Note:Definitions
The Pillow Fortress has its own vocabulary of terms and phrases, most pre-existing, though with some neologisms, having specific meanings in the context of the Principality, its government, and its culture. This page seeks to document and explain such terms and phrases so as to reduce confusion.
General Terms
Fortressian
Fortressian is the adjectival form of Pillow Fortress, describing something as being of, relating to, or in the context of the Principality of the Pillow Fortress.
Examples: Fortressian culture, Fortressian cuisine, Fortressian news, etc.
Pillowan
Pillowan is the demonym for a citizen of the Pillow Fortress. It is a noun, and not an adjective, and its use as the latter is incorrect.
Examples: He is a Pillowan. She is a Pillowan. They are Pillowans.
Operational Terms
Activate
To activate some or another government organ is to staff it, that is, assign individual persons to carry out the responsibilities of that organ. Such staffing need not be optimal or maximal, but rather only to be at a level where the organ is capable of, to any degree, carrying out its responsibilities.
Deactivate
To deactivate some or another government organ is to remove its staff and cease all internal and external operations associated with its responsibilities. A deactivated organ continues to exist legally, and can at any time be activated again.
Disestablish
To disestablish is to remove or eliminate some government organ or another. Such a disestablished organ is no longer maintained, its assets and/or personnel are redistributed or reassigned, its powers and responsibilities, if they are to be retained, are granted to another organ. A disestablished organ ceases to legally exist.
Establish
To establish is to create a new government organ, be it at any level. To be established does not mean working or operating, but rather that the organ is considered legally to exist.
Organizational Terms
Branch
Branches are the highest level subdivision within an autonomous organization. Depending on the organization in which they are apart, branches may be categorized into different sorts based on function, such as administrative branches, general branches, oversight branches, etc.
Bureau
Bureaus are subdivisions within offices dedicated to aiding the office holder with a particular task, usually one large and important enough as to require specialized staff.
Commission
A commission is an autonomous group of individuals organized to study or report on a particular topic. Typically, a commission is less than an agency in terms of complexity, often lacking many support structures and instead sharing with or being attached to an established government entity.
Committee
A committee is a group of individuals with equal authority who act collectively to investigate, recommend, or carry out any other task given to them, with any action being decided upon by democratic means.
Component
Component, when not used as a general term for any subunit of a government organ, refers to a kind of grouping of like administrative tasks within the operation of a network node which is under some unified authority, typically a manager.
Department
Department has two meanings. The first is as a word which signifies the high level autonomous organizations within the Throne which are established, in theory if not concretely, by the Constitution. Examples: Department of Culture, Department of Defense, etc.
The second way in which department is used is to organize the academic faculty of a university by field of study. Example: economics department, musicology department, physics department, etc.
Estate
An estate is the highest level division within the Pillow Fortress. Estates categorize the different major aspects of the state, such as its government, its citizens, territory, etc.
Framework
A framework is any of a suite of generic subdivisions and components which have wide utility being established and duplicated across multiple government organs.
Independent Agency
Independent agencies are autonomous organizations whose internal structures and leadership hierarchies are independent of, that is, separate from, any other organization. This does not mean that independent agencies receive no oversight or can act arbitrarily, as ultimately all independent agencies are subordinate to other organizations which can audit them and replace their officers, but which don't manage the agency day-to-day.
Network
A network is the totality of a like kind of physical, semi-autonomous location operated by a government organ.
Office
Offices are an organizational component which consist of two parts. The first part is a particular position relating to a task which must be carried out. Grammatically, this takes the form of "Office of the X" where X is that position. The second component to an office is the staff which aids the person who holds the position (the office holder) with carrying out their task.
Order
An order is a branch of the Platinum Band.
Scheme
A scheme is the implementation of a plan to achieve an ongoing or recurring goal.
Section
Sections are a second level organizational subdivision, typically dividing branches into further specializations.
SOSO Business
State owned state operated businesses are independent agencies which are structured internally like for-profit corporations and which, at least to some degree, are intended to participate in the market.
Subsection
Subsections are third level organizational subdivisions, specifically those which divide sections into further specializations.
Theory Terms
post-SAWK
post-SAWK refers to any hypothetical future form of human organization that is fundamentally different from every other historical or contemporary form of human organization in terms of structure or composition.
SAWK
SAWK is an acronym for "state as we know" and refers to all historic and contemporary forms of human organization, including but not limited to states, corporations, clubs, churches, sports leagues, gaming clans, internet message boards, and families.