posted
Maybe I should move this into the flameboard?
Okay -- the government of the United Federation of Planets, including (and not limited to):
The Federation Council -- how are council members elected? One per world? Is the Federation President a member of the Council chosen to lead, or is he elected? (In some strange Parlimentary system crossover with the U.S.'s form of Democracy).
Is there only the Council? Is there perhaps a Federation Senate as well?
What the *hell* is the Federation? Communist? Socialist? Democratic? Some strange mix of the three?
Now, I'm not going to lie ... my "YEAR TWO" of Star Trek Gamma Quadrant will begin with an indepth 3-part episode look at the inner working of the Federation (don't you just *love* evil Senators?), so ... well, give it your best! Debate debate debate away!!!
posted
I'm not too enamored with the Federation. Apparently, Starfleet Officers have police powers, and can hold people against their will without any court authorization. They're communist, and seem to indoctrinate their kids with their philosophy. Starfleet's all well and good, but the Federation doesn't sound that great.
"Humans don't NEED money. We work to better ourselves."
"Yes, what does that mean, exactly?"
"It... it means we don't need money, that's what!"
------------------ "You know, you--you let a wolf save your life, they make you pay and pay and pay..." - Fraser, "due South"
posted
Well, you need to differentiate the Federation, and Starfleet.
It seems that Starfleet is an amalgamation of today's NASA, the Armed Forces, Red Cross, and perhaps policemen. There wouldn't be a government of Starfleet so much as there'd be Chiefs of staff and all that.
The UFP seems to be a bastard child of communism, or intense socialism, or flying pancake trotskyism.
Well, let's make a list of things known about the government of the UFP:
- Requires a unified planetary government to join
- Caste-based discrimination is a no-go
- Governed by Federation Council, which is composed of 'representatives' of the member planets.
- Council is led by the Federation President.
- The economic structure made "very little use" of money
So, it's like a non-capitalism based republic, that is, providing the president is elected.
------------------ Communism. Who wouldn't like their neighbour thrown into a goulag?
posted
Tom's massively-wonderful kickass idea of the Federation...
The Federation Council collectively holds most of the same powers as the US President... ie, comm. in chief of armed forces/Starfleet, ability to make executive decisions now and then, veto power over legislation. It appears to be an outgrowth of some sort of General Assembly Plenary, with each planet sending one member (not elected-- as per the T'Pau refusing seat line) who then elect a chairman of the council, the President, from among themselves (as per Jaresh-Inyo not really sounding like someone who made it his dream to fight a huge election to be President.) In cases where the council needs to be represented by one man, the President fills that role, but normally he's more a ceremonial figurehead (like presidents of Ireland or Germany), with the real so-called "presidential" power resting in the council.
The legislative body I'm guessing to be a Federation Parliament (just cuz Parliaments are so much cooler than Congresses) which I'll imagine to be partisan and popularly elected and presumably have somewhere in the number of 2000 MPs or so. The biggest party or coalition of parties is invited by the council to form a government, which creates a cabinet lead by a Prime Minister. This cabinet is the true executive branch with ministries for this and that and the other, and it also serves as a liason to the Council.
The Parliament presumably drafts all the laws that are in place on the Federation worlds that would bore the Trek audience to tears. The Council, because Starfleet is generally more tied-into it, gets more attention on the show but is almost certainly not the be-all-and-end-all of Federation democracy...
------------------ "...I was just up in Canada, Toronto actually. You know, they really hate you guys [Americans] up there? The funny thing is, they think you hate them back, when in fact, you just couldn't be bothered to care. Now in Ireland, it's a different story. At least we had the common decency to wait until the English invaded before we started hating them. I guess the Canadians are hating you in advance..." -Irish Comic Ed Byrne on Canada-US relations
posted
Here are the canon facts regarding the UFP, by the way. We all have our internal versions of how it really works, I imagine.
1.) There is a Council. I would disagree with Tom and say that the Council is much more of a legislative body than an executive one, but its exact duties have never been spelled out.
2.) Planets wishing to join should have unified governments of some sort. This doesn't appear to be a hard and fast rule, because they were at least willing to consider Kes/Prit or whatever it was called. Presumably, a world has to have some sort of institution or policy in place to deal with international conflicts other than war.
3.) There's a constitution. Among other things, it contains at least seven "Guarantees", equivalent to the U.S. Bill of Rights. The seventh is the right against self-incrimination. Interestingly enough, according to the Encyclopedia, these rights extend to any sentient within the UFP or on a Federation vessel.
4.) There's a president. Whether the office is equivalent to a U.S. president or a prime minister or the president of the Senate (also U.S.) isn't really clear.
5.) The laws of the UFP form the Federation Code of Justice, which contains such things as "innocent till proven guilty" and so on.
6.) The UFP has grand juries and a Supreme Court.
Considering the political climate Star Trek writers have all been brought up in (namely, the American one), it would seem the UFP maps pretty closely to your average western democracy, mixing parliamentary and, uh...congressional(?) forms.
posted
The individual members still retain thier own government, ir at least they still decide things on their own. For example, the Bolians sold all their gambling industry to the Ferengi.
Possibly the Federation is something like what the European Union wants to be.
posted
I'd say that the President has got a bit of power. Two instances:
Jaresh-Inyo declaring the State Of Emergency in 'Homefront' - it was him that Sisko and Leyton persuaded to, not the entire Federation Council.
The President having the final say on Kirk's fate re being tried for the assination of Chancellor Gorkon - the topic never went to the Council chamber for debate.
I'd say he's a bit more than just a figurehead. He'd have to have quite a bit of executive authority to do those things.
------------------ Remember December '59 The howling wind and the driving rain, Remember the gallant men who drowned On the lifeboat, Mona was her name.
Okay, the Federation Council elects one council member to represent each member world and that member world's holdings ... i.e., colonies, etcetra.
Now, the Federation Senate elects one senator from each member world, colony, etcetra (say, any planetary holding with more than, say, 500,000 residents)
So, you'd have a Federation Council with 150 members, representing each Federation Member World.
But, then you'd have the Federation Senate, with 150 + X (X being the number of Colonies, etcetra) members, representing each Member World, Colony, etcetra, etcetra.
This would also allow for the checks and balances system to work ...
posted
A canonical fact that everyone missed. The UFP has bureaus. Known bureas include the Bureau of Planetary Treaties, Bureau of Penology, and Bureau of Industry. Exact number of bureaus is unknown.
posted
It might be of specific interest to the issue on how power is divided between the Federation and the States, so to speak. We know of rather general and all-encompassing bureaux like Bureau of Temporal Investigations that probably do not have State-level equivalents. But a Bureau of Penology or Bureau of Industry would probably have corresponding/overlapping State-level organizations.
Is a Bureau perhaps like a Department (US) or Ministry (GB)? "Gambit" script spoke of Vulcan Ministry of Security, and used the title of Minister, although I'm not sure if this was in the aired version. How would a UFP Bureau of Security interact with the Vulcan Ministry of Security? Would there be a chain of command, a set of common rules, or a competitive stance between the two?
Would these bureaux or ministries be executive organs like in most countries, or possibly legislative ones as (in practice) in the EU organization? Would they be elected democratically (something that almost never applies to real-world ministries or departments, but might be part of a happy Federation system) or chosen meritocratically or otherwise? They might in fact play a crucial role in the way the UFP is governed.
posted
Well, ::insert shameless self-promotion:: in my "Gamma Quad" stories (coming soon! to a webpage near you!), I make note of both a UFP Bureau of Investigation (doing the stuff the US' FBI does, esentially), and a UFP Secret Service (tasked with protection of elected officials, and a few other jobs).
I'd imagine there's also a civilian intelligence agency as well ... (CIA & NSA are a mix of military & civilian)
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