Republic democracy

Lord Sander · Post by **Lord Sander** » 2006-04-15 11:53pm

As a slight aside, in RotS it's specifically announced that Palpy's holding a special session of Congress. Does this imply bicameralism, or is Congress just a synonym for Senate here?

Noble Ire · Post by **Noble Ire** » 2006-04-15 11:59pm

Lord Sander wrote:As a slight aside, in RotS it's specifically announced that Palpy's holding a special session of Congress. Does this imply bicameralism, or is Congress just a synonym for Senate here?

I've never seen evidence of a second house in the EU, although its never specifically stated that the Senate stands alone. And there do appear to be two mushroom domes in the Senate complex, at least in ROTS, although I had simply assumed the second was an administrative building (I think its referenced as such, actually).

Lazarus · Post by **Lazarus** » 2006-04-16 03:44am

I believe there are two houses actually, I can't remember if its in the TPM film or novelisation, but there is a reference to putting Naboo's case before another house (can't remember the name), and it was stated that it would take years to be resolved there.

Noble Ire · Post by **Noble Ire** » 2006-04-16 02:26pm

Lazarus wrote:I believe there are two houses actually, I can't remember if its in the TPM film or novelisation, but there is a reference to putting Naboo's case before another house (can't remember the name), and it was stated that it would take years to be resolved there.

That was the Supreme Court, or "the Courts".

Lazarus · Post by **Lazarus** » 2006-04-16 02:41pm

Oh right, well there you go then.

It strikes me as impossible for there to be what we would recognise as true democracy on a galaxy wide scale. The nearest thing I can think of would be elected planetary/nation governments, with representatives to the sector government, which has an elected senator, who goes to the Galctic senate, which has an elected Prime Minister/President/Chancellor.

Considering the scale of the galaxy, I actually don't think democracy is really a very good choice of government. The Empire is surely a far better form of government, which if I'm right goes something like this: Planetary Governors > Sector Council > Sector Moff > Sector Moff Council > Grand Moff > Grand Moff Council > Emperor. Each council has one overseer who isn't worried about popularity etc, so they can do what needs to be done. Local problems can be dealt with directly and swiftly, as military forces etc report to the Moffs. Public opinion isn't a problem, which streamlines government a hell of a lot, an extremely desirable factor considering galactic scale.

NRS Guardian · Post by **NRS Guardian** » 2006-04-16 11:03pm

The Republic probably works on a Federal system perhaps similar to the early U.S. It seems as if sectors are analogous to states or provinces with planets and systems being analogous to cities, counties, and districts. It could be that people elect the sector government which then nominates Senators who are then perhaps voted on by the people, and the Senate elects the Chancellor. Probably considering the decentralized nature of the Republic that people mostly cared about the government uo to the sector level or lower and the central government due to its low impact on a person's daily life became more divorced from direct democratic control. This could be the reason for the low number of Senators during the prequels, since the Republic before its reorganization a thousand year before ANH was more centralized so had a greater impact on people so they cared more. Besides direct elections woulddn't be that difficult even with trillions with the Holonet and computers the biggest difficulty would be ensuring fraud, slicing, and other hanky-panky didn't occur.

Darth Tanner · Post by **Darth Tanner** » 2006-04-17 09:32am

In relation to the second dome I always thought that was the shuttle dock for the senate, It didnt appear a good aidea to me to allow people to park ships with giant reactors & space guns right next to your government HQ.

I think in the New Republic there is a system where each world has its own method of proposing their senator. One world has a system in the Black Sword Crisis where I think the loser for the election is sacrificed to their gods! Also Leia gets a seat in the senate later despite not having a planet, jsut a species (and only about 100,000 of them to boot)

The Chancellor is much like out PM Tony BLair though, in that he is both head of the legislature & the executive. (also hes evil and had dark powers lol!)