So I was working on a fic which had political elements, but realized that the wizengamot canonically has no fixed role. There are a couple other posts here that talk about the same thing, but none quite hit the mark of a powerful pureblood wizengamot in a realistic setting (at least for me), while also not making everything undefined and informal. So I made a relatively canon compliant power system for the wizarding world, open for feedback or use as a resource.


This is completely open for nitpicking and comments to help refine this, so let me know.


With that preface, here it is;


Historical context:

The wizengamot is a body older than the Ministry, which itself was formed primarily to uphold the statue of secrecy and grew in power from there. The wizengamot was formerly a court of sorts that solved magical disputes and formed a code for wizards to refer to as a guideline for proper conduct. They issued the Statue of Secrecy, which spawned the ministry.


As time passed and modernization progressed (distinct from the muggle kind, but there nonetheless) the Ministry became the primary power of the land and the office for Minister became an elected office. In these early days the wizengamot of the time wove itself deep into the structure of the Ministry to ensure its longevity and continued relevancy and power.


Current Structure:

While most countries have an instrument by which they function and which defines the extent of their power, the wizengamot was successful in subverting that in Britain, where instead of a proper constitution they have a charter defining their aims and goals and the election procedure only.

In this very limited charter there are intentionally vague references to the wizengamot, which allows it almost a blanket cheque in structuring the government, tempered only by the Minister, whose office is defined as 'the highest decision making power in the Ministry, whose authority is limited only at the functions of the Wizengamot.'


In practice this has meant that the Minister has complete executive control of the Ministry and its various departments, effectively an elected dictator, while the wizengamot has worked over decades to insert itself into every structure they can.

For example the charter's reference to them as the 'Highest judicial bench in the land' has been interpreted as them being at the top of the entire judicial branch of government, with broad powers concerning its structure, while the Minister is the equivalent for the executive branch. Since there is no predefined structure, the existing structure is very malleable and can be reorganized or changed at the whims of those at the top of that branch, Wizengamot for judiciary and Minister for the executive.


Election:

The elections are conducted by the ministry with supervision from the wizengamot. The influence of the wizengamot here is that they are the final authority on disputed elections and all candidates have to be cleared by them.

While officially they can only disqualify candidates for misconduct, insolvency or otherwise being unfit for office, the vague manner this is defined by the charter allows them to allow or disqualify candidates for functionally any reason. Of course they cannot use this power too liberally (transparently) lest the general public start questioning their powers.


Emergency appointments can be made by the wizengamot also.


Judiciary:

The judiciary is composed of various courts, not sorted by district but by offense, as wizarding Britain isn’t extensive enough to require district courts. All of this is situated in a judicial building in London, with only the physical Wizengamot present in the actual ministry. The wizengamot in this case acts as a supreme court as and when required, and is responsible for appointing judges.

They have also interpreted the charter to make them the only body capable of deposing the minister, giving them substantial power over the executive.


Wizengamot/Legislative:

The wizengamot is the only legislative body in magical Britain. Since the charter cannot be changed (so as not to set a precedent for such, risking their powers derived from it), they function primarily through Acts, Statues, etc. The executive temporary legislative implements like decrees or orders can be overwritten or removed by the decision of the wizengamot.
Composition:
The wizengamot seats are hereditary, and certain members have multiple seats/votes, primarily due to two lines joining. The hereditary pattern is Primogeniture.

In addition, the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot (the chair, as it were), has two votes in addition to however many he/she currently has.


There is a procedure to vote in new members, hence creating new seats, but it is exceedingly rare.

While it is technically possible for one super-member to have tens of seats and humongous voting power, the wizengamot has a procedure to strip one or multiple seats from a line so it rarely ever happens.


Ministry/Executive:

Not much left to say here, the minister can form, alter or abolish departments and appoint department heads. He can make temporary ‘laws’ through orders and decrees.

The Wizengamot cannot directly prevent this, but they can depose department heads and have absolute access to information on departments thanks to their departmental liaisons (defined later).


Checks and Balances:

The only check on the power of the wizengamot is the fact that its decisions are not made by a singular individual but by consensus of its members. The procedures for reaching consensus have grown more elaborate and bureaucratic over time.


The ministry however is kept in check by the wizengamot. They have complete power to audit any department of the ministry and have sub-committees dedicated to controlling individual areas/departments. Their influence is most visible in the ‘wizengamot liaisons’ that are wizengamot members that represent the relevant sub-committees and convey and represent their interests in the day to day workings of the Ministry.

Lucius Malfoy was the Ministerial Liaison for the Wizengamot to the Minister.


All internal commissions, inquiries and disciplinary actions in the ministry are headed by the Wizengamot.


Another chokehold the Wizengamot has on the ministry is funding (This part I kinda plagiarized from the American system).


The ministry has the freedom to do whatever, but the funding to do so must be approved from the wizengamot, primarily in the form of voting of the yearly ministerial budget.

Unlike certain real life countries, there are no parties in the wizarding world to save the Minister from impeachment upon misuse of emergency executive funds.


On nobility:

There is no wizarding nobility, even in ancient times before the stature the most magical title available was court wizard. However due to concentration of power and wealth being as it is, there is a sort of gentry’ class that exists.

This class is not necessarily made up of purebloods, but in practice they form the majority of it.


Bloodlines are important due to wizengamot seats and estates being dependent on primogeniture inheritance.

Other than that it’s just the natural hostility of those who were there before being annoyed at those who came after, the sentiment present among immigrant hating bigots everywhere.


On purebloods:

The first purebloods were of course muggleborns. This wasn’t particularly relevant aside from those with magical inheritance having more family tricks and tips on magic, but after the statue of secrecy they had the advantage of growing up with magic. As such it became easy to concentrate wealth and power by those whose bloodline would be born to inherit, as opposed to those literally thrust into magic with nothing.


On taxation:

Another thing of note, while the rich of today look for any opportunity to avoid taxes, the purebloods in the wizengamot are aware that it’s literally them who control the wealth’s usage in the ministry, and they who contribute the most to the Ministry and Wizengamot budget.

The way they recoup their losses (here I talk of the individuals and their concentration of power and wealth, not the wizengamot as a whole) is by directing major government contracts to themselves.

This way there is a viscous cycle of hereditary power (Wizengamot) and circular movement of wealth that reinforces the gentry’ class’ existence.

As such it is incredibly difficult to climb the ranks of power and wealth, and incredibly difficult to return there if you fall from grace (although neither is unprecedented).


Banking Institutions/Goblins:

After countless uprisings and much conflict, the goblins and wizards finally agreed on a teaty that forbid goblins from forming a nation, only a corporation (Gringotts), and forbid wizards from forming banking institutions. As such the only race allowed to handle currency in the wizarding world is goblins, although there are some exceptions.


As the influence of European ministries spread (elaborated in next section) the effect of the Wizard-Goblin treaties did as well, which were signed between European Ministries and goblins. As the foreign ministries were initially vassals, they were automatically subject to the treaties of their respective colonial empires. Since it was in the interest of the goblins for the aforementioned empires to spread, they occasionally aided such efforts.


After independence many countries upheld the treaties which previously applied, and as such Gringotts is the premier and largest magical banking institution in the world.


Some other splinter groups of goblins have tried to form their own banking corporations in the past, however they have all,save one, suffered a bloody end at the hands of Gringotts. Wizards have as a rule (law) let goblin hierarchy and justice function uninterrupted.


The one exception to the rule is Neverwell in Switzerland, where a group of goblins started a bank in the pattern of the Swiss banks, as in one with the principle of absolute secrecy. With varying levels of secrecy and confidentiality (numbered accounts and the like) this bank serves as the only other major goblin bank in the world. It's creation was possible due to the requirements of large numbers of important wizards wanting such a service, the only example of wizards interfering in goblin quarrels.

This event caused the amendment of the Wizard-Goblin treaties which made the unofficial rule of non-interference in goblin conflicts law.


Neverwell only functions as a regular bank in Switzerland, where a gringotts branch is not present. Otherwise it serves as the primary way for money laundering, tax evasion, and secret transactions for wizards, since gringotts is liable to governmental interference.


Magical Government the World Over:

Different cultures and countries in history had different organizational structures. As it happens however the British Empire in its heyday encompassed much of those cultures and introduced its own. With the spread of British influence the influence of the British Ministry of Magic also spread, and often one subtly helped the other in its endeavors. Wherever there was a British colony, penal or otherwise, there was a vassal Ministry set up as well, to cater to and handle the magical populations.

Most of these vassals eventually became independent, the balance of power between the Wizengamot and Ministry often falling into place differently, occasionally with the Wizengamot replaced with native institutions, which were often just as historic.

Some of these native institutions equaled the British Wizengamot in their hold of power in the Ministry, others did not.

The tale of other colonial powers and their colonies is similar.

Either way, these foreign Ministries of Magic were a result of integrated culture of the British Magical Charter and local institutions. This is the reason that most parts of the world have a magical government similar to that of Europe, as that is where they evolved from.

 

That's the thing I was trying to resolve. In government irl there's an instrument by which it functions (ie a constitution) which defines areas of authority and enforcement.

If there is a government it's whole point is to pass and enforce laws, not only those which people choose to accept. If it's elected its a democracy and if it's not its tyrannical, but if it has laws and it enforces them, then it's a govt.
In wizarding Britain we see law enforcement in the form of aurors,a bureaucracy and elections. This points to some instrument which allows this, otherwise it wouldn't be possible.

The kind of ambiguity in authority you described would be possible only if there was no instrument, which would void the possibility of elections, law enforcement etc.

As such this was my attempt at creating that sort of an instrument and structure, as it's not shown in canon, leading to ambiguity.

 

I think an important point to remember when considering the role or power of the Wizengamot is the population of the Wizarding World that it rules. 20-30 thousand is the usual estimate I think?

You don't really need extensive bureaucracy to run a community of that size, you won't have many (if any) substantial government contracts or anything like that which can be used to enrich people corruptly, and you don't really need a particularly complex legislature.

I completely agree with your decision to devolve most of the day to day power to the Minister - thats realistically how it would be most effectively handled. The Wizengamot says "You can set up whatever power structures you need in order to fulfil these duties we have defined for you, but you need to justify anything you do to us." That gives the Minister license to regulate magical creatures, set up the DMLE, build relations with other governments etc, to hire sufficient staff to do all of this, and to raise taxes sufficient to pay for those staff and their work.

We know from canon that there are elections for the position of Minister, but I like the idea that the Wizengamot would retain some level of power by being able to disqualify candidates in advance.

With regards to the position of Chief Warlock, there's 2 ways to consider his position I think. The first would be to make the obvious comparison to the Speaker of the House of Commons, which is almost certainly who JKR had in mind when mentioning the role. That would mean he doesn't have a vote as anything other than a tie breaker, and is responsible for being a neutral arbiter and guide to the Elders of the Wizengamot. The other possibility is that he's just another Elder, who chairs the meeting. I wouldn't necessarily agree with vesting him with extra votes though. I don't see a particularly good reason for that.

As for how being an Elder happens...I personally like to consider the origin of the word Wizengamot. It is obviously derived from Witenagamot, which was the Anglo-Saxon proto-parliament (of sorts). It was comprised of the most powerful secular and religious citizens of the land. As far as we know there isn't really any sort of organised religion in the Wizarding World so you have to take out the religious side of things. But I like the idea of the Wizengamot being comprised of the foremost citizens in society.

And I would personally keep that definition very loose, so that the Wizengamot has the sort of level of power you've described in choosing who to seat. It may well be that many seats end up pseudo-hereditary, because the children of a prominent person inherit a degree of prominence. I'd say it seems reasonable that senior Ministry officials would generally have seats, as they have a significant level of social power and influence inherent in their job, and then on top of them you'd potentially have prominent business people, the very wealthy who use that wealth as a form of power, the famously magically powerful/intellectual, and then the odd random hero. With a limited number of seats, each time one falls empty from resignation, disgrace, or death it would make sense that the Wizengamot would consider all appropriate candidates and select the most appropriate for the seat.