EU-Fic/History/The Galactic Republic
THE GALACTIC REPUBLIC
by Illuminatus Primus
Background
The Galactic Republic was selected as “the name of the political manifestation of the preexisting social, societal, international, and interstate community and union of galactic civilization” (Article I of the Constitution). Commonly referred to as the "Galactic Union" in most modern translations, this is a somewhat crude rendition of the Old Wukkaran reijck, meaning something between "realm," "nation," "polity," and "union," and generally the transcendent body politic; many translations avoid this problem by leaving it simply the "Galactic Reijk." An alternative term found in contemporaneous documents was the Olys Corellisi rseczpospolita (compare to the Old Coruscanti rez publika, and Old Alderaanian calque comunne weal). Over time this distinction became academic and purely legal-technical; "the Galaxy" unambiguously in non-astronomical contexts referred to the society or civilization as a whole, and even "Galactic Republic" or "the Republic" itself became informal to refer to the Galactic Union or the body politic (or even, by co-extension, the astronomical galaxy itself as well) in a general sense, without the specific connotations of the federal political apparatus. People speaking of "the Republic" spoke of the galactic society as a whole, where the metonym "Coruscant" spoke of the political apparatus.
Foundation and Introduction
Historians debate the beginnings of the Republic, suggesting that it is artificial to claim the date of a legal document which hardly changed the reality of politics and society overnight misses the point of answering the question - where did the Republic come from? However, the point stands that the Constitution of the Galactic Republic was ratified on 24,965 BrS. It established in law, the fundamental institutions of the Galactic Republic, namely the Republic Authority, the Supreme Court of the Galactic Republic, and the Senate of the States of the Galactic Republic in Congress Assembled.
The Senate of the States of the Galactic Republic in Congress Assembled
The Senate had long-standing pre-Republic origins in common interstellar institutions, alliances, and councils. The United States of the Inner Regions, the Galactic Community Organization, and the Core Union were all well-known antecedents to the Republic, and their deliberative bodies of senators, ambassadors, and members of parliament were the ancestors of the Senate (traces of this can be still found, with the usage of "senator" for the delegates of the Union's sovereign states, who rank as ambassadors, and for whom many conventions and procedures are derived from Union parliamentary practice). The Senate of the States of the Galactic Republic in Congress Assembled, formally speaking, rarely met. Composed of over a million senators throughout most its history, day-to-day meetings of this body would have been unwieldy and unnecessary. Rather, the Great Powers - those "ancient masses of hard and soft power nestled comfortably at the centers of huge constellations of territory and influence," as neatly summarized by Dr. Yinqo Lamont in The New Order in Power - nominated senators which would acquire the support of other senators, who would lend them their votes (the so-called "votes-by-proxy"), allowing them to individually represent whole sectors or regions (it should not be misconstrued that all Voting Members or Powers were necessarily Great Powers, with the most notable case being that of the first Galactic Emperor’s senatorial constituency of the Kingdom of Naboo). This process of informally and essentially electing a presidium of itself allowed the Senate to compress its working membership on a day-to-day basis to between one to ten thousand "senior senators" (depending on the historical period and circumstances). Though denounced by many of the lesser states as a mere stage show to conceal rule by the powerful and well-connected - which certainly was not completely unfair, especially during crisis and the brief authoritarian storms of Republic history - the relationship between most Voting Powers' and their Senior Senators on one hand, and between their Lesser State and Junior Senator clienteles on the other, was hardly one-sided. The Lesser States, through their Junior Senators, successfully traded their votes-by-proxy amongst Senior Senator's delegations, and were capable of denying a Voting Power's Senior Senator from being seated by withdrawing sufficient support (constitutional conventions in the Senate mandated that a Senior Senator maintain basic confidence by his supporters). Reflecting this practice and the legal name for the body, though technically incorrect, "Congress" began to refer to the entire body, and "the Senate" to the working minority of Senior Senators.
The Senate was considered the highest organ of government. Indeed, upon the Republic’s founding, a loud minority of Founders, the so-called Anarchy Worlds - distrusted any attempt to divest the legislature of direct authority. The Anarchy Plan (as it was named by a polemic by famous Federalist and constitutional theorist Dr. Publius Hamiltoni) called for the a Senate which would be vested with ultimate and direct authority in legislative, executive, and judicial affairs. The Federalist faction succeeded in winning over the great majority with claims that this “confusion of powers” and lack of permanent independent government would “leave the state without a head.” Accordingly, the Senate ended up occupying only the supreme legislative role, but remained the dominant party at the apex of the Republic. The Supreme Chancellor had to both be elected to fix terms, and also maintain the confidence of the Senate during his terms. The Government had to be responsible to the Senate, and all senior appointments had to be subject to Senatorial scrutiny and confirmation (some appointments, like those of diplomats, were subject to a greater deal of scrutiny and power than was customary in presidential political systems; some theorists such as Shāhanshāh have gone so far to claim that in certain areas the Senate shares the chieftaincy of state). The Senate maintained strong supervisory roles over the Justice and Defense functions of the Republic. And aspects of the Anarchy Plan can still be seen in certain legal areas (for example, original jurisdiction over cases of crimes against sapience belongs to the Senate itself, which typically in law delegated this responsibility to the appropriate courts, but it did not belong to the judiciary as a matter of fundamental law; as a result Master Jedi Knight Ulic Qel-Droma was brought by the Jedi Inquistion before the Congress for a direct trial). Similarly, the could appoint a (non-partisan) commission of Senators to receive diplomats with the Supreme Chancellor (even against his will), arguably contrary to the Supreme Chancellor’s responsibility for heading the state.
The Senate was associated with great honor and circumstance, befitting their position as the dominant organ of government. While the Senate Rotunda was considered the center of galactic governance, the Great Senate Hall (capable of holding a full convocation of the Senate, unlike the Rotunda, which managed the day-to-day working minority) was considered one of the Wonders of the Galaxy. It sat at the end of Founders' Avenue, amid the great plazas and statues commemorating the Founders of the Republic and the Framers of the Constitution. The Senate directly commissioned a Sergeant-of-Arms, who was command-in-chief and administrative head of the Senate Guard, an elite body whose role was to protect the Senate collectively from threats or disruptions and the Senators, individually, wherever they were. The Senate Guards were superbly trained, and a tenure in the Senate Guards was sure to land Guardsman lucrative opportunities in private security contracting, a second career of service in the Military Establishment, or in the Security Forces. Not that the Guardsman needed it to survive after a term of service, because any Guardsman discharged with honors was granted handsome pension. Also subject to the Sergeant-at-Arms’ authority was the Union Capital District Police and Gendarmerie (the Executive and Judiciary commissioned their own police forces to patrol the immediate grounds, but relied upon the UCDP&G for general defense and maintenance of law and order), whose job it was to enforce law and order within the grounds of the galactic government, and which was bound to defend the Senate at all costs should the Capital District ever come under attack.
Senators were appointed by their member states according to their own customs and legal traditions, subject only to broad standards and requirements by the electoral laws and guarantees by the Republic to the sapience population. They were very prestigious appointments, and often competed with the head of state or government of the member state for prestige. They had some ability to interfere on their accord with Republic government and assets within their constituency (reflecting the theory that the Republic received its power and sovereignty from, and with the consent of, the member states). Senior senators had to mind a complex web of gentlemen’s agreements, treaties, compromises, and ad hoc deals in order to maintain the confidence of his “Support” (in Senatorial jargon) or affiliated Junior Senators, as required by Senatorial constitutional conventions. However the rewards were very great: a Senior Senator might effectively speak and vote for an entire sector’s or even region’s worth of member states, and accordingly were considered more powerful than all the leaders of individual states but the leaders of the Great Powers, despite ranking below all of them on the order of precedence. Junior Senators continued to serve even while “loaned” (referring to their conditional “loan” of their vote to a Senior Senator), and continued to wrangle political deals amongst Senior Senators and applied their influence in the various Devolved Governments. Senators were entitled to be referred to as “Senator” for life. Retired senators were often still traders of favors in galactic politics, and some retired senators managed to gain strong if unclear influence as elder statesmen. These “senators emerati” traded their connections and familiarity with Coruscant politics and culture to in-comers, who then owed the Emerti favors for their other clients and homeworld. As retired Senator for the Republic of Eastreijk and Senior Senator for the Pylex Commons, Iulius Cracchus von und zu Irk-ra-Gen V was so bold to say, “the Senate-in-law is composed only of those Senators who are in the business of casting votes; the Senate-in-fact is larger, informal, and the Senate-in-law is subordinate to it.”
The Associate Delegations were the other major party to galactic deliberation and legislation. Junior to the Senators, they piggy-backed off their delegations...
Despite the opaque, indirect, and somewhat aristocratic character and means of representation for the galactic populace in the Senate, it served a needed function and consistently well enough that it survived for over twenty-five thousand years...