Eurocracy

This article is about a board game. For the general sense, see eurocrat.

Eurocracy is a board game about the European Union. The aim of the game is to become President of the European Union.

Play

The game board has all member states of the EU. Each player plays the leader of a real political party movement that exists across Europe. Each party is supported by two social groups (conservatives, by vested interests, and the army, Greens by refugees and by environmentalists). Shifts in power between these social groups make winning more or less likely.

Players move around the board by throwing dice and landing on major cities in an "election campaign". If no political party/movement "has" the city landed on the player wins it and gets 3 members of the European Parliament. A player landing on an occupied city may challenge the incumbent to new elections. Majority control of all cities in a whole state grants ministers in numbers depending on the size of the state (Poland 3, Latvia 1).

With 150 members a player "forms a European government" and wins the game. Parties can ally by negotiating to jointly form a government, trade ministries, and so on. As such it is not an accurate representation of the EU's government system, which does not have a government selected by Parliamentary vote. It takes about an hour to play.

Educational use

The game seems intended largely to publicize the concept of Europe in countries where European government is new or less visible. In a tour of 40 secondary schools in Denmark, Norway, Poland, students who played it said "if this is Europe, we love it", according to a Radio Netherlands report.

In its classroom application, students that win get to make speeches and debate as if they had actually won a party leadership and election. They move quickly from the board game to the actual mechanics of simulated elections in the classroom, so they can see the continuity between the abstractions of an electoral system and factions in a parliament, and the actual jobs politicians do.

Period of reflection

During the period of reflection, which was called for by the European Council after the rejection of the Constitution for Europe by the French and the Dutch electorate, the game Eurocracy has been utilised in the YOU4UROPE Reflection Tour. The finals of the YOU4UROPE tour were held on June 7, 2006 in the European Parliament in Brussels. The participants presented their 'Fruits of Reflection' to the Vice-President on the European Commission Margot Wallström and to the Vice-President of the European Parliament Alejo Vidal-Quadras.

External links

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