SableWyvern said:
You also have to consider that at the time of Eps 1 and 2 you are looking at a government that has become huge, cumbersome, corrupt and on the verge of collapse. Civil war is on the horizon (arrived by Ep 2), the Trade Federation willing to breach the peace because it knows that the senate is no longer effective.
All this does not mean that this has been the norm in the past, and given the lengthy peace that the Republic has experienced, one could certainly assume government used to be far more effective.
One could guess that Senators are elected, given that at the simplest level, a Republic is simply a state with an elected legislature.
Furthermore, one has to consider Governer Tarkin's comments in Ep 4 -
Q: "How will the Emperor retain control without the support of the Senate?"
Tarkin: "Regional Governers [eg, the same role filled by the Queen of Naboo] now have complete control."
IOW, previous to that point, Governers were answerable to the Senate (although not necessarily individual Senators).
That's certainly plausible.
However, I always thought the "regional governors" in Tarkin's comment meant "regions of the galaxy" rather than planets. I had this image of the Empire being divided up into regions governed by governors who had a large garrison and fleet of star destroyers based at some central location within the region and patrolling to put down rebellions and instil fear.
It's mostly just an impression, but I think that a lot of planetary government was still nominally local under the Empire. Lando's Bespin mines seemed to be like that, as did Tattoinne (apparently run by the Hutts). Thus, if Naboo was still around at the time of ANH, I imagine there would still be a Queen at Thead, though the Imperials would have the right to come in and investigate or take over at any time and she would be ultimately responsible to the regional governor who would have authority over a number of systems and would control all imperial troops and bureaucrats in the region. I suspect that Naboo's system would "evolve" (i.e. be pushed by imperial influence) away from an elected monarchy...
I also suspect that towards the end the Senate, which the Emperor would have retained to maintain his legitimacy (perhaps even his coronation as Emperor was justified as a "temporary measure until the current crisis is dealt with"), was a way of the Emperor communicating his desires to the planets (rather than its original purpose, which was more or less the other way around). Senators would hear speeches and announcements from the Emperor and his servants and communicate back home as to how to stay in the Empire's good graces...
Also, I suspect the Emperor would have originally controlled the planets by bribing, corrupting, blackmailing or dominating their Senators. This would have repeated the subtle way in which Palpatine himself operated to undermine his homeland when he was the Senator from Naboo in TPM. Also, it has to be acknowledged that, Sith Lord or not, Palpatine appears to have been a genuinely charismatic and persuasive figure – one suspects his Sith master selected and trained him for just such an “insidious” role, hence “Darth Sideous” perhaps? Many disilusioned idealists (like Anakin) would have followed him willingly.
I’ve always speculated about how the Sith Lords planned this. I tend to see it as a millennium long campaign of the Sith hiding, slowly pushing forward the corruption of the Republic, sabotaging attempts at reform and subtly undermining the Jedi – all while carrying on their repeated ritual of the apprentice murdering his master when he had learned all he could. As the plan comes to fruition, I imagine the penultimate Sith master selecting an ambitious, charismatic young Palpatine, focussing his training on all the more insidious aspects of the Sith art (versions of the “Jedi mind trick”, clairvoyance, “charm person” and “suggestion” like powers, etc) as well as a perfected means of masking mastery of the Force from nearby Jedi. Then the master subtly places Palpatine on Naboo and sets him up for a promising political career. At some point, Palpatine calmly and methodically murders his master.
One tantalising possibility is that the Sith were always hiding on idyllic Naboo…
