This one's been in the works for a while, so I hope you enjoy it. Let me know if there's other similar style videos you'd like to see. There are few areas where I could have made comparisons to places like Germany rather than Canada/UK/US, but I figured with the bulk of th audience being from those palces, it made more sense using those as the basis of comparison rather than explaining another system as the basis to compare what we were talking about.
This is a amazing work Corey. Some people complained about all the political sub plots when the prequels came out but I loved it, the whole grand plan and chess moves by... Well me lol. I thought things were well put together, from the Sith infiltrating the intergalactic banking clan, to arranging for the Jedi to seek out Kamino to secretly (even from themselves ) create the clone army and all their gear. I really enjoy the longer videos thanks M8. 🤘
Did Coruscant, Alsakan, and/or Raxus (Capital of The CIS) have senators for their respective governments/factions in times past? Or, when they were the capitals of their governments/factions, did they just having "Non-Voting Representation" status, because of "Taxation without Representation" arguments for districts, instead of states/provinces; much like Washington D.C, or even Puerto Rico in The United States' case? (I don't know what the political status of Puerto Rico is right now, I know it's neither a state, nor a district. Is it truly a soverign nation of it's own, or, is it like Herglic Space, Nouane, Paqwepor, Bothan Space, and even Hutt Space in some ways, because it's like an "Allied Region" to The USA?)
I’m honestly surprised that you didn’t directly mention the Canadian Senate as an odd and undemocratic federal chamber (in regards to the regional block system) as opposed to the American Senate’s comparatively equal, if disproportional, arrangement.
The hodgepodge nature of the Senate actually makes a lot of sense. Remember that it existed for thousands of years. The Republic changed, was destroyed and reformed, multiple times across history. So it only follows that it would be a conglomerate of very old, slightly old, or completely new laws and precident. Before the modern period, this was very common. There is a perception that the Roman Empire or Pre-Revolution France were absolute unitary states but this could not be further from the case, Every city and internal division had its own customs and laws, and agreements with the central polity. These often changed and changed back multiple times. And ti seems like the Republic was much the same.
That’s what I was thinking as I watched this. Maybe I’m just doing mental gymnastics or whatever, but I actually like how dense the retcons are for the Republic. It makes sense that people would be checked out of politics if understanding THIS was the barrier to entry. And like you said, there’s thousands of years of reforms and revolutions. It’s a bit like scar tissue: it builds up over time the more injuries are inflicted
It's worth pointing out that one of the first things the French Revolution did once it assumed power was straight up eliminate _all_ the old internal borders (and the tariffs and special carve outs associated with those borders) and reorganized France into the modern districts. The older the system, the more likely you are to have special rules for certain areas; as an example, Lake Champlain in New York is eligible for federal funds targeted for the Great Lakes, despite not being one, and has been since the 90s. And that's a relatively young system; the federal government is less than a a quarter millennium old, and it's only been in the last century that it's started mucking about with puppeteering states via financial strings.
The 20,000 year old late Galactic Republic was only destroyed ONCE. It was a vassal of the Eternal Empire, along with the Sith Empire, but was destroyed when it became the Empire. Long live the Republic and the Jedi that serve it!
@@90skidcultist In Legends. In canon we know it was destroyed at least once and it has been implied to have been destroyed multiple times. As for your last sentence though? Based and Chad Lightside pilled.
The Duros or even the planet of Duro not having their own senator doesn't really make sense. They are supposed to be one of the few founding members of the Republic . It's unthinkable that they'd agree to founding a federation in which they have no say.
My headcannon probably did have a Senator for most of Republic history but after Ruuason they were gerrymandered into being part of Corellia, a subtle sign of Humanocentrism that infects the Republic even when they are free of Sith control and corruption.
Like he went over it didn't start that way. Originally it was a planetary basis until it was reorganized into the sector system. It's likely that as new members came in and new political powers arose that the representation of the Duros was slowly whittled away as they got put into minorities into multiple sectors and thus eventually effectively denied representation. Though what doesn't make sense is them not forming some sort of Duros interest group at some point. Though in that respect look no further than the fact that each writer had different ideas and goals and thus didn't really look to each other thus creating clashing lore.
It is amazing that the senate ever got anything done. Just imagine all of the differences between just human and near human members. Then add on top of that some of the species with more "alien" physologies and it is a miracle it even existed.
I would think that founding members of the rebublic would rather like the idea of the senate not being capable of doing much. In fact other then some brief periods of increased centralization usaly under external threat. The powerful systems seem to keep a system that makes centralization of power at the federal leavl difficult as the norm.
A weakness Palpatine exploited on screen. I'm sure he wasn't fully lying when he said he loved democracy. Because with parliamentary maneuvers, he could pit any number of Senators up against others, gridlocking the place down until at last they were begging for a strong leader. One who will not let our tragedy continue@@xerty5502
@@lorefox201 instead you see economic dominance and economic rather then military imperialism lead by those powerful systems to be honest not much differnce in the end. On the otherhand the lack of centralization probaly acualy keep the republic going longer because it keep the corruption less overwhelming for longer hard to say though to much of the history is just bullet points and not fleashed out enough to getvthose details that would tell us much
Given the mass of historical precedent on laws and the sheer amount of planets and peoples the republic was trying to represent I think flaws were inevitable. That the Jedi went from watching the republic and working to uphold morality to serving the senate as a law enforcement agency would not have helped.
That and not having another branch of power to keep the senate in check didn't help as the head of the republic and the head of the senate are the same title and they also are elected by the senators so there are even less checks on their power.
@@rear9259 …I’m not really seeing it. Everyone says it’s just like the War of the Roses but Westeros itself seems like a lot of different inspirations than “it’s literally Britain omg”
I've been looking forward to this, the political schemes in star wars, especially prequel era and just prior imo, are very interesting! Great breakdown, 10 "I am the Senate"s out of 10
We seem to be in a small minority. When I first saw RotJ I loved Palpatine. More than I ever did Vader. The prequels (especially Revenge of the Sith but also the Clone Wars tv show) were my favorites because I waited what felt like an eternity to find out all about Palpatine's swashbuckling adventures as the Senate. As far as I'm concerned the overarching theme of Star Wars is "Palpatine did it" even long after his final death his shadow loomed large over everything (and no Disney's poorly written Star Wars media doesn't count. . . Aside from Rogue One. It was pretty decent). Sadly, most people seem to hate all of the politics and just want to see lightsaber battles exclusively.
Given the numbers of worlds involved in universe a representative government was going to get stupidly complicated and gridlocked all the time no matter how this was structured lol. Makes Palpatine’s efforts seem almost understandable.
Though to be fair trying to centralize such a large entity would've been almost impossible and it's amazing they got as far as they did and in part is from the incredibly large military apparatus which effectively ran civilian life.
Tbh, the best system for such a "country" would be some form of decentralized semi-feudal monarchy, similar to mediaeval France. Where you have the king, but the lands are largely controlled by nobles, who have strong power bases of their own
@@KenfrenAnd that's why "Dune" is nicknamed "Star Wars for adults". That's exactly the political system in the multi-planetary empire described in this work.
@@princevesperal Although a centralized government would still have been able to work if the head of government head of the military head of the legislative branch and chief of state were separate titles not all appointed by the senate. The major issue with the republic is that it lost all branches of government except the legislative as the judicial was technically still a thing but an under reformed mess that had no power compared to the senate (that and the fact that mega corps were given seats in a purely public run governing body). Now one thing that people often forget was that the senate's power wasn't absolute its member states and member planets had a great deal of autonomy in how they rule and the laws they had.
It's basically if the Weimar Republic was unicameral and fully parliamentary. The hodge-podge representatives based on ancient history rather than population and being sometimes appointed rather than directly elected (like the US pre 17th amendment) is like their upper house and the rest is basically ran as their lower house, including having the head of government named Chancellor rather than prime minister. Makes sense from the 'rise of national socialism' parallels
You forgot the the word, Unitary. It gave permission to local sectors of space, not whole worlds or even the species of life, to have representation from their own populations. This is called Devolution.
@@johnmascola3403 so baffling that a galaxy spanning government would be a unitary state. There are cries for federalism in the UK and we're 67 million.
@@catmonarchist8920 I think the creator of Star Wars wanted to create an idea where a unitary galactic government, so Big with powers not to be shared by the minor political units within itself, just like your analogy from the former Weimer Republic. From there a Dictator would eventually rise to power. If you want my opinion, Britain should be a Federation of Nations within Your Kingdom. Not like an American federal system but one that is distinctive from the rest. as an American, our Federalist structure is, Far from being perfect, but it works
@@johnmascola3403 the Weimar Republic itself was federal and was consolidated and made effectively unitary by the NAZIs later on. I remember that the NAZIs and communists worked together in 1931 to try to overthrow the social democratic government of Prussia and that would've been big because of the number of seats it had in the upper house and was half the population. The UK is smaller than many American states and is insanely urbanised. Any push to federalism would create the need to destroy our ancient constitution. It would only be to appease the Scottish nationalists who are never appeased no matter what powers you give them (and they won't use them anyway and neglect things to blame Westminster) because that's their purpose and federalism would make the northern Ireland situation much much worse. It's like rewriting the US Constitution completely to stop Mississippi from seceding. It's just not worth it. Scotland are 5 million of 67 million and often have more deaths than births. They're ageing and emigrating so their political class look outward to try start a fight rather than deal with their severe problems at home (like the worst drug deaths in Europe). They can secede if they want for all I care. I live in Wales and the urban areas basically cross the border in places and the rail system is one don't need more headache on the border here. I think people in the same state should have the same rights wherever they live.
I kinda love that corporate personhood and government representation in the Star Wars Universe is directly related to a evil bald guy setting off a gigantic magic thought bomb that killed a bunch of people.
I love videos like this. It is interesting to see how authors of various books had such different outlooks on how the government of the Republic would work, and how that leads to a bit of clashing lore at times.
So on a recent watch-through of the Prequels, I have found something. In "The Phantom Menace", Chancellor Valorum introduces Palpatine by saying, "The Chair Recognizes the representative of the SOVEREIGN SYSTEM of Naboo". Sovereign System. Interesting choice of words but surely just a one-off, right? Wrong. In "The Clone Wars" Season 1, Episode 15 "Trespass", Pantoran Chairman Cho describes Orto Plutonia as "Sovereign Pantoran Territory" and even declares the conflict between Pantora and the Talz to be an 'Internal affair", which relegates both Senator Chuchi (and by extension the Senate) as well as the Jedi to merely being passengers during his efforts to effect a genocide upon the Talz. It is not until Chuchi contacts that Pantoran Assembly and they declare Chi Cho out of order that she is able to negotiate with the Talz. What this indicates is that the Galactic Republic is not a Federal State or even a nation in the conventional sense but rather something more akin to the United Nations or the European Union. Member states have near total autonomy on internal matters and, as seen in neutral systems throughout the Clone Wars, foreign policy. Indeed, the use of the word "sovereign" to describe both Naboo and Pantora is telling. To be sovereign is to have "supreme or ultimate power". If Naboo is a Sovereign System, then the laws of Naboo ultimately supercede those of the Galactic Senate, unless accepted by the Naboo. Similarly, if Pantora is able to declare Orto Plutonia sovereign territory, then they are able to exercise authority superior to that of the Republic and the Republic is only able to act based on the will of the Pantoran government, rather than Republic Law. When this is all combined, many of the inconsistencies of the Republic make more sense. The issue of representation becomes the result of planetary sovereignty, with more powerful member worlds able to exercise their sovereignty to a greater degree and leverage representation in the Senate. It also explains the Senate's impotence, as the sovereignty of member worlds means that any action must be taken with general acceptance by the parties involved. It also explains why the Jedi were the only means used to attempt to solve the conflict between Naboo and the Trade Federation. The Republic is limited only to the deployment of "Peacekeepers", much like the UN is. And those peacekeepers have a very limited mandate off Coruscant. As Qui Gon says, "I can't fight a war for you." It also, handily, explains why so many worlds both joined the CIS and looked the other way as many CIS generals committed heinous acts of brutality. Many of the worlds mentioned as siding with the CIS lacked Senate representation, which they gained in the Confederacy's parliament. As such, those worlds are likely to have viewed the brutality of Grievous and Dooku as necessary actions in the service of the greater good: the protection of their sovereignty and their representation. Indeed, I find this interpretation of the Republic to be far more interesting than a galaxy spanning, centralized power structure. It explains the Republic's failings, the existence of entities like the Hutts, the Hapans, and others, the lack of Republic influence on worlds like Geonosis or Tatooine, and many other such things. And it makes the Clone Wars a far more interesting affair, as well as adding additional weight to the appointment of regional Governors in Revenge of the Sith and the dissolution of the Senate in A New Hope. The Clone Wars sees the conquest of the Galaxy by the Sith Empire, largely without a shot being fired. The dissolution of the Senate is merely the final formality, the final tone of the death rattle of planetary sovereignty. And with that context, it is small wonder that so many were willing to fight so hard against the Republic and the Empire.
@@nicholaswalsh4462 Nice read, makes a lot of sense considering that the "republic" was really a loose confederation containing monarchies whose representatives in the senate were unelected
In many ways, the Galactic Republic reminds me of the structure of The Dutch Republic, under the United Provinces before Napoleon, With the Senate being closer to an Estates-General in function and design.
I'm inclined to believe that the Republic "actually" existed some fraction of of that length of time. 25,000 years seems really stupid, like the original writers just had no sense of how long that would actually be. Humans here on Earth have only been engaging in agriculture for 10,000 years. The Galactic Republic has supposedly existed for 2.5x as long as that. I could see 1000 years being reasonable - the Roman Republic and Empire lasted about that long, if you include the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantines). And it's plenty of time for all sorts of disruptive events to occur, like sliding in and out of authoritarian states.
i feel like they just forget mention coups or change of government, i think what they meant was the idea of the “republic” existed for 25,000 years. They are likely successor state claiming to be the republic (like irl the “roman successors” which include alot of countries that i will not list)
I've been really looking forward to this video and it turned out great! It helped bring some clarity to one part where I had always some issues (namely the extent of who a single senator represents).
I always think about how many of the people in the most important positions in the senate must be of almost superhuman intelligence, charisma and political talent as they are literally the best candidates in thousands of star systems. Assuming that the best candidates are chosen, of course. I mean, look at Palpatine. He's perfect for politics. He's charismatic, highly intelligent, ruthless with his enemies and supposedly fiercly loyal with his friends. Edit: I'm talking about Star Wars specifically, so I don't think that ruthlessness is needed for a good politician in our world.
Palpatine in his actual political work outside of his schemes was basically just a centrist who never stirred anything up that wasn’t already heading in a certain direction. That’s how he got elected because basically nobody had enough beef with him since he kinda stayed out of everyone’s business unless it was directed towards him
That’s why I kinda appreciate some of the later legends novels when it went with some the minutia of the new republic/galactic alliance and how it had to deal with the monolithic task of thousands to higher worlds (I’m pointing towards the Thrawn Duology and the slavery debate in the Fate of the Jedi books) and how they conflict with each other.
I asked in a comment, maybe 2 years ago, for you to please do longer videos. You actually responded to it, thus I am taking full credit for this video. You definitely never would have thought to get into more longform stuff if it weren't for little old me, and that's just a fact. I expect full credit in the next video that comes out after you read this, thanks! No seriously, this was excellent. You're steadily getting better at this, don't stop. Imo best and most criminally underrated Star Wars adjacent channel. Only a matter of time.
Oh man, Corey, this is BRILLIANT! I can't imagine how much effort and research has gone into this episode, but it is so good! Using real world comparisons is a stroke of genius. I happen to be taking an adult formation course at Church, "The Constitution From a Catholic Perspective," and we're still at the civics-oriented, structural, and secular part of the class. I'm just a lay guy, but have always held an interest in our history along with how our government was put together and is evolving, and I like learning a subject by looking at alternatives or even opposing ideas. Your parallels between the SW Universe and the US and UK are so helpful for my course, and in general! I discovered the Star Wars fan and Lore channels a year or so, after deep diving on Alien channels (Alien Theory, Project Acheron), and occasionally dipping my toe into SW fan content. I had no idea TOR even existed! Nor that there was so much history in Star Wars, nor how developed the Lore behind planetary systems, species, forms of government, spacecraft technology, wars, The Force, The Sith, and the Jedi are. And the fan films, comics, novels, audiobooks, books - I had no idea such a dedicated fan base existed. Thanks to channels like yours, another person got swept away into the SW storyline - although mostly around the beginning of The Clone Wars and earlier. I was 7 when I watched a GIANT Vader stride down the Tantive IV, so I'm thankful I discovered this aspect of SW, and folks like yourself. Thanks, and thanks again for this crash course on federalism. Geez, this episode is really a class in a SW Critical Film (Story) Review in a college-level Western Lit course. If I may add to the chapter "The Problems of Representation" around 19:15, you contrast having California represented by two senators with those same two senators for CA, OR, and WA, thus diluting CA's representation. You make your point excellently, and the parallel concept in SW is easily understandable. I just had the thought an appropriate analogy to the Sector-Systems-System Coalitions-Planets federated model might be shifting CA's two senators across CA, British Columbia, and China. Yours is better as its less complicated and accomplishes explaining the point. But it got me thinking, which gets me writing. Thanks, brother. Great stuff, nice work.
A possible way to illustrate the senate's representation would be the US House of Representatives. When first established, it was one Representative per 30,000 people (minimum of one per state). Which means we should have about 11,000 (an average of 220 per state). New York City alone would have 279 Representatives. Instead, now we have 435, with the number per state allocated by percentages. A more manageable number.
The House of Representatives is a very bad example; Galactic Senate representation appears to be allocated arbitrarily rather than by anything as solid as population. It's more like if the Senate regularly redefined state borders according to their own, if any, rules.
This is interesting contrast to the United Federation of Planets from Star Trek. As even though the UFP is federal constitutional republic with certain rights and powers enumerated in the UFP charter and constitution ( though only a few of them are actually talked about in any length in a few pieces of media) The biggest being membership. No caste system, must have FTL capabilities, must have a unified world government that represents the majority of the population, must be willing to share tech and science, must allow recruiting for Star Fleet; must believe in Justice, liberty, equality, and peace; and I might be missing a couple. In contrast the Old Republic (especially after its formation in the Great Hyperspace War) routinely invaded planets that had never achieved FTL and either purposely or accidentally colonized the population. Admittance to the UFP is rigorous and members have to be a democracy of some kind. Whereas with the Galactic republic doesn't really care if the members states are practicing democracy at home. The biggest is that each member of the UFP is it's own nation-state, more akin to the UN in certain respect, leaving the governing of each planet (and its colonies) to its local population. Though each citizen of the UFP is both a citizen of its world and the UFP.
Awesome video Corey, by far one of the best Star Wars documentaries on the site. Personally I believe that the Republic would have been best organized with a mixture of EU level sovereignty and American Federalism, with powers lying within the Sectors and Systems and the Republic acting as a mediator and provide for common defense and trade instead of direct rule from Coruscant. Also if you wanted a really good example of a federal state with a horrible structure of representation and sovereignty, the Holy Roman Empire is a great real life example. Hundreds of states in a confusing mush of borders, sovereignty, and accountability.
The Republic is more parliamentarian than a federal government. The Chancellor is elected among existing senators (like PM in the UK and Commonwealth nations) and not in a separate election like the US. Also the Senate have the executive powers and responsibilities normally under the purview of the executive office
Being a parliamentary democracy is not a distinct thing from a federation, they describe different elements in the organization of a state- the UK and Canada are both parliamentary democracies for example, and Canada is a (con)federation where the UK is not. You can have federal systems that are parliamentary democracies, and you can have federal systems that are not.
I really like the video, maybe you could do a more in-depth video about the differences between the Galactic Republic and the New Republic or Jedi Order and the New Jedi Order. Because I always start wondering when I read or hear something about the politics of star wars, why would the rebels even want to restore the republic and not replace the empire by something else? Especially the depiction of the Galactic Senate as corrupt in the prequels and the clone wars show, makes the galactic civil war seem more like a coup d'etat lead by disempowered senators, and less like an uprising of the oppressed population fighting for their freedom, which was certainly not intended.
In real life oppressed people's don't really rebel without the support of the rich (be they native or foreign) they useually just suck it up and carry on.
Someone's poly sci classes have found a use! 😂 Really though, great deep dive into something that is normally not a feature in the :pew pew" lore of Star Wars!
This video was one of my favorites from your channel Corey. I loved the in depth view of the Republic and I’d love to see a similar video on the CIS and how that faction was led.
In order to ensure the security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire, for a safe and secure society.....
Perhaps I'm misinterpreting the intent of the comment, but I knoq that's the point of how the Senate is represented in Star Wars- the video was meant to go into more depth on these kinds of things than the movies were able to, with broader examples of how it got fleshed out in other works. I was never under the impression making this that I was contradicting Lucas' intentions, nor is it the kind of "Star Wars bad" video that thinks it's pointing out an unknown flaw that makes the story ruined.
@@CoreysDatapad uh.... but you didn't. And how the senate worked and politics is played out in other sources than the movies to start out with... we don't know so.... yes we do... This video made my brain hurt because it's all you take on getting to guess at and explain the corruption But it's shown.... and they could read the books... or source material Literally even a basic fan knows this. Generation tech, Eckhardt ladder, metinerdz.... literally everyone comes at this better.
Its like being back in my political science class, but I loved it..? You've done the impossible. Amazing work, would love to see things like this in the future!
Well constructed. Thanks. Most people don't understand their own governments, let alone fictional one such as seen in Star Wars. This video was not just informative, it provided solid educational benefits to those studying the real world, too!
Thousands of Outer Rim Planets didn't even know what the Galactic Republic even was. For Thousands of Years! Until The Galactic Empire was declared by Emperor Palpatine.
A lot of people hate that the prequels focused too much on politics, but you gotta remember, the Republic didn't collapse overnight, as much as it may have seemed that way. Palpatine just delivered the final blow, and even planted the seeds early on. Clone Wars proved politics episodes can work REALLY well.
This honestly is probably my favourite video you have ever done. Not dismissing anything else, but I am really enjoying listening and listening again and hearing your explanations and concepts by using real world examples to make more sense. Reminds me of my earlier poli sci classes in Uni. Great stuff. Please do more of these Corey.
I really enjoyed this video and the deep dive it gave. I've been looking forward to this for a while. I've always wondered how the Senatorial system worked with sectors.
Corey this was awesome! I apologize it took me so long to actually watch it because given the topic I wanted to pay more attention to it than a gameplay video or casual bit of lore.
"The Senate is no longer of any concern to us, he was thrown down a reactor shaft, if you would like to wait until the senates return in approx 30 years you can continue to serve at a reduced wage. " Tarkin if he lived through ep 6
One thing this video made clear to me is that the Jedi didn't just pick up the giftwrapped clone army and start the war. They were likely pressured heavily by their constituents and since public support was to do anything to protect the Republic from the now over-represented Corporate sectors, they had to do something. It's likely they either saw the move as inevitable or wanted to keep their political power to continue to protect the Republic's people from the threat of the sith they had previously detected. In ordering the Clones, Palpatine had already set his plans in motion.
this was a great vid, it's fun to revisit these stories through this lens! borsk fey'lya always bugged the hell out of me with his politics...but i gotta respect the spite he showed the vong at his bitter end.
the imperial ruling council is like a ministerial cabinet, and its weird how the members are selected- presumably you don't need to be an elected official, or senator, or planet/sector representative or even a military officer, you can just be a corporate board member or have a strong family or powerful connections, at least in the empire. maybe some of that corruption started in the classic republic too however. legislation introduced in the senate by senators or reps would likely fall under private member's bills, to be shelved for future discussion after matters of urgency or current bills on the floor. interestingly i don't think political parties exist in the senate, rather committees or delegations instead would love a breakdown of star trek's UFP
a sectoral government would make great sense, otherwise one planet could have day over several star systems in the same sector. and as you get out to the outer rim, this problem would increase. the reason I think the outer rim would have more star systems per sector is due to how the republic was built similar to the USA. early on in the USA, you had towns only as far apart as you could travel in a day. thud much more densely packed. as you move out west, transportation went from on foot, to horses, to trains, to cars. so the distance between towns grow much bigger and states are gigantic. for the republic, we have gone from planetary travel, to interplanetary, to interstellar, and eventually hyperdrive tech. Anyway, if there is no sectoral gov't, that would explain why so many systems broke off during the clone wars, even within same sectors.
Imagine being a senator and representative, a group of monks telling you that the supreme court is run by some dude who according to the monks, is the opposite of their religion and is evil. I'm not surprised if the Jedi isn't taken seriously
Love the video, and your real world comparisons made it much more understandable. Definitely can tell you have some background and deeper understanding of government structures. Great work as always!
Really excellent video Corey. I can't wait to see more like this. I liked your blending of real and fictional examples to discuss different modes of government, and hope you get to spend more time in the future fleshing those out visually. I think a broad overview like this can be followed up by many shorter more argumentative videos fleshing out some of the nuances introduced. Wherever you go next, excited about what this means for the channel!
Hey Corey, Great video, well documented and interesting! I remember in my teens having written a paper on the Empire's institutions when it was a constitutionnal monarchy in theory - pre ep IV then. It was sketchy at best, being the late 90's and pre-prequel era. So I was always a sucker for SW politics and institutions, so if you plan on doing similar videos in the future, I am all in!
Well. I didn't think I'd sit through fourty minutes of political theory for a made up universe but damn that was some good content! Great video! The research you put into these must be tremendous and it shows it really shows! Highest praise!
If im not mistaken, during the reign of the Empire, Mas Amedda was the highest ranking Imperial after the Emperor. Where Palpatine was the head of state, Mas Amedda was the actual head of government in the rank of Grand Vizier, and the leader of the imperial ruling council. So bascially Mas Amedda outranked Darth Vader, Grand Moff Tarkin, and Grand Admiral Thrawn.
The Republic itself was a massive "empire" of its own. Giving corporations a say in politics was a problem in general, the sheer scale of how many worlds became part of the republic made it so that action by the central government would be slow, cumbersome and had its attention pulled in many directions at all times. One of the only things that seemed to prevent it from completely collapsing on itself was that it appeared the government generally allowed local governments to make decisions on their own regardless of whether or not it was something that the republic allowed. Though, response to some disputes had mystical wizard-monks from the government sent out to tell everyone to sit down, shut up and talk it out.
In short dealing with a galaxys worth of political problem is certainly no easy task. Having corporations represented as their own parties was a mistake that made it even worse
I always thought the old republic from Star Wars operated more like the European Union 🇪🇺 but their politics is actually more complex! The Republic started off as a union of planets from the Core Worlds dominated by humans with common values and belief systems which started off with common laws in regards to trade, defense and maintaining maps of hyperspace lanes due to constant shifts and the dangers of traveling without using updated navigations on ships. As the Galactic Republic expanded across the Galaxy, millions of worlds joined making it too big for individual representation hence the planets were then grouped into sectors that had representation in the galactic senate. Each planet within a sector had local autonomy and their rulers varied from elected democratic officials or one based on hereditary nobles or royalty. Planets also had to qualify for certain population levels in order to be recognized as a sovereign member and if a planet only had a small population they were given the status of dependency from qualified planets within its sector losing much more autonomy than their recognized member counterparts. Before the collapse of the old republic the senate had the most power in terms of voting for decisions. The supreme chancellor was actually more of a symbolic ceremonial position that could call sessions in the senate but had no real power until Palpatine was given emergency powers during the separatist crisis. It was interesting to learn that representatives had no voting power on their own and were more like diplomats that served as a reminder of their minority group in the senate but could only vote if they were substituting a senator under permission. Senate aids which were more like secretaries and administrative assistants to senators didn’t have much power politically but they actually had some military power to command troops during the clone wars!
This was dope as hell, really added some depth to an already deep understanding of the Republic. Amazing vid, would be excited to see more of the same kind.
I think it's like if there was a world government IRL and the only entities represented there are supranational institutions like European Union, African Union, ASEAN, MERCOSUR, NAFTA etc with one representative from each. Within a single unit of the WG, like the EU, there's still different governments ruling different countries who have very diverse ways of organizing their interal government.
Well, we're far more divided than most worlds in SW. Very few worlds (that I can think of at least) had more than 2 or 3 major factions. Having so many worlds exist beyond yours probably does wonders for unifying nations.
![The Star Wars Philosopher's Guide to Every Single Lightsaber Technique [Form I - Form VII]](/img/n.gif)
This one's been in the works for a while, so I hope you enjoy it. Let me know if there's other similar style videos you'd like to see.
There are few areas where I could have made comparisons to places like Germany rather than Canada/UK/US, but I figured with the bulk of th audience being from those palces, it made more sense using those as the basis of comparison rather than explaining another system as the basis to compare what we were talking about.
This is a amazing work Corey. Some people complained about all the political sub plots when the prequels came out but I loved it, the whole grand plan and chess moves by... Well me lol. I thought things were well put together, from the Sith infiltrating the intergalactic banking clan, to arranging for the Jedi to seek out Kamino to secretly (even from themselves ) create the clone army and all their gear. I really enjoy the longer videos thanks M8. 🤘
would love more of these longer videos, this one was a lot of fun!
Did Coruscant, Alsakan, and/or Raxus (Capital of The CIS) have senators for their respective governments/factions in times past? Or, when they were the capitals of their governments/factions, did they just having "Non-Voting Representation" status, because of "Taxation without Representation" arguments for districts, instead of states/provinces; much like Washington D.C, or even Puerto Rico in The United States' case? (I don't know what the political status of Puerto Rico is right now, I know it's neither a state, nor a district. Is it truly a soverign nation of it's own, or, is it like Herglic Space, Nouane, Paqwepor, Bothan Space, and even Hutt Space in some ways, because it's like an "Allied Region" to The USA?)
Awesome job! I loved the long format.
I’m honestly surprised that you didn’t directly mention the Canadian Senate as an odd and undemocratic federal chamber (in regards to the regional block system) as opposed to the American Senate’s comparatively equal, if disproportional, arrangement.
The hodgepodge nature of the Senate actually makes a lot of sense. Remember that it existed for thousands of years. The Republic changed, was destroyed and reformed, multiple times across history. So it only follows that it would be a conglomerate of very old, slightly old, or completely new laws and precident. Before the modern period, this was very common. There is a perception that the Roman Empire or Pre-Revolution France were absolute unitary states but this could not be further from the case, Every city and internal division had its own customs and laws, and agreements with the central polity. These often changed and changed back multiple times. And ti seems like the Republic was much the same.
That’s what I was thinking as I watched this. Maybe I’m just doing mental gymnastics or whatever, but I actually like how dense the retcons are for the Republic. It makes sense that people would be checked out of politics if understanding THIS was the barrier to entry. And like you said, there’s thousands of years of reforms and revolutions. It’s a bit like scar tissue: it builds up over time the more injuries are inflicted
It certainly makes sense. So much upheval followed by a millenium of relative peace is gonna make one heck of a system
It's worth pointing out that one of the first things the French Revolution did once it assumed power was straight up eliminate _all_ the old internal borders (and the tariffs and special carve outs associated with those borders) and reorganized France into the modern districts.
The older the system, the more likely you are to have special rules for certain areas; as an example, Lake Champlain in New York is eligible for federal funds targeted for the Great Lakes, despite not being one, and has been since the 90s. And that's a relatively young system; the federal government is less than a a quarter millennium old, and it's only been in the last century that it's started mucking about with puppeteering states via financial strings.
The 20,000 year old late Galactic Republic was only destroyed ONCE. It was a vassal of the Eternal Empire, along with the Sith Empire, but was destroyed when it became the Empire. Long live the Republic and the Jedi that serve it!
@@90skidcultist In Legends. In canon we know it was destroyed at least once and it has been implied to have been destroyed multiple times.
As for your last sentence though? Based and Chad Lightside pilled.
The Duros or even the planet of Duro not having their own senator doesn't really make sense. They are supposed to be one of the few founding members of the Republic . It's unthinkable that they'd agree to founding a federation in which they have no say.
I think it's highly likely that they were one of the first independent constituencies to have their own senator.
Aren't the Duros supposed to be the second most populous species in the Republic?
My headcannon probably did have a Senator for most of Republic history but after Ruuason they were gerrymandered into being part of Corellia, a subtle sign of Humanocentrism that infects the Republic even when they are free of Sith control and corruption.
Like he went over it didn't start that way. Originally it was a planetary basis until it was reorganized into the sector system. It's likely that as new members came in and new political powers arose that the representation of the Duros was slowly whittled away as they got put into minorities into multiple sectors and thus eventually effectively denied representation. Though what doesn't make sense is them not forming some sort of Duros interest group at some point.
Though in that respect look no further than the fact that each writer had different ideas and goals and thus didn't really look to each other thus creating clashing lore.
@@boobah5643 not likely and even if they were the galaxy is like 70% humans 3%alien 2%alien 2%alien and so on
And to think people say politics in Star Wars are boring. 😏
It is amazing that the senate ever got anything done. Just imagine all of the differences between just human and near human members. Then add on top of that some of the species with more "alien" physologies and it is a miracle it even existed.
I think once aliens are in the mix humans won't find thier differences so gaping
I would think that founding members of the rebublic would rather like the idea of the senate not being capable of doing much. In fact other then some brief periods of increased centralization usaly under external threat. The powerful systems seem to keep a system that makes centralization of power at the federal leavl difficult as the norm.
A weakness Palpatine exploited on screen. I'm sure he wasn't fully lying when he said he loved democracy. Because with parliamentary maneuvers, he could pit any number of Senators up against others, gridlocking the place down until at last they were begging for a strong leader. One who will not let our tragedy continue@@xerty5502
@@xerty5502 and that was usually good for most planets I'd wager, given that at such scales the alternative is outright imperialism.
@@lorefox201 instead you see economic dominance and economic rather then military imperialism lead by those powerful systems to be honest not much differnce in the end. On the otherhand the lack of centralization probaly acualy keep the republic going longer because it keep the corruption less overwhelming for longer hard to say though to much of the history is just bullet points and not fleashed out enough to getvthose details that would tell us much
Given the mass of historical precedent on laws and the sheer amount of planets and peoples the republic was trying to represent I think flaws were inevitable. That the Jedi went from watching the republic and working to uphold morality to serving the senate as a law enforcement agency would not have helped.
Bruh Lucas LITERALLY copied german history.
That and not having another branch of power to keep the senate in check didn't help as the head of the republic and the head of the senate are the same title and they also are elected by the senators so there are even less checks on their power.
@@shadowmystery5613and? George Martin just copied medieval Britain
@@rear9259 …I’m not really seeing it. Everyone says it’s just like the War of the Roses but Westeros itself seems like a lot of different inspirations than “it’s literally Britain omg”
@@wildfire9280Star wars had different inspirations too
Corey actually just put in the time and effort to make a 40 minute video breaking down the entire political structure of the Republic. What a legend
I've been looking forward to this, the political schemes in star wars, especially prequel era and just prior imo, are very interesting! Great breakdown, 10 "I am the Senate"s out of 10
We seem to be in a small minority. When I first saw RotJ I loved Palpatine. More than I ever did Vader. The prequels (especially Revenge of the Sith but also the Clone Wars tv show) were my favorites because I waited what felt like an eternity to find out all about Palpatine's swashbuckling adventures as the Senate. As far as I'm concerned the overarching theme of Star Wars is "Palpatine did it" even long after his final death his shadow loomed large over everything (and no Disney's poorly written Star Wars media doesn't count. . . Aside from Rogue One. It was pretty decent).
Sadly, most people seem to hate all of the politics and just want to see lightsaber battles exclusively.
Double the votes, twice the fall!
@@sypherthe297th2 Rogue One and Andor are easily the best content to ever come out of the acquisition.
Senator from Hoth
Senator from Dagobah
Given the numbers of worlds involved in universe a representative government was going to get stupidly complicated and gridlocked all the time no matter how this was structured lol. Makes Palpatine’s efforts seem almost understandable.
Though to be fair trying to centralize such a large entity would've been almost impossible and it's amazing they got as far as they did and in part is from the incredibly large military apparatus which effectively ran civilian life.
Tbh, the best system for such a "country" would be some form of decentralized semi-feudal monarchy, similar to mediaeval France. Where you have the king, but the lands are largely controlled by nobles, who have strong power bases of their own
@@buddermonger2000 Well he did kinda sidestep the law and every planet government by appointing governors…
@@KenfrenAnd that's why "Dune" is nicknamed "Star Wars for adults". That's exactly the political system in the multi-planetary empire described in this work.
@@princevesperal Although a centralized government would still have been able to work if the head of government head of the military head of the legislative branch and chief of state were separate titles not all appointed by the senate. The major issue with the republic is that it lost all branches of government except the legislative as the judicial was technically still a thing but an under reformed mess that had no power compared to the senate (that and the fact that mega corps were given seats in a purely public run governing body). Now one thing that people often forget was that the senate's power wasn't absolute its member states and member planets had a great deal of autonomy in how they rule and the laws they had.
It's basically if the Weimar Republic was unicameral and fully parliamentary. The hodge-podge representatives based on ancient history rather than population and being sometimes appointed rather than directly elected (like the US pre 17th amendment) is like their upper house and the rest is basically ran as their lower house, including having the head of government named Chancellor rather than prime minister.
Makes sense from the 'rise of national socialism' parallels
You forgot the the word, Unitary. It gave permission to local sectors of space, not whole worlds or even the species of life, to have representation from their own populations. This is called Devolution.
@@johnmascola3403 so baffling that a galaxy spanning government would be a unitary state. There are cries for federalism in the UK and we're 67 million.
@@catmonarchist8920 I think the creator of Star Wars wanted to create an idea where a unitary galactic government, so Big with powers not to be shared by the minor political units within itself, just like your analogy from the former Weimer Republic. From there a Dictator would eventually rise to power. If you want my opinion, Britain should be a Federation of Nations within Your Kingdom. Not like an American federal system but one that is distinctive from the rest. as an American, our Federalist structure is, Far from being perfect, but it works
@@johnmascola3403 the Weimar Republic itself was federal and was consolidated and made effectively unitary by the NAZIs later on. I remember that the NAZIs and communists worked together in 1931 to try to overthrow the social democratic government of Prussia and that would've been big because of the number of seats it had in the upper house and was half the population.
The UK is smaller than many American states and is insanely urbanised. Any push to federalism would create the need to destroy our ancient constitution. It would only be to appease the Scottish nationalists who are never appeased no matter what powers you give them (and they won't use them anyway and neglect things to blame Westminster) because that's their purpose and federalism would make the northern Ireland situation much much worse. It's like rewriting the US Constitution completely to stop Mississippi from seceding. It's just not worth it. Scotland are 5 million of 67 million and often have more deaths than births. They're ageing and emigrating so their political class look outward to try start a fight rather than deal with their severe problems at home (like the worst drug deaths in Europe). They can secede if they want for all I care.
I live in Wales and the urban areas basically cross the border in places and the rail system is one don't need more headache on the border here.
I think people in the same state should have the same rights wherever they live.
@@catmonarchist8920 You're Right.
Me as a 8 year old «Star Wars yay! Lightsabers go pchhhhhh»
Me now: ah yes the ruling counsel
😂
I kinda love that corporate personhood and government representation in the Star Wars Universe is directly related to a evil bald guy setting off a gigantic magic thought bomb that killed a bunch of people.
I love videos like this. It is interesting to see how authors of various books had such different outlooks on how the government of the Republic would work, and how that leads to a bit of clashing lore at times.
So on a recent watch-through of the Prequels, I have found something.
In "The Phantom Menace", Chancellor Valorum introduces Palpatine by saying, "The Chair Recognizes the representative of the SOVEREIGN SYSTEM of Naboo". Sovereign System. Interesting choice of words but surely just a one-off, right? Wrong. In "The Clone Wars" Season 1, Episode 15 "Trespass", Pantoran Chairman Cho describes Orto Plutonia as "Sovereign Pantoran Territory" and even declares the conflict between Pantora and the Talz to be an 'Internal affair", which relegates both Senator Chuchi (and by extension the Senate) as well as the Jedi to merely being passengers during his efforts to effect a genocide upon the Talz. It is not until Chuchi contacts that Pantoran Assembly and they declare Chi Cho out of order that she is able to negotiate with the Talz.
What this indicates is that the Galactic Republic is not a Federal State or even a nation in the conventional sense but rather something more akin to the United Nations or the European Union. Member states have near total autonomy on internal matters and, as seen in neutral systems throughout the Clone Wars, foreign policy. Indeed, the use of the word "sovereign" to describe both Naboo and Pantora is telling. To be sovereign is to have "supreme or ultimate power". If Naboo is a Sovereign System, then the laws of Naboo ultimately supercede those of the Galactic Senate, unless accepted by the Naboo. Similarly, if Pantora is able to declare Orto Plutonia sovereign territory, then they are able to exercise authority superior to that of the Republic and the Republic is only able to act based on the will of the Pantoran government, rather than Republic Law.
When this is all combined, many of the inconsistencies of the Republic make more sense. The issue of representation becomes the result of planetary sovereignty, with more powerful member worlds able to exercise their sovereignty to a greater degree and leverage representation in the Senate. It also explains the Senate's impotence, as the sovereignty of member worlds means that any action must be taken with general acceptance by the parties involved. It also explains why the Jedi were the only means used to attempt to solve the conflict between Naboo and the Trade Federation. The Republic is limited only to the deployment of "Peacekeepers", much like the UN is. And those peacekeepers have a very limited mandate off Coruscant. As Qui Gon says, "I can't fight a war for you." It also, handily, explains why so many worlds both joined the CIS and looked the other way as many CIS generals committed heinous acts of brutality. Many of the worlds mentioned as siding with the CIS lacked Senate representation, which they gained in the Confederacy's parliament. As such, those worlds are likely to have viewed the brutality of Grievous and Dooku as necessary actions in the service of the greater good: the protection of their sovereignty and their representation.
Indeed, I find this interpretation of the Republic to be far more interesting than a galaxy spanning, centralized power structure. It explains the Republic's failings, the existence of entities like the Hutts, the Hapans, and others, the lack of Republic influence on worlds like Geonosis or Tatooine, and many other such things. And it makes the Clone Wars a far more interesting affair, as well as adding additional weight to the appointment of regional Governors in Revenge of the Sith and the dissolution of the Senate in A New Hope. The Clone Wars sees the conquest of the Galaxy by the Sith Empire, largely without a shot being fired. The dissolution of the Senate is merely the final formality, the final tone of the death rattle of planetary sovereignty. And with that context, it is small wonder that so many were willing to fight so hard against the Republic and the Empire.
This was very enlightening
@@ZKP314 thank you. I think it's an interpretation that is well supported by on-screen evidence and that I haven't seen put forward anywhere else.
@@nicholaswalsh4462 Nice read, makes a lot of sense considering that the "republic" was really a loose confederation containing monarchies whose representatives in the senate were unelected
@@videogamecin best part is there is on-screen dialogue to support my conclusion.
In many ways, the Galactic Republic reminds me of the structure of The Dutch Republic, under the United Provinces before Napoleon, With the Senate being closer to an Estates-General in function and design.
it's genuinely a miracle that there wasn't a seperatist uprising before palpatine, what a fucking mess.
This is a very nerdy video that is very well written. The policy wonkery continues.
I got to tell you a republic lasting for 25,000 years before turning into an empire is actually pretty dang good streak of time
They had multiple periods of turning into Empires or Empire-adjacent entities, so they cheated a fair bit.
@@CoreysDatapad france moment
I'm inclined to believe that the Republic "actually" existed some fraction of of that length of time. 25,000 years seems really stupid, like the original writers just had no sense of how long that would actually be. Humans here on Earth have only been engaging in agriculture for 10,000 years. The Galactic Republic has supposedly existed for 2.5x as long as that.
I could see 1000 years being reasonable - the Roman Republic and Empire lasted about that long, if you include the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantines). And it's plenty of time for all sorts of disruptive events to occur, like sliding in and out of authoritarian states.
i feel like they just forget mention coups or change of government, i think what they meant was the idea of the “republic” existed for 25,000 years. They are likely successor state claiming to be the republic (like irl the “roman successors” which include alot of countries that i will not list)
I've been really looking forward to this video and it turned out great! It helped bring some clarity to one part where I had always some issues (namely the extent of who a single senator represents).
Glad you enjoyed it!
I always think about how many of the people in the most important positions in the senate must be of almost superhuman intelligence, charisma and political talent as they are literally the best candidates in thousands of star systems. Assuming that the best candidates are chosen, of course. I mean, look at Palpatine. He's perfect for politics. He's charismatic, highly intelligent, ruthless with his enemies and supposedly fiercly loyal with his friends.
Edit: I'm talking about Star Wars specifically, so I don't think that ruthlessness is needed for a good politician in our world.
Palpatine in his actual political work outside of his schemes was basically just a centrist who never stirred anything up that wasn’t already heading in a certain direction. That’s how he got elected because basically nobody had enough beef with him since he kinda stayed out of everyone’s business unless it was directed towards him
That’s why I kinda appreciate some of the later legends novels when it went with some the minutia of the new republic/galactic alliance and how it had to deal with the monolithic task of thousands to higher worlds (I’m pointing towards the Thrawn Duology and the slavery debate in the Fate of the Jedi books) and how they conflict with each other.
Really enjoyed this Corey, the politics and economics was one of my favorite elements of the prequels. I’d love more of this stuff!
Darth Plagueis novel has a lot of the political background in it.
I asked in a comment, maybe 2 years ago, for you to please do longer videos. You actually responded to it, thus I am taking full credit for this video. You definitely never would have thought to get into more longform stuff if it weren't for little old me, and that's just a fact. I expect full credit in the next video that comes out after you read this, thanks!
No seriously, this was excellent. You're steadily getting better at this, don't stop. Imo best and most criminally underrated Star Wars adjacent channel. Only a matter of time.
Oh man, Corey, this is BRILLIANT! I can't imagine how much effort and research has gone into this episode, but it is so good! Using real world comparisons is a stroke of genius.
I happen to be taking an adult formation course at Church, "The Constitution From a Catholic Perspective," and we're still at the civics-oriented, structural, and secular part of the class. I'm just a lay guy, but have always held an interest in our history along with how our government was put together and is evolving, and I like learning a subject by looking at alternatives or even opposing ideas. Your parallels between the SW Universe and the US and UK are so helpful for my course, and in general!
I discovered the Star Wars fan and Lore channels a year or so, after deep diving on Alien channels (Alien Theory, Project Acheron), and occasionally dipping my toe into SW fan content. I had no idea TOR even existed! Nor that there was so much history in Star Wars, nor how developed the Lore behind planetary systems, species, forms of government, spacecraft technology, wars, The Force, The Sith, and the Jedi are. And the fan films, comics, novels, audiobooks, books - I had no idea such a dedicated fan base existed. Thanks to channels like yours, another person got swept away into the SW storyline - although mostly around the beginning of The Clone Wars and earlier.
I was 7 when I watched a GIANT Vader stride down the Tantive IV, so I'm thankful I discovered this aspect of SW, and folks like yourself. Thanks, and thanks again for this crash course on federalism. Geez, this episode is really a class in a SW Critical Film (Story) Review in a college-level Western Lit course.
If I may add to the chapter "The Problems of Representation" around 19:15, you contrast having California represented by two senators with those same two senators for CA, OR, and WA, thus diluting CA's representation. You make your point excellently, and the parallel concept in SW is easily understandable.
I just had the thought an appropriate analogy to the Sector-Systems-System Coalitions-Planets federated model might be shifting CA's two senators across CA, British Columbia, and China. Yours is better as its less complicated and accomplishes explaining the point. But it got me thinking, which gets me writing.
Thanks, brother. Great stuff, nice work.
A possible way to illustrate the senate's representation would be the US House of Representatives. When first established, it was one Representative per 30,000 people (minimum of one per state). Which means we should have about 11,000 (an average of 220 per state). New York City alone would have 279 Representatives. Instead, now we have 435, with the number per state allocated by percentages. A more manageable number.
The House of Representatives is a very bad example; Galactic Senate representation appears to be allocated arbitrarily rather than by anything as solid as population. It's more like if the Senate regularly redefined state borders according to their own, if any, rules.
It never ceases to amaze me the amount of dedication people put into works of fictional chronology.
This is interesting contrast to the United Federation of Planets from Star Trek.
As even though the UFP is federal constitutional republic with certain rights and powers enumerated in the UFP charter and constitution ( though only a few of them are actually talked about in any length in a few pieces of media)
The biggest being membership.
No caste system, must have FTL capabilities, must have a unified world government that represents the majority of the population, must be willing to share tech and science, must allow recruiting for Star Fleet; must believe in Justice, liberty, equality, and peace; and I might be missing a couple.
In contrast the Old Republic (especially after its formation in the Great Hyperspace War) routinely invaded planets that had never achieved FTL and either purposely or accidentally colonized the population.
Admittance to the UFP is rigorous and members have to be a democracy of some kind. Whereas with the Galactic republic doesn't really care if the members states are practicing democracy at home.
The biggest is that each member of the UFP is it's own nation-state, more akin to the UN in certain respect, leaving the governing of each planet (and its colonies) to its local population. Though each citizen of the UFP is both a citizen of its world and the UFP.
Awesome video Corey, by far one of the best Star Wars documentaries on the site. Personally I believe that the Republic would have been best organized with a mixture of EU level sovereignty and American Federalism, with powers lying within the Sectors and Systems and the Republic acting as a mediator and provide for common defense and trade instead of direct rule from Coruscant. Also if you wanted a really good example of a federal state with a horrible structure of representation and sovereignty, the Holy Roman Empire is a great real life example. Hundreds of states in a confusing mush of borders, sovereignty, and accountability.
Nope the holy roman empire is a poor example as it is more of an alliance than an actual state.
The holy Roman empire lasted 600 years........ It was clearly doing something right
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl From a utilitarian POV sure. Not so much from a "QOL of the avg inhabitant of its territories"
38 minute long datapad video? Let's gooooooo
The Republic is more parliamentarian than a federal government. The Chancellor is elected among existing senators (like PM in the UK and Commonwealth nations) and not in a separate election like the US. Also the Senate have the executive powers and responsibilities normally under the purview of the executive office
Being a parliamentary democracy is not a distinct thing from a federation, they describe different elements in the organization of a state- the UK and Canada are both parliamentary democracies for example, and Canada is a (con)federation where the UK is not. You can have federal systems that are parliamentary democracies, and you can have federal systems that are not.
Lol the people don't elect the president anymore either in the US....we are an Oligarchy not a people's Republic anymore...
I really like the video, maybe you could do a more in-depth video about the differences between the Galactic Republic and the New Republic or Jedi Order and the New Jedi Order. Because I always start wondering when I read or hear something about the politics of star wars, why would the rebels even want to restore the republic and not replace the empire by something else? Especially the depiction of the Galactic Senate as corrupt in the prequels and the clone wars show, makes the galactic civil war seem more like a coup d'etat lead by disempowered senators, and less like an uprising of the oppressed population fighting for their freedom, which was certainly not intended.
In real life oppressed people's don't really rebel without the support of the rich (be they native or foreign) they useually just suck it up and carry on.
Someone's poly sci classes have found a use! 😂
Really though, great deep dive into something that is normally not a feature in the :pew pew" lore of Star Wars!
This video was one of my favorites from your channel Corey. I loved the in depth view of the Republic and I’d love to see a similar video on the CIS and how that faction was led.
Wow, what a fun and interesting deep dive into the politics of Star Wars. Keep it up!
In order to ensure the security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire, for a safe and secure society.....
This was exactly Lucas point. Congrats. You just explained exactly explained the original point
Perhaps I'm misinterpreting the intent of the comment, but I knoq that's the point of how the Senate is represented in Star Wars- the video was meant to go into more depth on these kinds of things than the movies were able to, with broader examples of how it got fleshed out in other works. I was never under the impression making this that I was contradicting Lucas' intentions, nor is it the kind of "Star Wars bad" video that thinks it's pointing out an unknown flaw that makes the story ruined.
@@CoreysDatapad uh.... but you didn't. And how the senate worked and politics is played out in other sources than the movies to start out with... we don't know so.... yes we do...
This video made my brain hurt because it's all you take on getting to guess at and explain the corruption
But it's shown.... and they could read the books... or source material
Literally even a basic fan knows this.
Generation tech, Eckhardt ladder, metinerdz.... literally everyone comes at this better.
Its like being back in my political science class, but I loved it..? You've done the impossible. Amazing work, would love to see things like this in the future!
Excellent work on this video, you really did a wonderful job of synthesizing the messy/spotty details on this topic
Yes! I’ve always wanted a video breaking all this down 💜
Well constructed. Thanks. Most people don't understand their own governments, let alone fictional one such as seen in Star Wars. This video was not just informative, it provided solid educational benefits to those studying the real world, too!
Bro pulled out a term from Arend Lijphart’s: Patterns of Democracy and I was shook. Love that he used some actual political science terminology!
This may or may not be the most interesting Star Wars video I’ve ever seen, I need to check with my sector representative first before casting my vote
I can't even listen to this video without getting confused when he says "the senate", as I immediately wonder if he's referring to Palpatine.
Thousands of Outer Rim Planets didn't even know what the Galactic Republic even was.
For Thousands of Years!
Until The Galactic Empire was declared by
Emperor Palpatine.
A lot of people hate that the prequels focused too much on politics, but you gotta remember, the Republic didn't collapse overnight, as much as it may have seemed that way. Palpatine just delivered the final blow, and even planted the seeds early on.
Clone Wars proved politics episodes can work REALLY well.
Great video! Looking forward to more long ones!
Big thanks for a comprehensive overview - and adding to my growing list of books to read😁
This honestly is probably my favourite video you have ever done. Not dismissing anything else, but I am really enjoying listening and listening again and hearing your explanations and concepts by using real world examples to make more sense. Reminds me of my earlier poli sci classes in Uni. Great stuff. Please do more of these Corey.
love the work that went into this video. Great work as always Corey!
A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.
I really enjoyed this video and the deep dive it gave. I've been looking forward to this for a while. I've always wondered how the Senatorial system worked with sectors.
Awesome. Do the Empire’s political structure next
Your commentary on the weird representative structure is super interesting. Thanks.
Its really cool to here the other side of star wars, nice in depth video
I really enjoy those long videos!
I'd love to see more longform content like this!
6:16 That time Star Wars turned into Warhammer 40,000.
I’d love to see more of this style of video! Really interesting
Thanks for the great video Corey! I love these deep dives into the starwars universe 😊
In the words of GO-TO: "it's a wonder the republic is intact at all".
Corey for the win! I love these longer form, deep dives and you are just the man for it. Excellent work!
loved the video corey! Hope
to see you do more long videos covering a variety of topics in the star wars universe!
Corey this was awesome! I apologize it took me so long to actually watch it because given the topic I wanted to pay more attention to it than a gameplay video or casual bit of lore.
"The Senate is no longer of any concern to us, he was thrown down a reactor shaft, if you would like to wait until the senates return in approx 30 years you can continue to serve at a reduced wage. " Tarkin if he lived through ep 6
A trully excellent video
One thing this video made clear to me is that the Jedi didn't just pick up the giftwrapped clone army and start the war.
They were likely pressured heavily by their constituents and since public support was to do anything to protect the Republic from the now over-represented Corporate sectors, they had to do something.
It's likely they either saw the move as inevitable or wanted to keep their political power to continue to protect the Republic's people from the threat of the sith they had previously detected.
In ordering the Clones, Palpatine had already set his plans in motion.
this was a great vid, it's fun to revisit these stories through this lens! borsk fey'lya always bugged the hell out of me with his politics...but i gotta respect the spite he showed the vong at his bitter end.
So they basically had a kilobyte of senators (1024).
Yup. That feels on purpose.
I like how you show Palpatine when talking about the senate, because he IS the senate!
the imperial ruling council is like a ministerial cabinet, and its weird how the members are selected- presumably you don't need to be an elected official, or senator, or planet/sector representative or even a military officer, you can just be a corporate board member or have a strong family or powerful connections, at least in the empire. maybe some of that corruption started in the classic republic too however.
legislation introduced in the senate by senators or reps would likely fall under private member's bills, to be shelved for future discussion after matters of urgency or current bills on the floor.
interestingly i don't think political parties exist in the senate, rather committees or delegations instead
would love a breakdown of star trek's UFP
This is so awesome. Great work.
a sectoral government would make great sense, otherwise one planet could have day over several star systems in the same sector. and as you get out to the outer rim, this problem would increase. the reason I think the outer rim would have more star systems per sector is due to how the republic was built similar to the USA. early on in the USA, you had towns only as far apart as you could travel in a day. thud much more densely packed. as you move out west, transportation went from on foot, to horses, to trains, to cars. so the distance between towns grow much bigger and states are gigantic. for the republic, we have gone from planetary travel, to interplanetary, to interstellar, and eventually hyperdrive tech. Anyway, if there is no sectoral gov't, that would explain why so many systems broke off during the clone wars, even within same sectors.
Imagine being a senator and representative, a group of monks telling you that the supreme court is run by some dude who according to the monks, is the opposite of their religion and is evil. I'm not surprised if the Jedi isn't taken seriously
But what if those monks visibly use divine magic for all to see and are supernatural in many ways?
You mean the executive branch?
Love the video, and your real world comparisons made it much more understandable. Definitely can tell you have some background and deeper understanding of government structures. Great work as always!
Really excellent video Corey. I can't wait to see more like this. I liked your blending of real and fictional examples to discuss different modes of government, and hope you get to spend more time in the future fleshing those out visually. I think a broad overview like this can be followed up by many shorter more argumentative videos fleshing out some of the nuances introduced. Wherever you go next, excited about what this means for the channel!
Hey Corey,
Great video, well documented and interesting!
I remember in my teens having written a paper on the Empire's institutions when it was a constitutionnal monarchy in theory - pre ep IV then.
It was sketchy at best, being the late 90's and pre-prequel era.
So I was always a sucker for SW politics and institutions, so if you plan on doing similar videos in the future, I am all in!
This is a very impressive essay, that bears repeated viewing. Many thanks for a job so well done!
Oh, and subbed!
it’s stellar to see such long and in depth content from you. I hope you keep it up!
Well. I didn't think I'd sit through fourty minutes of political theory for a made up universe but damn that was some good content!
Great video!
The research you put into these must be tremendous and it shows it really shows!
Highest praise!
If im not mistaken, during the reign of the Empire, Mas Amedda was the highest ranking Imperial after the Emperor. Where Palpatine was the head of state, Mas Amedda was the actual head of government in the rank of Grand Vizier, and the leader of the imperial ruling council. So bascially Mas Amedda outranked Darth Vader, Grand Moff Tarkin, and Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Gotta love my politics in Star Wars.
Amazing video!!!
Great video, my only complaint is that Fey’ lya was in it.
Star Wars teaches me more about politics than my own country
The Republic itself was a massive "empire" of its own. Giving corporations a say in politics was a problem in general, the sheer scale of how many worlds became part of the republic made it so that action by the central government would be slow, cumbersome and had its attention pulled in many directions at all times. One of the only things that seemed to prevent it from completely collapsing on itself was that it appeared the government generally allowed local governments to make decisions on their own regardless of whether or not it was something that the republic allowed.
Though, response to some disputes had mystical wizard-monks from the government sent out to tell everyone to sit down, shut up and talk it out.
In short dealing with a galaxys worth of political problem is certainly no easy task. Having corporations represented as their own parties was a mistake that made it even worse
I always thought the old republic from Star Wars operated more like the European Union 🇪🇺 but their politics is actually more complex! The Republic started off as a union of planets from the Core Worlds dominated by humans with common values and belief systems which started off with common laws in regards to trade, defense and maintaining maps of hyperspace lanes due to constant shifts and the dangers of traveling without using updated navigations on ships. As the Galactic Republic expanded across the Galaxy, millions of worlds joined making it too big for individual representation hence the planets were then grouped into sectors that had representation in the galactic senate. Each planet within a sector had local autonomy and their rulers varied from elected democratic officials or one based on hereditary nobles or royalty. Planets also had to qualify for certain population levels in order to be recognized as a sovereign member and if a planet only had a small population they were given the status of dependency from qualified planets within its sector losing much more autonomy than their recognized member counterparts. Before the collapse of the old republic the senate had the most power in terms of voting for decisions. The supreme chancellor was actually more of a symbolic ceremonial position that could call sessions in the senate but had no real power until Palpatine was given emergency powers during the separatist crisis. It was interesting to learn that representatives had no voting power on their own and were more like diplomats that served as a reminder of their minority group in the senate but could only vote if they were substituting a senator under permission. Senate aids which were more like secretaries and administrative assistants to senators didn’t have much power politically but they actually had some military power to command troops during the clone wars!
This was dope as hell, really added some depth to an already deep understanding of the Republic. Amazing vid, would be excited to see more of the same kind.
So using the Cube Root Rule to determine representation, based on a population of 100 quadrillion, some 464,158 representatives are required.
T.L.D.W; it’s complicated
This is what I needed for my Stellaris runs. Thank you so much and I subbed! send Eck my thanks!
This was really, really cool. I’d love to see more stuff like this.
Loved it! Great job Corey! Could you do a breakdown of canon post Ensor governments? I feel like they are even more unknown than legends governments
fan-fucking-tastic analysis. Love it. amazing video as usual.
I think it's like if there was a world government IRL and the only entities represented there are supranational institutions like European Union, African Union, ASEAN, MERCOSUR, NAFTA etc with one representative from each.
Within a single unit of the WG, like the EU, there's still different governments ruling different countries who have very diverse ways of organizing their interal government.
New Republic: Opens the senate again. Poe Dameron: Somehow Palpetine returned...
Really? With the barren wasteland that is the world building of the Sequels you never realise that is a Senate.
“STOP THE COUNT”- Fyor Rodan
The idea that an entire planet could be represented by just 1 person is insane. Imagine Earth trying to decide who its representative should be.
Well, we're far more divided than most worlds in SW. Very few worlds (that I can think of at least) had more than 2 or 3 major factions. Having so many worlds exist beyond yours probably does wonders for unifying nations.
While it can’t really compare to how Cerebral shows like Star Trek or ASOIAF can get, people really sleep on how interesting Star Wars politics are
Amazing video!