 2020 Election
In our timeline, there was no Summer 2020 Election. It was canceled after the coup. But in this scenario, the election would actually proceed, albeit a bit later than expected. The main differences with the election process is that Charlie promised it would be fairer than all previous elections. The Summer 2020 Election would likely follow a process similar to all the other past elections though, as Charlie later stated they planned on reverting the system back. In the end, the final product would likely be similar to that of a normal election, but maybe without vote purchasing and other means of corruption. Sean would have definitely ran in order to get re-elected. Other candidates may have included Joey, Malcolm, and Ian. It is unclear if Eli would actually run in this scenario, as he only took power during the coup because Malcolm asked him to. Given the fact that his previous dictatorship as Annie Payton was poorly received, it is probably a safe bet to assume that Eli Payton would not run for Dictator, but instead would hope to be a member of the winning candidate's administration.
The election would end up a close race between Sean and Ian. The winner would probably depend entirely on the extent of corruption allowed by Charlie. This is because historically, both have had strong support for various reasons. During our timeline's Winter 2019 Election and Winter 2020 Election, Sean won the election due to overwhelming corruption on his behalf. By contrast, Ian won our timeline's Winter 2021 Election, the first fair election, and was probably a popular choice for Dictator at the time of the coup-era due to the rising Willemstan Wiki. Therefore, there shall be a chapter dedicated to each candidate, in order to compare two alternate paths from the Winter 2020 Election.
Chapter Three: Continuation of Kavanagh
Sean's Second Dictatorship would likely be spent applying patchwork on the Willemstan 1.1 reforms, due to influence from both the citizens and his administrators (which would likely be Charlie and Ian). There wouldn't be any "Willemstan 1.2" reforms as we would know it, but the end result of his dictatorship would return Willemstan to a new normal. Just like in our timeline, where Sean realized the 1.1 reforms were mostly a mistake. However, the difference here is that Sean would be in control of repairing Willemstan, instead of Eli and the Construction Crew. The New Articles of Willemstan would be heavily amended at the very least, or scrapped entirely at worst. From there, a return to the Willemstan Commandments or the creation of a new governing document would result. There is no way to know for sure.
The Winter 2020 Election would probably run very similarly to how it did in our timeline, with a few changes. For one, since the coup never happened, Charlie was never removed from power, so he would likely remain the sole election manager. Sean would probably not run for a third term. As a result, Charlie, Eli, or Malcolm would likely win the election, depending on the level of corruption. At some point, Willemstan elections would likely turn corruption-free like in our timeline, as the drama from vote outsourcing and corruption would still remain a problem.
Chapter Four: Return to Old Willemstan
If Ian Hampton won the Summer 2020 Election in this scenario, Willemstan would be hit with a wave of reactionary reforms. The Willemstan 1.2 reforms would still exist, but would be directed primarily by one person (Ian), instead of a group of people. As a result, the Construction Crew would not exist. The New Articles of Willemstan would also still exist and be relatively similar to the one in our timeline, but would of course be slightly different, as the influence of the other Construction Crew members would be absent. The Willemstan Salt Mine would have likely been established during this time, so many months earlier than it was in our timeline. Other election reforms would also be passed, including the end to the 1 party system. However, the subsequent Winter 2020 Election would still be heavily corrupt, and as a result, it would be rigged in either Sean, Charlie, or Ian's favor.
Going into 2021, events would likely play out similarly to our timeline, no matter who of the above three people won the election. This is due to the obvious fact that the three of them would certainly include each other in their respective administrations. The Empire of Willemstan directive would likely still occur, alongside the free election reforms. Beyond the Summer 2021 Election, however, things begin to become unpredictable. Ian would certainly not run for a back to back term, leaving Eli as the likely winner of the election.