Wikipedia:Government

Introduction
Wikipedia is a collaborative project involving a vast number of editors. It is remarkable that disputes and deadlocks are a relatively rare occurrence. In many cases, disputes are due to bad editor behavior and adminstrative intervention can then be an effective tool to solve the problem. In some cases, however, editor behavior is not the fundamental cause of the problems; the topic itself may be too controversial for a clear consensus among editors to arise.

If this situation persist for a long time and the community is of the opinion that the status quo is detrimental to the project, elections for a Government can be held. The Goverment has the task to edit the topic for a limited time frame. Editors who are not part of the Government are barred from editing that topic until the Government's mandate expires, but they can edit the talk pages.

As part of dispute resolution, ArbCom can conclude that a topic should be edited by a Government. In such a case, ArbCom orders elections to be held.

Can we do without a Government?
It may be hard to believe now, but Wikipedia did not have a Government in the first eleven years of its existence. So, in theory, Wikipedia can function without a government, but that would come at the price of having to live with disputes and stalemates that were commonplace in Wikipedia's ancient history. Before the government system existed, the only way to influence the editing of a topic was to lock the article altogether or to topic ban some editors. Also, one could place an article under a general sanctions regime.

These measures were regarded as a success at the time, because the focus of dispute resolution was primarily to keep the peace between editors and not to maintain the content of Wikipedia. Things started to change after Google stopped to automatically give Wikipedia pages a high page ranking.

Then, after the Goverment has done its work, Wikipedians would feel far more responsible to maintain the article than in a stalemate-like situation that simply deters people who want to see change from getting involved.

Election procedures
Any editor may start a RFC on whether or not a government should be elected to deal with a specific problem. If a simple majority arises in favor of appointing a government, a 60 day period of campaigning will start. Editors can form parties and advertise how they would solve the problem if elected. A party has to comprise at least ten editors. Part of the election statement will be the requested set of Wikipedia pages that would fall under the Government's authority and the time period after which the Government's mandate expires.

After the 60 days campaigning period, the election is held. The party with the most votes wins the elections. In the rare case of a tie, a run-off election will be held after one week.

Recall elections
Editors who are unsatisfied with the editing by a Government can hold an RFC on recalling the government. The Government will be recalled if the number of voters exceeds the number of voters in the original elections and if at least 2/3 of the voters agree that the Government's mandate should be revoked. If the original election was ordered by ArbCom, then the relevant ArbCom case will resume.