General star wars talk/discussion/complaining

[Belen]

The Republic is quite clearly and deliberately modelled on the USA. No one contemplated invading the UK when it left the EU.

Not at all. The US is a federal republic.

The Galactic Republic was a full democracy that could not really get anything done.

It had no military due to an agreement after the Sith Empire was defeated.

 

[Deset Gled]

Of course, the Republic (and the NR, presumably) is explicitly not actually a galactic government. It’s a membership organisation of legal agreements across member systems, much like the United Nations.

Well that's simply not true in the prequel movies.

The members of the Galactic Senate are absolutely governed by the Senate. That's how Palpatine gained power and became the emperor. The emergency powers granted to him by the Senate only gave him powers they had as a democracy before they handed it over.

The entire plot of the prequel trilogy doesn't work under your interpretation of the Galactic Senate.

 

[Whisper-Kitten]

Given that there was a crossover between Indiana Jones and Star Wars in the comics, it's presumably our galaxy and pretty recent on an astrophysics time scale.

Wait...what?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It would be equally true to say that it’s based on Ancient Rome or China

No it isn’t, because George Lucas is an American, and had a specific point to make about the American state.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Not at all. The US is a federal republic.

The Galactic Republic was a full democracy that could not really get anything done

If I understand correctly, the Republic is a federal republic: the senators are appointed by the member worlds in a manner decided by the member world. The senators then elect a supreme chancellor from amongst themselves, who doubles up as head of state as well as the leader of the parliament. So the only people getting a vote are the appointed senators. Not very democratic at all.

 

[MarkB]

If I understand correctly, the Republic is a federal republic: the senators are appointed by the member worlds in a manner decided by the member world. The senators then elect a supreme chancellor from amongst themselves, who doubles up as head of state as well as the leader of the parliament. So the only people getting a vote are the appointed senators. Not very democratic at all.

It's a complicated mix. Individual worlds have their own governments (Naboo has an odd democratic monarchy where rulers are called king / queen but are elected and can serve limited terms, whereas Alderaan seems to be more of a traditional monarchy), but there is also galactic-level government overseen by senators. Whether each world has their own senator is a little hard to determine - the Senate has a lot of pods, but probably not enough for each individual world in the Republic.

From dialogue in A New Hope it appears that there is also governance at a regional level, with regional governors in place, at least by the time of the Empire - hard to say whether that was the case back in the Republic era.

Just how much control the Republic had at the individual planetary level is unclear, but most likely significantly more than zero.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Luco (Zero Company): “The Republic’s heart was always rotten.”

 

[Belen]

If I understand correctly, the Republic is a federal republic: the senators are appointed by the member worlds in a manner decided by the member world. The senators then elect a supreme chancellor from amongst themselves, who doubles up as head of state as well as the leader of the parliament. So the only people getting a vote are the appointed senators. Not very democratic at all.

Which is not the US system at all. We have both House and Senate. Yes, the states used to appoint Senators, but that ended long ago. For the worse, IMO, as it strengthened the Federal government.

The Republic is not a good system. The Chancellor was toothless until the war powers act gave away power from the Senate to the Chancellor. Who knows if the planets elect or appoint Senators my guess is that it is a mix.

Of course, our congress sprnt decades giving away power to executive agencies to avoid tough votes so maybe there is some similarity.

Honestly, the Republic has more in common with the EU.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

We have both House and Senate

Yeah, unicameral system is always going to be less democratic. Democracy depends on the separation of powers. As someone once said “Custodes et custodes?”

Honestly, the Republic has more in common with the EU.

More like the UK, with individual planets having a similar level of autonomy as the Scottish and Irish assemblies (can’t do anything without permission from Westminster).

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm not sure I would ascribe a ton of intention to how Lucas created institutions, given how often a new movie during his tenure would come out and make things said by characters in the previous movies either be lies or wildly untrue.

That said, he's an American who came of age in the 1960s and 1970s, so it would have been hard for him not to have been skeptical about institutions and people in power.