Okay, I’ll layout a brief plan for a city state off the top of my head.
Firstly, the society needs a hierarchy. This represents the formation of the civil society. Hierarchy and the recognition of authority is the glue that binds men into a society; it is the basis of all collective action; it is what gives form to the institutions of the civil society and the nucleus of a state.
In hierarchical order we have:
- The High Priest
The High Priest is the source of ultimate power. He sanctions the head of state(the King) and divests power upon him. The King rules in God’s name whose blessings are conferred upon him by a mediator - the High Priest.
- The Priestly caste
The priestly caste are the spiritually ascended. They are in communion with God and their authority is manifest in the institutions of the church, and their duties and responsibilities are to guide the entire community on the right metaphysical path.
- The Bohemian or Spiritual caste
Philosophers, warriors, bards, sages, actors, artists, aesthetes, mystics, homosexuals, entertainers and eccentrics. The bohemian caste becomes a series of entrenched subcultures from which organic communities emerge such as the carnival and circus culture, the gypsy, the wanderer, the artist communities, the communes etc.
- Innovators and Specialists
This would be surgeons, engineers, scientists, inventors - any highly skilled specialists or people working in a significant and innovative way.
- The Artisan:Tradesman caste
This would be self explanatory. Specialised trades, craft and small business - innovator and producer not paper pusher or managerial
- Low Skilled Trades
Again, self explanatory.
- Bureaucratic class
Those in the civil service and those in white collar managerial positions in the private sector; paper pushers and shufflers; people who don’t quantifiably produce or measurably deliver some tangible service or fulfil some function. This is bureaucratic element of society that is despised and looked down upon and pushed down to the bottom of the strata. The innovative and productive members of society ascend the hierarchy and maybe transcend their caste and move up to the Bohemian class.
- New Money/Plutocrat caste
This is lowest caste in that no intrinsic value is ascribed to members of this caste. Making money is not in and of itself a noble goal and as such the plutocrat and indeed the entire finance and banking class is seen as a necessary evil; these are the lowest members on the chain.
Religion and politics are one in the same. The political class are the priestly and bohemian castes and Senators assume official religious functions as in the ancient world. Everything revolves around religious tradition and observance; even time itself - the calendar set to the creation of man, the year divided up by religious festivals; the week setting aside a Sabbath day and a day of worship. No one would ever consider the concept of “separation of church and state” - such an idea being alien to the mind of a people who live to serve God.
In terms of foreign policy, the city state is intensely insular and hostile to any outside cultural influence. It is inward looking and the people become a biological genetic bottleneck. A small number of genetic traits get amplified and a biologically and culturally distinct and unique population develops organically in confine. By necessity any foreign policy is guided by realism; however, the fundamental teleology underlying geopolitics is metaphysical and spiritual.
In order to not stray from the path of tradition; neither to the left nor the right; the city must emphasise cultural isolationism and shun cosmopolitanism and the values and traditions(or lack thereof) of other societies. The Spartans and the Japanese were very successful at maintaining tradition by sealing themselves off from the outside world. This is part of the reason to suppress certain types of knowledge from the lower castes. The priestly caste is above the bohemian caste and serves to repress negative impulses amongst the intelligentsia. The bohemian class has full access to all knowledge. They would control all access to the internet and to academia - the innovator and specialist classes having access to only scientific knowledge; the lower castes having access to no information other than such religious and practical information is needed. The important point to notice is that the highest caste - the priestly caste - have no access to scientific or metaphysical knowledge. They only have access to traditional religious knowledge.
So, the society relies upon a hierarchical theocracy/monarchy under which the highest class(priestly caste) is restricted from all knowledge outside of the official monotheism of the state. The state religion is the ultimate authority, it divesting its power upon the king; it retaining the right to confer him in his office or remove him at will.
The holders of knowledge - the bohemian class - is next in the hierarchy. They are the only people in society allowed access to all forms of knowledge. They are subordinate to the King and the Church. They have a duty to suppress knowledge and to control the zeitgeist of the people. They act as a “state within a state” and a secret society of sorts whose members; with a diverse range of metaphysical belief systems; can act as invisible hands behind the scenes guiding the less enlightened members of the community, both above and below them, and acting as a counterpoint to any undesirable impulses in the priestly or lower castes. They act as guards against nihilism and modernity. They bear a great burden in holding the knowledge that they hold and in hiding metaphysical knowledge from the rest of society. They are susceptible to fall prey to nihilism due to their immersion in it, and so their superiors - the priestly caste - must keep them in check when they stray from the traditional path.
^^ That’s an overview of my hypothetical city state
Edit: Before you say anything about “keeping the people stupid” - bear in mind, in my model the people whose knowledge is restricted - the priests and lower castes - are the wisest men of the realm.
