Skeleton Government

""One main problem in calling the Empire evil is that we are offered precious little information as to how the Empire is run. It could be a democracy for all we know.""

- Anti-Shurtugal on The Empire of Eragon

Skeleton Government (as per the term Skeleton Crew, referring to the bare minimum to operate a vessel) is pretty much a simplified version of governments to the point of resembling authoritarian dictatorships, if even that. If some sort of public servants are shown, expect them to be soldiers.

Especially common in fantasy and sci-fi, either because it's not relevant or because the author didn't bother, and in children's television, since it's quite hard to explain to a child how a government runs without reprising the "Bill" from Schoolhouse Rock.

May be a Strawman Political or Designated Villain, especially if it's The Empire. See also Easily-Conquered World. For a government run by skeletons, see The Necrocracy.

Literature

 * In the Inheritance Cycle, the main governing body is called The Empire, even though it is ruled by a king and has an illogical centralized government.
 * The Shire government in The Lord of the Rings. Justified because hobbits naturally tend towards the good, and consequently tend to manage their own affairs without much hassle- the main services the government provides are post and (relatively minor) law enforcement.
 * In Snow Crash, the government jurisdiction is extended to the Post Offices and FBI offices, since even the CIA has become the "Central Intelligence Corporation."
 * They still have "Franchise" governments which have been known to include super-powered cyborg dogs enforcing gun-control. Also, the Mafia acts fairly government-like. It's been mentioned that they help clean up high-crime areas.
 * In James Howard Kunstler's World Made By Hand,there is no longer any real government in the USA due to a lack of oil. When the main character reaches Albany, New York, he finds that the state capital has but a few people 'running' it. They even admit that they have no power, calling themselves 'a skeleton crew sailing a kind of Flying Dutchman of governent'.
 * In Franz Kafka's "The Trial", the Court can be seen as this. It is a powerful institution perceived to be unreachable, but nothing is actually known about it. It could be a democracy and executing the legitimate will of the people. It's not even known if the highest levels of the Court are actually unreachable, because no one in the novel even tries.

Video Games

 * The Legend of Zelda series: Besides Princess Zelda, the guards, and sometimes a mayor, Hyrule appears to be more a loose confederacy of autonomous city-states than a kingdom
 * In Final Fantasy VIII, the government of Galbadia seems to consist entirely of the president and the Minister of Defense, up until Edea's coup d'etat. After her Heel Face Turn, Seifer, her teenage bodyguard, becomes head of state apparently by default.
 * Most of the nations in Nation States are like this. It is justified by no player actually wanting to explain every single government institution.
 * The Mushroom Kingdom from Super Mario Bros. (and Bowser's kingdom) fall under this, it's never really shown that they have any officials so to speak other than the princess and/or a king and a bunch of random advisers and, perhaps, the Mushroom Chancellor from Super Mario RPG. The former also has no real shown army or method of defense other than "call Mario and Luigi to sort out their problems". We can see why everyone likes Peach then, apparently they have no taxes and their "defense budget" consists of giving Mario some princess booty cake.
 * Slightly better in Super Star Saga, where there are some officials related to the relations between the Mushroom and Bean-Bean Kingdoms. The Bean-Bean Kingdom also seems like more of an established Monarchy, and is also a far richer state. (1,000,000 Mushroom Coins = 10 Bean-Bean coins).
 * Exchange rates aren't always indicative of a countries wealth. Currently (March 19, 2011) 80 yen is about $1 Australian. However, Australian is the 17th country by GDP while Japan is third. A better determination of wealth might be how much one can buy with equivalent amounts of money in said countries, averaged over all industries (since a smaller island nation has less grazing land and more fishing, beef is proportionately more costly than fish).
 * In Fable and its sequel, the only authority figures in the whole of Albion are the mayor of Bowerstone and the chief of Knothole glade. Someone must be organising all those guards. Subverted in Fable III, where the plot revolves around becoming the king!
 * It's hard to call that much of a subversion, considering that there doesn't seem to be much in the way of checks and balances on royal power and the bureaucracy that carries out the king's orders (if any) is largely invisible. The hierarchy appears to be nearly as simple as King > King's Butler > Low-Level Guardsman.
 * Pokémon has hints to some sort of government, with the Nurse Joys and Officer Jennys in every city, and the very efficiently organized Pokemon battling hierarchy. But the government never plays much of a part in the story in either the game or the anime. The games actually have a stronger police presence and even park rangers but the criminal syndicates also have a much tighter grip on the world in the games so...
 * Taken to extremes in Orre, where the player characters encounter precisely two police officers, and both in Pyrite Town, where there are more low-end hooligans than you can shake a Pokeball at. Is it any wonder Cipher's running the show in Pokemon Colosseum?
 * Given the fact that about everything in the Pokemon world seems to revolve around Pokemon training and battles, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say that the Pokemon League organizers are the government. They also presumably would have little opposition. It would be some sort of semi-social Darwinist meritocracy, but they seem nice enough.
 * And this is more or less explicitly the case in the Pokémon Special manga. The League chooses the Gym Leaders, who in turn are law-enforcers along with their Gym duties and are very well organized in getting together to take on threats. The Elite Four, as shown in the RS arc and possibly the HGSS one, are brought in when things get really serious.
 * Gears of War has the players under the banner of the "Coalition of Ordered Governments" (COG). That said, the actual government shown in the games is almost nill. Chairman Prescott, the only character representing non-military leadership, isn't even introduced until the opening cinematic of the second game. Justified in the third game, where the opening cinematic has Anya Stroud recording a message that, since Prescott has gone missing and there are no freestanding COG cities left, they cannot call themselves a government any longer.

Web Comics

 * In City of Reality the government consists solely of the mayor. Who is a rabbit puppet.

Western Animation

 * In The Fairly Odd Parents, when the government building is invaded, its completely empty. The only civil servant seems to be Jorgen. However, since fairies are effectively omnipotent and immortal, he is portrayed less as a dictator and more like a volunteer. In season six, it's revealed that there is a Fairy Council that handles a lot of things, like declaring that no more fairies are to be born. The "Wishology" trilogy shows us that they are still active.
 * In WITCH, the entire planet of Meridian seem to be run by a single monarch, assisted by a couple of advisors. In a particularly Egregious scene in the second series, Elyon was asked to negotiate a boundary dispute between two groups of farmers. You'd think there'd be some sort of regional governor to see to such matters.
 * Meridian had until recently been a dictatorship where Prince Phobos was more interested in draining the life force out of his kingdom than actually making it work, so it may be Justified that their infrastructure needs some work.
 * In Jimmy Two-Shoes, Lucius seems to be the only one in charge, and he's not even a government official, but a CEO of a Mega Corp. A Broke Episode shows that when his riches disappear, so does his power. Police show up in...one episode, as a quick joke, and everything else is handled by Lucius' personal army.
 * Both Homestar Runner and Coach Z appear to serve as the police for Free Country, USA. And they use a cardboard box as a prison!
 * Sheriff the police car is actually now the only authority figure running Radiator Springs in Cars 2, since they actually decided to kill off the town's only judge and doctor.
 * The government of Agrabah in Aladdin is this; nobody seems to actually work in it apart from Jafar and some really incompetent guards. Jafar being evil and controlling the Sultan himself might justify the lack of high-ranking officials, as he wouldn't want the competition for influence, but there aren't even any lower functionaries about. They might just be unnecessary to show to the audience but they're never even mentioned.

Other

 * Nomic often works like a Skeleton Government, as it was originally invented to explore conceptual issues about governments via miniature examples.

Anime and Manga

 * The World Government of One Piece was at first only seen through its military, but that's somewhat justified as the main characters of One Piece were criminals. As the series progressed, more was shown about its system of governing and politics began playing a larger role as the main characters became more wrapped up in hidden plots and intrigue.

Fanfic

 * In The Tainted Grimoire, we see a huge gathering of nobles and/or politicians to discuss political matters, as well as an explanation of how the Jylland Defenders of the Peace operates in relation to the clans, explaining that all clans must register new members as well as keep a log of achievement and accomplishments.

Film
"Dennis [a peasant]: We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week, but all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special bi-weekly meeting by a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs, but by a two-thirds majority in the case of more major... King Arthur: Be quiet! I order you to be quiet! 'Dennis: Oh, NOW we see the violence inherent in the system! COME SEE THE VIOLENCE INHERENT IN THE SYSTEM! HELP-HELP, I'M BEING REPRESSED!"
 * Mandatory Monty Python and The Holy Grail subversion quote:

Literature

 * More or less every named character in Nineteen Eighty-Four works for one of the four Ministries. Except those four only cover war (Ministry of Peace/Minipax), rationing (Ministry of Plenty/Miniplen), propaganda (Ministry of Truth/Minitrue) and torture (Ministry of Love/Miniluv). Orwell doesn't mention who is in charge of the roads, fire department, public utilities and so on. Which is part of the point. For the most part, no one is running those things, which means they are in a constant state of decay. The Ministry of Plenty (rationing) probably ensures that basic utilities are kept running to the bare minimum, and the proles are probably relied upon to keep their own facilities running, but other than that everything is left to rot, and any large scale accidents or shortages are ignored and then covered up.
 * Ankh-Morpork's system in Discworld gets increasing mention as well, while still being extremely small for a city state of its size. The Patrician is a dictator appointed by some sort of nebulous council of the city's most powerful citizens, who then utilizes personal authority to rule them (with the Assassins removing those who get too greedy). The Council (which now includes the many Guilds) has the power to remove the Patrician, and the government of the city is undertaken through clerks at the palace, postal service, police force, palace guard. All in all the government was much less skeleton than it once was, while still being little.
 * The city is generally shown to have serious problems. Traffic congestion is chronic, often backing up the whole city due to there being little to no traffic laws. Crime is still endemic to the place, despite serious efforts to combat it. The thieves guild keeps out other thieves in most of the city, but don't touch the Shades, where you are very likely to be killed and mugged. Gang fighting is frequent and destructive. It seems the real reason Ankh-Morpork is so rich is that it actually allows and encourages innovation and change, while many other places around the world are stuck in fundamentalist regimes, totalitarian governments, constant tribal wars, general barbarism or similar issues.
 * To the credit of Lord Vetinari and Sam Vimes, the city still works. Although they both blame the guilds for these problems, as the guilds rarely pay their taxes in full (being some of the few citizens to actually have enough money to tax) and tend to try and destabilize Ankh Morpork as an excuse to sack both characters, when they're not having internal conflicts. The amount of success to be had in these schemes, and Vetinari's tendency to run multiple Xanatos Roulettes against himself and the others, and his awareness of those small irregularities that hide major problems, indicates that while it may be a small government, it is still very much in control.
 * While the Dune novels show little of the Galactic government outside the lives of the Great Houses, the massive galactic bureaucracy is mentioned often. Paul's massive palace on Arrakis in Dune Messiah, in particular, is described as having been built less as a monument to his ego than as a necessity to house the millions of clerks, ministers, and bureaucrats needed to run an empire of several trillion souls.
 * To run an empire of several trillion souls without computers, yet. Imagine the size of the file stacks!
 * Not as big as you'd think, given the technology they do use (i.e. super-thin electronic paper only a few molecules thick).
 * The inner workings of the Ministry Of Magic play a large part in Harry Potter.
 * Every single Vogon works for the bureaucracy in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
 * There is an intricate system of military governors (Moffs) in the Star Wars universe, although The Emperor and Vader still maintain the majority of decision-making power. The prequels show the massive Senate building that serves as the legislative core of the Republic.
 * The Honor Harrington books greatly avert this over time with Haven, Manticore and Solarian governments getting more and more face time, with the limits of authority for a local politician or commander having great impacts. At least 3 books have nearly no naval action for a series built on space opera, with the diplomatic system and intrigue in Parliament becoming extremely important.
 * The series goes into detail about the Havenite government, as there has been two internal regime changes and one failed coup d'etat on screen, as well as several plebacites once Haven becomes a representative democratic republic once more. Keep in mind that Haven is the enemy of the good guys. The governments of several worlds get mentioned, but Grayson stands out as well by having its own system of government fleshed out, demonstrating how a theocratic feudal monarchy can avoid being a bad guy very well.
 * In A Song of Ice and Fire, local lords theoretically have absolute power over their subjects, higher-ranking liege lords over the lower-ranking lords sworn to them, and the king over everyone, with succession determined at least as much by a complex set of traditions (along with a healthy helping of might-makes-right) as any kind of codified law. In practice, though, the frequency of armed rebellion means that nobody can afford to piss off their subjects too much, and getting anything done tends to require an absolutely brain-pummeling amount of politics.
 * In Mistborn, the political structure of the Final Empire is explored in detail, particularly the uneasy relationship between the aristocracy and Obligators, because the heroes are deliberately exploiting the cracks in the system to make it collapse.

Live Action Television

 * A major focus in Battlestar Galactica is the functioning of the civilian government of the fleet and the interactions it has with the military.

Tabletop Games

 * The Imperium's bureaucracy in Warhammer 40000 is mentioned a bit in fluff. Apparently taking over a century to process a petition.
 * One Black Library novel describes the life of a scribe in the Administratum on Terra. His day consists of six hours sleep, twelve at work. Every day until he is too old to work (at which point he gets a nice retirement). Apart from once every ten years, when he gets three hours off to pray. This less-than-idyllic job is then deconstructed when he makes a mistake (causing the protagonists to be sent to a horrific trench war rather than a nice pacification action) and doesn't correct it because, you know what, fuck the system.
 * Possible inversion in Paranoia, seeing as Alpha Complex's 'government' consists of Friend Computer and a Vast Bureaucracy provided for your convenience, Citizen. Only Mutant Commie Traitors would ever think that the Bureaucracy in Alpha Complex was less than perfect. Alpha Complex is, after all, a Utopia. You're not a Mutant Commie Traitor, are you? Furthermore, suggesting that the bureaucracy is inconvenient suggests unhappiness. Happiness Is Mandatory, Citizen.

Video Games

 * The Vaults in the Fallout games have an autocratic, possibly hereditary Overseer, and no other government visible to the player. Vault 101 has a single "officer" who handles law enforcement; it's implied that the Overseer relies on goons and various underhanded tactics to maintain order.
 * There are multiple security-officer-police-guard-type-people, it's just that only one (the one on the player's side, of course) is shown doing his job properly.
 * Plus for the most part Vaults are only have 500-2000 people in them so there don't really need a that many people to run it
 * Rivet City has a three-member Council, but the only public employees seem to be the security guards. The player's actions can actually cause the whole Council's membership to change.
 * In Fallout 2, Vault City, the New California Republic, and San Francisco seem to have reasonably functional (if somewhat repressive) governments. Each has an executive, some sort of advisory body and other officials, and a fairly well-armed police force.
 * The Enclave in Fallout 3 seems to consist entirely of a President and a military. In Fallout 2, however, a number of civilian citizens are seen, there's a noticeable bureaucracy, the Secret Service is still extant as a separate entity, and a Senate and House are referenced as still existing (although it's strongly implied that they are now appointed by the President rather than elected).
 * The Elder Scrolls shows from time to time some glimpses of how the Imperial bureaucracy works. Morrowind, for example, makes you fill in your class and race information at a tax office, you need a "passport" scroll to enter Sadrith Mora, and number of quests revolve around such mundane acts of government as tax collection and diplomatic banquets, not to mention the workings of the local goverments: the Tribunal Temple and the the Dunmer Great Houses, which often find themselves at odds with the empire and each other.
 * Oblivion on the other hand plays it straight, you hardly ever get a glimpse of how the Empire and its people roll, and the plot only deals with the demon invasion, with no quests that involve political intrigue when compared to Morrowind, it is one of the reasons why Oblivion is such a polarizing game among the fanbase. For example, the Elder Council is supposed to be an advisory body to the Emperor and rule in the Emperor's name if he's incapacitated. You never meet or hear about anybody who is actually on the council, aside from Chancellor Ocato, who you only talk to a few times, never provides any sort of help and seems to be the only person that sits in the enormous Council Chamber.
 * Oblivion was originally supposed to include a questline that would involve the pc climbing through the ranks of nobility, eventually becoming a count. Presumably, this quest would have been much more involved in politics and would have averted this trope to a degree, however the line was Dummied Out as the devs felt it distracted from the main quest.
 * The Witcher and its sequel avert this, with most towns and outposts in Temeria and the surrounding countries maintaining government posts. For example, the port town of Flotsam in Assassins of Kings is run by the official Bernard Loredo, his security detail, the post office, and government issued jobs on the town board.

Western Animation

 * In Avatar: The Last Airbender, we see bureaucracy in action/inaction on the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation; not so much with the Water Tribe and Air Nomads, but you wouldn't really expect any (most of what we see of the Water Tribe is similar to isolated inuit villiages, and the Air Nomads are a monastic order).