Star trek and democracy

[StarSword]

Then again, in our own history we've seen several supposedly "representative" governments that were in fact dictatorships. Any single-party state for instance is notionally a representative democracy, just with only one choice on the ballot (or some other means of ensuring the "right" choice).

Any nation that prefaces it's actual name with "People's Republic of..."

Generally the more adjectives you feel the need to attach, the less democratic you are.

[Elheru Aran]

The Klingon Empire fits the model of a feudal monarchy the best, although the Emperor/Kahless has little real power. That said, it seems to be the case that the House struggles don't really influence the administration of the Empire apart from determining who's currently in power. Day-to-day things seem to be smooth enough that the Empire functions well enough. It's definitely not a democracy, but they do allow the planets under their control to administer themselves to some degree.

The Romulans always struck me as being in a situation where you have a small group of nobility, who essentially control the Empire, the Senators and such coming from them. There's no real democracy there in any sense. However, we don't really know enough to say confidently one way or other. It's obvious the general population is oppressed by the Tal Shiar and the military, though.

Honestly in terms of stellar domains, the UFP are probably the closest parallel to a democracy out there. The Borg are no more democratic than an ant-hill.

[Prometheus Unbound]

It's obvious the general population is oppressed by the Tal Shiar and the military, though.

Tal Shiar, yes. Military, no. The military are just as oppressed (see "Face of the Enemy")

The Borg are no more democratic than an ant-hill.

It was kinda a joke

[Patroklos]

As a matter of story line generation we normally see our characters on the outskirts of or down rought outside of the Federation. If they are outside the Federation it makes sense that starfleet command is directing everything. There might be some sausage grinding between the civilian and military leadership but thats outside the scope of the POV we are privy too, I have never once had a civilian member of the government call and tell us to do something.

Even inside the Federation I am sure most of the space is probably similar to federal land in the US West. It is pretty much defacto run by government agencies with jurisdiction and outside any particularly resource rich or ecologically significant areas isn't going to get much attention. I could see starfleet having a pretty freehand in any backwater space not in the immediate vicinity of an influential member world.

[Lord Revan]

Hell the Enterprise's mission is actually said to us at the start of each episode in TOS and TNG.

Space the final frontier, these are voyages of the starship Enterprise. It's 5 year mission to explore strange new world, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before

this is taken mostly from Memory Alpha as for the TNG intro it just changed "5 year" to "ongoing" and "no man" to "no one" IIRC.

this pretty much says that Enterprise's mission of was to boldly go where no one has gone before, even if Kirk often found a way to go where every (straight) man had gone before (or at least wanted to).

[Panashe]

The Federation Council declares war but then stays hands-off and lets Starfleet decide how to prosecute it.

The Federation has gone to war several time on the show, but the Federation Council has never declared war. This might be a charming old Human custom that isn't observed by the multi-species Federation. Starfleet might independently have the power to initiate wars based on established policies and rules of engagement.

this seems to imply that Starfleet is subservient to the Council and not the other way around.

Perhaps subservient only in certain areas, external diplomacy being one.

Although in Angel One, Picard said that Starfleet wanted Angel One to join the Federation, with no mention of the Council's feeling on the matter.

If this were the case, why would a Starfleet officer have attempted a coup d'etat against the civilian government in a DS9 episode?

What do people in power want? More power.

[Borgholio]

Necros are bad, m'kay?

[Panashe]

Pardon, is four and a half months a necros ?

[SilverDragonRed]

It's about two-and-a-half months past the limit. Welcome to the board!

[Lord Revan]

how of a down time is considered necro depends on the forum but as a rule of thumb if the thread has been inactive for at least 2 months it's probably considered necro.

[FaxModem1]

On Voyager, we run into a few democratic powers.

The Qomar, from the episode Virtuoso, as an example, are xenophobic, but representative.

The Vaskans and Kyrians have a representative government with each other, depending on the era. In the 24th century, they're openly warring with each other, when the Doctor is awakened, the Kyrians and Vaskans are having a civil rights political crisis, and one side is viewed as only having token representatives on their council. Centuries later, they seem to have a truly equal society.