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Star Trek Gamma Quadrant

Continuing to boldly go ...

I've got a character named Senator France. He's actually important in the 2-part ep which ends the first season, but ...

He's sort of a bad guy -- in that his politics tend to be ... well, here's the problem.

I don't know what his politics tend to be. It would be too easy to say that he's against rebuilding Cardassia, so I need an issue for him to focus on(hopefully one that will jive with my characters and readers) ...

Any idea? This guy is going to be recurring throughout "ST-GC" ...

Thanks,

Jeff

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Star Trek Gamma Quadrant
Rated 7 out of 10 Smileys by Fabrux

Or he is trying to create the Holy Roman Empire of the stars....

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One of his harping points could be that exploration is just as dangerous as a war, that so many starships have been lost & gone missing--have him read off some names like "the Blackheart, disappeared in Sector 29103...the Vatnaj�kull, lost without a trace 20 LY past the coreward rim.." etc.--& the Federation is so large already, there's no need for exploartion anymore. Focus on internal problems & makes it a better Federation after the war.

I've already established him to have a son, a prissy little LtCmdr who works at HQ and is hated by most of his peers b/c his success has been political, and he's always degraded officers who serve "in the field" (in this case, on starships or with Marine units).

I can't wait to start scripting the 3-parter out ...

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Star Trek Gamma Quadrant
Rated 7 out of 10 Smileys by Fabrux

I believe that the representatives to the Federation Council are selected by the Member governments, and the manner of choice is left to the individual Members.

Now, then:
If we are going to think about what the Federation government is like, we need to focus first on what it was designed to do.
As the Federation was established by representatives working on trade agreements, it seems logical that the Federation was designed to promote trade between members.
As Starfleet was created within a year of the Federation, and provided for in the Constitution, presenting a unified military was another aim. As this took place close on the heels of the Earth-Romulan War, Mutual Defense against outside threat seems to have been the main trust of this goal.
Much has been made over the Federation allowing its Members to retain soverignty, and of respecting their culture. So, this too seems to be a vital aim of the Federation, probably supported in the Constitution.
Promotion of basic 'human' rights. From the "Seventh Guarantee" against self-incrimination to the proviso that no Member may have a caste system, the Federation seems to place a high priority on 'human' rights, and probably has mechanisms in place to enforce them among the Members.

As I sought to make a Federation Charter for myself, I examined 4 documents that I felt would be similar in inmportant respects:
The Articles of Confederation (of the United States of America)
The Constitution of the United States of America
The United Nations Charter
The Charter of the European Union

I will discuss each of these, in turn:
The Articles of Confederation:
These articles were laid out with the intent of banding a group of states together to promote the common defense (against an outside threat) and to promote trade between the members for their mutual benefit. It is also a remarkably succinct document, being less than 1 page including a specific provision stating that Canada may join simply by ratifying the Articles and NOT subject to approval by "the United States, in Congress, Assembled" aka Congress.
On the downside, the Articles provided the central government with no method to enforce its powers upon the members, and so it needed to be replaced with a document that provided a stronger Federal Government.

The Constitution of the United States of America:
This document was created with the intent to "create a more perfect union" among its members. The previous Union having been judged too 'imperfect' due to its inabilty to force compliance from the members, a stronger Federal government was created to enforce the will of the people and members, as represented by the Congress, in the matters of trade (both internal and external), defense, and protecting rights.

On the downside, this sometimes wordy document provides a central governmnet far stronger than I, at least, envision the Federation having. It requires that the members surrender a great deal of their soverignty.
As a side note, the bicamereral nature of the Congress was created as a compromise to settle a major dispute. Large, populous states felt it was unfair that small, unpopulous states got an equal say in how taxes were spent, especially since taxes were based in part on population. Conversely, small unpopulous states feared large power-blocks formed of populous states could effectively sieze control over the government. To appease both sides, two legislative bodies must both pass new legislation, one where representation is based upon population, another where it is based on membership. This debate has been settled in different ways in other bodies, and I'm not sure how applicable it is to the Federation.

The United Nations Charter.
The biggest problem with the UN Charter is that it was designed to prevent warfare AMONG ITS MEMBERS. This does not appear to have been a big concern for the Federation at the time of its founding. Further, the UN hardly considers the possability of attack from outside: I'm not sure how the UN would react to invasion from space, but it sure doesn't have a unified, integrated military to send to such a conflict. The UN relies on contributions from its members for most everything it does, and participation is entirely voluntary.
However, the UN does support human rights, does provide a forum for the peaceful settlement of dispute, and even has provisions that allow its members to establish colonies.

The European Union Charter:
Having grown from trade agreements and blossomed into a government that provides certain basic minimums to all citizens, allows free movement across internal borders, and even provides for a unified military, while maintaining a high respect for the culture and soverignty of each member, this might seem like the perfect model for the Federation Charter.
However, as it builds off many trade agreements, it is not a stand-alone document, and can be difficult to understand at times. Further, like the UN, it is highly concerned with preventing warfare _among_its_members_.

If anyone can point me to other documents they deem worthy of consideration, available online, I'm happy to look.

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You're a Starfleet Officer. "Weird" is part of the job.

When Bashir and O'Brien were rooting around that Sec. 31 guy's head, they realized that Section 31 had a man on Jaresh Inyo's cabinet ...

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Star Trek Gamma Quadrant
Rated 7 out of 10 Smileys by Fabrux

He could just as easily have been on Jaresh Inyo's dressing table or fitted kitchen presses, but Section 31 put him in the cabinet...very mysterious.

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Remember December '59
The howling wind and the driving rain,
Remember the gallant men who drowned
On the lifeboat, Mona was her name.

I don't how parlimentary systems do it, but here in the US, the President's advisors are his cabinet.

Sec Defense ... Sec Treasury, etc.

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Star Trek Gamma Quadrant
Rated 7 out of 10 Smileys by Fabrux

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Hunt: "You cheated!"
Rhade: "It's only cheating if you get caught."
-Andromeda, "Double Helix"

An Admiral who wanted to use advanced Federation starship technology (A Dreadnought Class, specifically) to take over and "enforce peace on" the rest of the known galaxy was featured in the TOS book "Dreadnought!" by Diane Carey.

Other arenas...

Maybe he's against "species mixing" (like that which gave us Spock and B'Elanna, etc).

Maybe he's a Fundie Kook who sees the gathering of powers in the Alliance against the Dominion as a prelude to the Apocalypse... which he desires to help bring about. (Borg as Satan's forces?)

Maybe he's one of those people who figures that now that the Dominion War is over and the major races are aligned, that Starfleet and the Federation should disarm completely. (Phasers don't kill Aliens, Aliens kill Aliens!)

Although one would have to wonder how such people could get elected by 'enlightened' Federation citizens in the first place.

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"Ed Gruberman, you fail to grasp Ty Kwan Leap. Approach me, that you might see." -- The Master

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Well, it's done, yes, the deed is done.

I like that last idea of yours -- about disarming. Mix that in with what Shikishima suggested, and out comes a rather nasty badguy ... his real threat is that he actually BELIEVES in what he's doing, so its almost more dispicable. He doesn't have plans for a military coup to set himself up as Dictator, but his "vision" of the future could bring the Federation to its knees ...

He'll be supported by the billions of people who lost friends and relatives and family members in the war -- those who he can appeal to that Starfleet not only did nothing to prevent it, but in fact began the war by being aggresive in the first place (in other words: going in the wormhole when they were expressly told NOT to). I think France will also appeal to the youth ... Capt. Macy's son is in college, and using this tact can create some nice tension between the two

Senator France's opponent is "current" President Molgarva (Jaro Inyesh's successor), who'll be in the finale 2-parter of "ST-GC" ... Molgarva's an ex-Starfleet officer, and France can play against that to get sympathy.

Also, this could play our sympathies for the Bajorans, who we've followed for seven years in "Deep Space Nine" ... perhaps, with their membership coming up for review shortly AFTER the election, it becomes a race: if Molgarva wins, the Bajorans have a good chance of being finally accepted into the UFP -- but if France wins, the new President will use his influence to reject the membership application ...

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Star Trek Gamma Quadrant
Average Rated 7.5 out of 10 Smileys by Fabrux
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